Coach's Corner with Niigon presents:

Four Simple Rules You Need in Improv Heaven...

Greetings all! Here it is, with a new segment from OU Improv! Brought to you by your friendly neighbourhood Canadian improv coach, Niigon. This week, and every week from now on, I will post some thoughts on coaching improv into cyberspace for anyone who wants to read/listen. This week I want to talk about the rules of improv.

As with rules in all things, and especially life, there are exceptions to all things, and as I tell all players I coach, every rule I tell you to follow should eventually be broken. BUT, with that being said, here are a few rules that every improviser should follow to ensure brilliance in their scenes every time. As they will eventually be broken, keep these rules to heart and keep the spirit of them intact at all times. Doing this, I promise you that your scenes will improve and grow richer as a result.

1. Always start every scene with a mimed action. The first person in should start the scene by creating something in the environment.

Mime creates the environment and gives context to your character. It tells if that character is hungry, lonely, happy, sad. It tells where he/she is and where they have come from. There is so much you can do by simply opening a fridge door, and taking out a can of something. Which brings us to rule #2…

2. Don't talk about the mimed action you are doing. Never, nope, not even then.

Talking about action goes no where and gives no importance to the scene itself. You can speak of what is in your hand, but don't tell anyone what you are doing. Let others tell you what the mimed action you doing instead. This adds complexity to the actor's relationship to each other on stage as well. Never tell someone that you are painting the fence, just do it. The audience will love that they are placed in the action of the scene without being treated like an idiot. Let them feel like a genius and they will love you.

3. Don't ask questions. Turn them into statements and drive the action forward.

Questions are lame-o and turn the scene into transaction scenes. Questions always involve pimping someone into being funny, or force them to come up with the idea of what the characters are going to do next. Questions lead to nothing. Changing “Can you hand me that pen right now?” to “Hand me that pen right now!” creates tension and forces the scene into action. The question delays that step and often leads to the question game, which is a scene that goes completely NOWHERE.

4. Always know your characters for five years or more, no less. Yup, you have been best friends since you were fetuses.

Transactional scenes are painful to watch, and have no stake for the audience to care about the scene. When characters know lots of back story about each other, and care about each other in ways that are meaningful, the audience enjoys watching that relationship build and evolve. How many scenes could be relevant to anyone between a shopkeeper and a young boy who met only that day? Very few, and most of those ideas are lame-o and meaningless. Knowing each other for five years or more also naturally adds stakes and history that you can draw upon for your scene.

And that's it for this week… follow these rules and the audience will think you're a genius. Good work.