The improv tip “you don’t have to be clever or funny” can be confusing so here’s a blog with more details.
We are mainly producing comedy improv, and we mainly book in comedy improv acts at our theatre. We can also do dramatic and serious improv, but most of what we do at Hoopla is comedy improv.
But the comedy in improv mostly comes from the moment, the scene, the relationship, and finding games & patterns in the situation. We don’t have to make up jokes rapidly on the spot.
If training sprinters for the Olympics we obviously want them to run fast, but just repeatedly saying “run faster” probably wouldn’t achieve that and may even bring in unwanted tension. So we do other things instead, adapted to that individual sprinter and what helps them.
In improv we can sometimes (but don’t have to) use the environment setting tip of:
“You don’t have to be clever and funny”
However, this is probably the least understood bit of the environment chat.
So to be clear – The phrase is not “you aren’t allowed to be clever and funny”, instead it is “you don’t have to be clever and funny.”
The main purpose of this phrase is to help people to not stress, to not put too much pressure on themselves, to be able to be themselves on stage, to be able to react naturally in the situation, and to find humour in the situation instead of making gags that kill off the reality of the scene. This enables people to find the funny together, instead of being in competition with each other. It also enables people to allow stories, scenes, relationships and characters to develop, instead of killing them off for the sake of a quick gag.
It tends to help very nervous beginners, and can also help people who are trying too hard to be funny all the time at the expense of the actual scene. It can also be very helpful if you suddenly find yourself at a bigger show or under more pressure than normal.
It can actually work as Jedi mind trick for some improvisers, and when they relax with “you don’t have to be clever or funny” they actually become funnier than ever as they play naturally in scenes. Some of the funniest improvisers we know are actually on stage trying to improvise the most serious story the possibly can!
The phrase “you don’t have to be clever and funny” doesn’t always work though and isn’t always relevant! So it’s up to you if and when you use it, and if you use it as a teacher we do advise explaining what it’s actually all about.
The phrase “you don’t have to be clever and funny” also has origins from Keith Johnstone’s chapter on Spontaneity from his book Impro. When people try too hard to be clever or funny they often reach for a universal list of perceived “good” ideas and miss their more obvious personal ideas where their true natural creative genius lives. When trying too hard to be clever or funny we can also disconnect from the scene to think up funny lines, instead of dealing with what’s actually there.
So that’s what it is all about and what it means, and up to you to use it or not and see if it’s helpful!