Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation

Meriwether Publishing Ltd., Publisher
P.O. Box 7710

Colorado Springs, CO 80933

Editor: Arthur L. Zapel
Typesetting: Sharon E. Garlock
Cover design: Tom Myers

© Copyright MCMXCIV Meriwether Publishing Ltd.
Printed in the United States of America

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Halpern, Charna, 1952-

Truth in Comedy : the manual for improvisation / by Charna Halpern, Del Close, and Kim

"Howard" Johnson. -
1st ed. p. cm. ISBN 1-56608-003-7

1. Improvisation (Acting) 2. Stand-up comedy. I. Close, Del, 1934-1999. II. Johnson, Kim,

1955-
. III. Title. PN2071.I5H26 1993 792\028-dc20
93-43701

CIP

6 7 8
01 02 03 04

DEDICATIONS

Charna Halpern

To my loving parents, Jack and Iris Halpern.
Without their constant calls to push me to continue
writing, this book might never have been finished.
I also thank them for raising me in a home that was

always filled with laughter.

. . . and to Rick Roman —
wherever you are.

Del Close

To Severn Darden, Elaine May and Theodore J. Flicker.

Kim "Howard" Johnson

To Laurie Bradach, who improvises with me every day,
and for the Baron's Barracudas, who blazed the trail.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

So many have been so wonderful.

I'd like to send my thanks —

To Bill Murray, Mike Myers, George Wendt, Chris
Farley, Andy Richter, and Andy Dick for their support —

To Suzanne Plunkett, the best photographer in
Chicago —

To Thorn Bishop for his way with words —

To David Shepherd, Paul Sills, and Bill Williams

for their inspiration —

To Betsy Nolan for being a perfectionist —

To "The Family" and all the other ImprovOlympic

teams, for helping us to learn from them —

Special thanks to Kim Yale —

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by Mike Myers
………………………………………………….
1

Introduction I
……………………………………………………………...
2

Introduction
II
……………………………………………………………...
3

CHAPTER ONE

What Is Improv, Anyway?
…………………………………………………
7

CHAPTER TWO

But Seriously, Folks
………………………………………………………
13

CHAPTER THREE

Support and Trust
………………………………………………………….
22

CHAPTER FOUR

Agreement. …………………………………………………………………
27

CHAPTER FIVE

Initiations and Game Moves
………………………………………………
35

CHAPTER SIX

Moment to Moment to Moment……………………………………………
44

CHAPTER SEVEN

Building a Scene
…………………………………………………………...49

CHAPTER EIGHT

One Mind, Many Bodies
…………………………………………………..
55

CHAPTER NINE

Environmentally Aware
……………………………………………………
62

CHAPTER TEN

Responsibilities of a Harold Player
………………………………………..72

CHAPTER ELEVEN

How to Do a Harold
………………………………………………………
81

CHAPTER TWELVE

Harold As a
Team Sport
………………………………………………….
90

About the Authors
………………………………………………………..
91

Foreward

The end is in the beginning.

The Harold is an improv game that was introduced to me in Toronto, Canada, by Del
Close and Charna Halpern. The first time I played the Harold it blew me away and it continues
to blow me away to this day. The Harold isn't just a game —
it's a way of looking at life. The
basic principle of the Harold is adaptation, and being adaptive is the most crucial lesson I've
learned. It provides you with a glossary of terms for the creative process and identifies
recurring patterns in your imagination. It's the Zen approach to comedy. Most importantly, the
Harold is a lot of fun.

Del Close, Charna Halpern and the Harold have been a major influence in my life. When
I'm blocked I return to the methods of the Harold.

After
all,
the end is in the beginning.

—
Mike Myers

1

INTRODUCTION I

I began producing the ImprovOlympic in 1981, after I met David Shepherd, one of the
creators of Second City and the founder of the ImprovOlympic. David's inspiration came from
ancient Greece, where the Olympian Games were a festival of sports, literature, music, and
dance held every four years to honor Zeus, king of the gods. The Greeks saw the relationship
between sports and the arts as innate. Both involved the exploration and extension of man's
possibilities, rather than the perfection of his limitations (as is the case when art is reduced to
arts and crafts and sports are reduced to stats and standings).

During our first year together, David and I developed separate visions for the
ImprovOlympic, and we had a parting of the ways. I continued on to create an entertaining
theatrical sport. In 1983,1 found myself in need of inspiration. While the ImprovOlympic was
a commercial success, it was beginning to look like a replica of Second City, which I wanted to
avoid. Second City was already doing Second City quite well. I knew there was more to
improvisation than three-minute scenes, but I wasn't sure what. I then met Del Close, who
became a constant source of inspiration.

Del had a game to show me and my class, which he called "the Harold." This was not,
however, the Harold we know and love
today. Its nascent form was a little too large and
chaotic for
the stage. The trick would be preserving the chaos on stage while
at the same time
making it comprehensible. I showed Del one
of my games called the Time Dash, a three-part
scene where
situations are carried out through spans of time.

We
discovered that inserting the Time Dash along with my
other short improvisational
games into the Harold's long structure gave
it a perfect form. Del and
I
felt like the people In
the
candy commercial who collide together. One says, "You've got
chocolate in my
peanut
butter!" The other replies,
"You've got
peanut butter on my chocolate!" Hence, the birth of
the
Harold as
it is known today.

Del and I have developed the newest advancement in improvisation. The Harold is now
being done on college campuses all across the United States, as well as on the stages of the
ImprovOlympic and Second City. In addition, the Improv-
Olympic has become widely known
as the best training ground for improvisers anywhere, a tradition Del started long ago with his
training of John
Belushi, Bill Murray, John Candy, Gilda Radner, and many others.

Our directors have been training top performance troupes to perform Harolds in our
show, which has been referred to as the most daring game in town. Most importantly, we are
continuing Del's tradition of fostering the finest talents of the future.

Those who have studied with us over the years have agreed that Del and I have discovered
the "Truth" about successful improvisation. Because of our successful curriculum, I decided it
was time to put it all down in a book so that others could be trained properly. When I suggested
the idea to Del, he replied that it would be as much work as writing up a religion. He was less
than excited about such a task. I can recall his words to this day: "You can do it, if you want."

As usual, Del was right. It was quite an undertaking. But after the book began taking
shape, Del was there providing his usual expertise and divine inspiration.

2

I invite the reader to "come in" and discover our secrets. However, while the details of our
instruction are here in this book, there is nothing as important as a good and clear director to
solve the particular problems that can't always be foreseen in a book of this sort. The
ImprovOlympic will provide those directors wherever they are needed.

In the past, people had labeled Del a "mad genius" because of his theories of
improvisation. By now they've discovered he wasn't mad —
he was
right. Del has said that he
is grateful that I have chosen to do his work his way. There is no mystery as to why I would
choose to do this. His methods are
correct, and his philosophies have provided us with the
TRUTH IN COMEDY.

—
Charna Halpern

INTRODUCTION II

The life of Del Close is virtually a history of American improvisation.

Del started his comedy career with Mike Nichols and Elaine May in the Compass Players
in St. Louis during the 1950s.*
Moving on to Second City and San Francisco's legen
dary
Committee, Del returned to Second City in time to direct successes like John Belushi and Bill

Murray. In fact, there are very few successful improvisers who have not worked with or been

influenced by Del's work.

Although Del has worked on stage and screen throughout the years, he has been teaching

or directing improv almost continuously since the 1
950s and continues into the '90s.

Ed Asner, who began improvising in the '50s in the Playwright's Theatre Club
at the
University of Chicago, calls Del "a mad genius." Chris Farley, who joined
Saturday Night Live
after working with Del in the ImprovOlympic,
says, "Del is the greatest teacher I've ever
known. I would not be where I am today were it not for Del, that's for sure. I owe everything to
Del. He brought me to Second City, and he taught me everything I needed to know."

Del's partner, Charna Halpern, was working with Compass Players founder David
Shepherd in the early '80s in Chicago. When they went their separate ways, Charna joined
forces with Del, and they began operating the ImprovOlympic. Their classes have turned out
hundreds and hundreds of accomplished performers.

My own background in the early '80s included a fervent interest in comedy writing and
performing; I had long been a fan of
Saturday Night Live
(where most of the performers had
been directly influenced by Del) and Monty Python, becoming friends with the latter (working
with them on
Life of Brian
and subsequently writing three books on the group).