Improv Court

⚖️ Everyone stand for the Judge!

An unresolved case is brought to the attention of the court led by Judge Wolfy, who will listen to both the prosecution’s and the defense’s arguments for the incarceration or liberation of the defendant.

Now, this would be a really long proceeding, showcasing a fair display of the justice system.

Except, it’s all improvised!

🎭 Improv court, how it’s played

The case is made up on the spot based on the pieces conversation that the bailiff and the jury had with the audience. They will then bring them to the Judge, who will come up with cases and introduce them to all the court.

The evidence? Also improvised. People from the audience are picked up and taken to the evidence room, and asked to bring 3 pieces of evidence for the prosecution, and 3 pieces of evidence for the defense before the cases are even introduced!

Prosecutors will start accusing and painting the defendant as a monster in their opening statement, while the defense will have theirs while painting the defendant as an angel - both have to use evidence they never saw before.

More improvised legal shenanigans ensue, while both parts bring up one piece of evidence per case (three cases in total are played in this edition), and being really professional in bringing them up.

And by “professional”, I mean direct and personal accusations to each other, bringing up objections for the most childish reasons, and trying to gaslight or corrupt the Judge in their favor.

Exactly like in real court proceedings!

😺 Personal thoughts

If there was a simplified way to describe this game, I would go with It’s “Objection” mixed with “Premise Lawyer”. But there’s more than that. While you play as either prosecution or defense, you don’t only play those games; you are setting up a base reality, while also countering that base reality without going in full denial of your performance partners.

It’s not an easy game to play; ultimately however, it’s important to have fun with it, since that’s what improv is about; even if you mess up, you haven’t really messed up.

I am really glad that everyone had a blast both watching us and taking part in this crazy show!

I remember specifically one point, however, where I was really scared to go in and cross examine the witness in the first case. Luckily, CocaineZero (who was part of the prosecution team alongside me) had my back and went in my place, and I thank him for it.

It’s a good reminder that in improv your partners will always have your back if you mess up.

Afterwards, I felt a lot more confident in my performance and making crazy arguments!

🌹 Roses

I cannot emphasize enough how thankful I am to WalGesicht and Mycana for making this possible.

Both of them helped us lawyers, bailiffs, judge and jury to train in this complex improv game, involving several components of the trade. It took us several training sessions to truly get into the groove of the game.

As explained above, it’s a hard game to play, and I think I speak for everyone involved when I say that I am happy to have been a part of this, and to push my improv skills to new limits!

Of course, a rose to Squid is very much due for coming up with the slogan “Fish Get Interviews!™” (For legal reasons, we are not sponsored for stating it) when defending our client, wrongfully accused of mixing up flirting and networking.

Another massive rose to Wolfy the Judge for his performance, acting like a jock for 2 hours is not easy work. You really came up with great banter both with the lawyers and the bailiff.

Speaking of which, another rose to Mattpro for being the bailiff! The banter you had with the judge, and the running gag of you forgetting what people should say when they swear to tell the truth was really funny!

We also had one jury member crashing, but thankfully Rose chimed in and did a great job with that, so you get another rose!

And of course, a rose to the lovely Rydia, for making the poster for this show! Glad you decided to go with me as a model for it :3

Finally, I want to give an additional rose to Wal as she also made the VRChat world, a skill I don’t even know where to start with, to be honest 😅