CPH Dramatics

Our friends at ICC Theatre are open again after the Xmas lockdown.
So if you want to see some quality improvised comedy shows, then pop along on a Friday or Saturday for fun, wholesome and occasionally outrageous comedy!
https://icc.culmas.io/shows

It's a busy weekend of comedy improv at ICC Theatre.
With our Xmas show in Tivoli sold out, there are only a few weekends left in 2020 to get your comedy fix.
And with limited theatre seating to due "these strange times we are living in", we sell out pretty quickly!

WHAT IS 'IMPROV COMEDY'?

As a teacher of Improv Comedy, I get asked this question quite a lot - mainly because I never shut up about how much fun it is to practice and perform. Maybe people just ask in the hope that I’ll finally round off my blabbering with a finite description, and move on!

It never happens. But that is only because Improv Comedy has so many layers from which not just performers but everyone can benefit on a daily basis.

So let’s start at the 'end' performance product: a half hour (approximately) comedy ‘sketch’ show with any number of improvisers, which is completely created in the moment from a simple suggestion word or phrase from the audience. I put ‘sketch’ in inverted commas because long-form Improv comedy should appear to an audience as if what they are seeing onstage has been written in advance – even though there is no way it could possibly have been. There are other forms of Improv Comedy which are less sketchy but all forms require exactly the same skills in order to be successful.

So how is Improv Comedy done?
In order to improvise a show as a pair or as a team, you need understanding and communication. When you step onstage you only have your eyesight, your ears, you life experience and your gut feelings to call upon. So the last thing you want to be doing is ignoring each other and just ‘doing your thing’, expecting the other person to go along with your idea all the time. Imagine 7 people on a ‘team’ where everyone is doing their own thing – chaos!

So fundamentally, Improv Comedy requires you to work – harder than you have ever worked – TOGETHER. There is no hierarchy in Improv: no lead actor, no prima donnas, no bit-part players. Everyone has equal responsibility. You have to be prepared to take the responsibility to instigate a scene with your idea and be equally prepared to give up your idea immediately if another one comes first or feels better (for ‘better’ read ‘offering a funnier pay-off’).
You have to make bold choices, but equally be prepared to sacrifice your idea on the spot and work to make the performance as funny as possible regardless (you still have that idea for another show, just not this one!)

You are creating collectively in the moment, so you need to be a realy good listener. Not 30% listening, 70% preparing what you’re going to say next, but 85% listening and 15% considering how you can help develop the scene. ‘Active listening’ as we call it, means being attentive to what is said, how it is said, phrasing, pauses, what is not said, etc. – always listening for clues to your scene partner's character that you can play with for comic effect. The rest is instinctual reaction in ‘character’. As Improvisers we try to act less and react more.

You have to be a very good observer – body language, posture and ‘object work’ (or miming) says so much about your scene partner’s character. They are holding an imaginary pen – you should be able to tell what type of pen it is, and how the way they use it tells you something about that character and their attitude or emotional state.

As a team, you are always working towards the ‘common good’ – which, in this case, is the funniest show possible. We rely completely on each other. In fact, one of the tenets of Improv Comedy is that our job is to make our scene partner look like a genius. It’s not about me; it’s about taking care of and helping each other onstage. Good Improv should be totally unselfish.
We ‘live’ by the idea of ‘Yes, and…’ – the notion of accepting what is offered by our scene partner and building on it as an idea. It doesn’t mean that our characters always have to be in agreement: but it means that as improvisers we can agree, for example, that our characters are in disagreement.

We talk a lot about ‘gifting’ each other: which is basically offering character details and circumstances to each other to help us build the scene. It can be a line as simple as: “Kev, you look really depressed, mate”, or “Congratulations on finally passing your driving test. Eighth time lucky, eh?” or “Happy birthday, Dad. It’s great to have you back.” These lines gift your scene partner either an emotional state, a potential overriding characteristic or a relationship status. We do this continually throughout the scenes, always looking for the comic potential in these characters, and how they interact with each other and the world. But we are always trying to come from a place of truth.

So we are not clowns but we are often the ‘fallguys’. We try as much as possible to offer characters with humanity, truth and the odd imperfection. We need the audience to, if not completely believe, then at least want to invest their interest and connect with these characters. There is also an inherent morality to Improv Comedy. The tyrant always has to lose; the homeless person always has to win. Why? Because that is where comedy lives. No sane person laughed when Trump became president, but we all laugh when the wind blows his hair out of place or he reveals his ignorance through a 3am tweet (admittedly, the laugh is also tinged with mild panic).

Comedy thrives on imperfect environments. To exist it relies on revealing our human failings and vulnerabilities. It is the skewing of accepted beliefs and inverting of statuses. The king becomes the fool and vice versa.

But until you see an Improv Comedy show or take an Improv Comedy class, it is difficult to imagine how it can possibly work – until you see or do.

To see:
https://www.improvcomedy.eu/events/list/

To do:
https://www.improvcomedy.eu/classes/

Events | Improv Comedy Copenhagen

WHAT IS 'IMPROV COMEDY'?

As a teacher of Improv Comedy, I get asked this question quite a lot - mainly because I never shut up about how much fun it is to perform. Maybe people just ask in the hope that I’ll finally round off my blabbering with a finite description, and move on!

It never happens. That is only because Improv Comedy has so many layers from which not just performers but everyone can benefit on a daily basis.

So let’s start at the end product: a half hour (approximately) comedy ‘sketch’ show with any number of improvisers which is completely created in the moment from a simple suggestion word or phrase from the audience. I put ‘sketch’ in inverted commas because long-form Improv comedy should appear to an audience as if what they are seeing onstage has been written in advance – even though there is no way it could have been. There are other forms of Improv Comedy which are less sketchy but all forms require exactly the same skills in order to be successful.�

So how do we do it?
In order to improvise a show as a pair or as a team, you need understanding and communication. When you step onstage you only have your eyesight, your ears and your gut feelings to call upon. So the last thing you want to be doing is ignoring each other and just ‘doing your thing’, expecting the other person to go along with your idea all the time. Imagine 7 people on a ‘team’ where everyone is doing their own thing – chaos!

So fundamentally, Improv Comedy requires you to work – harder than you have ever worked – TOGETHER. There is no hierarchy in Improv: no lead actor, no prima donnas, no bit-part players. Everyone has equal responsibility. You have to be prepared to instigate a scene with your idea and be equally prepared to give up your idea if another one comes first or feels better (for ‘better’ read ‘offering a funnier pay-off’). You have to make bold choices, but equally be prepared to sacrifice your idea on the spot and work to make the performance as funny as possible regardless (you still have that idea for another show, just not this one!)

You are creating collectively in the moment, so you need to be a bloody good listener. Not 30% listening, 70% preparing what you’re going to say next, but 85% listening and 15% thinking about how you can help develop the scene. ‘Active listening’ as we call it, means being attentive to what is said, how it is said, phrasing, etc. – always listening for clues to your scene partners character that you can play with for comic effect. The rest is instinctual reaction in ‘character’. As Improvisers we try to act less and react more.

You have to be a very good observer – body language, posture and ‘object work’ (or miming) says so much about your scene partner’s character. They are holding an imaginary pen – you should be able to tell what type of pen it is, and how the way they use it tells you something about that character and their attitude or emotional state.

As a team you are always working towards the ‘common good’ – which, in this case, is the funniest show possible. We rely completely on each other. In fact, one of the tenets of Improv Comedy is that our job is to make our scene partner look like a genius. It’s not about me; it’s about taking care of and helping each other onstage. We ‘live’ by the idea of ‘Yes, and…’ – the notion of accepting what is offered by our scene partner and building on it as an idea. It doesn’t mean that our characters always have to be in agreement: but it means that as improvisers we can agree that our characters constantly disagree.

We talk a lot about ‘gifting’ each other: which is basically offering character details and circumstances to each other to help us build the scene. It can be a line as simple as: “Kev, you look really depressed, mate”, or “Congratulations on finally passing your driving test. Eighth time lucky, eh?” or “Happy birthday, Dad. It’s great to have you back.” These lines gift your scene partner either an emotional state, a potential overriding characteristic or a relationship status. We do this continually throughout the scenes, always looking for the comic potential in these characters and how they interact with each other and the world. But we are always looking to come from a place of truth.

So we are not clowns but we are often the ‘fallguys’. We try as much as possible to offer characters with humanity, truth and the odd imperfection. We need the audience to, if not completely believe, then at least want to invest their interest and connect with these characters. There is also an inherent morality to Improv Comedy. The tyrant always has to lose; the homeless person always has to win. Why? Because that is where comedy lives. Nobody laughed when Trump became president, but we all laugh when the wind blows his hair out of place or he reveals his ignorance through a 3am tweet (admittedly, the laugh is also tinged with mild panic).

Comedy thrives on imperfect environments. To exist it relies on our human failings and vulnerabilities. It is the skewing of accepted beliefs and inverting of statuses. The king becomes the fool and vice versa.

But until you see an Improv Comedy show or take an Improv Comedy class it is difficult to imagine how it can possibly work – until you see or do.

To see:
https://www.improvcomedy.eu/events/list/

To do:
https://www.improvcomedy.eu/classes/

Events | Improv Comedy Copenhagen Find Events Event Views Navigation View As Events From Search Upcoming Events Events List Navigation « Previous Events Next Events » February 2018 Improv Comedy: “ICC Touring Co.” (EN) 22 February @ 20:00 - 21:00 The ICC Theatre, Frederiksholms Kanal 2 Copenhagen, 1220 DKK80 Short-form Thursda...

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