Improv is a road
A conversation with Nautankibaaz Improv Comedy’s 2nd year player Jayant Chopra
Improv is a neverending process. It’s vital to listen not only to the voice of a guru who has been teaching for 30 years, but also up-and-coming students who are blossoming into their own and finding out what improv means to them. Jayant Chopra from Nautankibaaz Improv Comedy (NIC) in India, always the eager learner, says, “Improv is not a hobby, but a road”. Jayant shares his insights on his journey, on playing low status, and on playing with international names in online improv.
Aree Witoelar: Jayant, what is your road to improv?
Jayant Chopra: In February 2019, I found Ankur Sardana sir on a not so famous social media app in India (meetup). I messaged him. I want to join you. He said, “sure” but first come and see what we do. I attended their show. Before the show sir came to meet me personally and told me to look closely. That was my first ever improv show which was amazing. In the end, NIC welcomes the audience to play with them. I jumped up and went there without any knowledge about the basics. There was “no, but”, and what not but what a feeling it was. I took workshops and classes from him. I just had this deep desire to stay connected with them. It took time. In December, they asked me how will you make it to Gurugram all the way from Delhi. I said I will do it. I started attending their practice sessions learning from them. After the first show I attended, I became their fan and I am still a fan of them. All the things they do to make a show successful.
AW: Are you considering yourself a ‘fan’? Do you feel that you are already a big part of NIC?
JC: I am a fan of all the NIC members. Their open-mindedness burnt my narrow mind. The best thing I have experienced with NIC folks is that they treat everyone as a participant. They even made me realize that the audience are participants and not just an audience who’ll applaud after the show ends. The show is completely based on audience suggestions. As an audience, they give you space to realize what is happening in the moment. As a member, they told me to reflect on my inner-self. They say that failure is what makes it fun. When I began performing with them, I was weird, they accepted it. I have rigid body movements to which they say that you’re still afraid of accepting your body in front of us or the audience. They tell me that we are, what we are and accepting it will do wonders on stage.
AW: Are you now at a satisfactory point of accepting who you are?
JC: I am a lot less afraid of being who I am. I am still improving and learning new skills which supports the scene like miming and character development and I am enjoying it. A wise man(you), told me to focus on the journey and not the destination.
AW: Absolutely. But it’s easy for me to say clichés like it’s the journey not the destination, and that failing is good. When I bomb one show — a scene, even — it hurts. It took a looong time before I can accept failures and not punish myself.
JC: Hahaha! I am happy that I am on the right track then. It still happens with me. I bomb a scene and the guilt… just gets on me. I have also learnt that support provided by the team helps a lot in getting over that. They help you recover and all my seniors always tell me to enjoy the scene I am a part of. We are there to tell you if a scene dips for certain reasons.
AW: When you say “improv starts as a hobby but then it is a road”. Everyone has their own interpretations. For me, in the beginning years it was absolute fun. But as I grew more into it, it gets challenging and it chips away at the freewheeling fun a bit. What does “improv as a road” mean to you?
JC: I am still in my beginning years. It’s been one and a half years. So, before the pandemic, when we used to do offline shows and jams. My mind was always so focused to make the other person feel good while he/she is performing with me. I usually played low status characters as it gives an upper hand to your partner, in my opinion. Now, during this pandemic, when I go to multiple international jams where we even take time to learn each other’s name. I had to get out of my comfort zone.
AW: How do names take you out of your comfort zone?
JC: I learn names to correctly pronounce it for the next time. I have this tick to pronounce all names correctly be it any language. In India, it is easier to learn names as most of them are based on our mother tongue, Hindi.
When I am zooming with international people, most of the people prefer to call by name. I have seen few people don’t Zap to me as they find it difficult to pronounce my name. I kept my Zoom name as JC so that people won’t have any difficulty in calling me out. But Jay Sukow sir, told me to embrace my name and keep it as it is. So, I changed the zoom name to my full name.
AW: It’s interesting to think that even learning names is already a hidden status exchange. You changed your name in service to others. The same way you choose low status characters.
JC: It was actually made easy because I have jammed with improvisers having more than 10 years of experience. They taught me to get on with the scene and not worry about providing or finding comfort, the scene will make the path for you once you are fully immersed in it. This is how I landed on the statement (“improv as a road”).
AW: I believe surrendering high status and giving comfort to your partner have very honorable intentions. At the same time, I also believe one doesn’t need to appease your partner all the time. That can lead to the same scenes over and over. My teacher Katy Schutte once said “give them something they want, but did not expect”. Something that they didn’t know they wanted. There’s a bit of mischief and playfulness in there. That gets even your high-status partner to break a smile.
JC: That is such a wonderful statement. I agree with it. I did have repeated characters with slight changes in the scene but it started to get boring to play and even my team told me to start taking risks. Trust us, we’ll handle them. Even, you guided me to say “yes, and” but there’s not one way of doing it. I have started to take some risks now, I play with status just a little lower than my scene partner, and not all the way to 1(one) like I used to do.