My Return To Improv

I recently decided to do improv again and the experience has been completely different from what I remember as a child improviser. At times, it feels like I’ve stepped into an improv looking glass and everything I thought I knew about improv is upside down and inside out. 

As a kid, I loved acting and singing and took as many classes as I could. I spent a lot of time playing improv games. 

An improvisor returning to the craft after years away.

I started taking classes at HB Studios. Every Saturday, I would go down to the basement where the kids were warehoused. We could be as loud as we wanted without disrupting the adults on the floors above. 

A giant space with gray walls and no windows, we worked with an amazing teacher Ann McCormack. She had us spend months on warm ups and improv games. 

Each game we played had a clear structure. We knew what skills we were focusing on with each game. 

We worked together to form a giant machine, each person had a distinct motion and sound. We sped up and slowed down in sync. 

We formed circles and threw imaginary balls at one another being sure to clarify the size and weight of the ball before we threw it to a classmate. 

We arched our backs and clawed at the air as cats. 

We took turns trying to convince one another to give up our seats without using physical contact. 

We used gestures and poses to inspire scenes. Those scenes turned into conflicts that we had to figure out how to resolve. 

We worked together to create massive machines that made sounds and sped up and slowed down in sync. 

We listened to one another and we worked together. We immersed ourselves in creating characters, being driven by what our characters wanted, and telling stories. 

We created conflicts and had to figure out how to resolve them. The best possible work for teenagers to do each week. 

I vaguely remember  that we did longer improv scenes as well. A friend and I had a recurring character where we were siamese twins that ended up in wacky situations. But other than that, I don’t have any memory of improv scenes that didn’t have a lot of structure. 

As an English teacher, I used improv games to get students listening, communicating, and working together.  

I loved to see my students’ creative thinking and the incredible choices they would make. It was meant a lot to see them feel safe enough to take risks, leave their comfort zones, and improve their skills in the process. 

I was the teacher running the games and exercises. I wasn’t actually doing any improv. 

Once I had a child, I used improv games to foster their language skills, creative thinking, problem solving, and storytelling. We stuck to the games I had played in years ago and I would make up games to connect with favorite tv show characters or a topic my kid was learning about for school. 

I found improv games to be a perfect way to avoid boredom and upset setting in during long moments of waiting at a doctor’s office or killing time waiting for a delayed flight at an airport. 

Improv games became a way for me to have fun with my child and strengthen our connection through play.

During the Covid lockdown, my child was able to take online improv classes. The kids would play improv games each class and our car rides became peak improv time. 

I learned several new games in the car. Questions, Back in the Day, I am a Tree. Again, improv became a way to keep us talking and laughing, instead of bored and frustrated with traffic. 

These were all games with very clear rules and structures. This was my experience with improv.

Life changes and I recently found myself in serious need of adding more laughter and silliness to my days. 

I attended an introduction to Playback Theater and was reminded of improv and how much I loved it. 

I immediately did a search for online improv classes and, due to expert SEO skills, I found the Radical Agreement Project. 

I signed up for a class that I wasn’t able to attend and then procrastinated signing up for another. 

My need to laugh and play won out and I finally attended a class. 

It was completely different from anything I had done before and wasn’t at all what I expected. 

The teacher threw out a prompt and myself and my partner had to create a scene. 

Where were the warm ups? Where were the games? Where were the rules and structure? 

Just come up with a scene? Okay. I went with it. The prompt was paint thinner. I pronounced it almost French and claimed it was my favorite perfume. 

My partner went along. She didn’t like the scent. I dug my heels in and insisted that my paint thinner perfume had a beautiful smell. If I remember correctly, my partner ended up saying she might have a serious illness.

We had about 3-4 minutes to do our scene. When we finished, the teacher started giving us notes. Lots of notes. Of everything we had done wrong. 

I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. Wasn’t improv a space to show up and have a lovely distraction from life and the stress of the day? 

How could improv be done wrong? We were just playing after all. 

Oh, how wrong I was. Through Radical Agreement classes, which I attend as often as I can each week, I learned that there are guidelines and structures to improv. 

The rules aren’t laid out explicitly for each exercise, however. 

They are guidelines that you are meant to learn, study, and apply in the moment. Radical Agreement has blog posts laying out the guidelines and has dissected improv into its many components that when put back together, create a funny scene. 

I enjoyed the class so I went back for another. 

Then I learned that in your opening line, it’s best to establish your relationship to the other person, where you are, and what you’re doing. 

This seemed so incredibly mundane and boring to me. I wanted to go straight for the action or the conflict. The interesting thing that drives the story forward. 

That’s when we were told that improv is not about storytelling. 

It’s not even necessarily about conflict. 

It’s about the relationships between the people in the scene. 

Okay, I began to focus on that. How was last night? Are you excited for your trip? 

No, wrong again. Stay present. Don’t build scenes around what’s already happened or what is going to happen. Focus on what is happening right now. 

Okay. So, I’m back in improv except it’s totally different from all of my background in improv. And I’m a bit more subdued than I was as a teenager. 

Over the past few months, I’ve had my role as an improv scene torn apart, broken down, and rebuilt with an actual understanding of what improv is about. 

I’m still in the early learning stages. I try to focus on including the elements that need to be there in order to make a scene successful. Then when the scene ends the teacher asks me, “What was funny about what you did?”

And I have NO idea. I was busy trying to establish a relationship, location, stay present, and include the prompt. I have no idea what I said for most of it, let alone if it was funny. 

I hope some of it is funny. I’m a funny person, so I imagine it has to be funny some of the time. 

The scenes that I’m in that seem the most boring, where we’re just focused on including the basic elements and it ends up being a sweet and supportive relationship yield the highest praise. Sweet and supportive would never have occurred to me as an option in the past. 

Improv doesn’t have to just be characters placed in absurd situations. Although, I prefer ridiculous and absurd.

It’s been a crash course in really listening to my partner. I start a scene with an idea in mind, but once my partner joins in, the scene is out of my control and going in a different direction. 

Listening, flexibility, a willingness to learn, grow and change. This is only a fraction of what I’m learning in improv classes. 

I’m not sure how I feel about this. I really just wanted a space to be silly and laugh for 30 minutes each day. 

I’m beginning to understand that learning and internalizing the guidelines and structures of improv is the basis for being funny on a whole new level. 

While it can be overwhelming to try to remember to do a lot in an opening line, and sometimes I don’t click with a scene partner as well as with others, I’m sticking with it. 

If I’m not my best in a class, others are funny. And it’s a laugh or cry moment right now. 

Come join me at a Radical Agreement beginners class. Let’s make mistakes while we learn and laugh together!