Clap-Out Asides

The new season of Scrubs is very good. I am generally wary of the recent rise of remakes and reboots, but the new season effortlessly picks up where the old show left off. Sixteen years have passed—in the show and in real life—but they have changed almost nothing else. The main cast is just older (except Judy Reyes, who seemingly does not age). I was hit with a pang of nostalgia as the familiar theme song played, and I remembered how the show was narrated by the main character, Dr. John Dorian, known mostly as JD. This kind of aside can be used to great effect in improv shows.

It has been a while since I have seen a sitcom with a first-person narrator. (How I Met Your Mother was another popular show that did this.) I think they fell out of style after the 2000s. They were followed by a decade of mockumentaries (The Office, Parks and Recreation, Modern Family).1 All of these shows include devices that allow the characters to let us, the audience, know how they are feeling. Scrubs, in particular, often cuts to a close-up of JD, and a voiceover tells us his thoughts. Sometimes, JD’s inner monologue moves the plot along, clarifying a detail or raising the stakes. Often, it is a joke, whether it is a punch line in itself or a setup for what is to come.

I was in a narrative show in 2019 called What They Do in the Darkness, an improvised version of What We Do in the Shadows (2014). The movie is a mockumentary about vampires in modern times.2 In our version, we swapped vampires for a different mythical creature every show. Caeriel, who directed the improv show, really wanted to capture the mockumentary style, and we did so by implementing two devices. Between every scene, we would have a monologue in the style of a mockumentary confessional. This was a great way to split up the responsibilities of a narrator.

We also wanted to be able to have confessionals within scenes, so we added “clap-outs”.3 At any point, a player can clap twice, which is a signal to other players as well as the tech booth. The other players freeze in place, and the technical improvisers take out all the lights except downstage center. The player who clapped does their confessional directly to the audience, and then claps twice to return to the scene.

When everyone in the cast is aware of this device, it is a great tool for storytelling and comedy. Here are some occasions when a clap-out is useful:

• Clarifying the reality of the scene

• Delivering a punchline

• Setting up a joke

• Making it obvious that a character is lying

• Establishing wants

Watch Scrubs or Parks and Recreation for good examples.

A more advanced tactic for the mockumentary format is to use the fact that confessionals are recorded afterward. Characters in confessionals know about the future, and you can use this to foreshadow the story. (E.g., “Little did I know that was the last time I’d speak to Lou as a human.”)

The first couple of times the clap-out is used, it can be jarring to the audience. The clapping can break the immersion of the scene; however, the audience quickly gets used to it as it happens more often. We tried more subtle signals, but we found that a short, audible signal was the fastest and most reliable way to get in and out of the aside. The speed is important for the comedy, and thus, it was worth slightly breaking the immersion.

The clap-out is not for every occasion, but see if it makes sense for your format. I once saw a troupe that was doing a montage with no reference to mockumentaries, but they still included clap-out asides because they liked the structure. Of course, one needs no special gimmick to do an aside, but the clap-out gives your troupe permission to do lots of them. Asides let you tell the audience (and the other players) something without telling the other characters. This power can be used for both drama and mischief.

Play around with the clap-out at your next practice. Then come back here and leave a comment telling me how it went.

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