Improv: Being Positive!

So last Saturday's training took two major focuses - one being 'to be positive', the other being 'Shakespearean improv'.

I'm going to stick with my original plan here to remain focused and today talk about...da da da da da da! You guessed it.

Loose Moose especially places a huge focus on trying to start - and where possible, keep - every improv on a positive note. My personal feeling on this is that this is because:

a) it's much more pleasant to watch people having a good time on-stage; and
b) it opens your options up for where the scene can go to (e.g. if you come on with a negative like "How dare you touch my stuff!" chances are the scene's just going to become a fight.)

Moreover, it's good to be conscious about this, as a knee-jerk reaction of some improvisers is to start off with a negative - I mean, you want conflict, right? Well...yes, but you still want to keep it on the positive end.

Hmmm, let me think of some examples. Oh yeah, okay, perfect example was the Saturday night Gorilla show. There was a scene where a couple were in the bathroom together, and the wife had never seen the husband naked (with the lights turned on) before, apparently for good reason which he was trying to hide. Now, while the audience waited to see how she would react once she saw him (perhaps thinking the obvious, 'oh, he's got a small weener', or 'he's a werewolf' and thus waiting for her to scream or recoil in horror), the always-fabulous Rebecca instead chose to burst out in uncontrollable laughter. Turns out he had a tattoo of Mister Dress-Up.

It rocked. It was funny. AND it surprised the audience.

"Am I sure?"

"I'm positive!"

Wacka wacka.