I wrote this for the improv nerd in me, and in you, if you want to know what informs the point of view Empire Improv's teaching . If you don’t care about any of this, don’t worry about your future with improv.  It can be just as rich and fulfilling as anyone else’s. Enjoy.

My theory of improv comes from two different worlds, the world of short form, short games driven improv, and long form with the focus on the relationships. When I say short form and long form, I don’t really mean anything about the duration of the piece. "Short form" refers to improv "games"—replay, forward reverse, slide show and the like. Often times, the focus is on the game itself not the scene. Just playing a game is more like a parlor trick than theatre to me.

When I say "long form," I mean one piece of improv with connected scenes, focusing on relationships within scenes. If done poorly, long form can seem like torture and not theatre, but when done well it is brilliantly funny and is much more like a piece of theater than improv games can be. This may not be how everyone else sees it but when I use the terms that is what I mean.

What improv games taught me was to attack and not to wait. There was only three minutes to do the work, so don’t think. Just act. I also enjoyed the huge focus on trust and working together.  Warming up was always a big part of training and performance. Improv games taught me to play fast and to rise to the challenge that was set before me, whether I was comfortable with it or not. In short form, you are forced to play games you may fear or feel like you are incapable of doing well, but you have to do your best and get out there anyway.

Long form taught me that listening and patience are important skills. If you are always playing the game and not listening and focusing on the relationship, then you have nothing invested and never connect with your scene partner or the audience. You learn that you can add subtle elements to a scene that is going on and clarify and heighten what is going on already. I learned the value of reincorporation, listening and bringing everything back. Good long performers drop nothing. That way the piece as a whole serves to show all the connections that can be made. Long form above all showed me the value of freedom, you don’t have a list of constraints to follow just the relationship and where that takes you.

This all sounds very thinky and too high brow so let me simplify—short form taught me fearlessness and playfulness. Long form taught me to listen and gave me freedom to focus on the relationship which can lead you down paths you would never find under the constraints of rules in a short form game.

So do I think that short form and long form are equally valid forms of improv? Yes, with one caveat. If you can only play the game in short form, and can’t have a relationship that has value without the constraints of the game, then I don’t think that it is valid. If I don’t care about Sally and Jim, then I don’t care what their relationship looks like done in the style of Shakespeare, musical, or kabuki, but if I do, then, hey, why not explore that relationship in those genres?

So how do I teach? I teach focus, trust, playfulness, fearlessness and attack—a la short form. I also teach slow play, listening, relationship and connections—a la long form. My goals for a performer would be to be willing to sing, dance, or speak with a Slovakian accent if needed, and to know when the relationship on stage calls for it. I would like my players to be fearless, to contribute to the scene what it needs, even if they fear doing it. I would also like for my performers to be willing to do a two person scene about how a couple's dead cat made them realize they shouldn’t be together anymore. So fearlessness, energy and grounded reality, and above all everything for the good of the piece as a whole, not the laugh, not to make themselves look good but all for the show to be a success.

If you read all of this, thanks.  If I had gold stars to give out, I would.  Gold stars for you by the truckload, my friend. If it makes no sense at all, then please let me know, and I will not give myself any of those gold stars I don’t have.