The Thing That Makes Your Show Funnier

The one thing that I have found that makes your show seem funnier might also seem counter-intuitive: a little pathos.

Recently, I’ve been watching “The Detectorists” a BBC TV comedy that does this so well. It’s a great example of really well written characters that I could watch for hours on end, because I really care about them. You have a sense of who they are, what drives them and their backstories. There are moments of sadness and reflection that often aren’t seen in comedies, and as a result, when an absurd thing happens or a sharp lines gets delivered, it’s twice as funny. It breaks the tension.

Last night I saw the Olivier Award-winning musical Operation Mincemeat during its run in Nottingham (you can also see it in the West End and on Broadway at the moment). In the first act, there is a song about a letter. I don’t want to spoil it too much, but it was my favourite moment of the show, because until that point it had been funny line after funny song after funny physicality… and then… a song that communicated so much, so quickly about one character. The audience gave it such a heart-felt applause break, and then we were back to the funny, and the funny was funnier as a result.

Doing this in improv isn’t too difficult. Injecting some emotion through a character’s backstory, or their passion for the situation in which they find themselves creates a wonderful bit of texture in a show. It doesn’t need to be “oh my goodness someone is dying” all the time either. If there is a character who cannot seem to get what they want, just articulating why that is important to them, and showing some real emotion about it is more than enough.

I often talk about caring about the characters we play and this is easier in some forms than others, but even a tiny revelation can bring your audience closer to you. I have seen many improv scenes with two people doing the washing up, and I have seen a good few where someone breaks an item and it leads to an argument. Rarely does this get used as an excuse to tell us why the breakage is so important. Could these have been the wine glasses they used to use with their ex? Could the plates have been family heirlooms? Could they have reacted badly because they are afraid they have become clumsy?

This two-player scene work exercise forces players to establish deep emotional bonds before trying to be funny.

Two players start a scene. Before anyone can utter a funny line, they must clearly establish that they care about each other deeply. This can be done through relationship. Eg. lifelong best friends, a caring couple, a parent and child. Within the first minute, one player needs to introduce a piece of truth using the phrase, “I love you, but…”. For example: I love you, but I’m moving to Edinburgh tomorrow.”.

Both players must stay in that emotional space. They cannot gloss over the news. They must find comedy in how their characters desperately try to cope with the sadness together. The comedy is in the struggle, not the news. How both characters cope is where we find the funny, and it usually creates incredibly rich laughter.

Contrast helps things stand out. You don’t need to make your shows serious or heavy to add a little pathos. By adding in some authentic human feeling into your scene, you raise the stakes and create a rich emotional tension that makes the eventual laughs so much funnier.

The Robin Hood International Improv Festival is just five weeks away. Festival passes are selling faster this year than ever before (only a couple of “all shows” passes are left) so if you want to see a bunch of shows, now is definitely the time to get your eyes across the schedule and decide what you want to see. All the details are here. I’ll be performing with Katy Schutte and Sam Marshall during the festival in Brand New Musical - a Sondheim-inspired improvised musical. It’s on the Friday of the festival at 6pm.

There is now another YouTube video online of Kornfeld and Andrews at The Magnet Theater from earlier this year. As producer of their podcast I’m obliged to point you towards it (and also, it’s wonderful) See it here

Have a great week,

Lloydie