应用即兴12-Candy in Karachi: Sweetening Market Research through Play

Faris Khalid is a Pakistan-based Applied Improvisation (AI) practitioner, designing and conducting soft skill development workshops for the corporate sector. He also conducts AI sessions at Karachi Grammar School and Cedar College. Although no longer an improv performer himself, he does host shows for the Karachi-based short-form comedy troupe Improvistan, and has acted in three Pakistani feature films.

法里斯·哈立德是一名总部位于巴基斯坦的应用改进化(AI)实践者，他为企业部门设计和举办软技能开发研讨会。他还在卡拉奇文法学校和锡达学院举办人工智能课程。虽然他自己不再是即兴演员，但他为卡拉奇的短喜剧剧团即兴维斯坦主持演出，并出演了三部巴基斯坦故事片

Growing up in Dubai (UAE), my entertainment diet comprised of American and UK TV shows and films. I was a fan of the show Whose Line Is It Anyway? but it looked like TV magic and I had no idea how it worked. I moved to Pakistan in 1996, but got my first taste of improv in 2002, when I was introduced to Saad Haroon (who later became one of Pakistan’s first internationally acclaimed comedians, even voted the second “Funniest Person in the World” in a competition at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles in 2014). Saad had recently returned from the United States where he had done some improv and wanted to start a troupe in Karachi. Since no one else had any experience in improv, the sign-up criterion was just the willingness to commit to meeting twice a week and “figuring this improv thing out.” After a few weeks, we were seven people strong (three women and four men).

我在迪拜长大，我的娱乐饮食包括美国和英国的电视节目和电影。台词落谁家--我是这个节目的粉丝？但它看起来像电视魔术，我不知道它是怎么工作的。1996年我搬到巴基斯坦，但在2002年第一次体验到即兴表演，当时我被介绍给萨德·哈伦（他后来成为巴基斯坦第一批国际知名的喜剧演员之一，甚至在2014年洛杉矶笑声工厂的比赛中被选为“世界上第二有趣的人”）。萨阿德最近从美国回来，他在那里做了一些即兴表演，并想在卡拉奇成立一个剧团。由于没有人有即兴表演的经验，注册标准只是愿意承诺每周见面两次，并“解决即兴表演问题”。“几周后，我们有七人（三个女人和四个男人）。

We called our short-form comedy troupe Black Fish, which is a literal translation of Karachi’s old name, Kolachi (“kola” meaning “black” and “chi” meaning “fish”). Besides being the only English-language improv comedy troupe, we were the only improv troupe! To our great surprise, we went on to become Pakistan’s most commercially successful theatre troupe, putting on weekly live shows and even representing Pakistan in the British Council’s Contacting the World theatre festival in 2004. Pakistanis were as wowed by our improv magic as I had been of Whose Line. What also set us apart was our group’s diverse composition, especially given Pakistan’s conservative cultural views on interactions between members of the opposite sex. I was working in marketing at the time and the idea of developing training modules using improv for people in the corporate world sounded interesting, but none of us in the troupe knew how to implement this idea.

我们把我们的短剧团取名为“黑鱼”(black fish) ，这是卡拉奇古老名字 kolachi 的直译。（“ kola”表示“ 黑色” ，“ chi”表示“ 鱼”)。除了是唯一的英语即兴喜剧剧团，我们是唯一的即兴剧团！令我们吃惊的是，我们成为巴基斯坦最具商业成功的剧团，每周举办现场表演，甚至代表巴基斯坦参加2004年英国理事会的联系世界戏剧节。巴基斯坦人和我的即兴表演魔法一样被我们的即兴表演魔法所震惊。同样让我们与众不同的是我们组织的组成多样化，特别是考虑到巴基斯坦对异性之间互动的保守文化观点。当时我从事市场营销工作，为企业世界里的人使用即兴表演开发培训模块的想法听起来很有趣，但我们剧团里都不知道如何实现这个想法。

In 2007, I moved back to Dubai to pursue an opportunity with an advertising agency, marking the dissolution of Black Fish. I continued to research and read about (applied) improv online and eventually started offering free improv workouts with the hope of forming a troupe. I called the workouts “HaHaHabibi” (“Habibi” is a commonly used term of endearment in Arabic). Like the city of Dubai itself, our group was a potpourri of different nationalities, ethnicities, backgrounds, and professions. It was the perfect recipe for a truly dynamic, multicultural improv outfit. United Colors of Benetton would have been a proud sponsor.

2007年，我搬回迪拜，在一家广告公司寻找机会，标志着黑鱼公司的解散。我继续在网上研究和阅读（应用）即兴表演，并最终开始提供免费的即兴表演锻炼，希望能组建一个剧团。我把锻炼方式称为“哈哈比比”是阿拉伯语中常用的喜爱术语。和迪拜市本身一样，我们的团队也是一个拥有不同民族、种族、背景和职业的诗人。这是一个真正充满活力，多元文化的即兴表演服装的完美食谱。贝纳通的联合颜色将是一个骄傲的赞助商。