Improv comedy frequently jumps over into real life, and even vice versa, sometimes right here in Denver, Colorado. We’ve certainly written before about how improv is being implemented into workplaces lately, with improv comedians adding hyphenates on their business cards as business consultants. As surreal as that looks, the line between real life and comedy has always been blurry. We all know that standup comedy takes from real life, and even tragedy, to create comedy that’s fall-down hilarious.
But what about comedy improvisation coming directly from something sad in our lives? While it may seem incomprehensible to take sad things from our life and incorporate it into a spontaneous comedy routine, you’d be surprised at how much fuel it can provide in being a successful improv artist.
Blurred Lines of Real Life Sadness with Comedy Improv
One of the things you’ll learn about comedy improv if you take any of our improv courses here in Denver at RISE Comedy Playhouse is that audience feedback is going to be essential. The ideas that come from the audience to set up situations can almost always trigger things from your own life. Even if some of it also comes from the news, anything you make up on the spot is invariably going to have some elements of personal experience. Dealing with the world is always going to be essential if you want to be at your most creative when doing comedy improv.
Sometimes taking the saddest things you’ve experienced and finding a funny side can create personal catharsis. It’s exactly how actors operate by tapping into a wellspring of possible tragedies in their life that’s then expressed through another character. In many ways, it can be the best way to vent without needing to pay a psychiatrist to help you let out bottled up emotions.
There isn’t one person alive who hasn’t experienced some level of sadness in their lives. Regardless, those with an ironical sense of humor can always find an angle that formulates into comedy. When combined with things going on in the news, you have the perfect combination of being topical while also being timeless in your improv performance. That’s the real key to good comedy improv: Creating situations that people will always remember rather than looking outdated when viewed on tape years later.
The Continual Crossover of Comedy Improv
As you tap into the sadness of your life to enhance your comedy improv performances, you’ll also find how useful it’s going to be elsewhere. Outside of the workplace, actors and actresses here in Denver and nationwide are finding improv courses very helpful in helping them tap into things they ordinarily wouldn’t. It shows the cross-relational aspects to improv that creative artists in numerous fields are finding out every day.
Contact us to find out more about how you can discover those crossover aspects through our improv courses here in Denver. And when you call us, we’ll let you know when our next improv artists will be performing on our stage. When you watch them, you might better understand their psychological approach. The routines they create that have you on the floor laughing may actually be taken partially from personally sad events, hence giving a more unified view of how comedy and tragedy are intertwined.
