I think the Washington Post article (and accompanying video) “Behind the scenes with Seth Meyers” (Izadi, 2018) was a great resource to get our head into a show format that constantly changes. I think as a crew we found ourselves worrying about the content turn-around, but also about how to quickly think on our feet and adapt. This article (and video) demonstrates there is no true formula to making that work, and it just relies on being savvy and quick-thinking to come up with a solution. I personally found watching the video something of a relief: as long as we found a solution to our problems that worked for us, they were adequate. In the article, segment writer for the show Sal Gentile summarises this idea really well: “You have to be less precious and just come up with a joke as quickly as you can.” I think that’s something I definitely struggle with individually; that perfectionism to try and do things as best as they can be, and not prioritising your time to just have everything done well. I was glad I saw the article before we got heavily into the production, because doing things that worked instead of being perfect definitely resulted in a more balanced product.

The other thing that the article demonstrated was the timeline for a show with daily turnaround times. It definitely helped to ease the idea that a show like ours can run on a week-to-week schedule and the chaos of ‘what am I going to be doing today?’ is part of the charm. This is also why I was less stressed about episode two going into it, as I knew that as long as we found solutions as mentioned earlier, the episode would take shape around them. This turned out to be true, though there is something to be said for extended preparation, as I do believe the first episode of The Improv Games probably came out better than the second one.

References:

Izadi, E. (2018) Behind the scenes with Seth Meyers, The Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/05/29/feature/inside-the-writers-room-with-seth-meyers-how-to-make-late-night-tv-in-the-trump-era/ (Accessed: 01 May 2023).