Form Without Form

What does “good” look like? If you’re familiar with the four stages of competence, you know about unconscious competence. It’s when someone has attained a level of mastery to the point they are able to do the thing without even thinking about it. It’s muscle memory, second nature, instinctual. In his book The Art of Learning, Josh Waitzkin describes it as “form to leave form,” which is learning a technique the “right” way and then internalizing it so deeply it can be used without the rigidity of the structure it came with.

I believe I witnessed it tonight.

I’m at And Camp in Copake, NY with campers from all over the country plus as least one Scot and one German. After dinner this evening, we all gathered in the Playhouse to watch the teachers put on a show. This cast is bananas:

• Will Hines

• Shannon O'Neill

• Sebastian Conelli

• Billy Merritt

• Elana Fishbein

• Ray Cordova

• Donald Chang

• Michael Lutton

• Sarah Claspell

• Jim Woods

• Andy Wiggins

• Charlie Nicholson

Sure, this is a murderer’s row of people who “get game” and are just flat out funny, but the thing that blew me away was how seemingly effortless it was for them to do their thing. The setups, the framing, the callbacks… it all seemed so organic. Then I realized it was because it was organic.

I’ve heard people describe their improv taste in a way which pits ‘UCB-style, gamey’ improv against ‘slow, organic, Chicago-style’ improv. The falseness of this dichotomy was crystal clear for anyone watching the show tonight. There was genuine discovery at every turn in this show and every “rule” of improv was broken. There was also some of the clunkiest, chaotic edits I’ve ever seen, and yet, it still all worked. Every bit of it was a treat.

I’ve been to some UCB Harold nights in LA and I’ve watched many attempted Harolds in my home theatres and they typically go off the rails right around the same time everyone on the back line stops listening and starts thinking. You’ve probably seen it - they stop smiling and their eyes start scanning the floor or ceiling, as if inspiration is going to burst through like a Kool-Aid man full of second beat ideas.

But that didn’t happen tonight.

There was no Harold to derail because they were just playing. Instead of following a structure, they followed the fun and it worked because they are all masters of the building blocks of good improv. Beyond mastery, they have internalized those building blocks so deeply they are able to use them without structure. It was form to leave form. It was unconscious competence. And it was good.

That’s the goal.