Last night The Night Shift had a show at The Playground. Last Wednesday, tonight, and for a couple other Wednesdays in January we have a night with Yes Diggity and Squall, two other Playground teams. This week there were only two audience members and about half the members of each team so we decided to do two mash up teams instead of our three individual teams.
The first mash up team started off well- an established setting, an interesting premise, and some fun characters. It wasn't great but they were figuring it out. As the piece went on I noticed one guy off to the sides waiting, let's call him Doug. After a while Doug entered the scene and took over. Non-stop talking, steamrolling of others ideas, with no regard for give and take. Doug came on and it was apparent to me that he was judging the piece, figured it "wasn't going well" and had it in his mind to "fix it". That's a good instinct to have but how he tried to "fix" it was by talking over everyone, negating others statements and ideas, and by repeatedly calling one woman's character a bitch. This behavior is unacceptable.
In life there is rarely justice, I've talked about this before, but in improv there can and should be. Doug is a talented guy but his methods were not funny, not inspired, and made him look like an asshole. And there's a fine line between being an asshole onstage and being one off stage. That kind of improv is unacceptable and makes people uncomfortable, Doug needs to realize that. It is also on the other improvisers performing with him to let him know that.
When someone is acting like an asshole and treating people like an asshole in an improv show it is important that that person get their comeuppance. There's a fine and blurry line between the personal and the professional in improv shows and if we feel uncomfortable as a person in a show with what someone else is doing it is a valid feeling and we our entitled to act on it. In this show I was waiting for one of the other players to stop him, to call him out, to bring him down. What that looks like sometimes with people like Doug is talking louder than him. If he shouts- you yell, if he interrupts you- you don't let him get a sentence out without an interjection.
Sometimes you have to fight. Not physically or personally or off stage. But in an improv show if you feel put down or let down or called out or taken advantage of you respond in kind. Use your imporv, use your skill, use your wit. Turn the tides.
Take a stand.
I stumbled upon this for one reason or another and wanted to respond as someone else present that night. I genuinely appreciate the way you feel about that performance. I totally agree with everything you said and was really bothered by the way the other performers in the audience were reacting to his contribution to the piece. I think "Doug" is incredibly talented, but the way everyone was treating (encouraging?) his steamrolling just made the whole night feel like a real boy's club I wasn't a part of and made me anxious to play. Thanks for this. It made me feel better. I will try to keep it in mind in the future.
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