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 generation gap on the Wild’s new-look top line is apparent during their strategy sessions on the bench, with Gen Z’s Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy using the iPad more than millennial Mats Zuccarello, who has wielded a whiteboard.

“That’s old school,” said Zuccarello, who recently scribbled in-game for his linemates like a teacher instructing students. “I said, ‘You go here, and then I’m always open.’ Throw the iPad away.”

Both study habits, however, seem to be working because when they take to the ice, they’re like three peas in a pod, with Rossi headlining the Wild offense while Kirill Kaprizov is injured.

“It doesn’t really surprise any of us,” Boldy said. “It’s kind of what we expect from him. He’s really grown into that player where he wants the puck and wants to be on the ice. He’s always been like that but when you get the chance and it starts going your way and you have that confidence, it’s a different type of game and it’s not an easy game to play, either.

“It’s a lot of pressure on yourself, but he’s been awesome and it’s nothing that surprises us.”

In the five games the Wild have played without Kaprizov, who hasn’t resumed skating since exiting the lineup to address a lingering lower-body injury, Rossi leads the team with nine points. He was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week after scoring three times and adding five assists in his last three games — what ended up being the CliffsNotes on why Rossi is one of the Wild’s offensive leaders, with or without Kaprizov.

He’s consistently around the net, with both of his goals in the 5-3 win over Nashville last Tuesday coming in tight. The 23-year-old center has a knack for capitalizing in crunch-time; his equalizer in the 4-3 shootout rally against Washington on Thursday was his league-leading third game-tying goal in the final 10 minutes of regulation. But he’s also a playmaker, as evidenced by Rossi’s career-high four-assist effort in the 4-0 shutout of Carolina Saturday.

“[I] told Marco [that] morning, ‘Start passing the puck and stop taking all the glory and just see what happens,” said Zuccarello, who was the beneficiary of those feeds along with Boldy; Zuccarello scored twice vs. the Hurricanes, and Boldy ended a nine-game drought when Rossi sprung him for a breakaway.

Only Kaprizov has more goals, assists and points on the Wild than Rossi, whose 15-22-37 going into the halfway point Tuesday against St. Louis at Xcel Energy Center is more than a passing grade to start his sophomore season.

“Age doesn’t matter,” said Rossi, who had 21-19-40 as a rookie. “You can be the youngest. You can be the oldest. Doesn’t matter. When you know Kirill is out, it’s not easy when you lose your best player, and we know as a team we just have to stay together and play as a unit.”

Rossi’s takeover started right when the Wild could have idled in neutral, the team following up an emotional comeback in Dallas sans Kaprizov with a baffling loss to depleted Ottawa.

But while Rossi and the No.1 line have performed up to their position on the depth chart, the Wild’s three-game win streak and 4-1 record without Kaprizov is indicative of better secondary support — the likes of Devin Shore and Ben Jones getting up ice, being sound defensively and helping on the penalty kill when needed.

“They’ve been here for two months now, and they’ve made an impact every night,” Boldy said. “They go out there, they play their minutes, [and] they play them hard. They make a big impact in the game and whether they’re scoring a goal or getting on the scoresheet that way doesn’t matter. Jonesy fought back-to-back games — that makes a difference. Shoresy’s out there blocking shots. They’re on the kill.

“Everyone has their role and I think when you play to your role, it doesn’t matter if you score: You make a difference.”

The Wild are starting to heal.

Jake Middleton returned to practice Monday at Tria Rink in St. Paul and could draw in vs. the Blues. The defenseman has missed the past 11 games after getting hit with a shot in the hand. Jakub Lauko also practiced as he continues to work his way back from a lower-body injury, but captain Jared Spurgeon’s lower-body injury will keep him out for a few more weeks.

Amid these absences, the top of the class is fulfilling its assignment, but this has become a group project that the Wild aren’t flunking.

“We don’t have passengers,” Rossi said. “That’s a big thing. Everyone knows what they’re doing out there. That’s what [makes] a good team.”

Tuesday, 7 p.m., Xcel Energy Center

TV; radio: FanDuel Sports Network North; 100.3 FM

Wild update: The Wild recalled Fs Travis Boyd and Brendan Gaunce from the minors under emergency conditions. RW Mats Zuccarello (illness) didn’t practice Monday, while C Frederick Gaudreau left early also due to illness. The team also added D Carson Lambos from Iowa in the American Hockey League and moved D Jared Spurgeon to injured reserve. D Zach Bogosian (maintenance) didn’t practice Monday. Lambos, who accompanied the Wild on their road trip last week, has yet to make his NHL debut.

Blues update: After dominating Chicago 6-2 during the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field on New Year’s Eve and then blanking Ottawa 4-0, the Blues had their momentum run out Saturday in a 6-4 loss at Columbus. Still, St. Louis has been on the upswing, winning four of its last six games. Since firing coach Drew Bannister and replacing him with Jim Montgomery, the team is 10-6-3. The Blues are 0-2 vs. the Wild so far this season. G Jordan Binnington was in net for both games and is 10-6-1 in his career against the Wild.

Injuries: Wild D Jake Middleton (upper body) is questionable. LW Kirill Kaprizov (lower body), LW Jakub Lauko (lower body) and D Jared Spurgeon (lower body) are out. Blues D Justin Faulk (upper body) has missed the past two games. C Radek Faksa (leg), D Torey Krug (ankle) and D Nick Leddy (lower body) are out.