Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
If you live in New York, LA, or Chicago, you know someone who does improvisational comedy. If you’re reading this, it’s probably you. There are the classes, the clever team names, and the one-time-only performances that can’t be recreated. It’s a true art form, one that can be fun, exhilarating, and hilarious for both the performers and the audience when done right. And if you’ve ever been to a beginner-level improv show, you know it can be done wrong, too.
With places like the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre booming, improv is truly having a moment. So it’s no surprise to see that reflected back in films, especially by writer/performers so well-versed in the community. Mike Birbiglia wrote, directed, and starred in one of the year’s buzziest films, Don’t Think Twice. The cast included Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, and Kate Micucci, in a story about a group of close-knit comedy pals dead-set on making it to Weekend Live, the film’s version of Saturday Night Live.
Each character, to varying degrees, tries to get an audition or a writing job at the show, when they’re not on-stage at a small black box theater doing improv with each other. Don’t Think Twice is firmly planted within the improv community. For most of the group, this is what they eat, breathe, and sleep. So while this team has been together for years, the competition between them can’t help but seep in. That dreadful, sinking feeling that your friends might be more successful than you, but why? The comparing, the judging, the putting on a smile when inside they are dying. Don’t Think Twice shows improv, and comedy as a whole, as the grind that it can be. It’s a job, one that sometimes you have to force yourself to do, even when you’re really not feeling it — oh, and the audience can tell.
Don’t Think Twice shines a light on the fact that sometimes you can perform every week with the same group of people, you can trust them and rely on them and laugh with them, but that space might be the single thing you have in common with them. You know you can count on these people to come through with a super funny line, but can you count on yourself to not begrudge them for it?
Other People is a film specifically not about improv, but still manages to say so much about it in just a few short scenes. Written and directed by Chris Kelly, a performer and current co-head writer of Saturday Night Live, Other People is the story very closely modeled on Kelly’s own experience of a young man who moves back home to take care of his sick mom. On a family trip out to New York, he hops back on stage with his crew, in a scene that plays so genuinely funny and touching, as most of the movie does.
But the thing about that improv scene is that is seems so much more fun than the ones portrayed in Don’t Think Twice. It feels safer for any audience member to jump on stage and participate in the silliness; like the group is on the same page, working together in tandem and counting their teammates’ rounds of applause as a win for the whole group, not measuring who racked up the most LOLs from the crowd that night.
Post-show, main character David (Jesse Plemons) heads to the bar with his family and the improv group, but the topic of improv doesn’t seem to come up at all between his friends. Instead, his friend asks how his mom is doing, and after slowly revealing the grim truth, the friends are so viscerally emotional about the situation. This one interaction makes these comedy friends feel so much more like family than the group we see together nearly 24/7 in Don’t Think Twice. While Don’t Think Twice is not without some deeply personal and heartbreaking moments, you can’t help but think that if those characters found out a teammate would be out of town for some time, they’d have no problem stepping into the limelight.
The characters in Other People have other lives, other worries. Improv is a fun hobby for them, a release, and a pastime they enjoy coming together to do in their spare time, as most of us view comedy. Their entire world does not revolve around it, as is the case in Don’t Think Twice. Many performers will relate to the crappy feeling that the entire world of comedy is not always a big hoot, especially for those stepping on stage time and time again; it’s hard to sympathize with someone who is stressed about being goofy enough. Both movies face the awkward head on, with Other People finding comedy in sad situations, and Don’t Think Twice finding sad situations in comedy.
The thing about the way these movies use improv is that they’re both right. Other People so brilliantly displays how improv can be used to find the happiness in sad times, while Don’t Think Twice is able to bring out the bummer side of something that should be fun. Improv is a side project, a dream, and an escape for so many people, and it’s refreshing to see it portrayed in such different ways in two standout films of the year. Just remember the message they both share is to enjoy the moment, because it will never happen again.
