Improv Articles by Rick Hilton

	Rick Hilton has been an improviser for over 25 years and has toured his craft accross Canada, the US and worldwide. He was taught by the esteemed Keith Johnstone and worked with many of Improv's great performers.
As an exclusive to improvguild.com, Rick has agreed to publish a series of articles on the art of improvisation. Please read, enjoy and learn from the experiences of a senior improviser who has seen it all!

  Article #001: Offer and Acceptance

OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE

   In my early days of improv, circa 1978, I often marveled at the talent and skill of those who had been improvising before me. “How did they do that?”

   At that time Keith Johnston was toying with the concept of a competitive game based around not blocking or simply always saying “yes”. To me this was the magic elixir. It was a Newtonian moment of, “Ah ha!”. I could survive on stage in front of any number of people simply by saying “yes”.

  Saying “yes” to every offer that comes your way from your fellow actors not only helps the new player survive but also makes those that give the offers feel like you’re a real team player, someone they like, and someone they can trust. Simply, you make them look good and they become pals for life. It’s like karma; an offer arrives, its accepted with joy and good spirit and suddenly the scene you’re in looks better. Really, what are we on stage for? To entertain the wonderful people kind enough to show up to watch.

   You are not there for your own ego or your career enhancement and god knows you’re not there to make any money. That’s what real estate sales are for. I hate to use the term, but this is art, dammit!

    So to survive you must first accept with joy and charm. However, that alone is not enough. Now you too must cough up some offers. It’s the only way narrative will appear and that’s where the great scenes need to be. Storytelling. Stories from you and your team, stories about you and your experience and most importantly stories the audience can relate to. However, a discussion of narrative will come later; this article is about offer and acceptance.

     When I say, “accept every offer”, I don’t mean accept every offer from the audience if you are asking for suggestions. Take only the suggestions that inspire you. In the early days we thought: “the first thing we hear, we take”. To hell with that! I have done thousands of shows in front of a wide variety of audiences and sometimes the things they say are just plain stupid. Look at the politicians we elect as a clear example of how stupid the collective can be.

    So while you must take every offer from your improv team that comes your way, take only the offers from the audience that turn your crank.

   Some have argued that blocking or saying ‘no, but’ or ‘yes, but’, is ok. I say, “show me”. I have seen these games on stage with my own eyes and even if you get a laugh, your improv partner feels like a doofus every time. I know; it’s been done to me. Many times.

 When my offer has been rejected in a scene in front of a viewing audience, all I ever wanted to do was leave the scene, return to my chair and hang my head as clearly I wasn’t as smart, talented or creative as those who just blocked me into hell.
  Bottom line is I believe absolutely in saying “yes” every time, all the time, unconditionally. Those who still cling to blocking as a means to get a laugh are simply stroking their own ego, desperately putting them and their ‘career’ ahead of you, the scene and the audience.

  Accept the offers that come your way and in turn give back offers that advance the ideas of the scene while keeping all offers in the real world with real people and real situations. That’s where your audience lives, in the real world.

   With beginners I force them to alternate back and forth: offer/ accept, offer/accept. That’s just to beat it into them.  However, as an experienced improviser, I have played many scenes in which my low status character simply takes offer, after offer, after offer and then at the opportune moment slams one back the other way. It’s fun, but it’s impossible to pull off without proper tempo and timing and all of the intangible skills that can only be learned through repetition and experimentation.

 Your improv brain is a muscle that needs to work out. Since I stopped running marathons, I grew a gut. You stop improvising, and your brain will grow a gut. It will be harder for me to start running again, though I must, and the same holds true for your improv brain. Keep exercising the brain and it does sharpen up. Everyone grows in their own way, though some new players find it discouraging. So they should. This art form is really difficult and after 30 years of practice I still screw  up, regularly.

   I am still learning with every scene I do. I performed last night in a stand up club (as I have done for decades) and still found myself using these basic skills of taking only the ideas from the audience that  I liked and listening to my teammate and saying yes to his offers. What did I learn last night? People who drink will always yell out “hooker” and “proctologist” when prompted for a profession. Oh so funny Mr. drunken stupid man!

    Improvisation as a performance device is still a new art form. It’s only been since the late 70’s that regular shows of improv even existed so no- one really knows all the answers to every question. That’s what makes this art form great! But what I do know after 30 years of playing, watching and directing is there is no place for blocking. None.

  You give and accept offers with charm and grace and that is your first step and the most important step in making an entertaining scene that your beloved audience will enjoy! Hopefully, they come back next week with some of their friends.

 This is the first in a series of articles I have been asked to write on improvisation. I hope you can learn from my years of play and screwing up and that your growth as an improv artist is sped up by what I can pass on to you. Keep an open mind and say “yes!”  If you want to have a dull life, say no to everything. If you want to have a dull scene, say no to everything. Same in both cases.

Just say yes.

-Rick Hilton