Blog #3 - What Level 6 Improv Should Be

written by: Raye Maddox

The number five is nice and round, almost even. If there was one number I would contest should be an even number it’s five! Just look at a 10, or 15, or 20, or 100, or 1025! Solid, brick-like numbers, which is similar to a round, safe even number (think 2, 8, or even 64). So why do programs, counters, and speedometers sometimes stop at increments of 5s? Thinking even further, why do most Improv Comedy Programs (ICPs, for short) halt at a Level 5? I can only imagine it's because 5, as just mentioned, is a beautiful, perfect, serene number.
Sure, this isn’t a nation-wide standard yet, though I hope it will be soon under this new administration, and admittedly there are a few ICPs in LA, New York, or Chicago that only have four levels, or three, or two, or just one. But, for the sake of this blog, let’s imagine a world where an ICP continued after Level 5…what more could a burgeoning and supple improviser learn in a whole new course-level? More space-work? More accents? More warm-ups?
No.
They would learn a deeper way to enjoy consciousness, a way to expand their mind and, hence, playstyle.

Introducing: Improv Level 6: Sleep and Dream-Play
A Seven-Week Advanced Improv Course

Week 1: Introduction to Dreams
It is crucial by the end of Class 1 that each improviser understands what dreams and dreaming are, alongside how best to catalogue dreams and experience dreams. The easiest and most proven way to accomplish this objective is to come into the classroom and write on a whiteboard (or chalk if you’re reading this from the 90s) the following quote: Dreaming is “a sequence of perceptions, thoughts and emotions during sleep that is experienced as a series of actual events”*.
*[Read more:  Domhoff, G.W. (2005). "Refocusing the Neurocognitive Approach to Dreams: A Critique of the Hobson Versus Solms Debate". Dreaming. 15: 3–20.]
Underline the hell out of that and turn to the class and prompt discussion with questions like:

• Do you remember your dreams?
• ​Do you dream?
• Do you dream of dreams?
• How do you know you are not a butterfly dreaming they are human, and anytime you are asleep you are actually awake as a butterfly somewhere else, in some other world?

The next two and a half hours should be an open, free-flowing discussion on dreams, recurring dreams, and anywhere such fertile seminar-like talk leads. 
Also, instruct each improviser they must immediately begin taking four capsules of Magnesium Glycinate right before bed and logging dreams in a journal upon waking up.
[Note: Under no circumstance should any improv be done in Week 1]

Week 2: Playing for Nemo
Print out a ton of Little Nemo comic strips (circa year 1905–1911) and bring them to class. Start the class by forming a warm-up where each improviser takes one of these strips, shows it to the class, and makes up a funny little voice for Nemo.
[Note: If any improviser does not know who Little Nemo is tell them he’s like Hergé’s Tintin (circa 1929-1939)]

Ex: A Little Nemo comic

Once everyone has gone around the room trying out their voice for Nemo, ask them to spit on the back of their strip and adhere it to a space on the wall. Each improviser will need about two feet on both sides of them (or 11 Queenies if you are using the metric system). If this is not possible the floor is fine too. The following exercise should take the remainder two and a half hours of the class:

1. Minutes 0-5: Stare in silence at Nemo in the strip
2. Minutes 5-15: Have a dialogue with Nemo, only providing your side of the conversation
3. Minutes 15-30: Have a dialogue with Nemo, this time also providing his side of the conversation using the voice from earlier.
4. Minutes 30-60: Rotate Counter-Clockwise to everyone else’s Little Nemo strip and have a different conversation with their respective Nemos, using your best approximation of the voice that improviser used from the exercise earlier
5. Minutes 60-150: Return to your own Nemo strip and stare in silence at Nemo
6. Dismiss the class without further communication

Weeks 3-5: Classified (Pun Intended)
[The curriculum for the following three weeks are only for those who pay $150 for this curriculum and sign a contract saying it’s my curriculum and not theirs and they should know better, for Improv should be capitalistic and proprietary, not silly and free and fun. We all have bills to pay, especially those of us who come up with a curriculum for ICPs.]

A very large picture of Freud

Week 6: Freudian Slips
This is the last week the students will be required to bring in their dream journals to share. As per the last three weeks, the first fifteen to twenty minutes should be a warm-up consisting of improvisers swapping their dream journals, reading latest entries aloud, and everyone trying to guess whose messed-up whack-a-doodle dreams belong to who. By now everyone should have a solid grasp on the psyche of their fellow improvisers and can properly guess the owner of each dream. 
[Note: Any improviser who can not do this and incorrectly assigns a dream will immediately be expelled from the course with no refund.]
After warm-up, the class will receive five slips of paper a piece (ideally the class size is 20) and each improviser will write a common trait from their dreams over the past three weeks on one slip a piece. Then all slips will be scattered on the floor, and all improvisers will be blindfolded and spun around really fast and instructed to feel about the floor to acquire five slips, all at the same time as each other.
With blindfolds removed and five slips in everyone’s hands the class will do two full runs (approx. 20-25 minutes each) with a long-form Slip format, meaning whenever the improviser feels like they may pull a slip to integrate somehow into the scene. All players will play in the run.
The remaining time left should be used to give critical, mechanic-based notes on each improviser’s performance and no notes should be given on anything relating to the slips. 

Week 7: Final Week
Objective: In lieu of a showcase, the remaining improvisers who have not quit or been expelled will need to properly and successfully separate their body and soul in front of you and the rest of the class. 
[Note: If an improviser can not Astral Project they do not pass the class and must re-take it the following term.]
Based on [EXERCISE DONE IN WEEK 4 + 5] split the class into predetermined pairs from your now intimate knowledge of their psyche and dreams. These pairs should be extremely contrasting, if not diametrically opposed, improvisers based on their psyche and dreams. Please refer to the chart used in Week 5 for assistance.
One pair at a time, each pair must journey into the Astral Plane and perform a long-form, 20-minute two-prov set. All non-performing improvisers should be spectating from their Third Eye, laughing occasionally. It should be stressed to each improviser in the ICP that this is their final grade, and anyone lost or consumed in the Astral Plane will not be extradited out, and instead left there as their body deteriorates on our plane. 
Once each pair in the class has performed they are free to leave the classroom. 
There is no diploma, there is no degree.
It will be clear to any audience member the higher level of functioning this improviser now performs at. 

Pictured: How a typical graduate appears on stage

Any and all materials created for this ICP should be burned or shredded at the conclusion of the class, including but not limited to: dream journals, blind folds, and Little Nemo comics.

Raye (right) seen with his twin brother David (left) at an Indie Night

​About the Author: Raye Maddox is a Fort Worth-born, Dallas-taught comedian. He currently produces three of Dallas' Indie Comedy shows: Monday Night Feast, Coarse Grind, and Indie Night. Hobbies currently include reading comic books and playing Marvel Rivals (Rocket Raccoon Lord Status, still stuck in Gold rank). You can find him around the merch booth during DICF monitoring the sell of Indie Night Trading Cards or harassing Chelsea and Hannah at the booth.