Learning Improv Opens You to Discovery

People often think improv is being fast with a joke or comeback. But, learning improv doesn’t give you quick wit. Even years of improv classes won’t make you good at the artform if you don’t do what improv teaches you to do. That is to let go. Learning improv empties out your brain so it can discover and embrace what is unusual, absurd, impossible, and maybe even a bit magical. It’s about allowing what you hear and see inspire what you say and do. When you stop thinking, especially about being funny, you open yourself up to finding the funny.

Some of the phrases we hear while learning improv make us open to discovering what’s possible in a performance or in life.

Don’t Ask Questions

Behind “yes, and” not asking questions is one of the big improv rules. Why wouldn’t you ask questions? We do that in real life, but in improv, we are building something out of nothing. That means every interaction has to add to the scene. Questions can happen, but they should have information in them. For example, “how are you feeling?” is different from “why are you feeling sad?” In the second question, you’ve given someone an emotion, and that adds to the scene, pushing it forward with new information. Saying “you feel sad because the store was out of Reese’s peanut butter cups” would, of course, be better. You are totally making this up as you go along, so you know everything already.

Not asking questions is trusting your imagination. When your brain is blank, you open it up to knowing things you didn’t know you knew. You can use inspiration to discover what’s around you and inside other people when you don’t ask questions.

Follow Your Feet

When entering an improv scene already in progress, you might “follow your feet.” If your inclination is to enter with an idea that isn’t fully formed, you still do it. If you hesitate, the moment may pass. You will have missed your opportunity for inspiration, progress, and fun. For example, two people on stage are talking about the latest Funko collection. They’ve been talking for a minute, but we don’t know who they are or where they are. We need information! You just get an idea, and you walk on with it. You follow your feet to endow the place as an office breakroom and the two people are secret service agents. Now, we get to see how the scene plays out when these two toy-obsessed agents have to answer a call to protect the President.

Following your feet is trusting your intuition. You don’t yet know what’s there, but you want to move toward it. So, do it. When you do, you could find yourself in a position of discovery as well as forward progress.

Mistakes Are Opportunities

When you are making everything up all the time, mistakes happen. You might forget someone’s name, or a word comes out wrong. But, that shouldn’t stop you from pushing a scene forward. That empty space after a mistake becomes an opportunity for humor. You can endow a mother who forgets her son’s name with a dozen children that she can never keep straight. Saying “cheapios” instead of “Cheerios” makes your environment a grocery store full of low price, off-brand merchandise.

Believing that mistakes are opportunities is trusting yourself. When they happen, the slate goes blank. You can either stop because you are embarrassed or you can leverage the mistake. When you push through the opportunity, you grow.

Learning improv teaches you to empty out your brain so that you can trust your imagination, intuition, and yourself. Creativity, instinct, and confidence are all valuable skills for improvisation that translate to your everyday interactions. So, next time you find your mind blank, follow the fun and fill it with opportunity!

Want to learn improv? Check out a Big Couch workshop!