And this, after posting here about how Chicago improvisers look down on Boston improv troupes for always having to have a hook!  We’re all doing the best we can here.  Have an awesome show tonight!

Thanks Eric!  I still believe that the best improv is pure long-form, sans-hook.  But our town/scene isn’t big enough to consistently sell out audiences with just a Harold or Armando or doabunchascenesandshit. Even sketch is hard to sell.

But yeah, knowing how to work the system is advantageous, even if I secretly wish things were different.

But you know, a lot of the “famouses” from Chicago get known for their hook-y shows too, like Joe Bill for “Bassprov,“ Susan Messing for “The Real Live Brady Bunch” and both of them for the women-in-prison thing whose name escapes me.

So, it’s not like we’re in some isolated backwater situation here - in a world where people have been hearing about Bee Movie everyday on every channel at least once an hour for months, what’s the likelihood that people are thinking about live comedy with a much more limited ad budget?  I love pure longform too, but getting butts in seats is hard if your founders have never been on SNL…

My dad was on Letterman once. True story.

I think we’re talking about different things, here. I’m not disputing that there are shows with hooks and gimmicks nationwide, and I’m not claiming that those shows are any less artistic or “pure” because of their conceits.

These are the issues:

1) It is easier to get an audience in Boston if you have a hook (Gorefest, Code Duello, many more examples). Because we have limited runs of things, this is our only goal.  In larger cities and theaters, the goal is to get SUSTAINED audiences for long runs, which requires more than the hook.

2) If you do not have a hook, you must build your fanbase over time, via word-of-mouth and good reviews. This is possible in Boston (ImprovBoston Mainstage, The Walsh Brothers, Improv Asylum), but because our communities are small and less competitive, we don’t create or eat “buzz” in the way the larger cities do.  They feed off buzz because there’s so much white noise and mediocre stuff on stage (and thus, a higher demand for trusted opinions).

3) If you have a hook, you do not automatically earn the scorn and distrust of your fellow comedians across the globe. Nor are you guaranteed an audience with any longevity. Ultimately, the strength of your show stands on its own.

However.  All that said, in Chicago and New York the most successful and respected improv shows are the ones sans-gimmick. They are shining examples of teamwork, skill, and unique comic voices. Audiences flock to them because they are consistently good, not because their show sounds “intriguing” or they’re hoping to catch a glimpse of the next Amy Poehler.

Again: not saying that New York/Chicago/LA are better than Boston blah blah blah.  I’ve simply observed a pattern—an observation shared by performers in other cities—that our Boston community tends to create and export hook-heavy shows. I’ve also observed that the greatest shows I’ve ever seen are all from NY or Chicago, and they’re all premise-less organic long-form improv sets.

We may not know the cause but I’m not wrong to identify the pattern.

It can be a hard pill to swallow for us Bostonians, but the fact is, the larger cities fuel larger scenes, which in turn generate larger revenues which can support more diverse (and less marketable) shows based on the strength of their reputations.

By the way, none of this has anything to do with The Wasteland at this point.

Oh, I understood your point, but I guess I was just trying to inject a little sunshine.  I think Boston is (at least potentially) building up some of that infrasructure and competition.  From the beginning, my stated biggest hope for the Wasteland is that it acts like a throwndown gauntlet.  I hope people try to one up us or to take classes for the first time etc. etc.  I think that growing a scene takes some concerted effort, even if they’re also organic to a certain extent.  The Tribe shook things up at IB and IA, and now look - a new theatre for IB!  Completely ambitious multimedia shows!  To some extent, IB seems to be shifting away from improv, which may disprove my point, but maybe we generate a ton of sketch instead, or something even weirder.  It’s sort of nice to see the community get huge enough that people are starting to tuck into their garages and tinker to come up something really interesting.

In the end, I don’t think Boston is going to grow the entertainment industry opportunities that could attract and keep some of the grizzled improv gurus that are almost certainly the biggest thing Boston is waiting for in terms of sharpening up the improv scene.  I think the folks at IB Mainstage are fun and amazingly talened, but no one’s really getting paid to do that and that alone, which means that the focus of the leadership is always going to be divided.  Once an institution in Beantown grows a financial base that can adequately sustain a few good people whose sole focus is growing really skilled teams of improvisors (or individuals who plug-n-play nicely), I think that’s when a real seachange would happen.