5 Things Chris Rock Teaches Us About Improvising through an Unexpected Moment
The Oscars 2022. Will Smith slaps the host Chris Rock in an unplanned and unprecedented moment that left everyone flabbergasted. Yet Chris Rock teaches us quite a bit about getting through the moment with Improvisation.
How did Chris Rock keep the show going? How did he maintain that upbeat energy in the face of what had just happened?
Almost all the focus of this spontaneous moment has been on Will Smith. People are on all sides of the issue. I however simply want to focus simply on on how Chris Rock’s improv skills showed up and what they can teach us.
I do not want to discuss what was right or wrong. Let’s look at how things unfolded onstage after it happened.
We will ‘Yes and’ what happened after the slap.
Improv Skills to the Rescue
I think it’s very safe to say Chris Rock did not know this moment was coming.
He was unprepared in any logical or experiential sense. Who could have been? So this was very much a real life improvisational moment. And the fact that it happened during a globally televised show where Chris was the host merged ‘real life improv’ and ‘performance improv’.
In other words, it was real life that happened during a performance.
I should also say that Chris Rock is primarily a Stand-Up comedian, where his routines are meticulously crafted and rehearsed. To me, this makes his moving from crafted and rehearsed material into an emergency improvised set of moments all the more impressive.
Let’s take a look at what Improv Principles we can glean from Chris Rock’s navigation of these needfully improvised moments.
1. Call Out the Truth
After being slapped (and slapped hard, it looked like), Chris must be completely shocked and surprised. So he does something brilliant that sometimes we forget to do onstage when faced with something different. He simply calls out the truth of the moment.
With a smile on his face, and upbeat energy, he says, “Oh wow. Wow! Will smith just slapped the sh*t out of me.”
This is the ‘Yes’ in ‘Yes And’. He ‘yesses’ and acknowledges the truth of this crazy moment.
This acknowledgment of the truth of the moment instantly puts the audience at ease. Chris handled it so smoothly, many people feel like this had been planned… a comedy bit built into the show.
Sometimes when something happens in an improv scene, we want to ignore it, or sweep it under the rug. This is true for ‘mistakes’ or uncomfortable moments, or even disagreements between actors fighting for control.
But often calling it out tastefully can often put everyone at ease, and get the actors on the same page. Almost like a reset button.
A very simple example of this would be if you didn’t hear something your scene partner said, you don’t need to pretend you heard it! You may think “my character should have heard this, but my mind wandered!”
You can call it out and say in character, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.” Then your scene partner can repeat it, and then you are free to ‘Yes And’ from there.
2. Stay in Character
Chris Rock stays in character. Chris is the host of the show, and it’s his job to guide the audience through whatever happens. And so he does.
He lets us know that everything is ok. He doesn’t even skip a beat immediately following the slap. He just calls it out right away.
It gets more awkward when Will yells out from his seat after the slap. This is where everyone becomes aware that something has gone very wrong. It becomes clear that this is not supposed to be happening.
But Chris maneuvers nimbly through the moment. He could have easily escalated the situation, or walked off the stage, or even called ‘cut’ (don’t ever do that!), but he didn’t. He stayed in character as the host.
3. Assess and Course Correct
Immediately following the vocal outburst, there’s a moment where you can almost read Chris’s thoughts.
He’s about to make another joke, and then realizes this is maybe not the best course in this situation.
He says “I could, oh… ok”
When he says “I could…” I feel like I can literally see Chris Rock’s mind with all kinds of improvisedcomebacks and clever things to say. But instead, Chris makes a choice to not go there. He’s read the situation and knows pushing forward is not the way to go. He assesses very quickly and course corrects.
Chris stays on his toes and is nimble enough to know when it’s time to stop himself and move on. He’s also using Advance and Expand… he’s already Expanded by calling git out, but he chooses to Advance into the next step to get the show back online.
Learn about Advance and Expand here.
4. Keep it positive
This is very much the opposite of Fanning the Flames. Remember fanning the flames in real life is bad. Fanning the flames in a scene is great because it adds drama and throws salt on the wound. Not the best approach here, and Chris Rock catches himself.
In real life, keep it positive when you can, in a scene while playing other characters, fan the flames
Learn how to Fan the Flames here.
5. Keep Going! The Show Must Go On!
Chris looks around for a moment to see if someone is coming to help him.
No one does. Everyone is shocked and confused – as is Chris. But he pushes on, moving things along.
The show is bigger than us. An audience is a living, breathing organism made up of many individuals. But having done thousands of improv shows, I really feel like every audience and show is a different organism made up of its parts, but coming together in a new and unique way.
This is a wonderful part of show business and of doing improv shows. And no matter what happens, that show or audience is bigger than the sum of its parts.
Regardless of the reasons, we can’t always choose what happens to us. But what we do with it is part of the fun. And improv can guide you through.
Life is hard. Stuff happens. Improv skills can help us meet those challenges on stage or off. And practicing improv can better prepare you to be nimble and agile to go with anything that comes your way!
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Want MORE Practice?!
Of course you do!
Here’s a short Fan the Flames Play-Along video clip from our online improv course “Become an Improv Wizard”.
We cover this concept and many, many more along with several Play-Along videos to practice with.
In this video sample, we’ll give you a short prompt, and you play along like your our scene partner, and FAN THOSE FLAMES! Make things worse!
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Lincoln Hoppe is an actor, writer, director, and father of 5. He is the the Co-Founder of Improv Wizards training school and Online Courses and Co-Director of the Society Comedy Troupe.