Improv: The ultimate communication exercise
My improv inspiration
A year ago, I started taking improvisational comedy classes. I had heard from countless people that improv was a beneficial skill in the business world, teaching you to think on your toes, embrace others’ ideas, trust your teammates, and take yourself less seriously. Beyond this, many of my personal heroes credit improv for their career successes in a variety of fields. I have always had a tremendous respect for improv actors and figured that, to be a great improviser, you had to be really damn smart.
What held me back?
I had always wanted to try improv, but there was one thing that held me back - I’m not an actor. What if I was worse than everyone in my class? What if I looked like an idiot? What if nobody laughed with me and instead were laughing at me?
I finally got up the courage to sign up for a beginner class last April, and I haven’t looked back. If someone asks me what the greatest changes that I made to my life last year were, doing improv is one of them. And believe me, I have made a lot of changes. I have made friends from all over, learned new communication skills in a safe and supportive environment, and I get to be silly for 2 hours a week. So for anyone who has the same concerns that I mentioned before, let me ease your mind:
Everyone in a beginner class is just that. A beginner. Nobody is “better” than anyone else; everyone comes in with their own unique skill set, and as long as you’re open to learning, you will be just fine.
Everyone at an improv class chooses to be there and wants to be ridiculous. Nobody there thinks that you’re an idiot, and none of your classmates is an idiot, either. There is no such thing as “messing up.” In fact, before every single class, we go around the room and tell everyone else, “You don’t have to be funny, clever, or quick. You’re allowed to make mistakes and get things wrong.”
Everyone who takes time out of their day to go to an improv class is in a mood to laugh. The same is true for an audience of people attending an amateur improv show. They are rooting for you. As long as you commit to your character, if you’re hearing laughs, they are laughing with you - not at you.
What does any of this have to do with questions?
The short answer:
Everything.
The long answer:
Improv is (*surprise*) improvised. Nothing is planned beforehand, every scene, every character, every line is a completely blank slate. My improv teacher recently described a scene to us as being like “The Construct” from the Matrix.
Neo and Morpheus in The Construct in “The Matrix” (1999)
If you haven’t seen The Matrix, The Construct is a vast white room that expands in all directions (except down, it seems), like a blank canvas. Within it, you can build worlds and run any simulation you can imagine.
This is precisely how an improv scene works. And when actors ask the audience for suggestions, those suggestions help build the world in which the scene takes place. It’s then the job of the actors to construct the rest of their environment, including their characters’ personalities, relationships, motives, and backstories.
In order to fill in all the details and put on a great show, improvisers have to be light on their feet and build their world as they go along. And you may be thinking: “But Antonia, with infinite possibilities, how can you possibly make any decisions? And how can you do it on the fly?”
The answer is, you guessed it, asking yourself questions. And listening. Lots of listening.
This is just the beginning
This happens to be a topic I love talking about, so I’ll be writing several blogs on this moving forward. But for now, I leave you with this one takeaway: Improv, like asking great questions, is a skill that you can strengthen and fine-tune. It will help you in myriad ways professionally and personally, and it will make you a better question-asker, too. If you are hesitant to try it for the first time, I hope I have convinced you to take the first step and give it a try.