Jow to Be a Funny Actor Without Tryong to Be Funny
How to be funny without trying to be
"Can I get a suggestion?" Every improviser on the back line looks around at each other, anxiously awaiting their fate as they hear the audience members scream over one another trying to get their suggestion chosen. Once one is chosen, there is a moment when everyone on the team takes a pause, until one brave soul jumps out in front of the pack to initiate.
To an audience, an improv scene seems to have no strategy. I can only assume they are all thinking, "WOW how is this so funny?!" Im kidding, but in all seriousness, little do they know the amount of work that goes into honing the craft of improvisational comedy. AKA — how to be funny.
For those who have never heard of improvisational comedy, it is different than other forms of acting because it is essentially performing having absolutely nothing prepared. The Improv troupe receives a suggestion from the audience and performs "games" or "scenes" based off of what inspires them from this suggestion. The most daunting thing about this task is the fact that not only is an improviser going up with no script, but it is somehow supposed to also be funny!
Many times, beginner and even intermediate improvisers make the mistake of going into scenes with preset characters and a vision in their mind of exactly where they want the scene to go.
Hannah McDonald, a professional improviser who currently is participating with teams that perform at The Second City and Improv Olympics in Chicago, says that this is a mistake that she often made in college and had to fix as she began her Improv career in Chicago, "I really try to go line by line and scene by scene. This means that I go into a scene thinking about what character the scene at hand calls for, I let go of the idea of doing a character for a laugh and just trust that the truth in a scene will be funny."
Finding the "truth" in a scene is something that is stressed to every improviser as the most full-proof way to make a scene funny. The improvisational comedy bible Truth in Comedy, says that "truth" is, honest discovery, observation, and reaction. After all, we're funnier when we're just being ourselves. From my perspective as an improviser, this means finding the reality of the particular scene that I am a part of and committing to this reality. Humor ensues when the reality of a scene is different from the world the audience knows. For example, if there is a scene where a kid is the teacher and the adults are the ones being taught, as an improviser it is my duty to commit to convincing the audience that in the world of that scene kids being teachers is the reality. The audience juxtaposes this "improv world" reality created on stage to the world that we live in, which is what will make the scene funny. As an improviser, it is imperative to have the confidence to normalize the "truth" of any scene.
However, finding truth is no simple task. Mcdonald, who has been improvising for years even says, "every improviser is constantly working on being honest and listening to his or her scene partner. The key is trusting that the reality that people will identify in the scene is what's funny." Ultimately, this truth comes from the trust that is built between improvisers. The trust that I have built with my teammates helps me to let go of control in a scene, because I know that my scene partners will be there to "yes and" whatever absurd truth is created.
"Real humor does not come from sacrificing the reality of a moment in order to crack a cheap joke, but in finding the joke in the reality of the moment." Truth in Comedy
Source: https://medium.com/inside-the-mind-of-an-improviser/how-to-be-funny-7c5effe80a3e
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