Playing the simple reality that your scene presents to you is always a strong and correct choice.

Don’t blame an outside force of higher status. You did whatever you did because of a flaw in your moral character that you’re either proud or ashamed of.

teachings. For an audience to laugh or cry, they must care. For them to care, they must believe.

Relationship scenes are not about clever premises; they’re about the friction between people behaving honestly. They de-emphasize the what. They are born not from words or clever initiations but from simple emotional reactions.

The trick with general agreement scenes is that both players share the same point of view and keep pushing and adding information. There won’t be a frustrated straight man to question their behavior, pull information from them, or provide them with the contrast to enable absurd behavior.

the audience quits believing in the reality of your scene, they’ll stop caring.

“You gotta know the rules before you can break them.” I’ve never liked

What all good responses have in common is this: they find value in the initiation.

Chicago also has more improv than any city in the world.