Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual 9798373982573

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Published by the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater 5919 Franklin Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028 First edition published 2013 Second edition published 2022 Copyright © Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre 2022 All rights reserved. No part of this document or the related files may be reproduced, broadcast or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher at the above address. ISBN 9798373982573

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Matt Besser Ian Roberts Matt Walsh *+,-.'%/+.+01'234567' %/+.8/'9:;'Joe Wengert #:0=.'>1/'@8-+A1'9:;!Camille Murphy

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BH%E#I?'$JI&KB'$L Amy Poehler Alex Sidtis Alex Berg Julie Brister Owen Burke Chad Carter Chelsea Clarke Michael Delaney Drew DiFonzo Marks Alex Fernie Chris Gethard Ian M. Gibbs David Harris Kevin Hines Will Hines Anthony King Will McLaughlin Johnny Meeks Billy Merritt Shannon O’Neill Danielle Schneider Amanda Sitko Joel Spence Matt Whitaker

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Foreword! "#!$%#!&'()*(+

!"#$$%$&'$(')$*+,-.,/$and this is the official

foreword for The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual. This book is a comprehensive guide to the UCB style of long form improvisation. It is an attempt to help clearly explain how we improvise, why we improvise, and what we think works best when performing long form improvisation. Now, if none of the words in that last sentence make any sense to you"you’re in luck! This book assumes you know nothing, It contains real and practical information on improvisation, without assuming you know the basics. We love to improvise and we take this funny art form very seriously. We attempt to take a pragmatic approach at how to explain the “rules” of long form improvisation. We have all improvised most of our adult lives and we have combined our experiences as performers and teachers in an attempt to clearly lay out ways to describe the UCB style. Improvisation is about having a real sense of trust with your partner. It’s about sharing a language that allows you the freedom to play. Creativity among structure. Risk among rules. In this book you will learn !

about group mind, playing to the top of your intelligence, and finding the game. It investigates everything from the simple beginning steps of getting a suggestion, to building base realities that can lead you to all different types of improv forms. The hope is that this instruction can guide you or your group into a real sense of flow. There is nothing better than the feeling of being lost in that magical and creative improvisational zone. But before you get the rush of the wind in your hair during an exciting downhill bike ride, you need to learn how to put your foot on the bike pedals and find your brake. Here is another metaphor, if improvisation is a game of basketball, then this book is the manual that teaches you to play. Once you get on the court and know how to play, it becomes about the team and the flow and energy of each game. But that creative and fluid experience can only be reached if you know the fundamentals. And if you can’t take a UCB improv class in person this is the next, best thing. So let’s get started. We hope this book helps. And on behalf of all of us, thanks for buying it. $

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I'(,+8M'J+-.0,:'' 0M'.F8'NO,+AF.'' E+.+P81-'(,+A>/8 Here′s a brief history of the UCB and the UCB Theatre. This is to give a context of where and how the authors learned improv and developed the philosophies that this book describes. We, the authors of this book—Matt Besser, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh—have had a lot of experience performing and teaching improv over the last thirty years. The three of us, along with Amy Poehler, first met in Chicago in the early 1990s, where we performed improv and sketch as the Upright Citizens Brigade. Chicago has always been fertile ground for young improv talent. Long Form improv essentially started there in the late 1950s when young actors such as Mike Nichols and Elaine May started performing improvised shows, inspired by the teachings of Viola Spolin and others. Famed comedy theater the Second City was founded shortly after. The 1990s saw an explosion of talent in the Chicago improv scene. A big part of this was the iO Theater, founded in the 1980s by Charna Halpern with longtime improv teacher and director Del Close. Presenting a large number of shows each week, iO allowed lots of young and hungry talent to get stage time. Among the performers who began their careers in 1990s Chicago were Tina Fey, Adam McKay, Rachel Dratch, Scott Adsit, Andy Richter, Horatio Sanz, Seth Meyers, Jon Favreau—and many others. We were among this generation. The UCB was part of a movement of fast, aggressive improv comedy that was absurd but still, at its core, grounded. In 1996, the UCB decided to move from Chicago to New York City hoping to get on television. We rose up through the ranks of the local alternative comedy scene, soon realizing our goal of getting on television when Comedy Central gave us a sketch show that ran for three seasons. %

During this time, we performed improv shows and taught improv classes, providing our take on the skills we’d learned in Chicago. We opened our own theater, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, in New York in 1999. In 2005, we opened a second theater in Los Angeles. Thousands of people have taken classes at the UCB. Among our alumni are many people who have gone on to professional success in movies and television. As we are writing this book, a small sampling includes: Anthony Atamanuik, Rachel Bloom, Nicole Byer, D’Arcy Carden, Rob Corddry, Andy Daly, Jon Daly, Brett Gelman, Ilana Glazer, Donald Glover, Rob Huebel, Abbi Jacobson, Lauren Lapkus, Kate McKinnon, Jason Mantzoukas, Bobby Moynihan, Ego Nwodim, Adam Pally, Lennon Parham, Aubrey Plaza, June Raphael, Rob Riggle, Paul Scheer, Ben Schwartz, Jessica St. Clair, Casey Wilson, Zach Woods, Sasheer Zamata, and many many more. In addition to those achieving fame, there are many other students who became terrific regular performers on the UCB stages, and eventually teachers. The four original UCB members, as well as the teachers they trained, started writing down their teaching philosophy as a curriculum. Many people contributed to this endeavor—including Owen Burke, Kevin Mullaney, Chris Gethard, and Joe Wengert. The teachings were a mixture of Chicago-style Long Form, with the UCB’s focus on finding the “game of the scene,” combined with new techniques that evolved through our classes. In 2011, we started writing this book. We published the first edition in 2013. In 2019, we revised it, making many small revisions throughout, including new exercises, updated terms and examples and a major rewrite of the “pattern game” section.

#1.,0/=C.+01 It’s a great irony that to get good at comedy, you have to take it seriously. This is especially surprising when first looking at Long Form improv comedy. Scenes can be so absurd and unpredictable, you might assume that anything goes. Since there are no costumes or props or script, you might feel improv requires no preparation. But of course that’s not true. Though there are no HARD rules, improv works best when the players adhere to a clear set of guidelines everyone has practiced. You !"#$#%!, you &'"#$()$(*%$()&$)+$#),-$./(%''.0%/1%2$#),$ '))3$+)-$,/,!,"'$(*./0!2$#),$*%.0*(%/$"/4$%5&')-% (we explain all these principles later). As for preparation, it’s true you can’t rehearse a scene that you make up on the spot. But all good improvisers invest a lot of time doing &

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exercises, practices, and shows so they’re comfortable with anything that comes their way. Improv is fun, for sure. But it’s not easy. It’s an art form, which requires discipline and practice. At the time we are writing this book, we have been performing and teaching improv for almost thirty years. We love improv, we’ve worked hard at it, and we take it seriously. This book will teach you the guidelines we use.

$F8'Q>R8'0M'.F8'BC818 There are two general types of improv: Short Form improvisation and Long Form improvisation. In Short Form improvisation, a group plays a series of established “games” in which the group tells the audience the rules and structure ahead of time. Something like “In this game, two people will do a scene while a third person keeps shouting different emotions for them to play.” We don’t practice Short Form at the UCB Theatre. It can be entertaining, but the downside is Short Form games tend to be very similar each time you do them. We do Long Form improvisation. That means creating one or more scenes without a script. You don’t know for sure where the humor will come from. Ideally, Long Form scenes look like written sketches. This is a tradition of comedy that grew out of the Chicago theater scene and included the improv duo Nichols and May, and theater companies like the Second City, iO Theater and others). For example, you have a scene of a fireman talking to his chief. You discover the fireman wants to stop using sirens on trucks. “They’re too scary, it makes people panic,” he reasons. He wants instead to use a very upbeat theme song he’s written called “Hooray for the Firemen!” He also wants to replace the “intimidating” dalmatian with a bunny rabbit, and wants helmets painted rainbow colors, like a clown’s wig, instead of an “alarming” red. There was no plan going into the scene. But we still say this scene had a game. It was a game we discovered along the way. You might call it:$"$6-%7"/$())$8)--.%4$"9),($!1"-./0$&%)&'%: We call this the game of the scene. The game of the scene, in the simplest terms possible, is the single specific idea that makes a scene funny. The unusual point of view, the surprising behavior, the absurd character, whatever it is. Each scene’s game is unique. If you know what the game of the scene is, you know what to explore and heighten to further what’s making the scene funny. '

Finding games in Long Form is harder than in Short Form. But if you do it well, it’s more satisfying, more surprising and unique, and funnier. The concept of the game of the scene is the linchpin of the Upright Citizens Brigade’s teaching and performance of Long Form improv. We learned to use the term “game” in Long Form while studying with legendary Chicago improv teachers Del Close and Charna Halpern in the 1990s. But since then, we’ve expanded the concept and used it to make the free-form nature of Long Form improv have a measurable goal: find a game and play it.

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234.-15642-3"#"9-&3$3-"2$0++:$;+.'$F+-'(00S'E0G8,!"#$%&'#())*+#,-.//#0)#)1-2#$%-#(3'&4#4)56)"-"$'#)7#3#8)"0#9)25# &562)1#'4-"-#3":#%),#$)#4)5(&"-#$%-5#&"$)#/)"0-2#&562)1#'$2;4$;2-'1/'' R>S8'>'U+-F\] In both of these examples, the audience should see the connection between the suggestion and your initiation. Make sure that your initiation line starts the scene “in the middle of things.” You want an initiation that allows you to get to the important part of an interaction as quickly as possible. Avoid any extraneous dialogue leading up to this moment. Notice that in our first example, we didn’t need to start with the characters noticing the balloon vendor or the transaction of buying the balloon. In the second example, we didn’t need to start with people arriving at the party or people placing gifts on the gift table. In both examples, we cut to the chase by starting “in the middle.” You should initiate off of your suggestion immediately. If you hesitate, it shows that you are planning and not improvising.

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345(678(496:;:'O>,.:\] H?I)%"'_;'''Z')8-X'>1/'.F8'S+/-'>,8'>S8'>1/'+C8'C,8>R\] For the sake of example, we have used the words “Yes” and “And” in Player 2’s response. However, in performance, Yes Anding will look something more like this:

%YITH?%'_ BNQQ%B$#L&;'''9>,8'>S8' >1/'+C8'C,8>R\] The same information is conveyed in Example 2 as was conveyed in Example 1. While the words “Yes” and “And” weren’t literally said, the rule of Yes And'7#0&%%*-0'#-1'#11*-0'-%4'*-8.&)#5*.-9'was still employed.

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From this initiation, Player 1 is able to clearly establish the Who (=.!+,-+!+'$!2*$#+!77#$--,&"+!+"#0B4+03+-'B7$&'-1, What ('*$+-'B7$&'-+!#$+'!9,&"+ !+'$-'1, and Where (!+2.!--#00%1. Now that the context of the scene has been set up so clearly, the improvisers can begin to look for the first unusual thing that breaks from this base reality.

Let’s take a look at two more examples of establishing the Who, What, and Where, one good and one bad.

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Player 1 has once again established the Who, What, and Where in his initiation. Note that there are multiple cues establishing information, both verbal and physical. Player 1 has communicated the Who through both naming his scene partner and *0) he has addressed them. Using "(

the other character’s last name and speaking in angry tone about this report being unacceptable communicates to Player 2 that Player 1 has higher status. We can assume that Player 2 works for Player 1. Player 1 communicates the What by making it clear that this scene is about a boss reprimanding his employee. Finally, Player 1 communicates the Where by using the word “cubicle.” Now we can assume that the characters are in an office.

Here is an example of a weak initiation attempting to convey the same information established in Example 4.

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Listening !"#$%$&$'%

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someone else, there is nothing more important than listening. The beginning of the scene is built through Yes And, and you cannot Yes And something if you haven’t heard it. It is important to listen because you are going to have to agree with and add to what your scene partner has just said. The last thing said on stage is either going to make your base reality more detailed and specific, or it will be the first unusual thing, the start of your game. The start of the scene, like a basement, needs to be strong enough to support everything else that will be built upon it. Listening needs to happen so that you and your scene partner are on the same page about what 3,&'(of house you are building. If you don’t actively listen at the beginning of a scene, you may think that you are building a house out of straw, while your teammate thinks you are building it with bricks. The goal of the beginning of the scene is to establish a relatable reality from which an unusual or absurd thing can be recognized. None of this will be possible if you are not actively listening. A great improviser is a good listener. &,

!"#$%&'(%)&*$ To be able to communicate effectively and build a Long Form scene with another improviser, you have to learn when to speak and when to listen. This is called !"#$%&'(%)&*$. One improviser shouldn’t be doing all of the work in a scene. By giving and taking focus, you share the burden of discovery and creation. Giving and taking are equally important. It is important that you stop talking and !"#$%focus to your scene partner when they want to add to the scene. It is equally important that you begin speaking and )&*$ focus from them when you have something to contribute to the scene. There is nothing more awkward to watch on stage than two improvisers fighting for focus. An ability to give and take focus is necessary for good listening.

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n both of the abstract number examples in the previous section, each new number represents another funny moment in a scene. In order to continue to make each scene funny, you will still have to come up with new numbers. However, thanks to the game, your thought process isn’t all over the place. You’ll be thinking of certain numbers instead of all numbers. A major benefit of game is that you know what works, so you don’t need to be wildly creative. The narrowing down of limitless possibilities in this way makes the task of being funny infinitely easier. With a game, you put boundaries on what choices you could be making and in doing so, lighten your cognitive load.

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The game makes being funny in a Long Form scene easier by forcing you to focus on a single comic idea. Its nature is to take away options so that you and your scene partner don’t have to keep searching for new unusual, funny things. Having a game in your scene is the closest thing in improvisation to having a script. You don’t have to wrack your brain for funny things to say. You now have a method that provides you with funny things to say. The method is asking the question “if this unusual thing is true, then what else is true?” to build your scene off of your initial funny discovery. Sports can serve as a great analogy for the game. Think of game as the sport you choose to play. If you agree to play basketball with other people, you all know that there are certain rules that will be followed and certain things you can expect to happen (e.g. you must dribble the ball if you want to move with it). If anyone were to deviate from these rules or constantly make up new rules (the equivalent of throwing random unusual things into the scene), the game would no longer be fun to play or watch. The game would fall apart. You may be thinking that following rules in improv will be constraining. However, following the rules of a game in an improv scene is no more constraining than following the rules in a game of basketball. As is the case with basketball, there is an inexhaustible amount of variation within the rules. Even though there are rules, the specific way you play while adhering to those rules is never predetermined. Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Shaquille O’Neal all played the same game with the same rules, yet they all had completely different styles. Similarly, there is plenty of room for individual expression within the constraints of the game of the scene. The game is just giving you a structure within which you can be creative. You could also think of performing a successful Long Form scene as trying to get from one side of a forest to the other. Without a clear-cut path, you and your scene partner could encounter heavy brush, mud, or any number of other things that would make getting to the other side very difficult. You might disagree about the best way to get to other side, and this could keep you from working together. A path would make the task of getting from one side of the forest to the other much easier to accomplish. Game is the path leading you and your scene partner through the forest of a Long Form scene. The path provided by the game makes performing a Long Form scene with someone else effortless and enjoyable. Now that we have defined what game is and why it is important, it is time to move on to how to find it.

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