IMMORTAL COMBAT

Photo by Andrey Zvyagintsev on Unsplash

Back in the late nineties, during NYC’s Alternative Comedy Boom™️, UCB’s Matt Besser created an improv show called Immortal Combat. Based on the video game Mortal Kombat, two teams would go up against each other as mystical warriors wearing colorful costumes with each player possessing a special Improv[fighting] power. The players could activate their power to help a scene move forward.

THE CHARACTERS

Master of Where: Indicates where the scene is taking place, can also change the location if needed

Time Tripper: Moves scenes forward or backwards in time.

Body Captain: Indicates what the players appearance may be. [Clothing,Species]

Judge Justify: Justifies what is happening in the scene.

Dr. Who: Labels the relationship with the space and each other.

Editor: Edits the scene.

X Factor: Does a little of everything.

Photo by Jerome Heuze on Unsplash

THE GOOD

It was a great form for teaching all the back wall moves you can do to make the scene better onstage. It helped you strengthen the game with support moves. I feel it helped me tremendously as far as seeing the game. It’s a great teaching form, plus you get to wear costumes and do Kung Fu moves.

THE BAD

It had a habit of being all over the place as a show itself. Everyone coming into scenes to use their powers tended to create more chaos than good scenes. It got to the point the Besser created a new move that I believe only the X-Factor player could do called “GENESIS!”. When things got too chaotic X-Factor would step into the middle of the stage and yell “Genesis!” and we would restart the show. To this day, if things aren’t going well in any situation I’m in, I yell “genesis!” and run away.

THE UGLY

Scenes tended to be augmentative and some of those costumes were rough.

THE WHY

I’m thinking of this form now because I just saw Mortal Combat 2 in the third row with rumble seats and a medically prescribed gummy. While watching I finally saw how the form should have worked, we would have needed a budget of about 120 million for sets, costumes, and fire balls.

I was thinking which of the characters did me the most good. Each one of those characters delved deeply into the core of where the game of the scene is. The one that changed my perspective the most was Judge Justify. I never played that character but watching other players make the move made me see the finale equation to Game. We work so hard on the Who [character and relationship] Where[location and time], and What[Premise]. The Why ties it all together. It’s the motivation, justification, and provides the inertia to move things forward.

But what do I know, I’m referencing a movie about a video game that influenced an improv form. This may sound stupid…

GENESIS!!!!