What are the ‘rules’ of improv?
When I did IHSSA Group Improvisation, we began the year by going around in a circle, saying what rules of Improv we knew. The basic stuff was brought up, don’t say no, don’t ask questions, etc. Read my post The Buzzer to see how I feel about rules.
Paperback Rhino has only one rule.
DB-Squared
It’s pretty simple, Don’t Be a Douche-Bag. Typically, people don’t want to be douche-bags, so for the most part it is self-enforcing. Sometimes, however, you might be kind-of a douche-bag, or drifting toward douche-baggery. When this happens, hopefully someone will have noticed, and politely remind you of the rule.
“DB-Squared, Darin”
When someone says that, you stop what your doing. Even if you don’t think you were actually being a douche-bag, because one of the best, sure-fire, ways of being a douche-bag, is to start an argument about whether or not you’re being a douche-bag.
So, how does one avoid being a douche-bag? Go find yourself a douche-bag and start doing the opposite. Mostly it’s about respect, and trust. Respect people’s opinions, respect people’s talents, trust people and respect their trust in you.
Good improv requires trust and respect. In order to trust someone on stage, you have to be able to trust them off stage. This is PbR’s greatest asset. We are 13 different people, from 13 different backgrounds with 13 different personalities, but we’ve become a tight family, and I know I can trust any of them to help me out both onstage and off.
