I’ve already written about the unusual thing, and how it doesn’t have to be something as drastic as the Kool-Aid Man bursting through the wall. Instead of going into scenes thinking/needing something that crazy to be there, we should just instead trust there are myriad unusual things built into our very best effort to play things real and to utilize those.

I’ve been using this graphic example of what I think of as the unusual thing, and after enough positive feedback figured I’d share it here instead of repeatedly scribbling it on a notepad. 

1. Before you can do the “weird” version of something, you have to be able to do the normal version, first. You can’t do a funny bank scene unless you can first make normal bank business happen on stage. This first arrow represents the base reality of a scene, absent any comedic intent or inserted weirdness. It’s the most important thing for the improvisers to establish and agree on. This is the ongoing, 100% straight version of a scene where everything is as the audience would expect.

2. The parallel arrows represent an ideal version of “living life on stage.” If you’re trying to play things real, then you’re trying to do this. You’re trying to establish a reality on stage and then exist within it so believably that it runs parallel to, or even overlaps, the real version of whatever you’re trying to portray. The improv arrow represents playing to the top of your intelligence and “trying to get it right” - not in terms of the right game moves, but in terms of looking and sounding like a believable airline pilot, or realistically yesanding as a grandmother, etc.

3. Inevitably, our improv will depart from reality. We’re faking everything, nothing is real, and despite our best efforts there will be something in our work that departs from the way things would always normally go, even if only barely. Our top of our intelligence/best guess effort to play a Catholic priest will fall short, our version of a a small town reporter will in some way be “off”, or sincere words of condolence at a funeral are not appropriate, etc. It’s impossible to keep those two arrows parellel forever, and the beautiful thing is the harder we yesand the harder we try to do it right, the quicker we’ll make a mistake, a welcome mistake. The lines will diverge, and between them lies the unusual thing.

4. So once things go off the rails, when there’s something that deserves emphasis, that’s what you start to build on. A game move is than a controlled departure from that reality, after the improvisers have agreed on what was unusual/emphasis-worthy about the first one. The increased range of the departures represents heightened game moves, but they still always return to the base reality. It’s never abandoned.

Matt Walsh said our goal is to break reality, and then to continue breaking it in a focused way. The last image is pretty much a graphic representation of what I think that looks like in the abstract. So work both muscles. Work on making the lines run parallel for as long as you can, and also remember the ongoing reality arrow the next time your scene feels like it’s careening into crazy town.