I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, “I love me some Johnsons.”

Check out this great example as Improv As Improv Does Best…in the face of “mistakes.”

I posted the first act of this triad as a Blackout. John and Joe’s wordless scene speaks volumes and while, sure, it could have been heightened, Scott is “right” to edit when he does. The joy of that high note comes with the audience suddenly “getting” the context through the performers’ juxtaposition. Any additional beat – though ultimately it could be successful – would start at the deficit of not being able to recreate that moment of shared discovery.

But the shared experience has just begun.

John doesn’t realize Scott has edited.  He thinks Scott has walked on/off as another racer.  Joe, in service of making his teammate look good, returns to try and drag John off, but jumping on one foot and reaching the stairs is not conducive to fully getting John to the wings.

So in comes Shawn.  He transforms the scene into one where John is a hungover hallucinator. Jonathan supports them as a hallucination. It earns them a nice laugh.

And in comes Jessi.  She beelines for center stage and waves away her partners to signal an edit.

But Shawn doesn’t see it.  Note to editors: Go downstage, not upstage. And beware of your partners’ sight-lines.

Shawn accepts Jessi as another hallucination.  And Jessi accepts the endowment.  And that Sets the Johnsons’ up for a wonderful organic group game.  (Did you notice the nice stage picture created by the declining height of the hallucinations that Joe nails by hunching over?)

Yeah, I love me some Johnsons.

The Johnsons are Scott Beckett, Shawn Hambright, John Hilowitz, Joe Mack, Jonathan Nelson, Jessi Schmale and Lauren Serpa