On March 31st, I attended an improv class.
Yes, and now you get to hear about it!
…in just a second. First, I would like to address my absence on this blog. I saw this tweet a couple of weeks ago that pretty much sums up my relationship with this blog at the moment:
Suffice it to say, I have enough ideas to write one blog post a week, but unfortunately not enough executive function. It’s like some backwards version of writer’s block.
Anyway, I’m back, at least for now, and today I will be talking about…drum roll please…improv and unscripted comedy!!! Hooray! (Please don’t click away, I promise* this will be fun and interesting!!)
So, like I mentioned earlier, I attended an improv class last week. One of the cool things about the Disney College Program is that they offer a wide variety of classes and learning opportunities for all of the CPs to attend. (You know, because we have soooo much free time 🙃)
Now, I haven’t taken any kind of acting/theater/improv classes since my sophomore year of high school, and there is a reason for that.
I am what you might call a “Triple Non-Threat”:
- I can’t act
- I can’t dance
- and I *definitely* cannot sing (just ask my shower)
So you might be wondering: what was I doing in an improv class in the first place? Great question. Well, it all starts with a bad case of strep throat, Instagram reels, and a poor financial decision.
Back in November of last year, I got strep throat. (Thank you, Anonymous Disney Guest.) During this time, I was kind of in-between TV shows, which was a problem because I was trapped in my apartment for a couple days and had no shows to watch! So…enter Instagram Reels. I spent a lot of time scrolling and ended up getting a lot of reels from these shows called “Game Changer” and “Make Some Noise.”
You may have seen one or two of these clips. There are a few that have gone extremely viral (which is how I ended up on this side of Instagram in the first place). Anyway, turns out these shows are part of a company called “Dropout” (formerly “CollegeHumor”). Now, I’m not going to waste too much time describing Dropout, but essentially it’s a comedy streaming service that mainly features unscripted comedy shows. And, after watching a million clips on Instagram, feeling generally terrible (re: strep throat), and some encouragement from my mom, I decided to get an annual subscription (the aforementioned poor financial decision).
Well, fast forward a few months, and I’m almost watching more improv than sitcoms (still watching Abbott Elementary every week, of course)! So, when I saw that one of the classes that the Disney College Program offered was a once-a-month Improv class, I thought:
YES, that sounds fun, AND I signed up.
So on March 31st, I walked into a class called “Improv for Improvement,” armed with all of my extensive Improv knowledge, including:
- memories of watching my high school’s improv troupe with my sister in the pre-COVID days
- hours of various Dropout shows
- and also having seen some random improv shows that I found on Netflix (everyone should watch Middleditch and Schwartz)
…and no practical experience. At first, I thought I was just going to be thrust into a group of people and then just have to improvise a scene based on a prompt or something, so I was very prepared to just fail. And maybe die.
Luckily, this was not the case.
After everyone sat down, the first thing we did was listen to the instructor talk about the purpose of the class. This particular instructor is a Disney cast member who is also part of a local improv comedy group, and she teaches this improv class to different Disney teams to show how improv can be helpful in the professional world. After she introduced herself, we went over three basic principles of improv:
- Yes, And
This one is basically in the title. You accept what the other improvisers give you, and also add to it.
- Don’t Think
I liked this one because of the sheer impossibility of it. Basically, there were two parts to this: don’t overthink your choices in the moment, AND don’t think about what you could have said that would have been better/funnier afterwards. (Which, how dare they–those are, like, my main shower thoughts!)
- No One is the “Star”
The purpose of improv is working as a group. If one person walks away as the “star” of an improv show, then it probably wasn’t a very good show! I’ll mention Dropout again–one of my favorite things about their shows is that all of the cast members work really hard to make each other laugh and have fun, instead of trying to make themselves the main focus.
After this brief intro to improv, we broke into groups of ~6 and basically played improv games for the rest of the class. Once I figured out this is what we would be doing, I started to relax. I also started to get flashbacks to playing “Zip Zap Zop” in my high school Theater 1 class.
The focus of this particular class session was “Teamwork,” so all the games we played relied on working together.
The first one we played was called “Yes, Let’s!” Basically, you stand in a circle, and then one person jumps in the circle and suggests an activity and mimes doing that activity. Then, everyone else shouts “Yes, let’s!” and does their own interpretations of that activity.
My suggestions in this game (“Let’s knit a sweater!” / “Let’s paint a mural!”) were rather boring compared to some others… (“Let’s bury a dead body!”)
…but it was oddly affirming to suggest something to a group and have everyone enthusiastically agree (even if they were quite literally obligated to).
In the next game we played, we had to work together to create a physical representation of different spaces or concepts with our bodies. We did a couple rounds of this, creating shapes like Mickey Mouse, an airplane, and a living room. During this time I got to represent Mickey’s ear, an airplane wing, and the other half of a 2-piece end table set. All in the span of 10 minutes!
After that, we had an extra bonus round where we had to create the shape without speaking to each other. The prompt was “Disney attractions,” and when the instructor asked my group which ride we were supposed to be, we found out that half of us thought we were Tiana’s Bayou, and the other half thought we were Tower of Terror…whoops.
Hakuna Matata though, am I right?
The final game we played was kind of a classic icebreaker game, where we had to line ourselves up by birthday order without speaking. This went surprisingly well; we only had two people out of place in a room of probably 40?? Ish??
Ok, so why am I telling you about this not-even-Improv-101 class? Well, because after the session was over, I started thinking (critical mistake) and realized that my whole life has kind of been improv recently, and that the instructor was right–having improvisational skills can really be helpful in all aspects of life.
Let’s go back through the three basic improv rules again. (“Yes, let’s!”)
- Yes, And
Anyone who has ever worked in retail or any guest service role knows the phrase: “the customer is always right.” This means more than just providing excellent customer service, it means that when a guest walks up to you, no matter what they say, you kinda have to just roll with it.
I won’t get into any examples this time…but maybe one day I’ll make a post about the time I had to guard a pile of vomit for 20 minutes.
The point is, “Yes, and” has more applications than just in an improv class. Even with something as simple as just having a conversation, I’ve discovered that being able to talk with random strangers about any subject is a very useful skill to have.
- Don’t Think
As a chronic overthinker, this one is probably the hardest for me. I’m always thinking about the things I could have said that would have been “better” or “funnier.”
During the improv class, our instructor explained that there’s no need to think about it, because everyone else is so focused on what they’re saying, that truly they are going to forget whatever it was you said, whether it was good or bad.
I have found this to be mostly true; it’s been a week or two since that class and I really only remember a couple of things other people did, haha.
All this to say, the spotlight effect is real. Everyone’s not always looking at you, and you have the freedom to make your own choice, even if you’re not sure if it’s the “right” one.
I might be just preaching to myself here.
- No One is the “Star”
I like how this one applies to real life. If you’re always trying to be the best, or the star of the show, not only will that hurt your relationships, but also you will always fall short. There’s always going to be someone who is “better”/has more experience/etc. But it doesn’t matter because no one is the star! We all have unique experiences and perspectives that we can bring to the table.
I remember being in writing classes and being amazed when everyone got the same assignment, or prompt, but all wrote completely different pieces. None of them were the “best,” because they were all so different they couldn’t really be compared against each other. Similarly, we as people are all so unique, there’s no point in playing the comparison game.
I guess my main point is: improv is cool and it has practical applications in real life and you should definitely watch as many unscripted comedy shows as you can.
Please.
I need someone to understand my references.
After the class was over, our instructor showed us a slide of improv resources, which included Dropout! Which made me feel very vindicated. Maybe that subscription wasn’t such a bad financial decision after all…
Anyway, am I “good” at improv?
No.
Have I already signed up for the next improv class?
Yes, and hopefully it won’t be my last : )
*the word “promise” here was used in the…metaphorical sense. Yeah, that’s a thing.
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