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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.Improv 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.Improv, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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{{trope}}
'''Improv''', short for Improvisation, is the act of going off-roading from the set script and making up entire chunks of dialogue or characterisation. This is similar to an ad-lib (a
Many examples of [[Throw It In]] are because of this, with the actor just goofing around with the script in between takes. It can also be used to produce [[Enforced Method Acting]], if one actor is turned loose to improvise in order to get a realistic reaction from another actor.
One way to see where a show or movie tends to use this is when there are [[Hilarious Outtakes]] and a certain line changes depending on the take that was used.
Compare [[Harpo Does Something Funny]] where the script has a gap left with only the instruction "[actor] does something funny here."
{{examples
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* Most [[Judd Apatow]] productions rely heavily on it. In fact at least ''[[Undeclared]]'' hired its cast based entirely on their skills in it. Apatow even said that he nicknamed the camera technique the "Segel Cam" after how long the actor Jason Segel could go on improvising.
*
** In fact, Depp's whole demeanor differs greatly from the creators' original vision of the character; he was intended as a far more conventional dashing rogue. When Depp interpreted the character differently, Michael Eisner even went so far as to say he was ruining the film. Depp's response was essentially "Trust me or fire me."
** Depp said himself that he chose to add the 'campness' as he thought that the other actors applying for the role were better than him. He chose to just go crazy and have fun.
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* [[Charlie Chaplin]] was renowned - and hated by his crew - for this. He would often begin the shoot with no script, instead making up and trying stuff on the fly until something worked... Which some days, wouldn't happen. He also had a bad temper which showed when he got frustrated not being able to find just the right gag.
** Of course, Charlie Chaplin is still Charlie Chaplin. There's a set-piece gag in ''[[The Great Dictator]]'' where Chaplin's barber shaves a customer in time with the (frighteningly fast) Hungarian dance on the radio. The intention was to do the shave repeatedly and then patch it together with the music in editing. Chaplin had the music playing on-set, though. Result: The shave was filmed perfect in one take. The first one.
* [[Buster Keaton]] generally worked from an outline instead of a complete script, and was famous for playing baseball with his crew while waiting for inspiration to strike.
** In ''[[Three Ages]]'', Buster attempts to jump from one rooftop to another using an improvised springboard and doesn't quite make it. Instead of reshooting they kept the fall and created a sequence involving multiple awnings, a drainpipe and a firefighters' pole to get the character to ground level in one piece.
* Nick Frost ad-libs during the scene in ''[[Shaun of the Dead]]'', where Ed describes the pub regulars in an effort to cheer Shaun up. There are several different takes of the scene where he describes the old woman as an ex-pornstar, all apparently unscripted. Simon Pegg's laughter is genuine as a result of this.
* Certain short, one-or-two-minute scenes in the ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movies were edited together from literally hours of footage of the actors improvising off each other. One scene of note was the initial scene at the Evils' table in ''[[Goldmember]]'', where [[Seth Green]] and [[Mike Myers]] [[Overly Long Gag|just kept on playing]] until the cameras ''ran out of film''.
* In ''[[Give My Regards to Broad Street]],'' many of [[Ringo Starr]]'s lines are ad-libs. Possibly the majority.
{{quote|
* [[Peter Sellers]] often improvised on set, though he was more careful than most to do so in character. [[Stanley Kubrick]] used three cameras to shoot his ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' scenes so the best material could be edited together; most famously, much of the hotline telephone monologue is said to be improvised, as is the behavior of his [[Evil Hand]] in the second-to-last scene.
** When Sellers is doing the aforementioned evil hand scene, you can see the guy who plays the Russian ambassador trying his hardest not to [[Corpsing|burst into fits of laughter]], complete with shaking and much biting of the lip.
** In the final scene, Dr. Strangelove suddenly stands up and screams "I can walk!" delightedly. Supposedly, Sellers forgot that Strangelove was supposed to be a cripple, and shouted out the line to cover his mistake.
** The most spectacular Sellers example might be ''[[
** In ''[[Being There]]'', his response to the television producer's declaration of how many people will be watching him and the producer's reaction are also ad libs.
* Most of [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|R. Lee Ermey's dialogue]] in ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' was improvised, thus making him one of the very, very few actors allowed to go off-script in a Kubrick film. [[Urban Legend|Allegedly]], after the first take featuring the line "I'll bet you're the kind of guy that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around!" Kubrick approached Ermey and asked what the term meant. Ermey explained. Kubrick's reply was something to the effect of "Oh. Do some more of that."
* Most of the dialogue in ''[[Iron Man (
** In fact, [http://io9.com/5417310/jeff-bridges-admits-iron-man-movie-had-no-script according to Jeff Bridges], there was no actual script at all, and ''the entire movie'' was improvised. Bridges said he had problems getting his head around this style of filmmaking until he told himself to think of it as "a $200 million student film".
* In ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'', Fenster's bizarre mumbling accent was entirely improvised by Benicio del Toro, who felt the character as written was boring and one-dimensional. With the change, it ended up being del Toro's first breakout role.
* Pretty much all of [[Bill Murray]]'s dialogue in ''[[Tootsie]]'' is supposedly improvised.
** Ditto for ''Kingpin''
* ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' is famous for blurring the line between ad libs and scripted dialogue, with nearly half the dialogue cited as ad libs by the cast. Examples include the famous "Twinkie" scene, Peter's response of "so do I" when Egon says he blames himself for not testing their proton packs, and Egon's response of "that would have worked if you hadn't stopped me" when Peter refers to a [[Noodle Incident]] involving Egon trying to drill a hole in his head. Sigourney Weaver's ad libs include comparing Peter to "a game show host" (the original line was a used-car salesmen, but she observed that he actually bounces around like a game show host), and much of Rick Moranis's dialogue as Louis welcomes people to his party is improvised.
* According to the commentary track on ''[[
* One of the most famous comedy line improvs appeared in the movie ''[[
{{quote|
'''Wayne:''' No.
'''Garth:''' Neither did I, I was just asking... }}
** As it turns out, the entire exchange was improvised. [[Dana Carvey]], Garth's actor, visibly snickers right before asking the initial question and [[Mike Myers]] bursts out laughing after responding. The director decided it was too funny to cut and so left it in the final version.
* The famous "you talking to me?" monologue in ''[[Taxi Driver]]'' was completely improvised by Robert De Niro. The original script just said "Travis looks in the mirror".
* Most of the dialogue between [[Bing Crosby]] and [[Bob Hope]] in the "[[Road To]]" movies was completely ad
* While not a great film, ''[[The Score]]'' did have its moments. Several of them were the back and forth between
* In the film of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (
* In ''[[Gremlins]]'' the script had very little written for the Gremlins, so the voice actors made up a bunch of stuff they thought was funny for them to say; Frank Welker (voice of Stripe and others) said that he just made a bunch of random noises into the microphone. The recording staff thought it was so good they [[Throw It In|decided to leave it in]] and had the others follow on his example.
* In ''[[Mars Attacks!]]'' no dialogue was written for the Martians so [[Frank Welker]] made up his own language for them.
* In ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]'', the whole anecdote about the girl and the barn was ad
* In ''[[Romy and
{{quote|
* Another famous example of improv is the [[Mockumentary]] ''[[This Is Spinal Tap]]''. The movie had no script; the actors simply got into character and improved for hours. Rob Reiner shot several hours of footage which was distilled down into the movie itself; hours of outtakes have been included on the various DVD sets.
** Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer found they enjoyed this formula so much that they went on to make a number of other improv-ed mockumentaries, including ''[[
* [[Tommy Lee Jones]] reportedly didn't have much respect for the scripts of ''[[Men in Black (
** He may have had more respect for the script of the ''[[The Fugitive (
** Ford did the same thing in the original ''[[Star Wars]]'', not learning his dialogue for the scene where he tries to respond to a call to the detention cell.
* [[John Rhys Davies]] in [[The Lord of the Rings (
** Doubles as a [[Shout
* [[Ben Stein]] improvised his lecture about the Smoot-Hawley Act in ... anyone? anyone? ... ''[[Ferris Bueller's Day Off]]''. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}uhiCFdWeQfA See it here.]
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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* The scripts of [[The Mighty Boosh]] are only loosely written, usually only specifying a few things the actors need to say to further the plot, with much of the rest being improvised. The performers often change their lines between takes to keep their delivery fresh. This is even more the case with the original radio show which was less rehearsed than the TV show.
* ''Outnumbered'', a British sitcom about life with three kids, uses a fair amount of improvisation. It produces remarkably realistic acting from the child actors, as they're allowed and encouraged to say things in their own words.
* ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'' easily popularized the knowledge of improv games to general audiences.
** Evidently, the same can be said of ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'', who had quite a few cast members translate between the two shows. The "Drew Live" episodes were at least partially improvised.
** As well as its spiritual successors ''Drew Carey's Green Screen Show'' and ''Improv-A-Ganza''.
* ''[[Mock the Week]]'', who was created by the same people as ''Whose Line'', mixes this with a satirical [[Panel Show]].
* The night-time soap opera ''[[Knots Landing]]'' had an entire episode that was improvised by all the actors. The "script" for the episode merely gave the actors guidelines as to what should have happened by the time the episode was over, but in no way limited the actors on how they were supposed to accomplish their character's agenda.
* In the US version of ''[[The Office]]'', all the actors are given complete scripts, but are allowed to improvise as they go along. The absolute [[Crowning Moment of Funny|greatest adlib in the series]] is the kiss between Michael and Oscar, in Michael's failed attempt to show how tolerant he is of Oscar's [[
{{quote|
* When auditioning for ''[[Cheers]]'', John Ratzenberger originally read for the role of Norm. After badly botching his audition, he asked the producers if the show included a bar know-it-all, and proceeded to wander around the room ad-libbing lines that might be appropriate for such a character. A week later, he was called back and offered the newly-written role of [[Know
* Finishing recording the first ever episode of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's [[Not Only...
* The Janitor on ''[[Scrubs]]'' was not originally supposed to be a recurring character, so many of his scenes were improvised by Neil Flynn, which added to the [[Cloudcuckoolander]] behavior of the character. In many other instances the other actors would also improvise reaction lines and other moments.
** At the end of most of the later episodes, you see earlier versions of some of the scenes where the dialogue gets progressively weirder/more inappropriate/just plain stupider until one of the actors breaks character and goes 'Oh, God, we can't use that!'
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* Unlike many of today's tightly-scripted and -edited cooking programs, the original nationally-recognized cooking program, ''The French Chef with Julia Child'' (later known as ''Julia Child and Friends''), was largely an improvised program, with the recipe and some of the ''mise en place'' just about the only already cemented elements of the program. If Julia made an error in the program, it stayed, and if she was having a problem with, say, butchering a piece of meat, that stayed too. Granted, this was pretty much the nature of many television programs at the time, but it added to Child's overall charm and likeability with the audience, because it gave the home cook the ability to see that everything didn't need to go perfectly. This arguably led to Julia Child's becoming the first celebrity chef and the progenitor of all the cooking shows on television today.
* The regular troupe of ''[[The Carol Burnett Show]]'' would regularly go [[Off the Rails]], and the resulting [[Throw It In]] featured the comedians failing to keep a straight face.
* Charlie's rants in ''[[
* ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'' is shot on digital video rather than film to let the actors improvise at length without the high cost of film stock.
* [[Saturday Morning Kids Show|SaturdayMorningKidsShows]] are often only semi-scripted, because they're live and the kids are going to throw everything off anyway. ''[[SMTV Live]]'' interspersed scripted sketches (with lots of [[Throw It In]] and [[Lampshade Hanging]] of forgotten lines) with unscripted chat, while ''[[Dick and Dom
* [[
* Many guests on the ''[[
== Music ==
* Improvisation happens a lot in the music world, especially jazz. Improvisations in the world of jazz music are varied, depending on the subgenre. Swing musicians usually just "riffed" on the melody, while the bebop musicians played extended solos on the chord changes. Miles Davis edited hours of recordings of his musicians loose improvisations to create "Bitches Brew". Ornette Coleman pioneered free jazz, improvisation using no chord changes at all. And the genre continues...
** Jazz musicians spend HOURS working on improvisation. John Coltrane and [[Charlie Parker]] were well-known for extremely long practice sessions, sometimes lasting up to 14 hours.
** One of the landmarks in jazz improvisation came from saxophonist Coleman Hawkins's recording of Johnny Green's "Body and Soul" in 1939. Instead of playing the melody and then soloing, Hawkins stated the melody for about 4 bars and went on a long, intricate exploration of the chord changes for the rest of the verse and another one. Disliked by the general public at the time, Hawkins' solo is considered an evolutionary leap and a defining factor in modern jazz improvisation.
* In baroque and classical concertos there is a section called a cadenza, where the soloist goes on an unaccompanied flight of fancy, before leading the orchestra in to finish the cadenza. It used to be customary to improvise these, but in modern times, cadenzas are almost always written out beforehand, and in romantic concertos, the composer often writes the cadenza as well.
* Organists are expected to be able to improvise, and improvisation is a component of high-level exams in most conservatories.
* Blues, rock and to a lesser degree [[
* George Gershwin found out about his being booked to write and perform a new piece for an upcoming concert only three weeks before the concert was supposed to go on. The score he turned in for "Rhapsody in Blue," which he'd composed in those three weeks, had blank spaces where his piano solos were supposed to go, with the notation "Wait For Nod" to tell the conductor when to bring the rest of the orchestra back in.
* The Frogs' songs are often improvisation heavy, and sometimes this will include clearly flubbing a lyric, then quickly trying to find a way to make it still work, often while in character. One particularly obvious case of this is the following passage of "I'm Hungry": "You can't eat food with a bent throat! ''YOU'' try fooding eat - You eat... Yeah, ''you'' eat all right! I ''watch'' you eat! I never get no food...."
* In the music video for New Found Glory's cover of "Kiss Me", one of the band members hands a kid with a cape his guitar during the solo. The kid, who was one of the many extras that were recruited to simply run around the set in a crazed manner, just happened to be right in front of the band at that instant and froze in confusion, so he was given the guitar in an improvised moment.
* Ella Fitzgerald was performing "Mack the Knife" for her live Berlin album, but forgot all the words after the first verse. She quickly improvised new lines and a scat solo, keeping up perfectly with the rhythm section. The final cut was so good that she got a Grammy for it.
* The acoustic guitar solo at the start of "And You and I" by Yes was an unplanned improv. They were gearing up to start recording the track, and Steve Howe was doodling and checking the tuning on his guitar. Jon Anderson thought it sounded "beautiful" and signalled to Eddie Offord to start recording. The whole thing [[Throw It In|made it into the album mix]], including Eddie responding "OK" to Jon's signal after he starts the tape.
* Gerry Rafferty's [[One
* The vocal on [[Pink Floyd]]'s "The Great Gig in the Sky". It was originally planned and recorded as an instrumental track, but producer Alan Parsons thought it could do with something more, and suggested they get vocalist Clare Torry in for a vocals session. Roger Waters recalls the musical direction they gave her amounting to: "There's no lyrics. It's about dying — have a bit of a sing on that, girl." Clare had a listen through, and then overdubbed her vocals in one take. The entire vocal part was her own invention, improvised on the spot.
** This actually caused quite a lot of fuss. As Torry was merely hired as a session singer she received the Union rate of a mere £30 in return for one of the most iconic moments on one of the best selling albums of all time. In 2004 and she sued, claiming that as she improvised the whole take with no help from the band, she effectively wrote her own part and deserved both a co-writing credit and a share of the royalties. The case was settled out of court a year later, and she was awarded an undisclosed sum and all subsequent releases of the track have given her a writing co-credit.
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== Radio ==
* BBC radio show ''[[
* Central to the
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* Formalised in [[Theatresports]]
* ''The Complete Works of William Shakespeare '' by the [[Reduced Shakespeare Company]] basically writes this into the script with places that essentially say "you improvise here", as well as numerous audience participation moments. Every performance ''has'' to invoke this trope.
* [[Evelyn Evelyn]]: The "Ask Evelyn Evelyn" bit of the stage show. The sisters give their answers one word at a time, trying to form a full sentence by following up on each other's words... which mostly involves Amanda and Jason trying to think of words that the other could not possibly follow up on.
* Many comedic theatre troupes are known for developing sketches from improvisation. Some of the prominent ones are:
** Second City - Chicago, Toronto, other locations of varying permanence
** The Groundlings - Los Angeles
** UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade) Theatre - New York and LA, with roots in Chicago
** Boom Chicago - [[Non
** Bad Dog Theatre Company - Toronto
** Improv Asylum - Boston
** The Comedy Store Players- London. Many of the early cast of ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'', started off there, and the BBC radio show ''The Masterson Inheritance'' is basically one long Players sketch per episode.
* Australian comedy team [[The Umbilical Brothers]]. A few of their routines are improvised, including suggestions from the audience.
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** Note that all of Job Benjamin's own series' involve large amounts of improve, Dr. Kats, Home Movies, and more recently Archer.
** And then there's the episode where Peter, Quagmire and Joe try to set up an improv group. It doesn't go well.
{{quote|
* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons]]'', where an improv team is given "A Starbucks in Serbia" as their setting. "I'll have a coffee" "That'll cost $8. This is Starbucks!" (audience mildly amused) "... In Serbia!" (rocking laughter).
* All the dialog from ''[[Home Movies]]'' was done this way to make it sound like 3 kids talking in real life. Even the scripts only had small notes on them and jokes to fall back on if the voice actors couldn't think of anything to say.
* Paul Rugg's audition to provide the voice of [[Freakazoid!]] went way, ''way'' off-script. Nearly all of it was then animated as part of the first episode, "Dance of Doom."
** Some episodes were written with a Paul Harvey-type narrator. Paul Rugg, warming up his Paul Harvey impression, would say things like "smack me with a handle" or "I think there's a thuuuuuuumbtack under my fanny!" and, as before, was surprised to see it had been animated as part of the episode.
* In ''[[The
== Other ==
* [[Improv Everywhere]]. One of the more famous demonstrations of improv, it's a (now ''huge'')
* Literally every major city (at least, in America) usually has an improv comedy show. ''Second City'' has very much popularized the art that
== [[Web Original]] ==
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