Unusual Things - Part 1
If Improv is a fire, the base reality is the fuel: The tinder, kindling, sticks, branches, and logs. The game is oxygen. The first unusual thing is the spark, the source of ignition. One interesting exercise is that unusual things can be found by yes, anding within the base reality. Our point of view affects our view of our world, and once we start comparing our realities through the Rube Goldberg machines of our eyes and other senses, through our minds, and then expressing that POV through our mouths and actions, we can only be unusual because that's what we are to each other, no matter what our base reality is.
I think I used to worry a lot more about finding the first unusual thing, but now I'm more focused on establishing who, what, and where, and on having a good scene. I trust myself and my comedy, that I am and can be funny when I want to be, and that my scene partners and I can find it together. I like giving gifts, feeding scenes with details where the first unusual thing was there the whole time. If we construct scenes out of good who-what-where bones, a lot of times it feels like the game was already there in the block of marble—to mix a lot of metaphors.
If anything, I think this shows the value of reps. There's no substitute for hitting the pattern of a scene, and as you run the pattern, the form of Base Reality > Unusual Thing > Game get into your bones.
