Amazon reviews Truth in Comedy...

[Steev]

I'm sure I'm not the first to discover this, but I semi-randomly stumbled across Amazon.Com's review of Charna's book Truth in Comedy today:

Amazon.com
Who would have ever thought that learning the finer points of improvisation could be such fun? The "Harold," an innovative improvisational tool, helped Saturday Night Live's Mike Myers and Chris Farley, George Wendt (Norm on "Cheers") and many other actors on the road to TV and film stardom. Now it is described fully in this new book for the benefit of other would-be actors and comics. The "Harold" is a form of competitive improv involving six or seven players. They take a theme suggestion from the audience and free-associate on the theme, creating a series of rapid-fire one-liners that build into totally unpredictable skits with hilarious results. The teams compete with scoring based on applause. The "Harold" is a fun way to "loosen up" and learn to think quickly, build continuity, develop characterizations and sharpen humor.

Hee.

 

[Bernie]

Oh my god. Retards. I had to got to amazon myself, to make sure this wasn't a joke. I'm writing them a letter. It sort of makes me laugh, on how far off they are, but at the same time it's sad.

-Bernie

 

[Steev]

The Harold

My favorite line is:
"The teams compete with scoring based on applause."

Wheepers.

 

[goldfish boy]

Originally posted by Steev
The "Harold" is a form of competitive improv involving six or seven players. They take a theme suggestion from the audience and free-associate on the theme, creating a series of rapid-fire one-liners that build into totally unpredictable skits with hilarious results. The teams compete with scoring based on applause.

Describes Cagematch NYC semi-accurately, but outside of that, I would hate to see any Harolds inspired by this description....

 

[Rkozlowski]

Audiences Voting on the Harold

From the August 16, 1985 edition of the Chicago Tribune, in one of the earliest articles on ImprovOlympic by Rick Kogan, who was present at a Harold show:

"Close opened the proceedings with a typically eclectic, intelligent and barbed 15 minutes in which he managed to hit a dozen topics, from the life of cats to Carl Sagan, 'the Barry Manilow of physics.' Then it was on to the first of the three competing teams. In order, these groups were Halpern-Close student-performers were Baron's Barracudas, Apocalypso and Pigwings.

After being given a theme by audience suggestion, each group proceeded to explore it by means of such improvisational techniques as time dashes, monologues, musical spots and split scenes. At the conclusion of each group's set, roughly 40 minutes long, the group was graded by the audience on a 1-6 scoring system in four categories -- intelligence, theme, structure and teamwork."

My guess is, since pre-Harold ImprovOlympic featured competitions, it just continued when Del joined Charna and they created the IO-Harold...I haven't found out when voting in Harold shows ended or if there ever was a vote by volume of applause, but then again, I haven't looked for that information in earnest.

Rob

 

[goldfish boy]

Re: Audiences Voting on the Harold

Originally posted by Robkplayground
"the group was graded by the audience on a 1-6 scoring system in four categories -- intelligence, theme, structure and teamwork."

I wonder whether and how the work would be different if Harolds were still judged by the audience according to those categories....

 

[Steev]

Wow...

Ok, so I guess the description is just a bit dated...
But there's still a bit o' humor in that, I guess.

 

[Steev]

More babble...

I understand that the review may have been accurate at the time. I just get a kick out of it because it seems so antithetical to any Harold description that might be written today.

Kinda like reading an etiquette book for ladies written in the early 1900's.

 

[DanIzzo]

George Wendt?

Did he really Harold? At I/O? That seems exceedingly wrong chronologically.

Maybe my timeline is just messed up.

 

[mullaney]

The book didn't come out until 1993 or 1994 long after the competition aspect of IO had been put to rest (before I ressurected it with the CageMatch). Further, I don't remember the book mentioning the competition part of the early IO shows. So the review does beg the question, what book did the reviewer actually read?

 

[goldfish boy]

Originally posted by mullaney
I don't remember the book mentioning the competition part of the early IO shows. So the review does beg the question, what book did the reviewer actually read?

TIC does end with a "chapter" called "Harold As A Team Sport." I say "chapter" because the book just seems to stop suddenly just as the chapter's getting started, as if they ran out of pages or something. I guess if the reviewer only read the chapter headings and used a bit of imagination, he or she might have extrapolated the competition thing.

 

[William T McEvoy]

Hey write your own book description for Improv Review

We're an Amazon.com associate, and are currently in the process of building our bookstore. Write your own description of Truth in Comedy and send it to me, William.McEvoy@improvreview.com, or post it here, and we'll use the best one. Winner will get a lifetime subscription to Improv Review.