Reflective Essay on Improvisation in Acting

Improvisation is an old art which is still found in virtually every place and culture on the planet. Improvisation Dramas, also known as improv, have many forms stretching from more serious “long-form” dramatizations to shorter, fun games that are played and many times are interactive with the audience. The central idea in almost every improv is the method of acting about acting the drama. In most cases, the whole performance is done with improvisation or “on the spot” stories, characters, and scenes. Many different people have devoted their lives to learning this renowned skill, but there are also people in pop culture society who also employ this way of thinking and acting. One prominent example of this type of person is the two, Emmy-winning, TV personalities: Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. These two very talented actors write and act in the award-winning television series “Key & Peele”, and in several interviews and articles talk about their past with improv and how it has influenced their jobs in the Television industry, in writing and in acting as various roles.

Beginning with Keegan-Michael Key, for some context. Key started in Detroit, where he was born and raised, and during his time there he began to work at the Second City and was a “mainstay”(The Second City, 2022) performer. He then moved to Chicago and worked at MADtv with writer Jordan Peele and years later these men would have their own globally known television show. But before all of that, he received a "Master's in Fine Arts in Theatre” at Pennsylvania State University and went back to Detroit to work at Second City for four more years (Live Kelly & Michael, 2016) where he took many classes. Through the years he has performed at many improv shows including one with Kelly Ripa (Live Kelly & Michael, 2016). He is very knowledgeable on the topic of improv and this is seen in his interview with Sam Jones at “The Off Camera Show”.

Jordan Peele is an Oscar-winning writer for his global hit: Get Out. He is a renowned actor, writer, director, and producer in other widely known horror films, but he also has a long history in comedy. He started to work at Second City and wrote for MTV, as I said before, alongside his future friend and co-star Key. Peele explains in an interview with “the Hollywood reporter” his first interaction with Key saying: “[Keegan-Michael Key] just has this energy like no one I had ever seen… And, I [Peele] was just in awe” (The Second City, 2018). When he was working for the Second City,  Peele was mostly writing but also did a little bit of acting. He has had quite a lot of experience being in improv even before this. He worked in a theatre in Amsterdam doing improv (called Boom Chicago) for a while (Galloway, 2018) and so he, along with Key, knows a lot about improv. Both Key and Peele have discovered a lot about improv, so what major concepts have they learned?

When an individual does an improv performance, it can be comfortable for them to fall into stereotypical behaviour such as: only going for laughs or bulldozing other's ideas and believing theirs is the most important one. These improv stereotypes are also mentioned in the conversations and interviews with both Key and Peele. Jordan Peele says in his interview with the Hollywood Reporter: “the biggest sense of failure comes with letting down your scene partner because you went for a cheap gag or something and the audience is onto you…”(Galloway, 2018). In this part of the interview, he is talking about the failure that is felt when someone goes for a “gag” or seeks laughter from the audience too much, he explains that what happens is the scene partner begins to feel disconnected because the scene was jeopardized due to the joke. This is the definition of failure in improv for Jordan Peele and goes along with the first stereotype that was mentioned. Key, in an interview with Sam Jones, provides an example for the second stereotype listed saying: “Now somebody else comes out and goes [makes a weird sound], and I’m like ‘…no…no…what the… why are you a dinosaur?’... all improv is who, what, where so you’re trying to figure out where you are… then the fourth person comes out, runs up to the third person and goes ‘Tom we’re not doing the costume stuff until the kids get here’... he saved us.” (Key, 2016). When Key says this he is explaining what many in improv call a “Bulldozer”. This stereotype is someone who, as seen in the example given by Key, goes into a scene and rejects the ideas expressed earlier in the scene or story before that individual came in. They add an idea that seems, to them, superior, but it can jeopardize the scene or even the story as a whole. When this happens the person not only hurts the story but also hurt the relationship and trust of their improv group (Key, 2016). These two stereotypical behaviours do not even closely explain the many behaviours shown in typical improv groups, but they are two of the most destructive behaviours that impact the dynamic of scenes and the relationships between the actors.

Key and Peele have such successful careers, but how has improv shaped their work in the film industry? One of the most recent examples is seen in the interview that Key had with the Hollywood Reporter, he explains a moment during the taping of the movie “Toy Story 4”, a film in which both of them played supporting roles. Key says “They let us do a lot of improvisation, which was lovely because we got to record together…” and continued to say that they improvised a whole song, and part of it made it into the movie. They were asked to make the song and did so on the spot. Key said that they had a “weird” moment where they looked at each other and started to sing: “We got a kid, we got a kid,”   (Schaffstall, 2019). Key illustrates the fact that the two iconic actors have a great deal of trust and friendship between them because they have been working together for so long, and this is why they could break out into singing during the shooting of Toy story.

The use of improvisation techniques is seen throughout their work on the award-winning show "Key & Peele" too. An article by the Fast Company explains the writing process that their writing team uses to formulate their sketch ideas. These writers brainstorm all the ideas that have potental to be produced into sketches. The ideas can be one word or a whole summary, "...winnowing down of more than 330 sketches to the 82 slots for the upcoming season. A giant whiteboard in the creators’ office is awash with notecards bearing neatly scrawled words such as “honest bully.” (Berkowitz, 2013) Later on, in the same article, the author mentions that these ideas are all brought up on the spot in sort of an improvised way. They call all these draft ideas "dooks", and this is beacuse they say that most of their ideas are bad or what they call "dookies", so they start as dooks. This shows a huge principle of improv, the writers start their process with their own personal experences and thoughts, improvising their way to these, sometimes award winning stories. The Key & Peele writers have a great advantage to improvisers because they can cut, edit, and scrap things that they dont like about stories and ideas, but they still use the tool of improvisation to their adantage in telling pristine and authentic stories.

Continuing with the wisdom that they have about improv, both Key and Peele explain in separate interviews other wisdom pieces about improv.