Shortform for the Masses, Longform for the Practitioners?

I shall begin my expressing my love for both forms.
Both forms are different to each other but hold a similar basis.
I love them both for their different attributes.

On my US visit I was discussing once again the attraction of Improv to an audience.  I mentioned how our shortform kind of looks after itself now, we have a fairly steady (touch wood) stream of audience coming through the doors who love the show and keep coming back.
Our longform however... we tend to perform to mostly an audience of Improv students, workshoppers, improv nerds ;)

She said to me... "But that's true everywhere".

And yes, it's not the first time I've heard this.  For the most part, audience for longform, more interpretive and experimental formats do indeed tend to be people who are either improvising themselves, or really want to be.

The longform shows that seem to really do well, and cross that divide tend to be the more accessible of topics.  The more 'obvious' of what they are...
Showstoppers, Austentatious, Shakesprov, 'insert name of something people already know'prov...

And that makes sense... most people who go to watch improv watch it because it's a funny show (and most likely because someone else has told them to watch it), not BECAUSE it's improv.  The made up part is what MAKES it funny (for the most part) but it's not necessarily the draw.

We find, if we get people into our shortform once they will get it, enjoy it (if it's their cup of tea of course) and then come back at some point.  With longform, they will either get it or really not understand what they just watched.  But I feel that that's just the way it is, I don't feel that a compromise should be made personally... I don't want/need to make a tonne of money off my longform show.  I know it's good, I know my players are excellent.  The audience that get it LOVE it.  We all go on that journey together.  There's something very pure about it...

Here's hoping more people will wander into Longform and love it just as much as the nerds*


*of which I am one.


ADDENDUM
Our last show, August, had an audience made up of 90% improv virgins who all LOVED the show :D
And here's the second half to enjoy...

Improv Promo Shots

Big arms!  BIG ARMS!

How do we get across what we do in a photo?

BIG ARMS!

I wonder when this became the norm.  Just google 'Improv' and see the images are all the same.

Small group of people BIG ARMS!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this as such, it's just an interesting observation.

Compare it to images of Theatre.

More sedate, less arms, more somber for the most part. (don't get me wrong I found some big arm pictures there too, but they were mostly from musicals).

And again - a comparison with photos of Stand Up:

A mixture of wacky and morose at times.

I have an interest in this as a photographer as well.  How to get across a 'story' with an image, in this case, the story of what WE do for our show.  It's a hard one.  I always want to show fun as well as our interactive nature and a hint of our show structure...

We'd NEVER do the BIG ARMS though.... oh wait....

I don't really have any conclusion to this post... only that I suppose as time goes on and more and more people discover Improv our promotional images can potentially lose some of the wacky and gain a bit more 'art'?  Maybe?  Time will tell... until then, ARMS TO THE SKY PEOPLE!