There is one thing that fascinates me about improv and that is how it is portrayed in Television and Film. This is becoming more and more apparent in recent years because the comedy art form is sort of in fashion. There are some interesting topics that we can gain from these ways they are displayed so every so often we are going to look at different scenes from different shows and films and books.

In a previous article on Improv Corner, we have spoken about Jimmy Carr’s autobiography and I said at the time to watch out as there will be times in the future where we will be discussing it again. Well, today we visit part two of three as this was another great section in the book that I think is really relevant to the world of improv. Before we discuss it. here is the segment that I am going to talk about:

I think that these paragraphs have a great relevance to improv as it really shows just how the simplest things can really cause comedy.

I think sometimes when people perform improv, it can be really easy to think that we have to do lots on stage to get the audience laughing or engaging with the characters. It can be such a quick option to fall into, doing lots of physical actions, saying a lot of words, when actually a really simple action can really make more impact then you actually think.

I remember a scene I did with a fellow player when I was part of Punderstandably, I made the decision very early on that I wanted to try and connect with the audience and to do this ever so often I would break the fourth wall and just look at the audience deadpan style. I think it is one of the scenes that I have done where it has had the highest amount of laughs and I remember it vividly. Also, I remember that I was saying to myself, ‘do not laugh’ the whole time so that I would not ruin the impact of the scene.

You only need to think about experiences in your own life, what simple actions make you laugh – for me a perfectly placed eye roll or even one eyebrow being raised in the right situations can be actually perfect and this is exactly what can be taken to the stage.

You only need to look at some of the best and legendary comedians and comedic actors to see how they perform on the stage or on the screen to see that sometimes the tiniest actions can make the biggest impact on the audience.

That is why I like this quote from Jimmy Carr’s autobiography as there is so much that can be taken from this to inspire the way that you next perform improv. The next time you head to rehearsal, try a few scene where you decide before you play on a tiny little thing that you are going to do subtly throughout and see if it makes a difference. Maybe the next time try a different thing such as repetition of a word that you scatter throughout and say in different ways – the tiniest things can make such a difference.