Improv Rules 02: Don't Ask Questions

Improv Rules 02:  Don't Ask Questions  (Add instead)

In life, curiosity is a good thing.  If you're doing an interview, questions are great.  For a society to work well, questioning authority is a healthy attitude.

But questions in improv are trouble.

The basic problems with question is that you are unfairly putting the responsibility of the scene on your scene partner.

Example:

You:  What are you doing?

Partner:  I'm looking for gold.

You:  Find any?

Partner:  Not yet, but I've only just started looking.

You:  How long have you been looking?

You get the idea.  Not a fun scene because one person is not adding.  Also, your partner in this scene is having to make up everything.  The chemistry is therefore not activating.  Here is an alternative scene:

You:  Look at how much gold you've found!

Partner:  I know, it's incredible, I only just started looking this morning.

You:  I want to start looking for gold.

Partner:  I tell you what, I've found so much gold that I can't even carry it all.  I will give you a little of my gold if you help me bring mine home.

You:  A little?  I want a lot!

As you can see - there is a totally different energy in this version of the scene because both people are adding and not expecting the other person to do all the work.

While it's hard to do an exercise that doesn't allow you to do something (ask questions) here is a fun exercise about adding that you can do with a friend without feeling the burden of having to create full scenes:

You start out by making a statement, it can be anything.  Next, your friend builds on that statement, then you build on their statement.  Continue as long as you can.

Example:

You:  That grocery store really has gone down hill.

Friend:  I know, it had so many varmants walking around, I thought it was a pet store!

You:  I couldn't believe the cashier actually made me pay for the rat that crawled in my basket.

Friend:  I couldn't believe you named it and took it home as a pet.

And so on.

So - since I already said that questions in life are a good thing... what's the life lesson here?   Always add.  Always build on what is there.  If several people begin to add to an idea or situation or goal, then it takes on it's own life and creates exponential energy.