Forrest is a current production sound mixer, a former stand-up comedian, exactly half of the ancient comedy team of Proops & Brakeman, and an improvisor. After training with the Groundlings, he co-founded the improv comedy group Los Angeles Theatresports, where he performed and served as Co-Artistic Director. Forrest has performed at The Comedy Store and The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, The Punch Line and Cobb’s Pub in San Francisco, and has appeared on The Tonight Show and The Sunday Comics. He is a regular contributor to HumorOutcasts.com, and has had essays published in the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily News, NPR, Boomer Cafe, and the Chicago Cubs Yearbook. Sometimes he dances to embarrass his kids.
Forrest Brakeman 
Hi Mr Brakeman, my name is James Miles and I’m currently doing a Comedy Writing and Performance degree at the University if Salford in the UK. I have been studying your Triptych improv format and am writing an assignment on it. It was my favourite format so performed it for my assessment which had to be 30 minutes. As a result of hitting this time, the scenes felt really drawn out (I feel we could have started the second cycle after about 7 or 8 minutes). Would you be able to please tell me what you feel an ideal length for a triptich format is and if it is better to move the scene on when it feels natural to the performer rather than hitting an amount of time so that I can reference it in my essay? Many thanks, James Miles.
Hi James!
It has been my experience that the tryptic, when done as a Triple Play (playwright, movie, musical for example), the first round of scenes are usually longer because of the need to establish character, setting, protagonist, antagonist, etc. As the show progresses, in theory, each round would get a bit shorter so that you can conclude each story quickly and on a very high note.
That all being said, it still can come down to “feel.” Does it feel like time to move on? It probably is. Sometimes doing the obvious thing is correct.
Don’t forget that there can be multiple scenes within each act.
The timing of the Triple Play is very dependent on either a very accomplished and experienced cast that can navigate the story and duration on their own, or a savvy director that isn’t afraid to change scenes, or call the act, and guide it to conclusion.
Does this help?