I was in the audience for an improv show the other day and overheard my new favorite under-the-breath comment from a fellow audience member. I was all the way in the back of a show where the audience would vote on their favorite improv team. With voting on the line, this meant that the audience was full of friends and family of the performers. These people probably have less experience going to improv shows than a typical improv audience member would, they are there for support and otherwise probably wouldn’t have come out. (This is healthier than my habit of seeing way too much improv.)
There were two people sitting to the right of me, a guy and a girl, that were there together. A couple of minutes into what would be a 15-minute improv piece, the girl leaned over to the guy and calmly said, “it’s not funny yet.” Ha!
Two thoughts:
- Improv is made up on the spot. There’s no telling what will happen! Sometimes the beginning of an improv set can be a little slow as the improvisors get rolling. So, was this just a very improv-woke comment? I think a good number of people who don’t like improv, don’t like it because they either saw a bad show (or two) or they wanted the show to be more joke-joke-joke. I prefer this explanation of the comment, a straight up admission that the show would get funnier as it progressed. She was doing that thing we all do when we show someone something funny, glance at them at all the funny parts to see if they are laughing or not. Then, when they’re not, let them know the best has yet to come! She shouldn’t worry about him, it’s not worth it.
- Alternatively, she did not find what was happening to be funny. The truth is that people in the audience were laughing already. This is more in line with why I would say, “it’s not funny yet.” She was judging. “Who were these morons, laughing at this,” I can hear her saying in her head.
No matter which is the truth, I’m going to start saying “it’s not funny yet” a lot more in life.
