Upright Citizens Brigade
Game-first. Pattern recognition and heightening. Comedy as the goal.
Key texts: UCB Comedy Improvisation Manual (2013) · Will Hines Substack
Where this tradition pushes back
Improvise — Napier's "first move is to tell you to throw out the rules of improv." Literal yes-and as a rule creates dependency and passivity. His alternative: initiate strongly and follow through...
from Yes, And Chain→Not every scene needs game. Relationship-driven scenes can sustain on honest interaction alone. Speed of Life demonstrates that two people listening deeply can fill an hour without ever identifying a...
from Two-Person Scene→Tag runs are a game-first structure. The TJ & Dave tradition would never use one — their organic, relationship-driven scenes don't break for rapid-fire contextual exploration. Tag runs are a tool of...
from Tag Run→Many contemporary formats have moved away from sweeps — the Armando, Deconstruction, and montage forms often use cuts, organic transitions, or blackouts. There's a debate about whether explicit edits...
from Sweep Edit→In duo improv, there is no backline. Support moves are embedded within scene work — yielding focus, playing straight, giving your partner the game move. Speed of Life describes this without the term...
from Support Moves→Improvise, Ch. 3 — both players should make strong, active choices. Having one player designated as "the reactor" creates a power imbalance. Napier's alternative: both bring strong points of view...
from Straight Man→TJ & Dave's hour-long unedited shows don't follow three-act structure. Scenes blend, loop, and resolve through the evening's totality. Napier: "just do something at the top" and let structure emerge....
from Scene Structure→Hines argues runs only work when earned — a run after a weak Harold is just chaos. TJ & Dave's organic longform never uses runs; the show builds to emotional depth, not kinetic energy. Napier's...
from Run→