In defense of improv: Why Jennifer Biesty should have remained on ‘Top Chef’
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- April
- 25
I understand “Top Chef” is a cooking competition, but I don’t care how bad Jennifer Biesty and Stephanie Izard’s losing dish was in Wednesday night’s Elimination Challenge. The improv purist in me knows that either Antonia Lofaso or Lisa Fernandes should have gone home instead of Jennifer for savagely violating what might be the comedy format’s most sacred two words: “Yes, and…”
The late Del Close helped open The Second City theater patronized by the cheftestants on the most recent episode. Like many improv gurus, Close taught his disciples—which included Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and countless other comedy icons—to build off premises established by others, not refute such ideas.
In other words, if someone on stage says she’s heading to a baseball game, and you say, “No, you’re not; you’re my dentist from the future,” you’re not only devaluing your scene partner (read: being a jerk) and halting scene progression but also giving the audience reason to doubt any subsequent premise. It’s pretty much the worst sin possible in an entertainment genre that otherwise has few rules.
Given the Second City audience suggestions to create a plate using “magenta,” “drunk” and “Polish sausage,” Antonia and Lisa only really came through with the color of their chorizo dish, with Lisa complaining:
I’m not gonna dumb down my food because of what some drunken schmuck screamed out in the audience.
Meanwhile, Stephanie and Jennifer not only maximized the potential of all their suggestions (“orange,” “turned-on” and “asparagus”) to create their meal, they served it with a presentation so provocative and hilarious that even head judge Tom Colicchio was cracking up at their complete commitment to the idea.
To add insult to injury, Jennifer (pictured right) was quoted at the beginning of the episode about her continued desire to win the competition “for Zoi,” her girlfriend and fellow Season 4 constant.
How do I know and why do I care about all these improv rules? In my spare time, I’m a mediocre improv comedy student at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, founded by Poehler and three other comedians—Matt Besser, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh. And even though I don’t always know what to do on stage, I certainly know what not to do. Rejecting suggestions from my scene partners and the audience are a massive, fundamental no-no.
True, übercomedy aficionados might argue that audience suggestions are mere launching points for improvisers, who often are told to start scenes by going from “A to C” (taking a suggestion, thinking of a second idea that’s related, then using a third idea related to the second idea). But in an episode that showed how Antonia and Lisa showed so much disdain for an organic idea that they rejected outright, that was enough for me to want to see one of them pack their knives… and take an improv class.
(Photos by Chuck Hodes of NBC/Universal.)
This entry was posted
on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 4:35 pm by Chris Serico.
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