How To Get Better At Improv

another triangle

Thinking again about formulas and triangles (just like last week).

A triangle of how one gets better at improv comedy.

• What You Are - This is what you bring to the table. It’s a combination of your natural talent and how much time you invest in improv. So this is both ability and also how many reps you’ve done.

• Your Classes/Practices - This is how good your teachers are, and how strong/supportive your fellow classmates are. When I say “how good” I mean both how good as comedians and how good as emotionally supportive human beings. This includes indie teams you practice with.

• What You Watch/Listen - This is how good the improv is that you watch/see.

Somewhere in the middle of that triangle, you get good.

What You Watch

I was thinking of how in the early days of UCB there was no curriculum, and few experienced teachers. Teachers were given the title of the class “Level 2: The Harold” and then taught it however they thought best. This was 1999 NYC, and many of the teachers had only been studying long-form themselves for maybe two or three years.

That doesn’t sound like a formula for success. Yet in these early days of UCB many terrific performers and teams developed. Why?

Because another component was: the teachers were good at DOING improv, and you could watch them for free. UCB had shows almost every night, and students could go for free. So in addition to learning from brand-new teachers, I could watch them in person. Many of my teachers and coaches couldn’t explain their process, but they could show it.

There also was ASSSSCAT every Sunday, with the UCB 4, in their prime, doing fast, smart, fearless and very funny improv to sold-out crowds.

A steady diet of watching those shows taught you a lot.

I taught a few classes in Beijing at the end of 2015. My students were extremely talented and invested. I was an experienced teacher excited to show them improv. The one thing that really hurt the quality of the education was: there was no good improv they could go see — in person or online. You need it.

Your Classes / Practices

When I started improv I had almost no experience performing in any way. I remember feeling so unconfident on stage and extremely self-conscious. I was slow and unsure. I was not bringing a lot of talent/experience to the table.

But I was lucky to have incredible classmates and teammates.In these early days of the UCB theater the only people taking classes were people who had sought out classes after having scoured the back pages of the NY Press for comedy shows. It was people who were plugged into the comedy scene, i.e. people who had designs on being professional performers.

I learned by doing scenes with confident, funny people, and feeling what their performance felt like. I remember in a practice group someone initiated very timidly “I think I’m gonna pull this fire alarm so we can get out of school.” For whatever reason, the group didn’t have a reaction, at first. I started trying to do mental math about what a “good response would be.

Then, a guy in class who was a very seasoned actor jumped into the scene with complete commitment “WHAT DID YOU SAY?” and the initiator stammered “uh, I said I was thinking of pulling this fire alarm?” and the seasoned actor yelled “Yes! Finally! Let’s watch the world BURN!” Suddenly, no one was analyzing — we all jumped in the scene and copied his confidence… and it was fun. Certainly I had been told to emotionally commit, but it was so helpful to see it, to FEEL what it did.

What You Bring

Not all my classmates were talented. Not all my teachers were inspiring performers. I had no performing experience. What I did bring to the equation was: being obsessed with improv.

I took every class I could, watched every show I could, did one or two practice groups a week. Sometimes the teachers/coaches were inspired, and sometimes they weren’t. Sometimes the shows I saw were good, sometimes not. But after a year of this, I had done several hundred scenes, with feedback from a few dozen very good teacher/performers.

It started to get easier. Suddenly, I DID have performing experience, albeit just experience in classrooms and rehearsal spaces.

It Takes An Improv Village

My point here is: not any one of those points of the triangle can do it all themselves. Even if I’m the best teacher I can be, the students need to see improv in action. Even if you’ve seen the best improv possible, you need to get reps doing it.

You need a mixture of all three, but if you have it — you get better.

Plugs, Ongoing

• Screw It, We’re Just Gonna Talk About Comics - Comic book podcast, hosted by my brother Kevin and I. We are preparing to do a series on legendary comics writer Keith Giffen!

• Clubhouse Fridays - WGIS’ weekly improv show. Fridays 7pm at The Clubhouse. Free!

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print. It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re broke and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.