What to do with Bad Suggestions

Suggestions are Meant for Inspiration.

At the beginning of most improv shows, the improvisers solicit a suggestion from the audience. The suggestion is meant to inspire the improvisers. I always encourage performers that they don’t have to take the suggestion completely literally. If the suggestion is “umbrella,” be prepared to cringe if the scene starts out thusly:

PERFORMER A: *pantomimes holding an umbrella*

PERFORMER B: Hey, that’s a nice umbrella you have there!

Here’s one of the secrets of improv that I’ve learned over the past few decades:

Most of the time the audience doesn’t even remember the suggestion by the end of the set.

Certainly they don’t if it’s a great set. And I’ve never heard an audience member say, “Gosh, that was a really great scene about an umbrella!” But if the improvisers allow the suggestion to inspire the scene, I have heard things like, ‘Gosh, that was a really great scene about longing. I wonder if the improviser was inspired by that one Dr. Who GIF.”

Can I Get Another Suggestion?

No matter how great your audiences are, there is going to be at least one time in your improv career that you have to deal with a suggestion that is in the most innocuous case boring and—in the worst-case—offensive, uncomfortable, or just downright gross. Improv is supposed to be fun for you, your fellow performers, and the audience. As such, you should set your troupe up for the most-possible success right off the bat. That sometimes means avoiding a suggestion.

But What About the Purity of Improv?

I get what you’re saying. I don’t like the idea of not taking the first suggestion you hear any more than you do. Ideally, all of the suggestions you get are brilliant, inspiring, and lead to amazing improv scenes. But we all know you’re going to get “pineapple,” a disproportionate amount of the time, and you’re going to get “dildo” at least once.

Don’t Mock the Audience.

It breaks my heart when an improvisers asks for a suggestion, the audience gives it to them, they don’t like it, so they attack or tease the audience. Please, oh please, don’t do that. You’ve effectively trained everyone in the audience to not help you the next time you need to solicit a suggestion. They may already think that they’re going to be humiliated for speaking up, and you just demonstrated their worst fear to be true.

That said, if someone gives a suggestion that’s hateful or that marginalizes a group of people, shut that fucker down with all of your hilarious witticism. If the club owner has your back (we do), kick them out of the show entirely and ask them to kindly never come back. There’s no need to tolerate folks like that, and the house will have a much better energy without them in it.

So, How Do I Handle a Bad Suggestion?

Here are a few ways to handle a less-than-desirable suggestion.

1. Ignore it. I don’t particularly like this solution, but I’ve seen improvisers do it. If you heard it, the odds are good that everyone in the audience heard it. Simply ignoring the suggestion may make the audience trust you less. But it is a quick-and-easy way to avoid the bad prompt.

2. Dismiss it. Instead of ignoring it completely, acknowledge it and quickly dismiss it. “If you would have been here last night, you would have seen us do an amazing set about dildos, but how about something else?” Or, “Yes, a suggestion like pineapples, but not that.” I don’t hate this method, but tread lightly. If you use it too often, it might appear that you’re just fishing for a “perfect” prompt.

3. Redirect it. Use the suggestion as a springboard to another, better suggestion. “I heard pineapple. Pineapples are yellow. What’s something else that is yellow?” I like this method.

4. Preempt it. The best defense can be a good offense. Take the opportunity to give the house more direction in your ask-fors. You’re a lot more likely to get pineapple when you say, “Give me a word,” than when you say, “Give me a word that sounds like ‘bilbo.’”