The following is an excerpt from our book,
"The 5 Elements of Improv":
Intelligence
affects a number of aspects of a character’s expression. A highly intelligent
character will speak and act in a very different fashion
than one of low intelligence.
Characters will display their intelligence through how they speak, what they
say, and the choices they make.
Avoid the mistake of assuming that because you have chosen a doctor as your character’s profession that they must, by default, be of high intelligence. We once (very briefly) had a doctor who was not only an exceptionally poor listener, but was also quite uninformed in basic matters of medicine and nutrition. When called on his lack of knowledge, he became rude and combative. The moral of the story is this: there are doctors (lawyers, police officers, architects, politicians, professors, etc) who graduated at the bottom of their class. Embrace this fact, and enjoy playing intelligence (as well as any other characteristic) against what is assumed for a particular profession. The audience will enjoy seeing the dichotomy, and you will have more fun building a scene with a character who is not defined by a cookie-cutter mentality.
Avoid the mistake of assuming that because you have chosen a doctor as your character’s profession that they must, by default, be of high intelligence. We once (very briefly) had a doctor who was not only an exceptionally poor listener, but was also quite uninformed in basic matters of medicine and nutrition. When called on his lack of knowledge, he became rude and combative. The moral of the story is this: there are doctors (lawyers, police officers, architects, politicians, professors, etc) who graduated at the bottom of their class. Embrace this fact, and enjoy playing intelligence (as well as any other characteristic) against what is assumed for a particular profession. The audience will enjoy seeing the dichotomy, and you will have more fun building a scene with a character who is not defined by a cookie-cutter mentality.
"The moral of the story is this: there are doctors (lawyers, police officers, architects, politicians, professors, etc) who graduated at the bottom of their class."
A
note of caution regarding the portrayal of low intelligence characters: there is a tendency to cause these
characters to talk and act like useless idiots, good only for a few laughs. To
do so is to waste an opportunity and is a cheap way to avoid responsibility for
driving the scene forward and supporting your partner. The internal and external
lives of low-intelligence people are just as rich and vibrant as those of other
intelligence levels. They necessarily manifest themselves differently, as the
components of their lives are likely (though not always) different from those
of smarter people. This could, in fact, apply to any intelligence level. The
point to take away from this is to be careful not to fall into the
stereotypical behavior of any aspect of your character. Play to the top of
your character’s intelligence; stupid people don’t know they’re stupid. Explore
the infinite possibilities available to you, and surprise the audience.
Happy improvising!
