Starting Right

By Jake Levy-Pollans, Hindsight Community Fellow, February 8, 2012 at 11:29 am

Since starting improv classes a few weeks ago, I've tried hard not to find a political lesson in every improv lesson. I'm already a political nerd and an improv nerd, so I figure that if I combine the two there's no way girls will be able to resist me.

Last week's lesson was on how to "start right" and, as my teacher explained, it's one of the most important lessons any beginning improver will learn. Setting the narrative and the tone early goes a long way in creating a well-done show. My improv teacher has a few suggestions for what to think about as you are walking on stage to begin a skit:

Be positive (something I've already talked about on this blog) this is especially important early on in a skit when saying: "Yes it is great to be in Kansas and I love your dog Toto," does so much more to build a narrative than looking at your partner and saying "That's not where we are."

Give details early on, "nice to still be in Kansas" is so boring compared to: "The weatherman says there's a chance of tornado's in central Kansas today."

Set an emotion early on, be it happy, sad, scared or hopeful. Give your character the chance to set a tone that can be built upon throughout the rest of the show.

Connecting all this to politics is just a little too easy to ignore.

We're now a few weeks into the 2012 legislative session and it is becoming increasingly clear that conservative members of the legislature would fail improv class. Progressives attempted to build a narrative early on around job creation by traveling the state to promote their proposals like a bold new bonding bill and tax credits for job creators. Instead of continuing to build on a session based on job creation with their own set of proposals, conservatives have made their priorities clear: Controversial and unproductive ballot amendments, attacking well qualified commission appointees, and playing politics with legislative staff positions.

Whether you support their ideas or not, you have to give progressives credit for understanding improv 101 and for creating a positive start to a legislative session that was bound to become contentious anyway. They started with a narrative that encouraged both sides to focus on improving the economy, and moving Minnesota forward.

In improv, not starting off a skit well will lead to a bad show and a disappointed audience. Of course in politics, starting off wrong will lead to a legislative session that puts politics over the people of Minnesota. If I went to a bad improv show I'd want my money back, or at least the feeling that the improvers learned from their mistakes. Unfortunately, I think we can all assume that conservatives will only spend the next year building on their mistakes.

Something tells me the next few months aren't going to be much of a laugh.