What To Do for Improv Homework
Students ask me all the time, is there any homework I can do in between the next improv class?
The answer is usually the same: Yes, you have many opportunities to practice improv in your everyday life, and the best part is that people won't even know you are doing it.
Here are three things you can do to practice improv in your everyday life right now that will improve your skills when you get to improv class.
1. In Conversations, Listen To the Last Thing the Person Said
Between now and your next improv class you will be in conversations in your regular life, lots of conversations. Usually, when we’re not in improv class, we often plan what we are going to say before the other person is finished talking. Instead, I want you to wait until they have finished speaking, and then respond to the last thing they said. See if you can let go of your pre-planned response and come up with something new. Once you start working this muscle, you will be surprised how easy it is to do on stage.
2. Say “Yes” to More Fun in Your Life
Hopefully improv isn't the only thing you are doing in life to have fun. During the course of the day, you will have many opportunities to have fun. Start noticing how many times you say “no” to them. The whole idea behind “yes, and...” is to increase the joy and give you the maximum amount of fun in your life. I am lucky that I have a ten-year-old who forces me to have fun and is always asking me things like, "Do you want to play stuffies?" or "Do you want to play Scattergories?" I am not perfect at this. I resist having fun a lot more than I care to admit, and when I catch myself and say yes, I always end up having a good time.
3. Try One New Thing A Day
In life we get stuck in our routines. We always take the same way to work. We order the same coffee at the same Starbucks. Our life is often on autopilot, and we don't even know it. This is dangerous because if we get too safe in our routines we can feel like we don't even have any choices anymore. Improv is the opposite of that.
In improv, we learn how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and how to embrace the unknown, so to work on this, try forcing yourself to try one new thing every day. This is a simple way to start rewiring our brain to be ok with new things. It doesn't need to be huge, like booking a trip to the Caribbean. It can be something simple. If you always take a bath, today you will take a shower. Instead of going to the same old restaurant for dinner, try a new one. Just get out there and expand your experiences so you become more comfortable in the unknown. And the bonus is you will have more new experiences to draw from in a scene as well.