Improv theater, where the audience triggers the jokes

It did not look to be a promising evening.

The crowd at the Manila Improv Fest was a somber-looking lot. The Philippine Education Theater Association (PETA) Phinma Theater’s lobby looked a mortician's version of a festival. Everyone was reserved and dignified. You could practically feel the chill.

This isn't the ideal kind of audience energy needed on the night of an improvisational theater performance, or improv for short. It's the kind of show where, though there is a basic idea or theme, the actors spontaneously invent everything as they go along.

Such a set-up can make for a surprising and hilarious show, but it works best with an audience open to anything.

Fortunately, things began to thaw once inside the theater.

Opening act

The transformation was complete once Aryn Cristobal of Silly People’s Improv Theater (SPIT), together with the other Filipino actors, took to the stage for a start-up game. The crowd went from poised to boisterous while loudly participating in everything, even the risqué jokes.

It suddenly it felt like a noontime show in the middle of the night.

But SPIT wasn't the only troupe on the stage that night. Some foreign improv groups got to demo their improv chops, among them the Beijing and Xiamen Improvs. Although these groups are based in China, their members were not all necessarily Chinese. Both groups had Caucasian actors.

The first two acts by Beijing and Xiamen Improvs showcased short-form improv, which is based on theater games. They started out by asking the audience for suggestions for their show. They may ask for anything: your favorite genre, favorite movie, or even just a word to start their act with. A new game will begin after an actor says, “End scene.”

Show highlight

However, it was our very own SPIT Manila that stole the show, and this isn't just national pride talking. Unlike the foreign improv troupes, the Filipino actors did long-form improv, coming up with an hour-long show based on a single theme.

During SPIT’s turn on stage, they asked the audience to blurt out any word they liked. Somebody shouted “period.”

And so the journey of “period” began. The group composed, on the fly, different sets of narratives based on every definition of the word: from “period,” as in "dot", to a woman’s monthly period.

There were some slow moments in the show. But even though all the improv groups were shooting from the hip, they certainly hit more than they missed.

It is very easy to surrender to the energy of an improv show and turn as silly as the actors as laugh and react and laugh again. After all, in improv, the audience is part of the act—and nobody need worry about their not being in the mood for long.

Period! End scene. — DVM/HS/VC, GMA News