Heightening / Escalation

Heightening, also known as escalation, is a comedic technique of gradually intensifying the stakes, absurdity, emotions or contrasts within a comedic scenario. Each heightening move (beat), amplifies what's funny about a situation, guiding it toward a comedic climax or punchline.

Why Heighten?

Heightening prevents comedic scenarios from feeling repetitive or predictable (although repetition has it’s own benefits). Proper escalation keeps the audience engaged by continually surprising them. Effective heightening typically follows a progression, gradually moving from less surprising to more surprising moments. If you visualise surprise on a scale from 0 (not surprising) to 10 (most surprising), a good escalation moves upwards smoothly (e.g., 1 → 2 → 5 → 8 → 10), rather than jumping erratically (e.g., 1 → 7 → 3 → 9 → 2).

Key Principles of Heightening

• Beats: Every individual move or escalation is a beat. Typically, you have two initial beats to establish a convention or game. After these first two beats, heightening begins.

• On Game: Each heightened beat must remain "on game", meaning it follows logically from what's established yet breaks conventions in increasingly surprising ways.

• Breaking Convention: After defining the comedic game or convention (usually within the first two beats), each subsequent beat breaks this convention in fresh and surprising ways.

• Surprise ≠ Absurdity: Greater surprise doesn't necessarily mean being more absurd or wild. It can mean being more specific, emotional, or contrasting.

Routes to Heightening

1. Heighten the Game Moves

Each beat intensifies or pushes further on the central comedic game established.

2. Heighten the World

Each beat reveals increasingly surprising or unusual aspects about the world itself.

3. Heighten Realism and Contrast

Instead of escalating absurdity, heighten by increasing the contrast between the surprising element and a more grounded reality, often through introducing grounded characters.

4. Heighten Anticipation

Play with timing and the audience’s expectations, heightening by setting up punchlines that audiences eagerly anticipate - a technique frequently employed in clowning.

Heightening vs. Repetition

It's important to note that not every comedic scenario calls immediately for heightening. Clowning, in particular, often relies heavily on repetition without escalation initially. Knowing when to heighten and when repetition will better serve the comedy is an essential skill to master.