No Shame Theater is an improvisational theater, but it is by no means a theater without rules. As another No Shame webpage says, no shame does not mean no pride. While the theater itself may be no holds barred, some rules do apply, especially those of respect and courtesy. Steve recalls an incident where one performer went up on stage during another performance and started taking pictures. Such a disruption infringes on the informal rules of theater; it denotes a lack of respect for the performance. In this respect, No Shame Theater and theater in general are similar to one aspect of western society: interruptions are not appreciated, especially during formal (or performing) speech.

However, No Shame Theater veers off the well-trodden path of traditional theater regarding its informality. Such informality allows performers and non-performers (those who are usually members of the audience) alike to express ideas. Such a theater forum is made possible in a number of different ways. First, by the informal nature of the performances and performance scheduling. While in most theaters, performances must be arranged many months ahead of time and include rehearsals and other commitments, performers need to sign up only a half-hour before the show actually begins.  Many theaters require extensive props, while the only props provided by No Shame Theater are three chairs and a table. While performers are allowed to bring their own props, set ups will seriously cut into the short five-minute time slot allowed. For this reason, emphasis is placed almost entirely on dialogue, expression and pantomiming. Most performers have scripts, so no intensive memorization is required. Often performers miss cues and turn to improvisation, as well. For example, in ìKeith goes Hunting,î ëKeithí and the ëstorytellerí unintentionally have an on-stage misunderstanding. The performer playing Keith pantomimes his confusion, much to the enjoyment of the audience. Such improvisation and script-reading relieve performers of much of the formal pressure of traditional theater. For example, what if Kenneth Branaugh forgot what to say to Ophelia in a production of Hamlet? The pressure to avoid such mistakes is tremendous, and such pressure is avoided entirely in No Shame Theater.

The theater is also informal in terms of audience expectations. The audience is primed to laugh at just about anything, including mistakes by the performer. Mistakes such as the one made on ìKeith goes Huntingî are actually appreciated, not looked upon with disdain. Since the audience attends with the expectation of laughing, laughter is almost inevitable. The theater begins at 10:30 p.m. on Friday nights, a time which is often reserved for partying or ëkicking back.í As Goffman says, performance is keyed in implicit and explicit framing messages which show an audience what should be conveyed to them. (45: Bauman citing Goffman). The time and social setting of No Shame Theater convey explicit framing messages which encourage the audience to laugh.

Over a hundred people usually attend the No Shame Theater. More often than not, almost every seat in the small theater is filled. In each audience, more than twenty people are there not only to watch but to perform. While these numbers are approximate, it is fair to say that a fairly large portion of the audience performs on stage at some time or another. Many of those who do not perform are regulars in the audience, which provides a crowd which is intimate to the ways of the theater. No Shame advertising is given primarily by word-of-mouth, so the audience tends to be similar week in and out.

Yet audiences play a much more important part than simply observing the theater. Just as in any theater or any performance, a performance is null if nobody can observe it. The mere presence of an audience provides a forum for performers to express themselves. The audience also acts as a regulator of material; by laughing, it shows its approval. Having such short skits put a great deal of pressure on performers to impress their audience quickly. For this reason, the usual mode of impression is based on humor and shock value. Without favorable audience interaction, a No Shame performance will usually fail. In this way, an audience not only regulates but shapes what is acceptable for performance. As A.R. Radcliffe suggests, joking exists as performances of ìprivileged licenseî or ìpermitted disrespect.î (73: Basso citing Radcliffe). When a punch line falls flat, performers have gone outside the realm of such boundaries, and an audience will no longer react favorably. Each joke that has a favorable response likewise suggests that each following joke will have a favorable response as well, while each joke that does not may very well lead to the demise of each ensuing joke. Such a mindset puts the pressure on performers to hit early and often with good punch lines. Since performers often ëfeed offí of audience reaction, an unfavorable response will also lead to a diminished performance.

Performers who fail are unlikely to perform a skit similar to one which previously failed, so some styles of humor are actually prey to a type of social Darwinism. Only humorwhich has adapted to audience tastes will survive. In this way, a regular audience ëchoosesí what kinds of performances are acceptable.

That is not to say that the audience necessarily intends to cause such an effect. No Shame audiences are polite and will always applaud pieces (see No Shame Audience). Audiences will accept pieces that are outside of the ënormí of No Shame humor. One particular night, for example, also included a guitarist and a mime. Neither performance was meant to be funny but both garnered applause. Other performers simply read poetry aloud. While some poems are obviously humorous, others are quite serious. For these performers, No Shame Theater is not just a forum for entertainment, but one for expressing their own ideas.

Indeed, No Shame is just as much a forum for performers as it is entertainment for its audience. For regular performers, the theater is a chance to write and perform their own material. Performers within the core group of the No Shame society (see No Shame Hierarchy) bring new material week in and out to perform. Often they will participate in several skits with different groups of people. While certain performers tend to stick together and do certain skits, performers of one group will often help others out by performing in the skits of another group. Such interaction shows that there is an established group of performers who work together.

These established performers communicate on three levels of signification. The lowest level is accessible to anyone who attends; often it is humor or some other ëuniversalí message which is meant for the entire audience to understand. The middle level is accessible to those who attend the theater regularly; some skits play off of skits done in previous weeks, and even make fun of them. The highest level is communicated between performers in the audience and performers on the stage; a performer on stage may ëteaseí a performer in the audience. As Phillipson argues, language is a means for social realities to be formed and communicated (43: Bauman2 citing Phillipson). This is certainly the case in No Shame theater. Language in No Shame Theater performances establish the social realities of the outside world by pantomiming and parodying them. More specifically, the language establishes the social realities of the theater as well, especially on the middle and highest levels of signification, because parody of other performers and skits is a way of condemning them or shaping what is acceptable within the theater. As Steve told me, regular performers created performances which parodied a performer that had been banned from the theater for intentionally throwing up on stage. These performances are not only for humor purposes, as they also demonstrate rules within the theater.

Through social control and communication, No Shame performances create a special atmosphere for both the performers and the audience. While messages on society as a whole can be understood by most members of the audience, messages on the theater itself are understood only by regular members of the No Shame society. In this sense, the middle- and highest- levels suggest that No Shame society is somewhat exclusive because those who are not regular members of the society will not catch these cues. However, No Shame is also inclusive in the sense that anybody who attends regularly or becomes an established performer can and will understand these cues. Those who become regulars, whether as members of the audience or as performers, are able to fully understand modes of communication which are inherent to the No Shame Theater society.