There is a lot of death in improv. Not surprising. On idea is that you should "heighten" in scenes and sometimes heightening actions or emotions leads to violence. Well, I am going to attempt to catalog all of the ON STAGE improv deaths witnessed by me during DCM this year. Starting last night (yeah, DCM hasn't actually started but the lead up shows have). At the end of the weekend I will make an attempt to categorize them all and come up with some stats and some conclusions. I may also include occassional off stage (O.S.) deaths if they were important to the scene/show. I will not be including any deaths that do not take place during the course of the show – references to dead spouses, previous murders, etc..(If you witness improv deaths this week, feel free to throw them up in the comments. Give the date, the team, the method of death and any other details you wish).
8/4 Improvised Shakespeare Company - body count: 7 + innumerable
Fool throwing knife into back of mad king - 1
French suicides due to riddle - 4
The entire French Army by suicide (O.S.) - as many grains of sand on the beach
French soldiers killed by fool while "torturing" English girls disguised as foreign mercenaries - 2
Baby Wants Candy - body count: 2
Alex Trebek dies... I forget how (O.S.) - 1
Letter opener into Pat Sajak's chest - 1
Couples Skate - body count: 0
No deaths during show. Attempted suicide by drunk Blue Man. Dead kids. Lead poisoning. Strangled the life out of wife in past. Diabetic coma, almost.
Total for Monday, Aug 4th: 9
(photo via The Onion)
