The KING Game – the secret to comedy

Keith Johnstone introduces this game to his students long before I met him. He used it to teach status and “being obvious”. 

Over the years as I played and taught it, I noticed that it offered so much more and I emphasized other aspects of the game. When Keith saw me teaching it one day he said, “I suppose that works.” (High praise from Keith). “But it’s not what I intended.”

Since then, I still announce, “This is Keith’s game,” but I add that it’s intention in my version has a different focus. To experience the original intent read, Keith’s IMPRO FOR STORYTELLERS. Honour those who create specific games and formats.

Of course the exercise has a great deal to do with Status and being obvious as Keith intended. I added a little focus more focus on on TRUTH and CONSISTENCY… and an important term- ARBITRARY ACTION – an important element in comedy and story-telling.

You can read game instructions all you want. The magic of this exercise comes in the attitude, details and execution. Played right, this is one of the only exercise where you can create failure after failure and have everyone at the end say “CAN WE DO IT AGAIN???” – even with teenagers.

OH – and to discover the secret to comedy, read the details below the instructions.

GAME: The KING GAME

ORIGIN: Keith Johnstone

BENEFITS: Many: Status, Awareness, Risk Taking, Failure, Finding the obvious, Reading your partner, Being honest, Commitment, Consistency, Understanding Arbitrary Action

# PEOPLE: Groups   

GOAL: Can you make the King/Queen/Leader accept you. (Avoid being Killed!)

PROCEDURE: 

1. One person sits on a chair mid stage. This is the King/Queen on their throne.
2. One by one, participants enter the space appearing before the monarch, as someone from the kingdom.
3. If they are accepted by the King/Queen, they can continue interacting with them. If they are not accepted for any reason, the King/Queen claps their hands and the servant dies immediately.
4. The body remains, the next participant tries to last longer.

EXAMPLE: 

1. Leo sits on the throne. 
2. Matilda enters and immediately runs up to the King and hugs him.
3. Leo claps his hands (I ask him why and Leo says that he felt like Matilda was so fast and without notice – unlike any throne room he could imagine. – Seems valid to me.) I suggest he makes a comment which might be useful for others who will follow.

Leo adds, “Who allowed this person to enter the throne room unannounced“

A guard enters. “Hello my King. I’m sorry, I let a commoner enter the throne room.”

The King claps his hand again, killing the guard adding “I need better Guards”.  (The audience laughs. The response makes complete sense).

TEACHING TIPS: A small book could be written about the subtle nuances and magic behind this exercise. I will write a few here. Explore to find more. Or drop me a note.

I will often play the first King and simplify the instructions:
“Your job is to enter the throne room like a normal person would and interact without making any mistakes. If you make a mistake The King will clap his hands and you will die right there on the spot. See how long you can last.”

Many people would disagree with this choice to play the King. That might be fair but here are a couple thoughts:

1. Their first game is to be a good servant. The King/Queen role will follow. Teaching too many things all at once dilutes the strength of each lesson.
2. I have a hidden agenda to model some behaviour and open discussions about what they are seeing as opposed to set them in the role as the monarch and tell them too much. 

I’m not saying don’t allow students to be the King/Queen. (That’s how Keith would set it up). I eventually have everyone try the royalty role.

The game teaches itself with a competent King/Queen. As I play the King, I don’t teach. The game does. They constantly light up with their own desire to try something else in the face of certain failure. They improve without discussion.

The Queen or King role  is the key to the lesson.

The King must:

• Resist Killing (It’s not a game about Killing!!) You don’t have to be miserable and mean spirited. The King wants to have a good day like anyone else and doesn’t want any uneccessary executions. Try being the kind monarch who loves everyone who enters. This variation can make it even more fun because we all want to do the right thing for the likable person. The King wants to have a reality that makes him feel comfortable, happy, interested, inspired, etc etc.
• KILL! When the servant get’s it wrong. EVEN THE SMALLEST THING! These are servants who have been in your service for years. Hold them accountable. Hold them to the highest standards. BE THE KING. Be annoyed that they walk through walls, or put your food down in the middle of the air or make your crown appear out of thin air (unless they announce it is Magic). Good servants carry in the crown. They don’t pull it out of nowhere. Don’t be a performer trying to entertain. Be the King with high expectations.

This is IMPORTANT. ARBITRARY ACTIONS 

BE CONSISTENT!! – If the first servant has created a door and you feel it’s odd that people later are coming in from every corner of your room. KILL EVERYONE who gets it wrong. 

They will laugh out of recognition every time they make that mistake. If you let people live sometimes and kill them at other times, there will be no reason to trust the reality that you are creating. It will be less fun. (ACTIONS SHOULD NOT BE ARBITRARY – Killing one time for a reason but not killing someone else for the same reason feels wrong.)

DON’T BE ARBITRARY!!!  (part 2) Arbitrary action happens when you do something that has no precedent – that is, when there’s been no hint of the information that the audience could be aware of. 

If someone walks in and has red shoes and you clap, no one will laugh. It comes out of nowhere. If the killing seems unfair then it is probably arbitrary. If your reason is easily justified then you are on the right track.

If your actions have implied that they treat you seriously and you kill someone for laughing then your reason (albeit cruel) has merit. The audience is more likely to accept that idea than the red shoe idea.

REMEMBER ALSO:  there are many rules already implied by your roles. If someone comes in and slaps you on the back, KILL KILL KILL. You may not have set up any rule earlier about this BUT we know that this would never be accepted in such a status relationship.

I remember once when someone arrived at the King’s door and asked who they were, they announced, “It is your Lawyer.” The Killing happened instantly. There was a big laugh. The reason was implied in a feeling society has about Lawyers.

 If you do what is obvious and stop making up creative ideas for reasons to eliminate people then everyone has a great time. They are inspired to play this game over and over. And they laugh because the truth can be trusted and they watch for the obvious errors.

Eventually play the game with students as the King or Queen.  Ask them at the end if anyone felt their death was arbitrary. Ask the group where they thought the killings were perfectly timed or if there were missed opportunities. 

This role of the King/Queen is not easy. Praise them for those moments that are honest and have precedent. 

VARIATION: Once when playing this exercises with teenagers, the Queen accepted someone as her King and asked him to sit with her on the throne. They ruled together equally making instant decisions about who would live and comment on them after they had been “finished”. At one point there was a disagreement about who should be killed and the queen “ended” their union.

Playing the King game with two royalty together OR as a panel of Three gives the option to rotate through royalty so more people have a chance. And it holds the monarchs to a higher level of accountability. 

In a group of three if two people clap and one doesn’t then the two can get rid of the third.
BE CAREFUL with the variation. It’s only fun when real feelings don’t get in the way. It’s got to be about the game.

BASTARDIZATIONS: People have removed the eliminations or they have given people THREE attempts before they are kicked out. DON’T.  It’s about immediate failure and moving on from that. If the King/Queen are playing honestly, failures happen often and people look forward to trying again. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT LESSON!!! Don’t destroy it by adding a false sense of “fairness”.

The Secret to Comedy: Like I mentioned above… ARBITRARY ACTION interferes with comedy and storytelling. Honesty and Obvious actions hold the secrets to comedy and storytelling. 

Creating arbitrary reasons just to be funny are rarely funny at all. And when they are, the laughs are not as deep.

Humour that comes from a truth we recognize is much funnier. Humour that comes from a latent, or nearly forgotten truth is better. The improviser pulls a truth from our minds that we only recognize as being important AFTER the truth appears. It hits us with a little surprise and it seems so “clever” but really, it’s just observant and truthful.

With story telling, finding an ending with arbitrary information is rarely satisfying. Pulling out a piece of the story that happened in a previous chapter makes us all internally yell, “BRILLIANT!!! Of course!! The truth was there all along!!!”