In class the other day, my friend Pip mentioned that British culture can often clash with improv culture. I agreed wholeheartedly. Here are a list of ways the two cultures remain largely incompatible.
- Editing As a British person, I feel awful about interrupting other people when they are talking. Consequently, I let improv scenes go on indefinitely.
- Weather When my partner initiates a scene by talking about the weather, I am physically incapable of moving on from that topic.
- Endowing If someone is endowed as a King or Queen, I will feel compelled to immediately stand up and sing all five verses of the national anthem. This can eat in to other people’s stage time.
- Queuing During any show where people form a backline, I will join that line and then start to tut loudly that the queue isn’t moving. If we are performing at a pub, and I spot another line at the bar, I will often abandon the show to join the shorter queue.
- Gibberish In any game that utilises gibberish, I will simply continue talking in English. My only concession will be to talk SLOWER and LOUDER and WAVE MY HANDS AROUND MORE.
- Space work Many improvisers default to chopping vegetables when asked to do space work. I am no exception, except that after I’ve finished chopping them, I will boil the mime vegetables until no discernible taste or texture remains.
- Emotional connection When another improviser attempts to define an emotional point of view for my character, I can’t help but sternly remind them that our lads didn’t win the war by talking about our feelings.
- Genre A genre call-out will go something like this:
Me: Can we have a suggestion for a film or theatre style…?
Audience: Spaghetti Western. Anime. Nouvelle Vague.
Me: …
Audience: Kubuki. Film Noir. Grand Guignol. Shakespeare.
Me: Ok, I heard Shakespeare.
- Tableau If other improvisers form a theatrical tableau of statues, I will often try to steal them to put in my personal museum of improv.
- Brexit Every improvisers knows how frequently we have to do scenes about International Trade Deals. Whenever we get this suggestion, I will invariably lobby to cut all ties with my largest and nearest trading partner whilst punching myself repeatedly in the face.
How compatible is improv with your national culture? Let me know by replying to [email protected] (or you can just hit reply on the newsletter).
<aside>
💡 Hey, my name’s Chris Mead. I write an article about improv almost every week. You can get the latest in your inbox by subscribing to my newsletter. Or check out the archive.
</aside>