Gratitude for My Changes As a Teacher

Thanksgiving is about being grateful, and this year, I'm feeling especially grateful for the changes that I've made as an improv teacher over the years.

If you read this blog, chances are you have worked with me in an improv workshop or class, or you have listened to the podcast Improv Nerd, or you just enjoy the blog. Either way, I want to thank you for all the support you have given me over the years.

This year I am incredibly grateful for all of my students who keep taking me to a new level in my teaching.
I keep making a ton of mistakes, which continues to humble me. And this year I started to learn how to have more fun with all the mistakes in my teaching.

I have always put myself under pressure to have all the answers, which makes me miserable.
I encourage students to make mistakes. But I don't give that same freedom to myself.

So, recently in my Thursday class at The Laughing Academy, I started joking when I made mistakes, and I asked one of my students, “Can you check how many mistakes have I made so far?”

The student said, “I think you are up to nine.”

I cannot tell you how freeing this has been in my teaching, and I hope someday I can apply it to my life.
The other thing I am grateful for in my teaching is that I can finally bring more joy into the classroom. Oh my God, for so many years, I was so serious about teaching improv, I would say rigid. If you experienced me that way, my apologies. I cannot tell you how big of a difference it has made to try to lighten up and have more fun.

I remember years ago when I taught at Second City, I was complaining about being exhausted after teaching an improv class, and Michael Gellman an outstanding teacher and human being, said when if you are doing it right, you will feel energized. It's only taken me 30 years to get there sometimes.

Today, I can leave an online or in-person class with the same performance high I feel after doing a show.
Sometimes when I get frustrated that students aren’t getting an exercise, I will say in my head, “What I am teaching? Oh yeah, I am teaching people how to have joy and love.” And I believe that.

And all this makes me more positive as a teacher. I was interviewed on a podcast/blog recently, and the interviewer asked me if I am a closeted optimist. In the past I would have responded no, but today, I am enjoying being more positive in the classroom, so much so that most of the time I really like the version of myself that I am in class more than the version of myself in real life who is negative most of the time. My hope is that the guy in class can keep spilling out into the guy in real life. That’s when art would really become life.

Interested in studying with Jimmy Carrane? Don't miss the Improv for Actors Workshop on Dec. 7!