What Happens Next?

Last night was the final meeting of my Improv class--as in "Improvisational Acting I." One of the first things I learned in the class was the important distinction between "improv" and "comedy": while improv often ends up being funny, that isn't necessarily the point. Improv is about being in the moment, making choices in a scene to just do what seems to come next--or, as my instructor explained last night, improv is about making a choice and then justifying it. Which, as one of my astute classmates noted, is essentially the reverse of what we're taught to do in the rest of our lives. It's a very Zen exercise. At least, it's supposed to be. The truth is that it often ends up being very funny. In fact, it's much funnier when someone isn't trying to be funny--the more the actors are trying, the less funny it ends up being. I know this because I have a habit of trying to be funny, and it often just comes out forced.