Impro vs stand-up

I fell in love with an old flame last night, his name was Impro.

I have been flirting with various forms for about two years now, short-form (otherwise known as Theatresports) and long form (various Harold formats, Armando and others that I don't have names for) and have also been a dedicated viewer of all the improv shows that have burst onto the Sydney scene in 2010 thanks to some very talented people.

I have also signed up to a stand-up comedy workshop that starts in October, and will either culminate in a grad show or a knock-kneed me appearing at an Open Mic session.

I don't have any experience to make the following comparisons between improv and stand-up, but my feeling towards improvising is that it keeps you very much in the moment. I enjoy being reminded to live in the moment. When it works, you feel like you are creating something of beauty that is completely ephemeral, much like a Buddhist monk creating a sand Mandala, only to brush it away after days of painstaking creation. I enjoy creating something ephemeral, and I also enjoy not knowing what might come next, but that trust in your fellow improvisors to go with an idea is extremely addictive.

Whereas stand-up comedy is all about the writing process (which I understand will be what this workshop is about), and the delivery. You can have great material but completely stuff it up on delivering the punchline, or your timing might be slightly off, and you don't get the laugh. It's also repeatable, and indeed some stand-up comics can continue re-using their best material over and over again and people will pay to see them as they are such funny comic executors.

One comment I have had about my delivery of other material is that I have "no pride". I don't think his comment meant that I schlepp around in trackie dacks and don't shower for days, but more that I don't care enough about what other people think of me to worry about looking foolish. Some of my best moments in real life that have led to comic opportunities have come from my embrace of looking foolish or doing foolish things. In fact, that is where I am mining my comedy routine's content from... things I probably shouldn't have done... but did anyway.

There's rather a lot of material, actually.

Improvising is also about delivery, but the pros call it "committing" to a scene or a character. It's more about the intent behind the "offer", than the actual delivery of that offer. I have seen some brilliant fellow improvisers that simply stand there and deliver their "offers" with complete deadpan faces, and still be side-splittingly funny. Whereas that schtick wears a little thin if you are stand-up comic, unless your material is absolutely BRILLIANT.

I am looking forward to getting back into improv, and will be doing shows again as of this week. However, I am hella nervous but also very excited to "learn" how to write comic material, and to hopefully be able to deliver it well.

It is a huge risk, but life is about risks. And I am looking forward to seeing whether I can pull it off.