What’s in a name or a word? Shakespeare write that a rose by any other name is just as sweet. Whilst this may be true, Shakespeare wrote this idea before the age of social media or marketing, and nowadays name and brand recognition is everything.
If you look up groups that perform improvised theatre you’ll find all kinds of names and many of these are plays on words. Maybe it’s because improvisers like to be funny or clever, but a huge amount of groups have funny and punny names. You don’t find this with other entities or products as much as you do with improv and I’m not sure why this is the case.
When it comes to breakfast you don’t pour Udderly Great Milk ok your CeReal Deal breakfast cereal. Nor do you use your Royal Flush toilet or wash your hands using the Force It tap company branded taps.
Now maybe it’s a performing arts thing, and yes certainly if you go to comedy clubs or film companies you’ll find a few more in joke style names, but not to the degree you do in improv. So for every Sir Laughs A Lot Comedy Club, or Clean Slate Film Co it feels like there are 20 puntastic improv group names.
Extreme Improv isn’t really a pun name or a play on words on the face of it. It’s improv with the descriptor that it’s “extreme”. But in the history of the company it was originally known as The ImProDigies (yes stylised with those capitals) based on that the members were the child prodigies of improv. I can’t say that we were a take on the music group the Prodigy as truthfully I don’t know any of their songs, but it was at least something I was aware of when I was searching for a name idea.
When the name changed to Extreme Improv it was because a one off show idea and format took off, and eventually the show name overtook the company name. But there is a missing link in the middle here. Before it became Extreme Improv, the show that lead to this name was Extreme Championship Improv, which itself was a play on the Extreme Championship Wrestling name.
ECW was like World Championship Wrestling, but was more ‘extreme’. In that sense I envisioned the original Extreme Championship Improv show as a harder, faster, grittier short form improv show with more focus on innovating new games just as ECW was innovating in wrestling.
Early shows had a smattering of games where players would have to down beers or drink hot sauce as part of the game and it was a gimmick that didn’t last when the name became permanent. Doesn’t mean they won’t ever return, but for me the innovation of new games and doing things with video and audio that hadn’t been done before, or at least commonly was more of my justification of it being extreme.
And of course that ultimately Extreme Improv is a cool sounding brand name, and if anyone questions if it means we’ll be set on fire or chained to lions I point out that Google and Wii are big brand names that people don’t understand the name of, and if they if that doesn’t satisfy I just say it’s because it’s ‘extremely funny’.
But is there a bigger issue with improv companies and naming out there that still isn’t really addressed? I think there is, and it’s the word improvisation and it’s many shortened terms. Impro, improv, prov and so on.
In my experience most general members of the public need clarification on what improv is in the first place. I will often put ‘Extreme Improv Comedy Show’ on posters knowing that people understand ‘comedy’ but they don’t understand ‘improv’. I think every improviser understands the dilemma of having to tell people ‘our show is like Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ Just so people know we mean we’re doing a show which is made up on the spot.
An issue we have for getting the general public to understand the term is that we can’t even settle on the terminology ourselves. If you want to see comedy it’ll be called stand up comedy, music will be called music and theatre will be called theatre. Yes there are variations such as musical theatre being shortened down to a musical, but people understand this easier as it’s clear that music is the main feature of the event.
With improv most people think of an improvised sketch show based around games, but that’s because did the Whose Line connection. Improv could be improvised plays or musicals or improvised music.
But we also say both Impro and improv which would be like saying musica and musical. Try saying to your friends that you went to see a musica and see how confused they get. Want to take it to another step? Start referring it as ‘cal’ as they is the equivalent to say ‘prov’.
I went to see a ‘twocal’ last night…said no one to describe a two person musical.
Did you see the puppetcal? Asked zero people after seeing the puppet musical Avenue Q.
Our terminology is confusing audiences, and whilst within the fullness of time more and more people will get there and understand the terms, having lots of ways of describing improv is potentially a barrier to improv becoming more mainstream.
If you have a show which is an improvised soap opera and you call it Soaprov it may sound clever but it may be holding your show back.
I don’t fully know the solution to this marketing and branding issue and I predict it won’t be settled on any time soon. It may be that within the fullness of time a dominant term conquers just as VHS won over Betamax or Blu-Ray beat out HD-DVDs, but if we stick with name marketing we’ve seen examples of how the Wii meaning ‘we’ connected with people, but it’s successor the Wii U just baffled people and was often pointed to as a main cause of the products failure to sell.
My suspicion is that improv will last whilst Impro will not. This is based on improv being the bigger term in the US and impro is more of a U.K. term. Also with the rise in the previously mentioned ideas like Twoprov that leans more on the side of improv. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone say their show is a Twopro.
Improv is also a two syllable term where as improvisation has five. Musical Theatre as a term as six, but that’s why people will say musical or play.
Ultimately any and all terms can be used, and just as some will say films whilst others say movies it is a bit potato-potarto and the main solution may be that whatever phrase we use as individuals we all work to help educate audiences what Impro or improv, prov or improvisation means for the benefit of making it mainstream for everyone.
For more articles on improv check out the Improv Section. Also check out the many streaming improv shows each week on the Extreme Improv YouTube channel.
