Long-Form Improv: The Complete Guide to Creating Characters, Sustaining Scenes, and Performing Extraordinary Harolds

by Ben Hauck

Long-Form Improv deftly teaches the wildly popular form of improvisation that is so foundational to the comedy stylings of many of today’s top actors and thriving comedians. Crammed with innovative ideas for conceptualizing improvised scenework and “finding the game of the scene,” this crisply written manual covers techniques for experienced improvisers, curious actors, and even non-actors.   A complete long-form improv resource comprising topics like ideation and character creation, improvising scenes for extended periods of time and enhancing them—and even performing the most famous expression of long-form improv, the half-hour improvised form known as “The Harold”—this astute text is written in a friendly, supportive voice by an experienced improv teacher and professional actor whose own frustration in learning the craft drove an obsession to create a program free of confounding teachings and contradictory concepts. The book’s groundbreaking infusion with drama theory and game theory brings new life to the teachings of the craft, breaking down various aspects of long-form improv into short chapters for swift, step-by-step intake of its vital lessons.   Students of acting and long-form improv alike should expect Long-Form Improv to bolster their education and fast-track their course to improv greatness.

Genres: Nonfiction

290 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[Charmin · Rating 4 out of 5]

HIGHLIGHTS:
1. *The Harold: Find your character’s wants, explore the relationship, find the game, play the game, tweak the game, get to a point of cooperation if you can, then edit.

2. Mastery in long-form improve performance is achieved by tying as many elements of a long-form improv show together as possible. Greatness is achieved by the originality of these ties.

3. Specific goal = WANT. Actors must be going after what they want. Oftentimes your improvising automatically becomes funny and innovative as soon as you try to figure out how to get what your character wants. *When you figure out what your character wants, you gain DIRECTION. *You want to start making choices in your improvised scene that will get your character's demands met.

4. GIFTS: serve to incentivize the achievement of agreements in improvised scenes. Giving the other actor character inflections or even character wants. Both actors benefit by each able to clarify the missing information, gain a foundation.

5. Initiator: First endow the other actor. Layout in one simple sentence the relationship between the other character’s name, the location, and/or the setting, and a clue into what is going on in the moment.
6. Justify: providing an explanation for seeming inconsistencies. Force actors to invent a solution for their coexistence. Everything in a scene needs to seem intentional.

7. CONFLICT: Sustains scenes. Active demands, obstacles to overcome. If you want your character’s demands met, you must make choices in consideration of the other character. There has to be room for at least one common interest. End of conflict = cooperation. Stand firm or concede. GAME: is a conflict. Outside of satisfying your character’s wants, conflict is what you as an actor are ultimately paying attention to.

8. Frontline actors want to be able to do their improvised scene on their own without the addition of their ensemble. Frontline actors should tweak the important scenic elements on their own before someone in their backline needs to.

9. Great plays express a theme of tied-togetherness. The THEME is expressed on so many levels in a great play. Everything in the play is tied together.

10. What matters most of all is that the audience is entertained.

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hauck breaks down the fundamentals of improv through the lens of game theory in a way that's insightful and mind opening. I've been struggling with conflicts in scenes and how to button them so that neither character needs to compromise their goals, and this made it finally click for me. The tone and layout is formatted for instructors or group leaders, although don't let that deter you if you're neither.

[Adam David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this while in rehearsals for my first long form improv show. It provided invaluable, technical advice that allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts in rehearsals. Extremely helpful for someone who wants a deeper understanding behind the concepts of improv.

[Nico Groenenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introduction to the Harold, although the ideas are ofcourse also very usefull in other formats.

[Nico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introduction to the Harold, although the ideas are ofcourse also very usefull in other formats.

[Boyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of long-form improv and the "Harold" as a form is reviewed in details.