Pimpin' All Over the Stage

We saw Improvised Shakespeare last night, and I had forgotten how impressive and how riotous the whole spectacle is. I could talk about a lot of things, but I'm just going to focus on one particular moment.

Halfway through the first act of "Black Hawk Down," an improvised Shakespearian bastardized adaptation of the story of the Trojan War, there was a scene involving the common people of Troy. Very quickly into the group game, one of the improvisers threw out haphazardly, "I shall tell a joke!" Quickly another added something along the lines of "Oh, I do so love jokes that come in the style of couplets that rhyme!" followed by another saying "Oh yes, and also jokes that are told in the accent of the region they are satirizing!" And suddenly there was one improviser stuck on stage with all the attention of the room on him, because he had to make up a joke on the spot, told in rhyming couplets, with an accent, satirizing ancient Trojan politics. Pimp master supreme.

But it was awesome! I don't really remember the joke (something about democracy in Greece), but he rhymed and he put on an accent and committed to it. The accent didn't matter, except that it was there. The rhymes didn't matter, except that they rhymed. And the joke didn't matter, except that he made one. The audience was so ready to go along with anything that he did, that all that really mattered was that he dove in and did something. And then as soon as he was done, he was allowed to pimp right back: another improviser shouted "Tell another joke!" But then was forced to tell a joke himself because he was the last one standing (which became a game in itself), and following him a third improviser had to do the same. At the very end of the show, as characters are being slain left and right, one of the improvisers noticed how similar it was, and shouted his dying words, "At least I'm not the last one left standing!" And after all the other characters had been killed, the last one left alive of course had to finish the show in rhyming couplet.

What was so great about the game was that they pimped. It wasn't rude or mean-spirited, and didn't come from a place of "I don't know what I'm doing, so I'll pimp you." Instead, it actually showed a respect for your fellow improviser and loving playfulness that can only come from playing with an ensemble that you really trust. You could see that they loved being pimped. It becomes a gift, an opportunity to do something challenging and risky and bold.

I don't think I'm saying that we should be pimping each other all the time, but I do think, like everything else, it's something we can use in moderation. And rather than seeing it as "something wrong," we can see it as an opportunity to do something awesome and have fun on stage. And isn't that what it's all about anyway?
-Z