What I'm Thankful For in Improv

Thanksgiving is a hard holiday. You can feel like this whole gratitude thing is being shoved down your throat. And what if you have nothing to be grateful for? Maybe you aren't as far as you would like to be in your career or you think people you started out with are passing you by. You may have hit a slump in improv or didn't make a team/group, or your team/group got broken up. You may feel like the worst one in the class you’re taking right now and you want to quit. How can you find something to be grateful for?

Then an idiot like myself comes along and says something stupid like "Why don't you make a list of all things you are grateful for in improv?" When you hear this, you go off the handle and call me all sorts of names. You are angry, and you stop reading this blog.

Often in my improv classes, I will say to the class after 20 minutes of some brilliant long form, “What did you guys do well?”

The question is usually met with silence, like I am asking them a trick question. The tension is broken when someone sheepishly answers my question with a question: "I thought our editing was pretty good?"

It lands flat, followed by some more uncomfortable silence.

When I ask the next question, "What do you think you need to work on?", they come alive. Their faces light up and their voices get strong. "We weren't listening to each other. We had too many walk-ons. I think we had too many of the same kind of scenes."

This is how we are wired. We gladly take in the negative and dismiss the positive. Like the two cannot exist at the same time. We are committed to not doing anything right, so we never feel grateful because as improvisers, we think we are pieces of shit.

I am no different. I wish I could say I was. I am working on this, and I want to get better today -- right now. Because not being able to look at the positive affects my improv as much as my life.

My favorite story of focusing on the negative was when I was doing one of my many solo shows, and the show had sold out. Instead of being excited that I had a packed house, my attention was focused on my older brother and my sister-in-law, who were not there yet. I did not see anybody else in the theater except the two empty seats that I had saved for them in the front row.

That is called ungratefulness. They ended up show up, but it didn’t matter. I was still angry for days. What the fuck? I could not find the gratitude in a sold out show? God help me.

You don't want to be that person. I don't want to be that person. Let's commit to each other just for today that we are not going to be those kind of people. I will go first. I am going to take no more than two minutes to write ten things I am grateful for. Here I go…

10 Things I Am Grateful For:

1. I got to travel to a lot of great cities this year, where I taught and did Improv Nerd Live.
2. I released my latest e-book, Improv Therapy, and it’s been well received.
3. I had a great team of people working on Improv Nerd this season. A great team!
4. Stage 773 is an awesome space for the show and they are extremely nice to us. Good People.
5. I have improved as an improviser.
6. I have improved as an interviewer.
7. I get e-mails from people all over the world who listen to the Improv Nerd podcast and read this blog.
8. My wife, Lauren, who keeps Improv Nerd going
9. My assistant Chloe, who is amazing at social media and keeps me focused.
10. My amazing improv students over the past year. You made teaching fun.

Ok, now it’s your turn. You may feel angry and want to scream at me, I don’t care. Just give it a try and see how you feel. I promise I will not ask you to do again until next Thanksgiving.

Hurry! Jimmy Carrane's Next Art of Slow Comedy class starts Jan. 7! Get in on the ground floor to take all three levels. Pay only $249 now until Dec. 24 ($279 after). Or, sign up for Jimmy's Two-Person Scene Tune Up Workshop on Jan. 3. Sign up today!