funny

So in my free time over the holidays, I've been thinking a lot about improv: it's philsophy, it's practice, it's current position as the most enjoyable thing I do. When I stopped and thought about it, I realized that there is so much more to humor than just saying something clever.

I read an interview by an improviser named Ian Roberts, one of the guys who started the Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC with the likes of Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, and another guy whose name escapes me at the moment. He articulates a lot things about improv that I never really thought about, namely the reason why improv is funny. It actually has a lot to do with how our minds work and becuase of this improv is different than a lot of comedy because it really forces us into our own heads.

I have always wondered what makes something "funny," why one scene about a kid and his mom is funny and why one is dull. The interview was very enlightening:

In comedy, you’re showing the day that broke the pattern. The only memories you even have in your life are the days when things didn’t go the way you would have them go. You remember the day that you got the crazy cab driver or you made a fool of yourself or you messed up the dinner. So, when you’re playing a game, don’t now go into some freaky comedy acting. Just respond. Just be a human being. It goes on both sides. When you are kind of driving the game and exhibiting the unusual behavior, realize no one sets out to be an idiot. If you agree that people are pursing pleasure and avoid pain, that’s the best choice they could make at that moment.

I realized that that is totally true. When someone throws a word at us, what we immediately associate with that word is something that stands out. In this sense, comedy is probably the most honest theater because in order to do it well, you have to tell the truth. If you don't you not only risk not being funny, but you totally throw your partner under a bus. Also, anyone can be funny.

Sometimes people ask me how I got into doing comedy. In reality, people to comedy everyday. When we trip in the hall and make sure no one saw, when we think for 15 minutes in class about the chalk dust on the professor's pants, when we sit around talking about other people's misfortunes and laughing until it hurts, we are all doing comedy.

It seems so obvious to me now.