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 St. Thomas women’s basketball team has started 1-4 in the Summit League, and Wednesday night would not appear the optimum time for a turnaround. South Dakota State, among the most ambitious mid-major programs in the country, is making what’s now its annual visit to St. Paul.

Coach Aaron Johnston, in charge at SDSU full-time since the 2000-01 season, has become a firm believer in tough scheduling. The opponents before Summit play included Rice, Creighton, Wisconsin, Duke, Georgia Tech, Oregon and Texas — a gantlet that gave the Jackrabbits the nation’s No. 10-rated strength of schedule in nonconference Division I games.

Duke (currently rated No. 14) came to Brookings, S.D., for a nationally televised game and survived 75-71. SDSU split two games in Hawaii — losing to Georgia Tech (No. 18) and beating Oregon. The Jackrabbits were drilled 103-57 at No. 7 Texas, but that’s all part of Johnston’s theory of scheduling tough, one reason being:

When a Summit League team gets to the NCAA tournament, it generally will be as a double-digit seed and facing a very difficult first-round game. The Jackrabbits managed to get a No. 6 seed in 2019 and won two NCAA games to reach the Sweet 16.

This time, Johnston’s team went 10-3 in nonconference games (including two non-D1 teams) and now has started 5-0 in Summit play. The Jackrabbits are 7-0 vs. St. Thomas in the previous three seasons.

The commitment to the SDSU women’s program is impressive. The old, larger Frost Arena underwent a $66 million renovation that opened this season: First Bank & Trust Arena, with a 5,500-seat capacity.

Downstairs, there’s a trophy room with two doors: One leads to a full gym and facility for the women’s team, the other door to the same for the men’s team.

Paige Meyer, a star guard for the Albany team that beat Providence Academy in Minnesota’s 2A title game in 2021, said: “We have our own space — no shuffling practices around. We have a fan base. And we have tough nonconference schedules. Those are all things that drew me here. When teams like Duke come here, the players are always saying great things about the atmosphere."

Kallie Theisen, a forward from Wayzata, is in her sixth college year — the COVID-19 year, and then missing 2023-24 with a torn Achilles.

“I do have two bachelor’s degrees, and now I’m getting a master’s,” Theisen said. “I’ve been here a while. One reason for coming back was to play was the new facility. The biggest reason was we have a chance to be a really good team.”

The trip to Hawaii? “That was a nice bonus,” Theisen said.

Johnston has a 613-194 record at South Dakota State. The Jackrabbits won the Division II title in 2003 before moving to DI and won the DI secondary tournament, the WNIT, in 2022.

Madison Mathiowetz, a junior guard from Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s, was asked for insight into Johnston’s success.

“He’s one of the most consistent people I know,” Mathiowetz said. “It really hasn’t changed since I came here. He is an excellent coach of basketball, but the way he handles every situation is consistent. It’s important for players to have that.”

Presumably, consistency comes easier when scheduling tough and continuing to win.