“I
like waking up to the smell of bacon – sue me.” Steve Carell said to explain
why his foot was covered in bubble wrap—he stepped out of bed and into his
Foreman Grill. Mindy Kaling wrote this episode of The Office, but Carell ran wild in this scene, and improvised
the joke that was used. The directors kept the bacon joke in the final edit,
and Carell once again showed how important improvisation is to comedy.
Improvisation is a productive way for comedians to
come up with creative and unconventional lines that are unexpected yet flow
within the scene. With improv, actors are given the opportunity to think of
their own lines to use within a scene. They are able to take the script and
change it up. At times they aren’t even given a script, though there is a basic
outline of the scenario. It is not only more enjoyable for the actors to have
creative control, but the director is left with more material to work with.
Improv is found all over the
entertainment industry, especially television. Each night, Stephen Colbert
creates improv comedy with unwitting and sometimes unwilling partners; his
interview subjects. Colbert creates a cat and mouse game so to speak. The
interviewee is trying to bring the conversation back to them and their topic
while Colbert is trying to create comedy, by improvising his jokes off of their
ideas or words. Colbert has no idea what the interviewee will say next, so he
must think quickly in order to keep the comedy going. And Colbert is
well-trained when it comes to impov. He started out at Second City, a comedy
group that started in 1959 in Chicago and was founded by Paul Sills, who also
started the first theater group to bring improv to the modern stage. Second
City then became one of the most popular theaters and has played host to famous
comedians such as John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and Gilida Rander. Those comedians
helped pave the way for others to follow suit.
Television shows like Curb Your
Enthusiasm and Whose Line is It
Anyway? have incorporated this technique
into their structure. Curb Your Enthusiasm is a comedy on HBO about Larry David, the co-creator of Seinfeld, and
the hilarious and awkward situations he manages to get himself into. David
writes out the plot for the episode, but the actors are left to improvise the
rest. The result is a highly watched show that has been nominated for
thirty-four Emmys and picking up a Golden Globe. Whose Line Is It
Anyway, hosted by Drew Carey, was a show made up entirely of improvised sketches.
Each episode consisted of four comedians and various improv games that required
the comedians to create scenes, characters, and songs. The audience of the show
was involved in picking topics for the comedians to improvise. This show
integrated games and audience members together to engage both the audience and
the comedians. There are different varieties of improvisation used in the
entertainment industry but it all results in a funny and well received.
On the other end of the spectrum, using improv in
movies is an even bigger risk than on television due to the production cost.
Nevertheless, movie like The 40 Year Old Virgin, directed by Judd Apatow, used both improvisation
and scripted material to create their Critics Choice Awards winning film. Steve
Carell and Seth Rogen would first perform the scripted scene but then were left
to improvise for the next few takes. Apatow’s films have been wildly successful
and part of that is due to improvisation. Improv works well in comedy because
of its endless possibilities. As an actor in the comedic genre, they are given
more flexibility as to what they can say and do. Judd Apatow shoots one million
feet of film for each of his movies. While non-improvised comedies only use
about five-hundred thousand feet. Though this approach is more expansive and
expensive, its end results are worth it.
Gone
are the days of writing meticulously in your room. Instead actors are
challenged to come up with new ideas on the spot. The result is endless takes,
thousands of film rolls, a stressed out director, and sold out theaters.
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