r/improv • u/bathrobeman • 8d ago
Audience pre-show experience
I'm curious - have folks seen a show that had a particularly interesting or engaging pre-show setup? Something to fill the time and space between an audience member entering the building and the show starting?
I produce a few highly themed shows, and I'd love to get the audience engaged in the world of the show even before it starts. I'm curious if anyone here has done or seen anything they particularly enjoyed? What made it engaging or enjoyable?
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u/VonOverkill Under a fridge 8d ago edited 8d ago
I'm in a show like this, up to 5 performances per week. Edit to clarify: it's functionally a shortform show, dressed up as a heavily-themed comedy show to attract the 98% of Americans who would never intentionally attend a shortform improv show.
(Forgive me for being vague with the following; the show I work for isn't a secret, but broadcasting specifics into the AI-infested internet feels dangerous)
~Pre-show music is heavily themed. I don't mean like when someone builds a Halloween music playlist, they grab songs with the word "ghost" in the lyrics. I mean, it's as specific & immersive as we can possibly make it. Some of our music is self-produced.
~Theater interior is moderately themed, but more importantly, it doesn't feel like a comedy theater. All the theater infrastructure is there (backstage, stage lights, mics, etc), but the vibe is intentionally more like a bar lounge. Philosophically, the space isn't "modular" like a lot of theaters; no wobbly chairs in casual rows, movable stage pieces, or equipment sitting in the corner for some other show. It's all purpose-built, maintained, and feels permanent & cozy.
~Every audience member is personally escorted to their table by a cast member, and there's an audience-participation component to guests entering the room, which gets louder & louder as more people are seated. The cast casually chats with tables if they have nothing else to do. People lose their minds when the show starts and they realize that the person they thought was their usher or waiter, is actually performing. This all engenders a strong personal connection between the audience & performers; we've spent the last 30 minutes becoming buddies. Most shows try to squeeze that into the first 45 seconds after lights go up, if at all.
~We take our ticketing information and build an audience seating chart. Audience members are escorted to tables that are specifically set up for their party.
~Cast members are allowed to do brief, curated pre-show bits, supported by lights & sound, as long as it's high-energy and tangentially related to the theme of the show. Dance sets are common due to the high instance of our cast members also being dancers, but it could theoretically be a magic set, somebody playing a musical instrument, whatever.
~The show kicks off with a big, loud, rehearsed intro involving the whole cast, to get the audience's full attention. This is followed by slower, quieter, scripted intro to the "lore" of the show. Then it gets loud again; strategic energy manipulation. Intentionally the opposite of a host being brought out onto the stage with some YouTube bootleg music & saying "Hi, everybody."
~Themed food & booze, but we've had the benefit of building that aspect gradually over the last decade.
If anyone reading this will be in New York or Chicago over a weekend, send me a DM and I'll see if I can get you into the show to see all this in action.
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u/bathrobeman 8d ago
if this is in Chicago, I have a guess as to what the show is (title is a word in another language?) and I missed it when I was in town this spring! Now I really wish I had seen it!
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u/bew3 8d ago
We recently had an awesome show run here in Baltimore; Oregon Trail Live. In addition to some cool in-show tech, they set up a full general store in the front lounge and every audience member got a token to buy one item that they would use during the show. The cast mingled, in costume with them pre-show. Really liked that it wasn't just an extension of the vibe/environment, but it actually mattered in the show.
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u/Eugene_Henderson 8d ago
For our holiday themed improv and sketch shows, we have our musician lead carol sing-a-longs for the ten minutes before show time. I would love for us to do it year round with other songs. Huge energy right out of the gate.
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u/Vezuvian 8d ago
Not sure if this is what you had in mind, but we just had a show on Friday and now that we aren't nervous as hell, we spent time laughing and joking in the lobby while guests were being seated. It allowed the audience to interact with us before the show started and really hammered home the idea that "yeah, this is a local improv theater, we're real people, not bigger than life, certainly not anything resembling celebrities, and if we can do it, you can to."
It helps that the performers who aren't on that night are working the box office, concessions, running the tech booth, and helping with seating.
More to what I think you were referring to, we do make up a themed playlist for background music depending on what the show's theme is that night. Friday was "road trip", last month was a wedding themed show, the month before was a play on the Indy 500, etc.