As we continue talking about the move towards getting back to improv in real life, what will happen to online improv? To begin with it was a stop-gap for most, but one year in, it’s fostered an international community that isn’t going to go away. So when we are back doing shows in real life, where does online improv fit?

This show features:

Jason Geis:
CSZN Comedy Network: twitch.tv/csznchicago (come watch anytime)
Theater: cszchicago.com
Classes (online): https://www.cszchicago.com/training

Laxmi Priya:
Improv Comedy Bangalore (https://www.icbangalore.com/​)

Braínne Edge:
https://www.comedysportz.co.uk/

Episode Transcript:
This… is the Improv Chronicle podcast. I'm Lloydie.

Lloydie James Lloyd: It's Tuesday 23rd, March, 2021. As we continue talking about the move towards getting back into improv in real life, what will happen to online improv? 

To begin with, it was a stop gap for most, but one year in, it's fostered an international community that isn't going to go away. So, when we're back doing shows in real life, where does online improv fit? 

The other day, LA-based improviser, Jason Geis, pointed me towards a Chicago Tribune article, which stated that Comedy Sportz, Chicago was going to become a digital-first theatre. Now, that was interesting to me. So, I got in touch with the Artistic Director.

Jason Geis: My name is Jason Geis. I live in Chicago, Illinois, and I am currently the Artistic Director of Comedy Sportz, Chicago. Comedy Sportz is a comedy theatre that has locations in about 31 cities, including Manchester, England. And we all operate independently, but we come together, on a worldwide basis, to help each other out with things like marketing and just the show in general, so that it all looks the same. 

But yeah, I've been the Artistic Director here in Chicago for going on – I'm into my third year now. And prior to that, I was the Artistic Director of a smaller comedy theatre for almost 20 years. So, I've been, I've been running comedy theatres for a long time

Lloydie: And you're used to running comedy theatres in physical spaces, predominantly I would imagine. 

Jason: Yeah, I get. 

Lloydie: And yet now you've made an announcement saying that Comedy Sportz, Chicago is going to be a digital-first theatre. Tell me about that.

Jason: As we were looking at the landscape and like researching more about Twitch, and going on to other Twitch channels, our Director of Content and myself, Ryan Ford is our Director of Content, kind of did a little bit of a, like looked at each other and like, “Well, why don't we just make this our comedy network? Like this could be essentially a TV network and we could program as many slots as we have people with different comedy shows and different ways of reaching people. And the beauty of it is because it's digital, we can test and learn the shows. We don't have to keep them up forever, just because we like rented a theatre. If something's not working, we can pull it down. 

Or we haven't built a set or all this other stuff, so we can change it. We can say like, “You know what? If this isn't working, we need to tweak it for next week.” And it doesn't ruin the show. 

As we started to look at what the future would be, because we had a physical space as well that we had to close, just recently. We decided not to renew our lease because it had been sitting there for a year and we'd been paying rent to do nothing. And instead of incurring more debt, we decided to close the theatre and invest everything into our digital stuff. 

Because we really saw an opportunity there to grow and to create, not only content that people in Chicago could see, but concept that would put our performers on a more worldwide platform, so that not only could the theatre survive and the theatre get eyeballs, new eyeballs, admittedly, but our performers were now highlighted more. 

Before, the performers were – you would see them if you went to one of our shows on the weekends, but that's it. And then you would walk away and go home to your house and never think about it again. 

Now, what we're essentially creating are – I don't want to say internet stars, because that's super overinflated, but we're creating these personalities that people tune in for. Like people will come and see, is this person playing? I love this person. So, now are our players have fans,

Lloydie: Players with fans. When you've got fans, would you ever want to go back to in real-life shows? We'll come back to Jason in a second. 

But with people evaluating their online improv and how things might open up in future, I wondered how other theatres and teams were feeling about the future of their online work.

Laxmi Priya: I am Laxmi. I improvise in Bangalore, which is in Southern part of India. I improvise with the Adamant Eves. And I do Play Back Theatre, which is also an original information form with a team that I co-founded called CityLamps. And I love teaching improv. 

Lloydie: What do you think is going to be the future of online improv when we get back to performing in real life as well? Where's it going to fit, do you think?

Laxmi: You know, it's interesting that you asked me because you're asking me right at the juncture where the team that I was telling you, I performed with, which is the Adamant Eves, which is India's first all-women team, is taking a break because this screen fatigue is very real and nobody is two and twos anymore after one year of online improv to do online stuff. 

But having said that, a couple of us are still doing things with other teams. And so, I think that's a good metaphor for what I think will happen. I think it will be like a filtering process where folks who really have found something, either connection wise or this platform wise or for accessibility needs, will stay and maybe keep making it better and better. 

And those who did it just because there was no other way to do improve would probably go back to their favourite mode of improv, which is onstage. So, yeah, that's my prediction, so to speak.

Lloydie: So, there might be different functions for the online and offline if Laxmi’s prediction comes true. 

While I was talking to Jason at Comedy Sportz, Chicago, he mentioned another Comedy Sportz team in the UK that was doing a lot online. Were they thinking online would be a major part of their future as well?

Braínne Edge: Hi, I'm Braínne and I run Comedy Sportz in Manchester, UK. We have been doing two shows a week online; sometimes three, sometimes four, or within one week, five; it was a long week. 

And I think we actually did some maths this week, this last week, and discovered that the amount of times we've done an improv show over the last year, it's just been insane. So, my number came out at a hundred shows since March, 2020. And normally, that would be more like nine in an entire year. 

So, yeah, I don't think we could back away from online. Apart from anything, I mean, we've got players who are now just used to that level of performing. And we have one player who moved to Germany last year, or just before lockdown, who has since been able to come back and start playing with us again, because we're doing stuff online. And it's just generally more inclusive; like we've got players that live in Yorkshire and it means they don't have to get a train. 

So, I think that, yeah, we're almost definitely going to be doing at least one offering a month, at least, but probably more. We've really {indistinct 7:40} and it's been so fun. And such a fun way to keep in touch with our audience as well.

Lloydie: So, what sorts of shows is online improv giving us that we wouldn't have necessarily had in real life?

Jason: We do a show on Monday nights called KARA-OK; the search for the most okay Karaoke singer. And that show came about because we were trying to figure out how to do music on Twitch. And Twitch has such strict licensing rules. You can't play any music that is licensed unless you have owner rights to it, which nobody can afford to own the rights to anything. 

So, we found a loophole that basically, if you sing acapella, you don't get dinged for it, because you're not using the actual music tracks. So, it's an acapella karaoke competition for people who are like, just okay at karaoke. Like I don't want any good singers. And it gets over a hundred viewers on a Monday night, every week. 

So, that to me is like, well, we never would have thought of a show like that on a stage. Like we would have spent money on a band and this and that, and like cast it and do all this stuff. Whereas this, we were sort of able to find people that could do it from their homes. So, we could find people from all. We didn’t have to be Chicago audition. So, we got a bigger reach. 

And we found a creative way to do a show that we never would have thought of to do. And now it's something that we know is a huge hit that we can decide when we reopen, do we put that on a stage too or do we just let it be a digital content show on our channel? 

So, it really helps us. To me, it helped test shows or find content that works, so that when we do reopen, we now have a second business stream. We have a stage, a physical stage, with physical single tickets, but we also have this digital presence that has comedic content that people can tune in for. If they don't want to go out that night, they can sit on their couch, turn it on and watch it there.

Lloydie: So, we might be able to workshop shows online and then adapt them for onstage; shows we'd never otherwise see. But what else will we be able to carry from online into the physical space? Back to Laxmi in Bangalore.

Laxmi: I think in the conversations, something that has come up, of course, is one of safety; like how being in your own home and joining from your, sort of, so to speak, safe space and having the agency to sort of shut off laptop whenever you need, has to me, at least, {indistinct 10:15} grounded the idea of safety. And that conversation needs to be had in physical spaces. You know, how to create a space where people can truly be themselves while playing. And even to start playing, you need a space where you know you wouldn't be judged. 

So, I think that would be an interesting conversation which could change things within teams, is what I'm thinking. Whenever they choose to have that conversation; how to recreate that safety of joining from one's own space, one’s own bedroom or kitchen or wherever we have been joining from.

I think there'll also be, at least in my case, there's already like understanding of how the form has changed, what the learnings have been in the last one year when we could perform only through online medium, and how those learnings can affect our live performances. You know, it's not one way. It's not that, “Oh, okay. I couldn't do offline live performance anymore. So, I did this for a while and then I'm going to go back to exactly how it used to be.” That's impossible. As a human, if you've done something for one year and it has changed you in some ways, you've learned something and you failed, maybe, which is glorious, that has taught you something. So, you're thinking of that back, too, in a sense. So, that's what I'm excited about; how do we carry it back when we, may be, completely go offline; go back to life, physically.

Lloydie: Back to Braínne in Manchester. And I wondered if online improv would end up being a loss leader or a big glitzy advert for the in real life shows. 

Braínne: I feel like it's more like the latter. I feel it can be an advert. What's been very interesting for us is the majority of our audience has not been the same audience that we had in live shows. Very, very few have drifted into our online shows. 

We've actually got a whole new audience. And the majority of our audience are not even from anywhere near Manchester. We've got people who tune in from Europe, and from America, and from Canada, Brazil. We’ve got people who watch from Brazil. It's people we know we're never going to see in person

Lloydie: Moving from the audience to the players themselves. There's many physical and emotionally important things to consider as we start having online and in real life shows existing side by side. Here's Laxmi again.

Laxmi: I think one thing that I have seen come up, again and again, in my practice and with my teams is the idea of touch. And I would like to ponder about that. I have to write answers, et cetera. Because we do an improvised form, it's miraculous when one body is affected by another. 

So, I think it would be interesting to see in online world how that can be recreated. Does it mean more listening? Does it mean slowing down? And it can mean different things for different people. It might even mean infrastructural changes; doesn't mean we need to position our cameras differently. What are the braver and experimental and what excites one in the online world to perform? What stars will we find in the online platform after one year? 

And going back to offline, I think the touch figures in just being able to hug a fellow performer, you know? It really reminds you of what you missed. And it also is a metaphor for the isolation in the pandemic.

Lloydie: Interaction between players themselves is one thing. But what about interaction between players and the audience? Here’s Braínne.

Braínne: I think it's been very interesting to watch a lot of different types of improv online as well. Like we mostly do short form. We've done a little bit of long form. And I'll just say this from my opinion; like, I think short form works a little better just because there's that interactivity. And I really like that. So, personally, I like to go in a chat and start chatting to people and go, “Oh yeah, they use my suggestion.” Even now, 20 years in, I get ridiculously excited when I get acknowledged. 

But then I say that, and I've also sat and put YouTube on and just sat back and enjoyed a long form piece. So, maybe it's, yeah, that personal taste, rather than, “I think this works better than this.” 

But certainly, like the collaborative nature of improv, I think, lends itself so nicely to be able to talk to your audience. 

Lloydie: The future of online improv could be so many different things. But one of them could be a new found professionalism, according to Jason. 

Jason: Like improv comedy is – If I'm being honest, as someone who's done it for so long – probably the laziest art form in the world. You know, half the time you roll onto stage and a flannel shirt and jeans and having, like, “What are we doing tonight? Great.” And then you walk on stage five minutes later and do a show. 

So, there's not a lot of discipline, necessarily, in improv comedy. But to be able to take it to this place where it does feel more disciplined and it feels slick and it feels produced and polished and it feels professional, I think, that's an interesting take on it. 

I'm curious to see if people follow in this model or if we remain sort of this like Lone Wolf out there. But we're going to give it a shot and see how it goes. 

But so far, it's been extremely revitalizing, I would say, for our ensemble and our leadership staff. While we're not like swimming in money, by any stretch of the imagination, the fact that we've able to continue as an organization when we've seen a lot of theatres around us close, and the fact that like we're going pretty strong and we’re getting ready to premiere four new shows. We would never produce this many shows in a year.

Next time… on The Improv Chronicle Podcast.

One of the more discussed elements of long-form improv is The Game of The Scene. So, what is The Game of The Scene? And how do different improvisers define it and use it in their scenes? 

The Improv Chronicle podcast is produced and hosted by me, Lloydie James Lloyd. There's now a newsletter to go with this podcast. It comes out on the weeks that we don't release an episode. 

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