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Audience at the Improv


            Being on the improv team, I have noticed an interesting correlation between the quality of the show and the size of the audience. Well, maybe quality is not the right word because all the shows are of extremely high quality, but the overall amount of laughter changes with the size of the audience. Larger audiences tend to laugh a lot more and be more willing to give suggestions than the smaller audiences. The latter is the easiest to explain. The more people there are, the more suggestions we will get because there are simply more people thinking of suggestions. The amount of laughter on the other hand is bit more difficult to explain. If the overall quality of the show remains the same, then shouldn’t the amount of laughter also remain constant? I think it might go back to what the Provine was talking about in Laughter; laughter is contagious and the more people there are, the more likely the outbreak of contagious laughter. I also want to mention something that we on the troupe call “energy”. We spend a lot of time trying to gauge and control the audience’s energy which sort of the mood the audience is in. The shows are best when the energy is high and the audience is engaged with what is happening. So, we try to play games that of a lot of motion or loudness after we play a slower, less energetic games. This allows us to play more games that are slow but also keep the audience entertained. At any improv show, the audience is a part of the performance and that is one of the most important things that I have learned since joining the team.

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