If there is one thing that fascinates me about improv and that is how it is portrayed in Television, books 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.

It is always weird where inspiration for improv articles can come from. If you are a regular reader of this feature, you will know that I like to keep track on how improv is represented in the media – whether that is positive, negative or neutral.

The other day I had nothing to do so decided to watch the film Family Affair (2024) featuring Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman. It was an OK film, one that I may not watch again but it was fine to pass the time. There was one quote right at the top that really interested me and was the reason for this article, so let’s have a look at that today.

Near beginning of the film Zac Efron has a go at his assistant in the car when they are driving away from a restaurant. He is angry at his assistant and is wondering where she was and why she was not there fast enough to help him break up with a girlfriend. It may sound like a really random scene but halfway through his moan he says this line:

‘you’re so lucky that I won improv championships when I was a kid, because believe me, that was one of my best performances of all time.…”

Zac Efron, Family Affair

Now there was two things I took away from this quote – the first thing was that it was actually a Hollywood produced film that actually used improv in a positive way. It is weird because it is used to create a negative trait of a character but it was refreshing to actually to hear it being used as a way of self praising. You may argue that it is negative as it is used to make a point in a negative situation (a fight) but I have learnt with Hollywood you take the tiny glimpses of positive portrayals and embrace them no matter how small.

The second thing that truly fascinated me was the fact they mentioned that there were improv championships for kids….is there? Well, I went and investigated. My first port of call was David Escobedo because if anyone knows about anything about improv then it was going to be him. Also he is American so he would know more about the scene then I would. From talking to him he told me he had not heard about it and wondered if it was a new thing that had started to be introduced into the world of improv.

So I started to do my own research….i looked around and found it very hard to find children’s improv championship’s – the closest I came to was NCT High School League where children and teens do intensive courses on improv and then can compete in leagues. Here is a description.

The National Comedy Theatre High School League is a unique opportunity for High School students in San Diego to learn improv skills and theory, and to put it into practice with regular performances.

NCT High School League website

Now this is really interesting, I would love to find out if there are more leagues for children and teens in America. In the film Zac Efron’s character Chris Cole is meant to be around early thirties so for him to compete in improv championships it would of had to of been around mid noughties. I am from the United Kingdom so I do not know what the improv scene was like in the States at this time but I am still not sure that there would be improv championships, I cannot imagine it would be big enough. Even with Whose Line Is It Anyway.

The more I think about this line (and trust me it’s been a lot and it has played on my mind a lot. I know it better then I remember the film) the more I am convinced it was a sneak line to make the film ‘on trend’. Considering that at this point in the film Efron’s character is horrible and a ‘bad guy’ I think it is used in a negative way again. I am becoming more and more convinced that it is a slight dig at improv that the film scene tend to do a lot in the last few years. I do look forward to the day that they use it more positively.