Improv Can Make the World a Better Place

Here are the concepts I’ll touch on before digging into the positive impacts of improv. Human behavior lives on a continuum, and we might slide up or down on it. Humans use calculated risks to manage uncertainty, and uncertainty causes stress. Lastly, overthinking.

A Continuum

Most human behavior falls on a continuum—not much is all or nothing. Let’s think about procrastination because most people have some experience with procrastination. I’m not typically a person who procrastinates, but I have students who are self-proclaimed procrastinators. They feel that they work better under a tight deadline and enjoy the pressure it puts on them. Either you are that person or, like me, annoyed by that person. On the flip side, I feel better when I get things done two weeks in advance, and it drives some people crazy. We all fall somewhere between start it 2-hours before it’s due or I finished it the day I got the information. Procrastination could also be task-dependent. I get all the work for a class online early, but I procrastinate when it comes to grading.

Uncertainty, Risk, Stress

In life, there is always some measure of uncertainty in everything we do, and uncertainty causes stress and anxiety. Some stress is helpful for people but it becomes a problem when it gets to be high. To reduce stress, we manage our feelings of uncertainty by calculating the risk, or we might ignore the risk altogether. COVID-19 has created mass amounts of uncertainty—possibility of being sick or hospitalized, unemployment, job insecurity, housing insecurities for people who have lost their job, food insecurities, and increased domestic abuse are only some of the issues that have developed or increased during COVID-19. Things can seem scary and confusing right now. I love science, but it involves testing, finding results, retesting, finding different results, continuing to test and change with new information, so on and so forth until there is a clear understanding. I know this process can be confusing in the middle of a pandemic when you just want information that is clear and easy to understand. It’s hard to manage risk when we don’t have a clear understanding of the risk, and it seems like the information is changing every day. If we don’t have a clear idea of the risk, it’s hard to manage uncertainty. When we can’t manage the uncertainty in our lives, our stress starts to rise to an unhealthy level.

Overthinking

By the time we hit adulthood, we’ve built up our self-doubt and judgments about how we will be perceived. Shame and fear of vulnerability can make us hide our authentic self and overthink. Listen to a TED Talk by Brené Brown or read one of her books if you haven’t yet. We shouldn’t be ashamed of being vulnerable—being open about what you’re thinking or feeling can be scary. “What if I say I love you and the other person doesn’t say it back” or worse, they leave or act weird after. Saying “I love you” even to my friends isn’t natural for me. I’m an extroverted HSP (highly sensitive person). This means I feel deeply (both good and bad), think about things deeply, needing quiet spaces for thinking, and make connections that others don’t always see. It also means being called “too sensitive” and “too emotional” and being told to “toughen up.” Yes, I want to tell everyone I know that I love them. You are human, and I love you because you are human—very Mr. Rogers' style. But it’s freaking scary to say "I love you" to people. I’ve overthought it and talked myself out of it. Yes, people have responded in ways that made me feel ashamed for having said, “I love you,” but that’s why I love improv—I promise I’m getting there.

Now that I’ve dragged you down the rabbit hole of darkness, I’d like to lift you out of it—with improv!

You can’t overthink in improv

Well, you can, but it will suck for everyone—the other people in the scene, the audience, and especially for you. Getting over our adult, overthinking brain to live in the moment is usually what level 1 classes tackle. Let go of what you think is “right” and face that you’re going to F it up at some point. I’ve seen two approaches to breaking “failure” mentality when playing improv. One involves a “fail bow,” which involves literally bowing to the mistake you made. The other approach jumps directly to emphasizing mistakes as unexpected outcomes, which are gifts of inspiration and humor.

To illustrate these two approaches, I’ll use the example of the sound ball game, which is a great day 1, first-time improv game. In the basic game of sound ball, all the improvisers stand in a circle, someone makes eye contact with someone else, make a sound, and pass an imaginary ball with that sound. The person they throw it to catches the imaginary ball while making the same sound. With experienced players, the game gains a natural rhythm and moves pretty fast. There’s a lot of overthinking in new improvisers. “Oh no! What sound should I make?” This game may sound easy, but there are “rules.” And rules denote there can be mistakes.

There are “rules” to everything in improv, but I put it in quotes because it’s a loose concept. Fun and funny tends to happen when people mess up on accident. Hence, Tom Booker, one of my former improv teachers, would always say, “There are no mistakes. Just unexpected outcomes.” All improv teaching eventually gets to this lesson. Some places/people start here as the approach to break overthinking. In sound ball, when someone makes the wrong sound, doesn’t catch it because they aren’t listening carefully, or any other mistake that happens, the group or person is encouraged to course-correct and keep going. The other approach is the whole group stops, and either the individual or group bows to the mistake. This is about taking a moment to acknowledge that we will mess up but to accept it and let it pass. No matter the approach, the purpose is to get past the fear of making a mistake and stop the overthinking brain.

Improv is high uncertainty but low risk

You can’t plan ahead in improv. The idea is to play from the gifts you receive from your scene partner(s). Two people walking onto a stage rarely have the same idea. If you’re lucky, you can work your idea in. Mostly, you roll with what was said and move forward. To quote Tom Booker again, because I have 13 Tom Booker quotes that will eventually be worked into the overall blog, “There are an infinite number of perfect possibilities.” While the human brain is magic at planning ahead and thinking through possible scenarios, you don’t know what’s going to come out of someone’s head, and you can’t plan ahead for it. That’s a lot of uncertainty. The only thing you can do is play from your side of the equation, which is true anytime you interact with a person.

But it’s also low risk. The audience knows you’re making it up on the spot, and they want you to succeed. You’ve got your teammates to rely on to call scene or jump in with help. It’s an ephemeral art, and when it’s done, it’s gone.

Humans behavior is on a continuum

Maybe you’re overthinking or having anxiety about the uncertainty in your life—it’s normal. You’re also not stuck where you are. Moving along any continuum involves work. Improv is a fun way to work at some of the things we get stuck in as humans, especially as adults. It can help with overthinking, becoming more comfortable with risk, learning to let go of control, be present in the moment, and work on listening skills.

Improv isn’t therapy, but it does have a lot of positive benefits, it gives a safe space to work on some skills that can improve our daily lives, and it’s fun. It turns out that growth through play works just as well in adults as it does in kids.