Montreal Improv: (top l-r) Kirsten Rasmussen, Francois Vincent, Bryan Walsh
(tie-strangled: Marc Rowland)
Idea vs. Execution
A common reflex is to worry about the idea of
the scene
by Francois Vincent of Montreal Improv
Successful novelists around the world will likely all be able to tell
you the same story. A stranger walks up to them and says, “I’ve got a
great idea for a book that will make millions. I’ll tell you what it
is and then you write it up and we can split the money.” Unfortunately
for these people, there are two problems. One, most novelists have way
more book ideas than they will ever be able to write in their
lifetime. Two, coming up with the idea is the easy part, all of the
hard work comes in the execution. And so it is with improv.
When people first start improv (and, in my opinion, all of this
applies to writing), a common reflex is to worry about the idea of
their scenes. Sometimes they’ll start out with some funny (or not)
premise and then once that’s been given, they are out of gas and the
scene kind of spirals into nonsense. It’s good to have an idea on how
to start a scene but that isn’t the whole scene. It needs to be
executed. The starting point is good, improvising your way from there
is the hard work.
