Achieving a depth of character: long-form improv practices in US comedy podcast culture

Abstract

This article examines the specificities of long-form improvised comedy performance (that is, long-form improv) within podcasting. It demonstrates how the podcast medium’s technologies, together with related cultural conventions, motivate performers to innovate long-form improv techniques distinct from those applied in theatrical contexts. So as to exemplify this process, the article draws on the content of the Los Angeles-based podcast network Earwolf, as well as from evidence of production pertaining to this content. With reference to Earwolf series including Comedy Bang! Bang!, Hollywood Handbook and With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus as examples, the article identifies and details three distinct long-form improv practices that podcasting contexts have influenced. These are: (1) the development of episode formats centred on interview and discussion; (2) the adoption of relaxed and informal approaches to performance; and, (3) the use of serialisation as a means to narratively link multiple separate recorded performances. Via this analysis, the article contributes to a nascent body of research concerning the increasingly prominent comedy podcast sector. Through examining long-form improv practices within podcasting contexts specifically, the article furthermore makes a unique contribution to the field of academic literature concerning improvised comedy.

Keywords:

• Improvised comedy
• podcast
• technology
• production
• narrative

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 For example, in the case of Anchorman and Curb Your Enthusiasm, as part of a production process labeled ‘retroscripting’, actors were enabled to improvise interactions and conversations in the tradition of long-form improv. Matt Fotis’ (2014, 147–177) account of how long-form improv practices have influenced film and television comedy provides these details, among others.

2 Long-form improv is further defined by its opposition to ‘short-form improv’. In contrast to long-form improv, short-form improv performances typically place little emphasis on the substantial development of character and narrative; short-form improv performances are instead typically comprised of a collection of unrelated short scenes and/or games, as exemplified by the popular television format Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which serves as an enduring showcase for the mode.

3 CBB host Scott Aukerman operates as Earwolf’s chief creative officer, having co-founded the company.

4 Exemplifying the cultural ties between Earwolf and the UCB, Aukerman launched CBB (then titled Comedy Death-Ray) at a time that he was hosting a long-running weekly stand-up show (also titled Comedy Death-Ray) at the theatre.

5 See Berry (2016b, 10–11, 17) for a similar conceptualisation of the podcasting medium. These perspectives reflect more general understandings within media studies concerning the defining of media, whereby a given medium is defined by both its technologies and distinct cultural practices that have developed in relation to its technologies (see Gitelman 2006, 7; Jenkins 2006, 13–14; Smith 2018, 11–49).

6 Prior to the 1980s, theatre improv shows tended to be comprised solely of games or unconnected scenes (Fotis 2014, 56).

7 See itunescharts.net for iTunes podcast download performance data for these titles.

8 This is not to assert here that listeners actually do always listen to podcasts as part of multitasking processes. As Berry (2016b, 12–13) suggests, some listeners opt to consume podcasts in a more ‘focused’ way, detached from other tasks.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anthony N. Smith

Anthony N. Smith is Lecturer in Television Theory at the University of Salford, UK. He has published articles in New Media & Society, Television & New Media and Critical Studies in Television. He is also co-editor of Storytelling in the Media Convergence Age: Exploring Screen Narratives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and author of Storytelling Industries: Narrative Production in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).