After another class at DSI Comedy Theater focused on game of the scene, I’m inspired to write about the most classic comedy prop, the banana peel. My students learn about comedy and “game” in terms of stimulus & response. So, the banana peel. We know what it represents. We imagine comedic potential. We daydream possible outcomes. Even though we ALREADY know what happens. We look forward to the inevitable. But WHY? And who do we thank? The person who left our banana peel on the street or the poor sap who takes the spill? The stimulus or the response? You tell me. And now that we’ve started to diagnose game, WHEN someone falls on a banana peel how are they likely to interact with the rest of the world?
Repeatedly exploring that character quality while contrasting the ways it manifests = COMEDY!
Sidebar: Has ANYONE ever really truly fallen on a banana peel? (Our answer should be a resounding “No” — Myth Busters). But then, what does that mean about people who do? They project ignorance about the presence of a banana peel to exploit the peel, to achieve the comedic payoff of slipping on one.
Now you, slow down the thought process of a comic right up to her slip and FALL for comedy.
Sidebar: Some students have a hard time with the simple gag of FALLING on the banana peel because it’s what “the audience” expects to happen, and it may not feel like an Artistic choice. But in comedy what might be unexpected does not matter if what the audience wants trumps those unexpected choices.
What are your improv questions? I want to answer them.
