I've been to three improv shows here and seen two different groups, and figured I'd publish my thoughts and experiences for your amusement (or maybe it's useful to you).
The first show I went to was a battle-style show between Frackwürdig and Kanonenfutter, two improv groups from this area of the city. I showed up a few minutes late and ended up standing in the back until they invited people to sit in the aisle. I was the only one who actually went up for a front-row ground seat. The games were mostly short-form so as to be conducive to the battle style. The performers gave all the effort to earn their points and applause, and the audience consistently voted to give all the points they could for the various games and scenes (as it should be). One of the major differences to improv as I've seen it before is that they had musicians improvising along. A keyboard, a cajon/splash/tamborine, and a violin. It just adds that extra layer of emotional context and contributes to the pacing.
The second show was a combo Poetry Slam/Improv Show for the tenth anniversary of Club Zentral (the venue). Frackwürdig and the poetry slam people traded off the stage. This group hands out candy to the audience for participating (suggestions, etc). Much more fun than trick-or-treating. The games were short-form, and there were no musicians. It was fun enough, and even had that Bollywood scene I mentioned last time. I suppose it's always funniest in the moment and then less and less as time goes on and the memories fade. At some point it goes from "you had to be there" to "I'd have to see it again."
That's actually my least favorite thing about improv shows: the laughter isn't easily spread. It has a context all its own, so a short video really doesn't capture it enough, and if you do want to share a joke or favorite moment with someone who wasn't there, you have to explain the context, which often translates to explaining the joke. Unless they happen to record and upload the entire show, in which case you either explain the joke or send them a link like, "Here, watch this hour-long video to get one joke." Speaking of which, Kanonenfutter has a YouTube channel. Here's a video, if you're interested.
If you've never tried explaining a joke before, imagine meeting someone who's never heard a knock knock joke before (an extraterrestrial, for example) and trying to explain why it is the way it is. "Well, see, our houses have doors on them, and it's custom to knock...to strike it with your fist, as a way of asking to come in..." Depending on how much you have to explain, it can completely take the air out of it.
The third show was a whole evening of Kanonenfutter, with 5 kinds of games broken up into 5 separate sections with an intermission between each. Part one was Shotgun style, part two was called Story Time, part three was called The Show, part four was titled "News Flash Online", and part five was called "Trinkshow" a.k.a. Drink Show. I couldn't explain specifically why the sections were called what they were. I do know that there were the following things:
At the end of the last show, they played a game called Freeze Tag, where players tag each other out of scenes and then take the poses and create a new scene out of it. This time, they used it to summarize and revisit the different scenes that had been created throughout the night. It ended with everybody singing along to a song from earlier on the theme of "you can have half." The words go like this:
"Eine hälfte nehm' ich mir / die andere hälfte geb' ich dir / dann da ist mehr Platz, hier / [long pause] für Bier!"
Translation: "One half I will take for me / the other half I'll give to you / then there is more space, here (point to your stomach) / [long pause] for beer!"
Conclusion: In Germany, sometimes even the improv shows end up being about beer. 🍻
The first show I went to was a battle-style show between Frackwürdig and Kanonenfutter, two improv groups from this area of the city. I showed up a few minutes late and ended up standing in the back until they invited people to sit in the aisle. I was the only one who actually went up for a front-row ground seat. The games were mostly short-form so as to be conducive to the battle style. The performers gave all the effort to earn their points and applause, and the audience consistently voted to give all the points they could for the various games and scenes (as it should be). One of the major differences to improv as I've seen it before is that they had musicians improvising along. A keyboard, a cajon/splash/tamborine, and a violin. It just adds that extra layer of emotional context and contributes to the pacing.
The second show was a combo Poetry Slam/Improv Show for the tenth anniversary of Club Zentral (the venue). Frackwürdig and the poetry slam people traded off the stage. This group hands out candy to the audience for participating (suggestions, etc). Much more fun than trick-or-treating. The games were short-form, and there were no musicians. It was fun enough, and even had that Bollywood scene I mentioned last time. I suppose it's always funniest in the moment and then less and less as time goes on and the memories fade. At some point it goes from "you had to be there" to "I'd have to see it again."
That's actually my least favorite thing about improv shows: the laughter isn't easily spread. It has a context all its own, so a short video really doesn't capture it enough, and if you do want to share a joke or favorite moment with someone who wasn't there, you have to explain the context, which often translates to explaining the joke. Unless they happen to record and upload the entire show, in which case you either explain the joke or send them a link like, "Here, watch this hour-long video to get one joke." Speaking of which, Kanonenfutter has a YouTube channel. Here's a video, if you're interested.
If you've never tried explaining a joke before, imagine meeting someone who's never heard a knock knock joke before (an extraterrestrial, for example) and trying to explain why it is the way it is. "Well, see, our houses have doors on them, and it's custom to knock...to strike it with your fist, as a way of asking to come in..." Depending on how much you have to explain, it can completely take the air out of it.
The third show was a whole evening of Kanonenfutter, with 5 kinds of games broken up into 5 separate sections with an intermission between each. Part one was Shotgun style, part two was called Story Time, part three was called The Show, part four was titled "News Flash Online", and part five was called "Trinkshow" a.k.a. Drink Show. I couldn't explain specifically why the sections were called what they were. I do know that there were the following things:
- A long-form theater piece about a guy in a windmill in the Netherlands whose grandma signed off to sell it to be leveled ("flat like the rest of the Netherlands") by a guy who wants to build a hotel, and a guy with a bike shop and a German tourist who help Windmill Guy save his windmill. An audience member got to throw a rubber banana onstage at will and a song ensued.
- A long-form game where a group is in the car going somewhere, and each flashback is acted out rather than told. They were going to a festival called KrassNass, and the band was apparently also called KrassNass...it was the word of the game, used very liberally. They also threw a banana peel out of the window on the Autobahn (in the story) and later heard about a huge accident in that area which was, in fact, their fault. Then they were interrogated: first by the firefighters, then by the police. One of the band members (or was he a stagehand?) finally admitted to doing graffiti so the rest of the band could continue their journey to KrassNass.
- A game where the audience gets to shout "That sounds like a song (about _____)!" and they sing about it in the middle of the scene.
- The line, "I like my women how I like my frying pans: in the kitchen," getting a mostly negative reaction from the audience.
- A plastic-communion-cup's worth of schnapps in return for participation (last show only).
At the end of the last show, they played a game called Freeze Tag, where players tag each other out of scenes and then take the poses and create a new scene out of it. This time, they used it to summarize and revisit the different scenes that had been created throughout the night. It ended with everybody singing along to a song from earlier on the theme of "you can have half." The words go like this:
"Eine hälfte nehm' ich mir / die andere hälfte geb' ich dir / dann da ist mehr Platz, hier / [long pause] für Bier!"
Translation: "One half I will take for me / the other half I'll give to you / then there is more space, here (point to your stomach) / [long pause] for beer!"
Conclusion: In Germany, sometimes even the improv shows end up being about beer. 🍻
No comments:
Post a Comment