Improv: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Portuguese have a word with no analog in the English language: desenrascano. It means roughly the ability to "disentangle" yourself from a problem by making up a solution on the fly with limited to no resources at your immediate disposal. The Portuguese value this skill so greatly, that they teach it in their universities and military. And that's just it: it's a skill. One that must be learned over time.

The fatal flaw most people have when considering improvisation is the belief that it is a shortcut. That it is not in fact a skill, that it just happens. This is patently ridiculous. Where it hurts magicians is the way they try to improvise their performances without having rehearsed a good routine first. What some like Garrett Thomas call "jazz magic" is actually a skill they developed over many years in a professional setting.

But how does one learn a skill based on spontaneity and a lack of resources? Like anything else, it's equal parts theory and execution. Harry Lorayne has reached a point where he doesn't even rehearse routines anymore. He creates his routines on the fly in response to the audience. But Harry has had decades to master his craft. Most of us haven't. And those that have are a still a way's away from that level.

The worst improv I've seen in magicians involves a lot of filler ("um... uh..."), stolen jokes, double words ("It's like... like..."), and general stumbling. They don't seem cognizant of the fact that their performance is stiff, stilted and lacks flow. You can practically hear the gears in their head straining under the effort of trying to grind out something snappy. The problem stems from a lack of respect for the learning process.

Suppose you're trying to be funny. Do you know how to construct a joke? Do you know how to make funny comparisons? What about timing? If you don't know how to do any of this, what makes you think that improv is going to magically fix that? It would be like trying to make dinner with no recipe or even knowledge of what the various tools and appliances in your kitchen do.

The justification I hear most often for improv is that it looks more "natural." This is a lie. If the videos are anything to go by, natural is just a codeword for awkward. A spontaneous one-liner can be great, but not all of them are going to be hits. Occasionally you'll deliver one that falls flat on its face and you'll just have to move on. If they all fall flat because you don't know what you're doing, then you're screwed.

The Portuguese approach desenrascano very seriously. It is a skill and the learning process must be respected and approached pragmatically with an open mind. If you're going to develop this skill yourself to be able to adapt on the fly in a live performance, you must do the same.