An address from the Moon President
The Leader of the Free World and Third Beats of Your Harold offers some advice on avoiding the trap of artificially heightening the stakes in your shows
My fellow Improvisers. I speak to you today as your Moon President. Summoned again to perform my most holy and inconvenient duty - the third beat of your Harold.
I am a busy person. The Moon doesn’t preside itself. There are minerals and water up here, things that you can mine for more than just scene initiations. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to look, called as I am again to your pub theatre to heighten your idea for a scene to its wacky conclusion at the end of your set.
Let me say this, my duties are very serious. There is nothing funny about being president of the moon, especially after the 15,000th time I have closed a Harold. I am just trying to do my job here.
The limits of my deputy - the regular Mr President - were expended during the first line of your first beat. I get it, you need some stakes for this initiation. Start strong. There’s no higher stakes location than the White House, where than one man (always a man, sigh) can command the full might of the US military. Unfortunately, your setting for your first scene was so unusual that we were left with few places to go. You were taught that your Harold should heighten from beat-to-beat. How can you heighten from a President who is more concerned with vanquishing the evil of Rubik’s Cubes than violent threats to the territorial United States?
The Moon, that’s where. Can’t go much higher than the Moon. A moon landing is very big stakes, definitely more than a regular boring President doing their day job. No doubt that the moon is a fun place for your second beat. Where better to place this insane character who believes Rubik’s Cubes are literally the devil’s work than to take them off-planet? Hilarious.
Alas once you’ve gone to the Moon, I - the Moon President - am the logical next step for your third beat. There’s no-one else here to help. Since you labored a little too heavily to ‘heighten’ the stakes, you spent little time exploring and discovering new elements to the game you set up. All you’ve got to play with are (1) sinister Rubik’s Cubes, (2) presidents and (3) the moon.
Even if I was the Moon President who thinks Rubik’s Cubes are the devil’s work, I’m not sure what an audience is supposed to do with that. The job of Moon President must seem already pretty unusual to an Earth audience. It’s not an especially grounded, relatable job, that everyone has had some insight on. And I’m sure that someone thinking Rubik’s Cubes are the demented design of Beelzebub himself is also pretty unusual to them too.
What’s so shiny and fun here that it’s worth bringing back in your third beat - the triumphant crescendo for your whole show? It’s hard to tell because the whole scenario is insane. There’s no way someone who believes in the latent malevolent power of a children’s toy would ascend to become a President (actually, I’ve seen who you guys seem to enjoy electing down there).
As I, the actual Moon President, know better than anyone: Moon President is too much. It’s literally not grounded. ‘Heightening’ doesn’t mean a trip to the Oval Office, the Moon or the Oval Crater. These are artificial higher stakes. It’s easier and funnier to put an unusual point-of-view where it’ll get a chance to do more of its thing, and where it remains unusual on its own, rather than one of a thousand mad things in the scene. There’s always more than 3 options for these to build through your Harold, certainly more than the President, the Moon and the Moon President.
Far simpler to place Satanic Rubik’s Cubes in a much more grounded settings throughout, where we can frame it as unusual - bringing it up in a work appraisal, in a chat with your spouse, at confession, while doing the laundry, in a driving lesson, etc etc. These heighten by showing this point-of-view to be unusual in a number of unrelated, grounded settings. That’s the unexpected thing that will delight your audience, in settings they can understand and relate to. Rather than trying to ‘heighten’, think instead of ‘deepening’. As yourself what settings you can bury this unusual point of view in a scene, so the audience won’t see it coming, but where your character still can’t help themselves.
If we work together, united as one group mind, we can rebuild the soul of the improv nation. Yes, our scenes might never visit the moon again. But then I might have more time to discharge the duties of my powerful lunar office.
Thank you, may God bless your improv team and vanquish the diabolical creators of Rubik’s Cubes.
Endnotes
Performing: Braving Storm Eowyn for the 93rd edition of DNAYS’ Wunderkammer at Bristol Improv Theatre, tonight - Fri 24 January, 8pm. TED-style talks from an IP-lawyer-come-circus-rigger and a poet-come-Charles-Dickens-educator inspire improvised comedy. It’s a blast. Buy tickets
Also catch us back at comedy Glastonbury, Machynlleth Comedy Festival, on Sat 3rd May. Buy tickets
Watching: Like the entire UK, The Traitors. The cleverest and stupidest of society flung together in a Scottish Castle to play a Victorian parlour game. They all forget it’s just a game. The most oblivious simple souls often win.
Listening: Brooklyn bedroom pop artist, and curly haired wistful sad lad with a tinge of optimism, Darwin Deez’s new album ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ is a beaut. 'Lower me down, into my silo, I know I left my heart around here somewhere, it’s dry though'