If you've been around this improv thing for a while you've heard it said by someone or read it somewhere, in a book or a blog, or an article by an improv genious that a joke stops a scene. And then you've seen a brilliant set and in the middle of it there was a joke - or what would stand on its own in stand up as a decent joke. And you're like screw those people - rules are to be broken I'm going to tell a joke.
And your moment comes to edit a scene.
And your moment of briliant, rule-breaking, authority shunning, improv-on-your-own wisdom comes.
BOOM.
And things don't go so well.
There is a huge difference in telling a joke and finding a joke.
I'm a HUGE fan of discovery. I love seeing improvisers discover things in scenes - from physical stuff in their imaginary space to complicated character-based moments full of motivation and deep introspection. I love it. I devour it. Usually these moments show that the improviser is fully engaged with the character, the space, the moment, and as far away from "playwriting" as they can get. This is when amazing things happen in our work. And improvisers... you may be surprised to learn that this same thing happens for our collegaues working with written material. When we are fully engaged with the material and the moment we lose ourselves to the brilliance of the moment.
And there is no reason that in those moments, our natural sense of humor, our own character or the character we're playing will find something we'd consider a joke in the depth of the scene. And it works.
Because it is discovered. It is not planned. It is not expected. The actor does not have an agenda or an expectation.
No agenda
No plan
No expectation
Only discovery.
The problem with jokes is that when we have them in our heads, we are planning to use them, we are playwriting.
If we are playwriting, we are not in the moment, we are not in the scene.
It is your joke, your agenda, your plan. And in that moment you are placing all of those things on top of whatever has been created by your scenemates. It steals the focus from the scene to you. It is selfish, it is a control mechanism, and it is the opposite of good improvisation.
And if it's a dirty joke... you have now cast yourself as a character who would posess all of the characteristics of that turd you just put out there. If you aren't ready to dive head-first, all-in to that character, you can't carry the weight of that joke and you - the improviser - are now the one who has to hold the weight of that dirty joke. And the scene has now stopped on you. You don't want that - your scenemates don't want that, the scene does not want that.
Don't do that.
