The Improvisor's Improvisor

improv-is-easy:

I thought about this a lot and came up with too many specific examples, but I think they can all be grouped under two main points…
The only bad initiation would be setting yourself and your partner up to do a scene you actively dislike and don’t wanna play.
That initiation where neither performer has anything and stares at one another for about five seconds. Why do we do this so often?!
We could write a textbook called The Don’ts of Initiating, but if you wanna keep your improv easy, just don’t initiate a scene you hate. Almost anything else (even my personal favorite: “Get the eff outta here!”) can be really, really fun.
I’d love to hear some other takes on this question!

I don’t believe there’s any such thing as a bad initiation. Sure, your wording might be clumsy, or stilted, wordy or not wordy. But as long as it reflects a choice that’s been made it’s a usable initiation. The scene needs to start somewhere, the only thing we don’t want is no choice. We want a choice and we want it to be committed to.
On a side note: Identifying an initiation as “bad” is blanket statement that sounds judgmental and really doesn’t provide us anything to work with. If I say I make “bad initiations” there’s no critical information for me to ever get better. Identifying an initiation as wordy or stilted or what-have-you allows me to start identifying qualities I do want, like being concise or naturalistic.
A scene can start anywhere. My personal belief is that it doesn’t really matter how you start a scene. You can start a scene saying nonsense like “Flippity flapjacks!” However that place we just started at now becomes a promise; a contract for what’s going to happen in the rest of the scene. If I do say that nonsense at the beginning of the scene, I’m going to say it at least one more time again in the scene. I’m going to figure out why I said it and what it means. I’m going to hold onto the voice that I used and have fun figuring why I decided to start this scene as an exuberant idiot.
Flippity flapjacks!

I thought about this a lot and came up with too many specific examples, but I think they can all be grouped under two main points…

The only bad initiation would be setting yourself and your partner up to do a scene you actively dislike and don’t wanna play.

That initiation where neither performer has anything and stares at one another for about five seconds. Why do we do this so often?!

We could write a textbook called The Don’ts of Initiating, but if you wanna keep your improv easy, just don’t initiate a scene you hate. Almost anything else (even my personal favorite: “Get the eff outta here!”) can be really, really fun.

I’d love to hear some other takes on this question!

I don’t believe there’s any such thing as a bad initiation. Sure, your wording might be clumsy, or stilted, wordy or not wordy. But as long as it reflects a choice that’s been made it’s a usable initiation. The scene needs to start somewhere, the only thing we don’t want is no choice. We want a choice and we want it to be committed to.

On a side note: Identifying an initiation as “bad” is blanket statement that sounds judgmental and really doesn’t provide us anything to work with. If I say I make “bad initiations” there’s no critical information for me to ever get better. Identifying an initiation as wordy or stilted or what-have-you allows me to start identifying qualities I do want, like being concise or naturalistic.

A scene can start anywhere. My personal belief is that it doesn’t really matter how you start a scene. You can start a scene saying nonsense like “Flippity flapjacks!” However that place we just started at now becomes a promise; a contract for what’s going to happen in the rest of the scene. If I do say that nonsense at the beginning of the scene, I’m going to say it at least one more time again in the scene. I’m going to figure out why I said it and what it means. I’m going to hold onto the voice that I used and have fun figuring why I decided to start this scene as an exuberant idiot.

Flippity flapjacks!