My Perspective on Game (Part 1)

Buckle up, this topic is the main reason I started this blog! As a person who's taught improv to hundreds of people over thousands of hours, I've found myself repeating some concepts that have proven helpful. Because I'm based in LA, many of my students learned "game," or pattern-based scenes, at UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade). UCB certainly didn't invent pattern-based comedy, but they did coin the term "game." Being able to call it game allowed the rest of us to speak a common language.

Right vs. Wrong Is Irrelevant

Just like anything that spreads quickly, game and how to play it has many different rules, depending on who you ask. It's certainly understandable. The UCB book isn't a pamphlet; it's 384 pages long. Anything that detailed is bound to leave some students in the weeds. So through trial, error, and lots of repetition, I've developed a simple guide for one way to understand and play game. It's worth noting that I do teach at UCB, and everything written here is just my personal approach. This is not UCB-approved material. Don't march into your next class declaring, "Marina said game is this!" I'd like to keep my job, please!

But it's worth asking: if there's a literal textbook on game, why bother writing more? To me, it's about having options. If you've read the UCB book and are still confused, this post is simply one more way of understanding the same material. I'm not saying the book is wrong and I'm right. Stop trying to get me in trouble! As they say, all roads lead to Rome. If some roads have rough terrain and go over mountains, why not take a scenic route instead?

Forest for the Trees

As the story goes, imagine you're hiking with someone and you come to the edge of a wood. A beautiful forest sprawls out before you. You turn to your buddy and ask what they think.

"It's okay, I guess," they sigh.

"What, you don't like forests?" you ask.

"I can't see the forest," they reply, "there are too many trees in the way."

Profound sh*t, right? This is what happens to many students who try to learn game. They're so busy thinking about their game moves, they can't play the scene.

Zooming Out

When most students come to me, they think game is the weird thing they do or say in a scene. Because UCB's material is so dense, I can see why many students stop here.

Take the sketch "More Cowbell" from SNL (a reference I've used before). The average improv student would say the game of that scene is when Christopher Walken says, "I could have used more cowbell." To these students, game is anything that contains the word "cowbell." They also might say that everything else in the sketch isn't game. The other things are base reality (the who, what, and where), or "resting the game," a term I'll get into later. Here's the common idea to game drawn out in a diagram:

Now, I'm not here to tell you this is wrong. If you find this works for you, party on! What I am saying is that this concept is typically less useful for students than they think. Thinking of game as individual moves can send students down a more difficult path than is necessary. Kind of like climbing that mountain road, remember? I've watched too many students raise their hand in the middle of a scene, turn to me, and say, "I'm stuck."

So if the common idea of game is a mountain, what would be a nice, easy hike? I've got another chart! Here's a different way to conceptualize game:

As you can see, from the start of the scene until the "first unusual thing" is labeled as "base reality." Again, all this means is that the players are establishing the who, what, and where. No matter what comedy school you attend (if any), they'll all teach you pretty much the same stuff here.

The important difference with this new chart is that I've labeled everything past the "first unusual thing" as game, instead of the individual moves themselves. Let me repeat: the concept of game I like is that every single thing that happens from the first unusual thing until the edit is all game. I think it's much more useful to conceptualize game as a series of steps as opposed to repeating a specific behavior.

Just Getting Started

If you're thinking, "Obviously! I already know all this." Okay, go off! We love a knowledgeable reader! But I will say that plenty of my students have found this concept of game both novel and useful, and hopefully you will too.

By valuing every part of the scene as equally part of the game, you'll be less likely to rush ahead or skip something. But let's say you do miss a step. Will the scene tank? No. Will it stop being game? No. None of what I'm saying is absolute. And no, this is not the end of my explanation. In Part 2, I'll break down exactly what happens between each game move in detail. You'll even get more handy charts! See you in Part 2!

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