Every improviser wants to do great scene work, but one of the biggest things that I have seen that gets in the way of that is when an improviser is not emotionally connected with their scene partner. And most of the time they don't even realize it. And once improvisers start becoming connected to their […]
This year instead of sharing my annual Thanksgiving gratitude list, I wanted to pick one thing that I was really grateful for. I didn’t have to put much thought into it. It came to me easily -- it's people. Maybe it's because of Covid or my age, but today I really appreciate people more than ever. And I lesson I keep learning over and over again […]
Sometimes we need a gentle push. Sometimes we need a piece of wisdom to inspire us. And sometimes we just need a nap. For today's blog I have gathered some wisdom from past blogs and put them in bite chunks for you. Think of them like fun-size Snickers bars. I am hoping today's blog is both a gentle […]
This sounds like click bait, but trust me, it’s not. It works. I have been teaching improv since 1992 and this is the one thing I have seen over the years that improvisers always need to work on, and when they do, they usually improve instantly. When improvisers use this tip, good improvisers can become […]
When I started out in improv, I had no clue what I was doing on or off stage. I knew I wanted to be famous — that was it. I was a mess. Looking back, I wish I would have done things differently. So, today if I could talk to my younger self, this is […]
When you first start improvising you are told to listen to your partners on stage. Sometimes you focus on them so deeply, you forget there is an audience. One of the things that makes improv so special is that it’s a shared experience between the player on stage and the audience. One of the best ways to […]
Recently an improviser contacted me and said he was struggling with playing low-status characters in his improv shows and he wanted some advice on how to do it. I have always loved playing low-status characters, maybe too much. In fact, I think that’s all I played the first ten years of my improvising. This got […]
There's an expression that goes, “Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy?” This applies to improv. I have seen my students time and time again wanting to "do it right" and follow the rules, rather than trusting their instincts and having fun. They would rather be right than happy. There are a lot of reasons […]
If you've been improvising for a while, at some point one of your teachers/coaches will say you need to take an acting class. This may be confusing. If you are like me, you might think something like, “I am improviser, not an actor.” And then a huge acting opportunity will come along, like a play, […]
This Sunday is Father’s Day and it’s making me think a lot about my dad, who died a little over six years ago, a few months before my daughter, Betsy, was born. In one of the last conversations I had with him, I read him a list of 11 things he gave me as father. […]