Why Improv?
I started improv to improve my writing. I had no interest in being on stage. But, after my first class I felt a desire to continue.
Class after class I was being sucked in. I started doing improv jams five nights a week. I loved everything that improv is. Improv was becoming something that I looked to as an analogy for life.
But, after a few months, my improv started going sour. In scenes I couldn’t see what was funny, when I tried to support my teammates, I hurt their performances. I was scared. Scared that I wasn’t going to be able to continue growing as an improvisor, scared that my new improv friends wouldn’t want me around, scared that I was ruining this thing I had grown to love. In my constant thinking about improv as an analogy for life, my only conclusion was that perhaps I wasn’t good at life.
T’was a dark time indeed.
One day I had a practice session with a few random improvisors and a coach that had never coached any of us before. Toward the end of the session we did an opening and the coach asked if we had any ideas for scenes from it. I shared an idea I had about being upset that I was at a restaurant that didn’t have all the fun things that Chuck-E-Cheese had. And our coach said, yeah, not bad, but, what if you were at a restaurant that DID have all the fun things that Chuck-E-Cheese has? Cause, if you can do anything in the world in improvising, why not choose to have fun for the five minutes that you have in that scene? If your not enjoying the scene, why don’t you do something so that you do enjoy it?
And that shit blew my fucking mind.
Suddenly improv became clearer. Go out and enjoy it. I’m gonna only do this scene one time and share it with one audience. My work is at best a memory once I leave the stage. Why not go and make the best of it, no matter what? My improvisation rebounded and got better. This, to me, was the key to improv. As it had before, my new thoughts about improv changed my thoughts about life.
And that shit blew my fucking mind.
Suddenly life became clearer. Go out and enjoy it. I’m only gonna live my life one time and will only share it with a few. My life is at best a memory once I die. Why would I ever make a choice to do something that makes me unhappy? Why not go out there and make the best of it, no matter what the situation? My life got better. This, to me, was the key to life.
I do improv because it taught me to make the most out of every moment. Cause if you don’t, then what the fuck are you gonna do for a second beat?
Cross posted at The Improv Student
