Harold Night @ UCB Theater 2.17.09

So tonight I went to my first Harold Night at the Upright Citizen's Brigade (UCB). 'Harold' is a technique for long form improv developed by Del Close, and it is very funny. I am taking a class at the UCB training center and it is required that you attend two improv shows before the last class session (students get in free woop woop), and I'm really glad that it was required of me because I went early in the 'semester' and enjoyed it a lot, so now plan on integrating more UCB shows into my weekly schedule. They have usually 3 totally different shows each night of the week, the shows cost at most $10 (though most are $5) and there is no drink minimum, but there is a bar with very reasonable prices (not just for NYC, but even if you were at dive bar in Minnesota or some equally irrelevant state). So it's good.

Back to Harold Night. It's every week and 5 improv groups (8 people each) work their magic to create 5 completely original and hilarious long-form improv shows for only $5 (which in my opinion is worth more than a footlong from Subway). Each show, within the show, is about 30 minutes, with a 5 minute intermission between each. You can stay for all 5, or leave whenever you want. I stayed for three groups: 'The Fucking Kennedys', 'Bastian' and 'Ragnarock'. At the start of each show they take a one-word suggestion from the audience. The suggestions of these shows were picnic basket, California, and pinata. By using the Harold techniques, they create a very smart show, usually there is a consistent theme throughout the performance that is much deeper than the original prompt, and also very funny. It just impresses me so much that these 8 people (and I'm talking about all the Harold teams in general) went on stage with nothing prepared and came up with something so clever right off the cuff.

My favorite Harold team tonight was 'Ragnarock'. The team had 3 girls and 5 guys and their prompt was pinata, which led to themes of the political and economic situation in the world through situations about family, sex and kittens taking over the world (to name a few).

I just recently finished a book about long-form improv, Truth in Comedy. While reading it, the techniques made sense to me, but I had no idea what it the end result would be like. Tonight, while watching this show, so much of what I had read clicked into place. I'm really glad that I grew the balls to start this class because so far it has been an extremely positive experience and who knows? Maybe one day I'll be skilled enough to join a Harold team myself. Time will tell.