Forget anything you ever knew about improv. ImprovBoston's curiously named "Harold Night" is a wild roller coaster of laughs guaranteed to tickle even the most stubborn of funny bones. Due to the spontaneous nature of improv, you're guaranteed a fresh new show each week, and with Harold Night's ever-changing lineup of troupes, there's no way you'll be bored.
"Harold Night" is not your typical improv show. The name comes from the style of improv performed in the show, namely long-form improv. Actress Rachel Klein of BearCats — a female improv troupe named after a slang term for a strong, independent woman from the '20s to '40s — actually prefers long-form to other shorter, more chaotic skits.
"[I] love what [I] do, which is the Harold, where you get one suggestion and just riff off of it for a half an hour. That's my favorite thing, doing long-form," Klein told the Daily.
You might think it's hard to work off of one idea for such a long time, but that one seed of an idea grows and transforms over the half hour, lending show's end a completely different feel from its beginning.
"I really like the long-form scenic nature of [Harold Night]," Michelle McNulty, who performs with the troupe Rich Uncle, told the Daily.
But what happens if an actor gets stuck in the middle of a skit? Klein explained that freezing is rarely an issue. "There's always someone up there with you. If I stand there, they'll say something and then they'll get me going again," she said.
This group — or, rather, troupe — dynamic is a key difference between improv and stand-up comedy, and for Klein, there's strength in numbers. "[Stand-up] is scarier to me than making everything up as you go along with a bunch of other people," she said.
The interactions between these improv actors are truly wonderful to behold. These funnymen and women have to be ready for anything thrown at them, with the added challenge of keeping a straight face through the entire skit. One of the most basic rules of improv is to always say "yes" in order to keep the skit alive, which is sometimes hard for actors. There's immense potential for conflict, but a good improv actor will be able to roll with the punches and come up with a hilarious skit.
Klein's tips for those looking to brush up on their improv skills? Practice, practice, practice. "We [BearCats] rehearse every week. We just practice working together and doing the structures, but then we get up there, it's improvised," Klein said. She added that, during practice, the troupe dynamic becomes very important, and it's crucial to know what kind of skit a troupe member is more likely to build.
Even when things don't go according to "plan," there is always the possibility for laughs with improv comedy. McNulty recounted a story from before her ImprovBoston days that seems to prove the "rule of threes" — a writing trope in which things that come in threes are funnier or more satisfying — and the value of the unplanned nature of improv. Spray bottle in hand, McNulty stepped into an "elevator" onstage — and into a high point in her career.
"I walked in to be the third person [in the elevator], but instead of pressing the button I fixed my hair. The person with the spray bottle insulted me, so I grabbed the bottle from him and shot him in the eye instead and the audience went nuts. To this day that might be the best laugh I've ever gotten onstage."
Harold Night runs almost every Thursday night at ImprovBoston's main theater at 40 Prospect Street off of Central Square, with shows at 8 and 10 p.m. ImprovBoston's next session is starting soon. More information can be found at ImprovBoston.com.
