Minneapolis improv comedy kings bow down to 'Harold'

"Chia Pets!"

The voice rang out above dozens of others as the near-sellout crowd at Huge Improv Theater scrambled to suggest something nostalgic.

Then members of an improv comedy team stepped up to relate anecdotes and associations the phrase brought to mind — like how the shoulder-pad fashion trend of the 1980s made every woman look like a linebacker.

Ten minutes later, the team and the audience were in the thick of three off-kilter narratives, following a quintet of musically inclined fur trappers; a father intent on watching bizarre VHS tapes with his son; and a quest for the secret of Rob Lowe's eternal youth. By the end of a half-hour, all of those seemingly unrelated stories managed to dovetail into something resembling a satisfying conclusion.

Welcome to the Harold. Or at least, one interpretation of the Harold. It's all part of Huge's "Harold Turns 50" celebration of what's arguably the most important cornerstone of long-form improv.

So what exactly is a Harold? Basically, it's a set of guidelines that help an improv team develop a scene. "The simplest explanation is just three story lines, each visited three times," said Huge co-founder Butch Roy.

You can pick out the familiar beats of the Harold in just about every TV sitcom.

"A group of performers will take an audience suggestion and build on that idea in ways that are unpredictable even to the performers," said Molly Chase, director of House of Whimsy, one of three teams that are performing at Huge every Saturday through the end of October. "There will likely be moments of poignancy and humor, and the whole room — audience and improvisers — are in it together.

"It's immediate, it has never happened before, and will never happen again."

The first Harold was performed in 1967 by the Committee, a San Francisco-based comedy group known for experimenting with narrative structures that employed improv games and exercises.

When the group decided that it needed a name for its creation, one member reportedly cracked that "Harold" would be nice. The handle stuck, to the slight chagrin of generations of performers who have had to explain its origin.

Committee member Del Close dedicated much of his career to honing and teaching the Harold. In the 1994 book "Truth in Comedy," generally regarded as the improviser's bible, he and co-authors Charna Halpern and Kim "Howard" Johnson explain that "the Harold is like the space shuttle, incorporating all of the developments and discoveries that have gone before it into one new, superior design."

Close's efforts as an instructor and co-founder of Chicago's iO Theater became the foundation for much of American comedy as we know it.

No local venue feels that influence more acutely than Huge Theater. With "Harold Turns 50," Minnesota's most visible improv venue is paying homage to its roots and giving some of the Twin Cities' top improvisers a chance to get back to the basics.

"There are a lot of improv structures, but there's something magic about the Harold, the way you start with an opening and it brings out a truth," said Drew Kersten, director of the Kempt team.

Kempt assistant director John Gebretatose agreed that it's all about capturing those truths. "It's people playing with confidence … making comment on real-life things. Like women's shoulder pads in the '80s and how they had to look like football players just to get through life. For me, that's what makes it successful: a through-line or a narrative commenting on society."

One of the reasons improv remains a hard sell for some audiences is that it's the ultimate "had to be there" entertainment. It's difficult to explain how the shoulder pad observation might snowball into a scene about Jennifer Aniston devouring the life force of her young fans, but for those watching the performers feed off one another's energy and make connections, the evolution is electrifying.

Those hazy connections are very much by design, Kersten said. "If the opening is about Diet Coke, you don't want to see three scenes about Diet Coke. You want them spread out as far as possible, so when they start to come back together it brings a bit more of that magic."

The laughs in a Harold show seldom come from a standard setup/punchline delivery. In fact, one of the first rules laid out in "Truth in Comedy" is "Don't go for the jokes." Instead, the comedy in a long-form show comes largely from watching relatable situations spiral into unexpected directions.

"The least successful Harolds are when we let our 'I know where this needs to go' take over and steer things instead of discovering all the way through," Roy said. "Because if we know where it needs to go, so does the audience."

The form's flexibility is obvious watching the three teams of five performers in the "Harold Turns 50" showcase.

On opening night, the House of Whimsy team produced a trio of focused, slice-of-life vignettes about crumbling relationships, disillusioned carnival workers and spiteful chess players. While the scenes frequently veered into weirdness, they remained grounded in a way that drew laughs of recognition from the crowd.

The Speficicity team, on the other hand, dove deeper into surreality right off the bat with a scene about two buddies literally riding each other's good vibes like a surfboard. That story line soon intertwined with two bird-watchers who misplaced a baby, and a home brewer crafting a hugely popular beer that smelled of cat urine, all of it building into a crescendo of absurdity that had the audience roaring for very different reasons.

As much reverence as the local improv community has for the Harold, the form represents something different in the Twin Cities than it does in improv hotbeds such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, where making it onto a high-profile Harold team can be a major career steppingstone. Many performers move to those cities for that reason.

"In Minnesota it's a strong part of the tradition, but at Huge Theater, Harold is only one of the forms that gets done," Kersten said.

While Close did some work with Minnesota comedy godfather Dudley Riggs and his Brave New Workshop, Huge encourages experimentation and focuses more on building strong teams of performers, regardless of form.

"Team first, format second: That's what differentiates us from the coasts," Gebretatose said. "We're better anyway," he added with a laugh.

Ira Brooker is a St. Paul-based freelance writer and editor.

The “Final Reckoning” for the “Mission: Impossible” series, Paddington’s trip home to Peru and an even “Freakier Friday” are all on top as Hollywood heads into 2025.

After largely taking 2024 off to regroup, superheroes will be back in full force: A new “Captain America” movie is due in February, and “Superman” returns to the big screen in July. The Fantastic Four and the Thunderbolts crews will also be bringing their superpowers to cinemas.

And the year will see the return of Bridget Jones, “Jurassic Park” and Paul Thomas Anderson, for starters.

Yes, there will be plenty to sort through at the movies in 2025, so here’s a list of 20 movies to circle on the calendar as we head into the new year.

Circle those dates in pencil, not pen: as always, dates are subject to change. Movies are headed to theaters except where otherwise noted.

After reinventing “The Invisible Man” for modern audiences in 2020, writer-director Leigh Whannel takes on another Universal Monsters franchise, this time with Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner in the lead roles. (Jan. 17)

Bridget Jones is back, and she’s heading to streaming. Renée Zellweger returns for the fourth film in the rom-com franchise (its first entry since 2016′s “Bridget Jones’s Baby”), with Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Emma Thompson returning to their roles. (Feb. 13, on Peacock)

The follow-up to one of the most beloved films in history, “Paddington in Peru” follows our favorite marmalade-loving bear home to the jungles of Peru. With Hugh Bonneville, Olivia Colman and Antonio Banderas, and Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington. (Feb. 14)

Michael B. Jordan stars as twin brothers Elijah and Elias (who are vampires, if early reports are to be trusted) in writer-director Ryan Coogler’s (“Black Panther”) first original film since 2013′s “Fruitvale Station.” (March 7)

Florence Pugh (as her “Black Widow” character, Yelena Belova), Sebastian Stan (as his “Captain America” character, Bucky Barnes) and David Harbour (as Red Guardian) kick off the summer moviegoing season with this Marvel entry about a group of antiheroes leading missions for the U.S. government. (May 2)

Tom Cruise returns for the eighth installment in the death-defying “Mission: Impossible” series, the direct sequel to 2023′s “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” which may or may not signal the end of the franchise, though we’re leaning toward may not. (May 23)

It only feels like it’s been 28 years since the last one. The apocalyptic franchise returns for the first time since 2007′s “28 Weeks Later,” with Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes and Aaron Taylor-Johnson trying to outrun some really fast zombies. Danny Boyle directs. (June 20)

Everyone’s favorite meme turned successful movie franchise (2022′s “M3gan” earned $180 million worldwide) is back as the menacing, lifelike doll returns for more “Child’s Play”-inspired mayhem. (June 27)

“Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski turns his camera to Formula One racing, with Brad Pitt as a veteran driver called in to mentor a hotshot rookie (Damson Idris) who feels the need, the need for speed. (June 27)

A rebirth is what this series needs. Gareth Edwards (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”) directs Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali in the latest chapter in this dino franchise that is starting to feel rather long in the tooth. (July 2)

James Gunn reboots the entirety of the DC Comics Universe starting with this new take on Supes, with David Corenswet donning the iconic cape, Rachel Brosnahan as his squeeze, Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as his nemesis, Lex Luthor. (July 11)

Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bacharach are the latest group of four tasked with making this twice-failed superhero franchise fantastic. This story is set in a ‘60s-inspired world, and features Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer. (July 25)

Liam Neeson, funnyman? The “Taken” buttkicker shows off another special set of skills in the role of Frank Drebin Jr., in “The Lonely Island’s” Akiva Schaffer’s reboot of the classic comedy series. With Pamela Anderson and Paul Walter Hauser. (Aug. 1)

Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan reunite, 22 years after they swapped bodies in 2003′s “Freaky Friday.” Is Pink Slip still together? (Aug. 8)

Leonardo DiCaprio was once pegged to star in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights,” but he turned down the role of Dirk Diggler in favor of a little movie called “Titanic.” Now, nearly 30 years later, the pair is working together for the first time. What more do you need to know? (Hopefully not much, because this project remains shrouded in secrecy.) (Aug. 8)

High season for musical biopics continues with Antoine Fuqua’s telling of Michael Jackson’s life story, with Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson as the King of Pop, and Colman Domingo as his domineering father, Joe. (Oct. 3)

Fifteen years after “Tron: Legacy” — and 43 years after the original “Tron” — the futuristic series continues, headed up by Jared Leto and featuring a returning Jeff Bridges with a soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails. (Oct. 10)

The first part is a smash sensation and is possibly headed toward Oscar glory, part two — filmed at the same time as the first — picks up right where we left off. (Nov. 21)

Glen Powell takes on the role of Ben Richards, made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1987 film, as a contestant on a game show who has to literally run for his life. “Shaun of the Dead’s” Edgar Wright directs. (Nov. 21)

The first two films in the franchise made a combined $5.2 billion worldwide. James Cameron can do whatever he wants. (Dec. 19)