Reviews for Art by Committee: A Guide to Advanced Improvisation

The average rating for Art by Committee: A Guide to Advanced Improvisation based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-12-30 00:00:00 Matthew Bacon I still take it for granted that Del Close was a brilliant man whose personal contributions to improvisational theater were invaluable. I didn't get any evidence supporting that contention from reading this book, however, despite that being its most central idea. Charna Halpern might just be a bad hagiographer, but her account of her longtime business partner is tonally affectionate but still creates the impression of an opinionated and personally unpleasant blowhard. If this Close is considered as a man of ideas, they are bad and haphazard ones, including at one point an uncritical acceptance of faith healing via classic black & white comedies. The most ridiculous passage of the entire book is as follows: "Del told us about a man named Dario Foe who won a Pulitzer Prize for a play he had written. In an interview, Mr. Foe revealed that the play was, in fact, improvised. That means, folks, we are capable of improvising something worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. Where to start? Dario Fo won a Nobel Prize, not for a particular play but for a life's work. And although that work used improvisation as one of many tools, it's anything but clear that the improvisation that he employed with his actors bore much resemblance to the Chicago style of improv that Halpern is talking about. Did Close actually make these mistakes, or are they just problems in translation? Either way, it's inexcusable for Halpern to leave these mistakes in her manuscript without so much as checking the spelling of the playwright's name. Halpern reminds us often as to what a voracious reader Close was, but "voracious" doesn't always translate into "careful" or "critical." It doesn't help that Halpern's response to accusations of Close's misogynistic behavior basically boils down to "But he loved Betty Thomas!!!" It's Halpern's account, and there are plenty of other testimonials about Del Close's genius elsewhere, but this portrait coming from a person who worked so close to him mars my impression of the man nevertheless. Overall, the advice about improvisation itself is more coherent and interesting than Halpern's scattershot technique in Truth in Comedy: The Manual for Improvisation, but it's still overly reliant on cheerful platitudes. Particularly irksome is a chapter devoted to women in improv, which doesn't begin to consider that complaints of widespread and longstanding marginalization of women in the field just might have a basis in reality. No, it's "Get out there are do your best, gals! Trust your scene partners! It's nothing personal!" The proof is in the pudding, and so many people who studied under Halpern and Close do downright inspirational work. Whatever they did so very, very right hardly translates to the page at all.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-10-04 00:00:00 Thomas Phelan Much like Halpern's much more well known work "Truth In Comedy", this is a lesson in improv comedy that is kind of also a series of anecdotes about how great her theater is and all the celebrities she's met and coached. While the depth and utility of the lessons is a little less because of this, her insights into improv and the kind of performer you need to be to make the stuff successful, it still rings true, even if it feels sort of abbreviated and rushed. The photo album of Halpern hanging out with famous people, and the mini-biography of Del Close at the end didn't feel as ultimately useful, as it was too rushed to really be a strong biography, and it didn't seem to tie in with the improv tips that came earlier. All in all a solid if somewhat forgettable book, but there is a certain charm with a book that is this short and breezy to read. Probably a worthwhile endeavor for any improv nerd, take of it what you will.