Realism vs Absurdism
When teaching and analysing improv comedy, we can perform a large but helpful simplification by reducing its complexties into two opposing performance styles. At the Improv Chippy, we refer to these two styles as Realist and Absurdist and they are the yin and yang of improv respectively.
Realists
Realists primarily let feelings and external discoveries lead them rather than thoughts. These discoveries are made through active listening, body language, observations, the environment, and the unspoken subtext of interactions. They let their natural emotional reactions to these discoveries guide their performance in an effortless way. Realists dislike shifts away from the implied reality of a scene and view them as uncooperative and stressful. They pride themselves on multifaceted characters and think that laughs are only worth getting if they reveal some authentic human truth. At their most extreme, they drop the comedy all together in favour of drama and tragedy. The archetypal realist is an actor and their archetypal improv city is Chicago.
Absurdists
Absurdists often let words, thoughts, rules and audience reactions guide them as much, or even more than, discoveries and emotions. They are tuned into the invisible structures of scenes and formats and actively intervene by subverting them, adding details or tying threads together, particularly if they judge a scene is veering off course or losing the audience's attention. When they put their minds aside and use their bodies, they tend to do so in exaggerated, caricatured, and even cartoonish ways. They thrive on chaos and love heightening scenes. Absurdist play is oftentimes stressful and risky, involving lots of conscious effort by the improviser, but they love the thrill of finding a witty line or trying a suprising tilt, even if it ends in a flop. Why? Because they love entertaining and understand that without risk there can be no reward. At their most extreme, their performances can resemble panto or commedia dell'arte. The archetypal absurdist is a comedian, clown or trickster and their archetypal improv city is New York.
Not quite but we were heavily influenced by both! To start with, the map is not the territory. Any model is not going to perfectly encapsulate the reality but can only be used as a guide. Both of these two famous dichotomies helped us tremendously but were never quite a perfect fit for the concepts we were wrestling with internally. For instance, we believe the Discovery/Invention dichotomy is best suited for describing tactical technique whereas Realist/Absurdist is a layer of abstraction higher that can be used to describe taste and format. And with Pirate/Robot, we feel that some of the distinctions between the two player types are a bit murky which can lead to misunderstandings and limiting beliefs. For example, Pirate players are described as being the type that favours bold instinctual choices whereas we believe that Robots also make bold instinctual choices except those choices originate in analytical intuition rather than emotional intuition.
We therefore find Realist vs Absurdist more helpful and believe it gives a clear spectrum for the style of play the coach or instructor wants to see from the individual player, troupe or overall format. For more information on how we came to this decision please see this blog post.
An even more accurate model for personal player analysis may be to have a group of these spectrums with a score for each indicating a general strength of preference, similar to a Myers Briggs or Big 5 Personality test. However, we believe this would also be unnecessarily complex. By reducing down to just Realist/Absurdist we can provide a reasonably accurate map of the territory and one that provides a lot of utility for students, instructors and coaches.
Taijitu
The yin yan symbol is called a taijitu. Notice how the black swirl contains a white dot and the white swirl contains a black dot. This symbolises that yin contains the seed of yang and yang contains the seed of yin. Similarly, realist improv has an absurdist element and absurdist improv has a realist element. TJ & Dave are the exemplars of realist improv and their characters often find themselves in slightly absurd situations, even if they handle them in relatively authentic ways. Similarly, Heather & Miles play fast paced improv with characters in completely absurd scenarios but there is still something authentic about what they are saying.
Do not confuse Real/Absurd, which is a style of play, with Straight/Absurd which is an absurdist scene type. In a Straight/Absurd scene, even the straight man is still on the absurd side of the Realist/Absurd spectrum. For example, I recently participated in a farcical Straight/Absurd scene set on a ship's bridge. I played the Absurd First Officer and my scene partner played the Straight Captain. My character was completely irresponsible, openly admitting to stealing from the shipping containers, drinking on the job, and sacking off lookout duties to binge watch Netflix. If any of this were being played realist, the Captain would strip me of duties and send me to the brig. Instead, the Captain lets everything slide but gets increasingly exasperated until he explodes with anger. We are both firmly playing in an absurdist style - the captain is simplying playing the voice of reason from within this absurdist frame.
The Problem
Being opposites, there is a lot of tension between the two styles. Realists may look down on Absurdists as crass annoyances who destroy the authenticity of their scenes. Absurdists may think Realists are snobs who need to come down from their high horses and recognise the value in making audiences laugh. Realists wear their characters as 'thin veils' over their own personalities; absurdists mimic behaviours and personalities they have seen elsewhere, or at their most extreme, let themselves be possessed by something entirely outside of themselves e.g. Andy Kaufman. This leads to misunderstandings from realists, who think the absurdists are playing as themselves and are personally choosing to upset them. In turn, the absurdist doesn't understand what the realist is getting upset about, because to them it is obvious that they are playing a character. Realists inhabit characters, absurdists are inhabited by characters.
Our Take
We believe that there is no "right" or "superior" way to do improv and that much of the best improv comes when realists and absurdists put their differences aside and work together. You can read more about our values here, but we believe they they are particularly relevant in this case:
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Courage
Realists need the courage to look stupid on stage, take risks and fail. Absurdists need the courage to be emotional, vulnerable and authentic.
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Care
If a realist is struggling after a suprising move from an absurdist, the absurdist should step in and provide a line. If an absurdist is struggling with connection, the realist should step in and assist.
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Respect
Both realists and absurdists should agree in advance to the constraints of a show and should respect those constraints. Realists and absurdists should respect how each other play and try to meet each other half way.
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Betterment
Both realists and absurdists should realise that mistakes and misunderstandings are inevitable, that getting good is a slow and iterative process and that it may take time to learn how to work together. They should forgive each other and themselves when they get it wrong.
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Fun
Realists and absurdists should remember that everyone is here to have fun. If you really don't find something fun, say so! That way, we can match you with something that you do.
If you want to read more about how we believe you should assemble a team of realists and absurdists take a look at our post on the similarities of improv and football.
