shape of show
We talk about “shape of show” a lot in our improv group .. basically if you got kind of a U-shape going, that’s a good shape of show — start high-energy, engage the audience, get maybe a little lower energy and a bit more cerebral through the middle half (this is an okay place to fail a lot!) Then get on the upswing after the break, rising in engagement and energy until blam, we’re at the peak of our game and the show ends, leaving the audience wanting more. I think that’s close to what we mean when we talk about a good shape of show.
I was going to launch into how my day yesterday took a very satisfying shape, but it involves a lot of stories about my apartment and the organization thereof, and the mention of boxes, Craigslist and emails. And then I died of boredom.
I do, I do, I DO have a life outside of the immediate space in which I live! So, I’ll bore us all with the story I scrubbed at another time.
It’s the ephemeral nature of improv that attracts me, but that also makes it hard to reference solid examples of past shows or scenes, as an almost instant amnesia descends, obscuring details and, well, pretty much everything.
I am rapidly getting less and less able to recall this last Saturday’s show, but I sure remember this. We spent almost all of our warm up time trying to get a picture where David (blur at left) appears to be leaping into our arms. It was so stupid and hilarious and a total waste of time.
Or was it? Warmups are crucial to a show (at least, most people think so). I find if we do anything too esoteric, or something that has too many opportunities to display wit, or something that’s too hard, I really don’t know if there’s much of a point. But when we just are together, cracking up, agreeing with each other, being free and silly — well, that’s a winwinwinwinwinwin situation.
Did we have a good show? Started off strong, really got weird and unsuccessful, then got good right at the end. Right shape!