Have you ever gotten a note from an improv teacher that you didn't agree with?

Did it make you feel confused, frustrated or even ashamed, like you had done something wrong? I assure you, you have not.

They say that there are no mistakes in improv. But that doesn’t apply to teachers giving notes.

If you are like me, you’re probably like “No way. The teacher can’t make a mistake. They know a lot more about improv than I do, so whatever he says must be right.”

The teacher may know more about improv than you do, but they don't know more about you and your creative process. When you go to the doctor, they may be the expert on medicine, but you are the expert on your body, since you are the one in it. The same thing applies with your creative process.

Believe me, as an improv teacher, I wish was correct 100% of the time, but I’m not. After all, improv is a subjective artform, so the feedback and suggestions that I give to my students are just how I see things, but they’re not gospel.

So, if you get a note from a teacher and it doesn’t sit well with you, I encourage you to speak up in the moment about how you feel about the note. I know it’s scary as shit to do that. When I’ve given notes, sometimes students have said, “That put me in my head" or “It shut me down” or "I don't understand.” This gives the teacher an opportunity to adjust their feedback and you may get a note that actually helps you.

As messy and imperfect as this can be, as a teacher, it gives me more information about that student’s creative process and how to give them even better notes in the future.

I know how hard it is to speak up in the moment, and if you struggle with this, the next best thing you can do is to e-mail your teacher and bring up your concerns at the top of the next class.

And maybe the next time you get a note you don’t agree with, you may even say in your head, “Gee, I don’t think that applies to me,” or “Whatever. My teacher is way off base here,” and not turn your teacher into God.

At the beginning of each new improv class or workshop, I often tell my students that when it comes to notes, take what you like and leave the rest.

As an improv teacher, my goal is to collaborate with my students, so they can find their voice with the help of the class, not only on stage but in their own lives as well.

Want to try a new approach to your improv? Check out Jimmy's Art of Slow Comedy Level 1 classes, now on Wednesday nights or Friday mornings! Sign up by Feb. 3 to save.

This month will mark 10 months that we have been improvising online. Can you believe it? Though improvising online will never replace the thrill of improvising in front of a live audience, I have to say it's a pretty good substitute.

During this time, I have gotten to work with students from all over the world who have taught me a lot. And John Hildreth and I have continued to do our monthly Jimmy and Johnnie show, and we have gotten to perform with improvisers from cities across the country who have also taught me a lot.

So I wanted to share with you some things I have learned over the past 10 months that have helped me and my students become even better online improvisers.

1. Slow Down
   There's never been a better time to slow your improv down than on Zoom. Playing with a lot of energy and moving quickly in that tiny frame is hard for the audience to watch and even harder for your scene partner to follow. Slowing down your improv will give you a better chance to read your partner's face and connect with them on a deeper emotional level. It also looks more natural, since Zoom is a medium that is more close to film and TV than stage.
2. Say One Line at a Time
   When you’re improvising online, giving too much information to your scene partner too fast can cause your scene partner to experience information overload. Great online improv scenes happen the same away they do on stage — when players say one or two lines at time. Less is more in this medium, and if you can condense what you are trying to say to one or two lines, you will have a better chance of doing great virtual improv scenes. That’s because the more concentrated your lines are, the more they will affect your scene partner.

   And once you deliver your line, PAUSE until you partner speaks. This will prevent people talking over each other and give your scene partner the space to emotionally react to what you just said. If you are having difficult doing this, a good exercise to start with is “One Word Dialogue Scenes,” which is helpful in teaching students that they can communicate a lot in one word.

3. Use Your Frame and Space Creatively
   The more you can use your frame and how you are position yourself in it, the more you can change the tone and the environment of your scene. I had students position their cameras so it looked like they were lying in a bed, and it set up a rather sexy tone in the scene. I also had two students do they most brilliant thing of walking in space. How you position yourself physically can say a lot about your character. Experiment and have fun.
4. Suggestion Tip
   Online improv is less nuanced then in-person improv, so it’s better to keep things simple when you are doing long form. One tip I have used with classes that seems to work is to tell the players that they can do anything with the suggestion they suggestion that they get, except that they can't say the word. So, if the suggestion is "eggs," the players can never say "eggs" in the piece. It’s so simple, it works.
5. When Technology Fails, Incorporate That Into Your Scene
   When technology fails — and trust me, it will — incorporate that into your scene. I have seen my students gracefully take these mishaps and weave them into improv gold, resulting in big laughs.

   When a player’s screen freezes, justify it. I had a student who was doing a scene where that happened and her character took it personally and called out the other character for stopping speaking. If you or your scene partner forgets to unmute at the top of scene, call it out in character, because we all saw it. If someone pops on screen accidentally and then pops off, you need to mention it, since we saw it, too. It’s not only fun, but it also has the potential to deliver some of the biggest laughs.

Jimmy Carrane, one of the leading improv teachers in the United States, is pleased to announce that he will be expanding his online improv class offerings this year. Beginning this February, Carrane will now be offering two sections of his Art of Slow Comedy comedy classes — one on Wednesdays from 7-9 p.m. Central and Fridays from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Central.

Carrane will begin offering his Art of Slow Comedy Level 1 classes beginning Feb. 17 through March 24 and Feb. 16 through March 26. The Level 2 classes will run from April 7 through May 14 and the Level 3 classes will run from May 26 through July 2. All classes are limited to 10 people and are held via Zoom.

“Whether you are an actor who would like to become more spontaneous in your work, an improviser who would like to explore a new approach to improvising, or just someone who would like to have more fun in your life, I think you’ll really enjoy my Art of Slow Comedy classes,” Carrane says.

The Art of Slow Comedy is a fresh approach to scenic improvisation, based on the idea that before you can be funny, you need to be real. In the first level of his series, Carrane teaches his students that they don’t have to invent something to be funny; audiences respond to real life situations and performers who are brave enough to be honest.

In the six-week class, students learn how to respond emotionally to their scene partner, be authentic and vulnerable on stage, develop their unique comedic voice and play the reality of the scene.

The Art of Slow Comedy Level 1 class is $259 if you register by Feb. 3 (and $289 if you register after). To sign up, please visit: https://jimmycarrane.com/level-1-fundamentals-of-improv/.

About Jimmy Carrane
Jimmy Carrane was an original member of The Annoyance Theater and Armando at iO Chicago. He has written and starred in several acclaimed one-man shows including, “I’m 27, I Still Live at Home and Sell Office Supplies,” and “Living in a Dwarf’s House,” and he performed in groundbreaking shows such as “Godshow” and “Naked” with MadTV’s Stephanie Weir.

Today, Jimmy lives in Evanston, IL, with his wife and daughter and is a renowned and respected improv teacher, having taught at The Second City, IO-Chicago, The Annoyance, and other locations for more than 25 years. He may be best known to some Chicago audiences from his seven years as host of Studio 312 on Chicago Public Radio, a show-within-a-show on WBEZ’s 848. Later, Carrane gained notoriety as the host of the popular podcast Improv Nerd.

For information on Jimmy, please visit www.jimmycarrane.com.

We have all been there. We’re in the middle of an improv scene and it is going nowhere. We are dying up there because the scene has stopped going forward. In most cases, an improv scene stalls out because we are being tentative with each other. We don’t need to give up, or even panic, we just need to introduce some new information. Here are three surefire ways to turn revived a stalled out improv scene.

1. Reveal a secret
   The fastest and easiest way to breathe new life into a dying scene is for one of the characters to reveal a secret to the other one. This will automatically change the tone of the scene and raise the stakes.I have found that the most effective secrets are ones that directly affect the two characters. For example, one coworker can reveal to another coworker that they have a crush on them. Or a couple in their 30s is going on their first date and one of them reveals they are still a virgin. The trick for this to work is the character’s reveal has to be believable, and the character receiving the secret needs to have a strong emotional reaction. If your character reveals that they lost their job two months ago and has been lying and pretending to go to work every morning, the other character has to have a strong response to this new information.Anger is the most obvious emotion to come up from someone revealing a secret, and don't be afraid to play it. It will always be more interesting than the scene you were doing that was going nowhere. Be open to other emotional responses as well and remember you will have to justify them. So, if you are excited that the other character told you about pretending to go work, you could respond happily, "I knew it! My therapist said I had to wait for you to bring it up."

   Now we have two quirky characters who are fun to watch.

2. Have a Strong Emotional Response
   Having a strong, heightened emotional response to something your partner just said is a great way to jumpstart a scene that is stuck. If your partner says, “I am going to Starbucks to get a Frappuccino,” you might respond sadly: “You’re breaking up me with me! You’re not really coming back.”Or you might respond frightened: “I have to go with you! It will look suspicious if it’s just you.”Or you might say flirty: “Just like when we were dating. I’ll meet you in the bed when you get back.”

   So, the process in your head might be to first realize what is going on, and then wait for the your partner’s next line to read into something it and have a heighten emotional response.

3. Speak Your Want
   This is a slight variation on revealing a secret, but instead, you are telling the other character what your character wants in the scene.  Say you are doing a boss-and-employee scene, and it's going nowhere. The employee could say to the boss, "I want to be fired." (Again, be believable.)Boss: You are kidding...Employee: No, I took this job to please my parents. I really want to be a writer, but I promised them I wouldn't quit.

   Boss: I have never fired anyone before.

   Now we have two very interesting characters.

An extra bonus: A Want Exercise
I have an exercise that helps students find their wants in scenes. Improvisers are usually told not to do transaction scenes. They usually fall flat because there is no shared history between the charatacters. What typically happens is the scene becomes about returning a sweater, and because the characters have no shared history or relationship with each other, it is boring to watch. That being said, I think you will have different results with this exercise because you will provide the players with a both a relationship and a want.

Set Up: Two Players at a Starbucks. One player is the customer. One player is the barista.

Activity: They need to play it believable. The barista is responsible for the environment, such as using the cash register, making the coffee, etc. The customer needs to know what he is ordering, just like he really came into a Starbucks.

Ground Rules: In the scene, the customer is either coming into the store to break up with or ask out the barista. If the customer is coming to ask the barista out, the customer is a regular and has been coming in for a long period of time and they have shared history.

Try this scene and see if you can imbue your character with a want to make the scene come to life.

Sign up now for Jimmy's next Virtual Drop-In Class on July 22, 2024. Only $45!