"Why are women so bad at improv?"

[happywaffle]

Found on Reddit: a thoughtful response from Brad Sherwood (Whose Line...) to a pointed and misinformed question:

http://i.imgur.com/fIDqU.png

During a 90210 run-through on Sunday, I actually caught myself bulldozing over a fellow performer (who happened to be female). It bugged me afterwards, and so this especially hit home for me.

[Spots]

Woooooah, the title was really off-putting.

Similar to your anecdote I've steamrolled some scenes in my day. And yeah I don't know how I would have matched my energy being in that person's place.

That's one reason I love watching scenes that are allowed to breathe. Often improvisers frenetically contributing to the scene end up looking like control freaks and reeking of desperation.

Male or female. You can't steamroll a steamroller. That is spefically what I worked on the last 2 months. Trust & listening & adding brick by brick. Letting go of frenetic energy. (or channeling it into a physical choice)

Plus, letting scenes breathe is just plain refreshing. The group mind gets elevated to a whole other level when people focus on listening & stop trying to control the scene.

They convey this notion in "Trust Us". Make improv be a process of mutual discovery... and that's when the true magic happens.

[kaci_beeler]

Yeeeesh. It hurts me a bit to read that, though I really like the thoughtful response.
The fan's frame of reference is only Whose Line, which is sad. Also, on the show I rarely remember seeing more than one woman in any given cast. And yeah, when I was younger and would watch the show, I wasn't especially drawn to any of the ladies.
I really wish they would have tried harder to get more female talent in that show, but I guess they didn't have to, it was successful enough without being fairly balanced.

To me it shows the importance of reaching for gender equality and teaching cooperative methods of performance (keeping an open dialog about steamrolling performers and trying ways to work together instead of apart). It would have been so inspiring to have some more awesome ladies on that show, I bet it would have had great implications for the number of women in improv today.

[Roy Janik]

I never watched much of the American one, but Josie Lawrence was one of my favorite performers on the British one.

[Justin D.]

Leave space, don't steamroll others, listen better, and understand the importance of different types of energy and pacing. That seems to be some generally important pieces of information for everyone here.

[jillybee72]

Josie Lawrence kicks ass!!

[kaci_beeler]

I never watched much of the American one, but Josie Lawrence was one of my favorite performers on the British one.

Yeah, I mainly watched the American one.

[Spots]

Proops was prominent on both versions, right? I think I watched them both on syndication. At different times throughout my childhood. I can't recall a single episode with more than one female improviser. Which is a shame.


Of course there was Laura Hall doing her own magical brand of improv.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

Proops, Stiles and Mochrie were in both versions. i think Sherwood was in the British one as well, towards the end.

[dancrumb]

I wonder if Who's Line (and other short form structures) is particularly prone to this.

Short form games seem to encourage frenetic chatter with very little listening going on... it's all about rapid fire punchlines, gunning for the short gag, rather than building something together. Sure, there's back and forth, but it's more like a tennis rally - competition is a particular ingredient.

That said, the positive comments about how to be a better improviser, given in this thread, are ones I would whole-heartedly endorse.

[Spots]

Short form games seem to encourage frenetic chatter with very little listening going on... it's all about rapid fire punchlines, gunning for the short gag, rather than building something together.

Tend to agree. Has a lot to do with the straight-absurd dynamic being built-in for the specific game at hand. Rather than finding the game.

This is why the description of a comedy format being "gamey" reminds me that more listening is involved. Typically.

[Roy Janik]

Short form games seem to encourage frenetic chatter with very little listening going on...

Totally depends on the game.

A short list of games that actively encourage and promote listening:

Stringing the Pearls
Speak in One Voice
Word at a Time
He Said / She Said
Eye Contact w/ Music
Yearbook Photo
Inner Voice
Typewriter
Any Replay game
Letter Writing
Character Switch

it's all about rapid fire punchlines, gunning for the short gag, rather than building something together.

Depends on the game, depends on the show, depends on the director... like any other improv show.

[Spots]

Granted, plenty of scenes where players "find the game" feature little to no listening either.

As Roy said, depends on a variety of factors -- perhaps no single criteria including format or length of piece.

[valetoile]

I heart Josie too!

[Chuy!]

I think Mike McShane was on the American version briefly...