Comedy improvisation on television: does it
IMMEDIATE AND FUTURE
Dick Chudnow makes the point that ‘People don’t like Whose Line Is It Anyway?
because it’s improv, they like it because it’s funny’ (Chudnow 2003, personal interview). So maybe all good comedy improvisation is confined to live per-formance, or radio. Jim Sweeney has worked within improvisation for over three decades. He suggests that improvisation is best seen live rather than on televi-sion, he comments that ‘… improvisation is a live beast’ (Sweeney 2003, per-sonal interview). Perper-sonally, I agree with this statement, but I also think there must be a way to get improvisation to be seen by a wider audience. Perhaps television is not the way forward for this. Maybe one day we will see improvised shows streamed live on the Internet with suggestions shouted from computers all over the world. But of course, there would have to be the interest.
CONCLUSION
So, does improvisation on television work? I began this research with the idea that I would be able to gather information and then develop an improvised show that would work on television but still keep the ethos of an improvised show.
During this time I have discovered that the majority of people who work in improvised mediums not only believe that it does not work, but that it should not work. It could be argued that once the ‘moment’ is caught on film that the spon-taneity has been destroyed. Maybe the future of filmed improvised ‘moments’
is something along the lines of Improv Everywhere, ‘Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places.’ (Todd, 2001). Where this spontaneous moment is caught on many cameras strategically dotted around the location, many bystanders end up therefore being part of the situation or scene. This idea has even been picked up recently for use in Advertisement.
Usually, improvised moments are filmed in front of a live audience, caught on tape, played to another audience, syndicated, and then watched repeatedly by fans of the genre – myself included. During my research I found one clip in particular from Whose Line ...? that, when I watched it, I realized that I could repeat the words along with them. I had watched that episode so many times I could remember what they had just made up.
Arguably, the only fully improvised show that has ever worked on television was Whose Line Is It Anyway? and, since then, any improvised shows have had to deal with the comparison. Improvised television, as it once was, seems unlikely to reappear – more hybrid shows like in the USA Kwik Witz and Free Radio and in the UK Mock the Week, Argumental and QI seem to be a more comfortable format for producers to take a chance on. Improvisation may be confined to the panel show, intermingled with scripted pieces (Argumental being slightly differ-ent as it is delivered as a ‘debate’ show, where members of each team get up on their own and improvise arguments for or against topics).
In conclusion, it would seem that comedy improvisation can work on television, but rarely does. Producers seem to want to guarantee a hilarious out-put so much that they work out formats that are overly complicated and ‘safe’,
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109 but improvisation works best when it is neither of those things. And this is its
downfall. Let us just hope for a Whose Line ...? reunion.
REFERENCES
Bailey, James T. (2009), cast member World Cup Comedy, personal interview, June, Los Angeles, USA.
Chudnow, Dick (2003 and 2009), founder of ComedySportz USA, personal interview, June, Wisconsin, USA.
Cook, William (2001), The Comedy Store: The club that changed British comedy, London: Little Brown Books.
Curb Your Enthusiasm, (2009), http://www.hbo.com/larrydavid/about. Accessed August 2009.
Forking up the Advocates (August 1998) REVIEW – IMPROV HEAVEN &
HELL, http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_10.08.98/art/comedy8.html.
Accessed February 2003.
Goldberg, Andy (1991), Improv Comedy, California: Samuel French.
Halpern, Charna, Del Close, (2000), Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation, Colorado: Meriwether Publishing Ltd.
Hargrave, Andrea Milwood (1991), Taste and Decency in Broadcasting: Annual Review 1991, London: John Libbey.
Holmwood, Leigh (January 19th 2008), ‘Merton falls flat in gloomy night for ITV’, The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/21/
tvratings.television1. Accessed August 2009.
I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, interview with producer, Jon Naismith, (January 2003), http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/clue/interviews/everything.shtml Accessed December 2009.
Isles, Gill (2009), Manchester Based Comdey Producer, personal interview, June, Manchester.
Johnston, Chris (2006), The Improvisation Game: Discovering the Secrets of Spontaneous Performance, London: Nick Hern Books Ltd.
Johnstone, Keith (1979), Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, London: Methuen.
Johnstone, Keith (1999), Impro for Storytellers, London: Faber and Faber.
Just how popular is improv? (1997), http://www.geocities.com/ashamuffin/
popular.html. Accessed February 2003.
Kozlowski, Rob (2002), The Art Of Chicago Improv, New Hampshire:
Heinemann.
Lewisohn, Mark (1998), ‘Radio Times’ Guide To TV Comedy, London: BBC Consumer Publishing.
Mcleod, Tyler (1998), ‘Get ready for some hot improv’, Calgary Sun, Saturday, 10 October.
Pantankin, Sheldon (2000), The Second City: Backstage at the Worlds Greatest Comedy Theater, Illinois: Sourcebooks Inc.
Seham, Amy E. (2001), Whose Improv is it Anyway?, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi/Jackson.
Smart, Andy (2009), cast member The Comedy Store Players, personal email interview, June, London.
Sumner, J. B. (November 2008), Radiohaha: the online encyclopaedia of con-temporary British radio comedy http://www.angelfire.com/pq/radiohaha/
TMI.html. Accessed December 2009.
Sweeney, Jim (2003), cast member Whose Line Is It Anyway?, personal inter-view, May, London.
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110
Tallman, Chris (2009), cast member, Reno 911, Crossballs, World Cup Comedy, Thank God You’re Here (USA), personal interview, June, Los Angeles, USA.
Todd, Charlie (2001), Improv Everywhere, http://improveverywhere.com/. Accessed December 2009.
Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Episode List, http://www.tv.com/whose-line-is-it-anyway-uk/show/921/summary.html?q=Whose%20Line%20Is%20It%20 Anyway&tag=search_results;title;1. Accessed December 2009.
Wright, John (2006), Why Is That So Funny?, London: Nick Hern Books Ltd.
SUGGESTED CITATION
Edge, B. (2010), ‘Comedy improvisation on television: does it work?’, Comedy Studies 1: 1, pp. 101–111, doi: 10.1386/cost.1.1.101/1
CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
Braínne Edge’s varied improvisation training stems from classes with Keith Johnstone, Neil Mullarkey (The Comedy Store Players, London), Mick Napier (Annoyance Theater, Chicago), Kate Watson (The Second City, Chicago), and Dick Chudnow (ComedySportz Founder), to name a few. She has performed improvisation in just under half of the states in the USA, as well as all over the UK and Ireland. She manages and facilitates a successful Improv and Stand Up training programme at the Comedy Store, Manchester. Braínne achieved a first-class honours degree in Media and Performance from Salford University and a Masters of Art in Film and Video from The Surrey Institute of Art and Design. Braínne founded the UK division of ComedySportz in 2001.
Braínne is also a Lecturer in Performance at Salford University and currently heads its Television Comedy modules.
Contact: Salford University, Media and Performance Division, Adelphi Building, Peru St, Salford, M5 4WT, UK.
E-mail: [email protected] NOTES
1. List of shows described as ‘improvised’ from the UK, to show how few improvised shows were produced in the UK as opposed to the US.
Show Name Production Company Years
Whose Line Is It Anyway? Hat Trick/Channel 4 1988–1998
Trigger Happy TV Absolutely Productions/Channel 4 2000–2001
Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned Avalon/ITV 2000–2005
Mock the Week (partly improvised) Angst Productions/BBC 2005–present In Your Ear ... With Neil Morrissey
(pilot only)
Fox TV UK/Channel 5 2006
Outnumbered (partly improvised) Hat Trick 2007–present
Thank God You’re Here TalkbackTHAMES/ITV 2008
Argumental Tiger Aspect Productions for Dave 2009
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111 2. List of shows described as ‘improvised’ from the US.
Show Name Production Company Years
Kwik Witz (not actually improvised but
produced to appear that way) Beau & Arrow Productions 1996–1999
Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC/ABC Family 1998–2006
Curb Your Enthusiasm HBO 2000–present
Sponk! Noggin 2001–2003
On The Spot WB Network 2003
Reno 911 Comedy Central 2003–2009
Trigger Happy TV Comedy Central 2003
Crossballs Comedy Central 2004
World Cup Comedy PAX-TV 2004–2005
Drew Carey’s Green Screen WB Network 2004
ASSSSCAT Improv Special Bravo 2005 (one off Upright
Citizens Brigade Special)
Wild N Out MTV 2005–2007
Campus Ladies Oxygen 2006
Thank God You’re Here NBC 2007
Factory Spike TV 2008
Free Radio VH1 2008–present
Source: (Most information sourced from http://fuzzyco.com/improv/television August 2009.)
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