The Best Object Work in Improv

Making Soup is the best object work in the game.

Soup is better than chopping carrots. Chopping carrots is part of making soup. Therefore, soup dominates carrots.

Soup is better than omelettes. Omelettes can burn. With soup you can let go. If you forget about your object work, you don’t break reality.

Soup is multicultural. I can start a scene with soup and end up anywhere in the world — in (a) Paris or (b) Taipei, (c) a grounded scene with an Irish family, or (d) a fairy tale with a witch. It depends on whether I put in (a) crème fraîche, (b) dumplings, (c) potatoes or (d) frogs (this can be in Paris too).

Soup can place you at Home, Work or Play. Yes, I make soup in my play time.

Soup is a security blanket. When you don’t know what to do, you can go to the soup and stir it. Soup is the glass of drink that you hold at parties to save you in awkward situations.

I never thought about this until 2017. I started every scene subconsciously making some kind of soup.

Improvisers must be aware of their patterns and break it. So at the end of 2017, I gave myself a new year’s resolution: NO SOUP FOR YOU!

It has been 2 very difficult years for me.

But now it’s over.

SOUP IS BACK!