Disorganizing Representation in Theatresports: A Case Study in Improv Comedy

Abstract: This article offers a model of analyzing improv comedy by minoritarian improvisers that refuses to reduce the performance to being about race and gender. This work draws on critiques of identity and representation advanced by queer of color performance studies scholars to show how race and gender can matter in improv without their being the only aspects of significance. Examining a scene from Toronto’s fortieth anniversary of Theatresports, I highlight how the form of the “Dubbing Game”—where improvisers speak for one another—combines with the improvisers’ creative choices to produce a lively and laughable piece of improvised theatre. Exploring how the Dubbing Game separates voice from body shows how race and gender can be sensed as an event rather than strictly adhering to bodies. Through this exploration, I argue that part of what makes this dubbing scene funny is the disorganization of the representational logic. Importantly, disorganizing representational logic is only part of the scene’s comedy. This article shows the many ways that the scene’s comedy emerges through particular creative choices rather than from information about the “what is” of race and gender.