Oh The Humanity!

Does it seem like you’re busy all day but never accomplish anything? Well…

Your correspondent went to an improv(isers) con(ference) in San Diego for her birthday – the first of its kind, at least out here. There were different troupes and players from all over the US with workshops, panels, and shows.

The workshops were not exactly what I expected, which turned out to be a good thing. A lot of what I learned is applicable to life in general – and productivity as well.

Improv might not be what you think it is

If you’ve seen the show Whose Line Is It Anyway, with any of its hosts, you’ve seen an improv show. You might think, as many do, that improv is a chance to show off one-liners, and therefore someone who’s good at improv can deliver witty lines off the cuff.

But that’s not really what improv is about. The school I go to here in Long Beach (Held2Gether) is relationship-based, meaning that the scene grows out of the relationships between the players. Sometimes we’ll ask the audience for the relationship, but often they give us a location or an activity instead and it’s up to the players to figure out the relationship while we’re on stage. 

One thing I’ve seen doing improv is that you don’t always need a funny line to get a big laugh from the audience. Sometimes it’s the clash of characters, sometimes it’s an unexpected action from someone on stage, and sometimes it’s something else that tickles the audience.

In addition to the action onstage, improv requires emotion. We don’t do subtle emotion, typically. It’s big, whether you’re sobbing and wailing, joyful, angry, or whatever. Just as it does in life, emotion can change the scene. 

In one of the workshops, we took a long time to settle into the scene and connect with our stage partner. (Usually you’ll take some time up top to make eye contact before you start the scene, but not a lot.) I entered with my hand curled, so it looked like I was carrying a bag. In my head it was a shopping bag. 

My scene partner and I looked at each other for a while, and then he said, “Are you really leaving?” So the “gift” he gave me was that I was carrying a suitcase, which changed my response.

I said, “I have to go.” It was a much quieter scene than I had anticipated, and much more emotional. Sometimes the emotion you want isn’t funny, and the audience appreciates that too.

Why improv is good for improving productivity

I’m not saying that you should do improv if you don’t want to, especially since there are other ways to get a happy brain ready for hard work. But improv does illuminate some key points that enable people to get $hit done so they have time for improv or other activities they enjoy besides work.

Based on play

Improv, at least the short-form version, tends to be based on games. The names of the games may vary based on your location, but it’s always about play. And like play, whatever you do in improv is right.

One thing I’ve noticed is that, especially at the beginning, many people ask rules-based questions. Intro games usually are pretty structured so you can learn the basics and then layer in additional education on top of that. The questions often revolve around who speaks when, who goes where, who starts the scene, and so forth. 

Once you’ve got those basics down, then you can start doing things more organically and really start to play. You and your scene partner(s) will figure out who starts by connecting with each other on stage, for example, and play from there.

Play like this is great for your brain. You use it in a different way compared to business work, but there’s no pressure and you can simply enjoy yourself. Which also gives you a break, especially if you’re a business owner.

Must be present and in the moment

You can’t plan for what you’re going to say, because you don’t know what your scene partner will do. You really have to go moment by moment based on what’s happening on stage. (Like in the example above, where my partner told me I had a suitcase instead of a shopping bag.)

Except for callbacks, which can be fun (where you refer back to something that was said earlier), you can’t ruminate in the past either. Whatever’s happening on stage now is what’s important. Even if you think you messed up, you can’t dwell on it, because the scene has changed already.

And you can’t be looking at your phone on stage, either. All your attention is directed to what’s going on in your scene.

Being in the moment helps you avoid distractions, which is also critical for productivity. It’s great for mental health as well, since you’re avoiding both rumination and catastrophizing. (Trust me, I am Queen of Catastrophic Scenarios, and even I can’t do it when I’m focused in the present.)

Socialization

I guess you could do a solo improv show – there are apps that provide suggestions. But mostly improv is for at least two people on stage, and more depending on the game you’re playing. If you take a course that lasts for a few weeks, you’ll probably get used to playing with at least some of your classmates, which makes you feel more comfortable onstage.

And if you’re at a local school like Held2Gether and not a professional improv group like the Groundlings/UCB/Second City, you’ll get dialed into a pretty supportive community. 

We humans evolved to rely on each other. There was no bootstrapping when we were on the savannah trying to avoid being eaten by predators. That’s why our brains need to spend some time with other people; introverts need less time than extroverts, but still need some. And if it’s good for your brain, it’s good for productivity.

Using your brain in a creative way

Improv is not a logical phenomenon. You’ll be thinking, but not in the same way you think about financials or nonfiction writing or strategic planning. That means your “thinky” brain doesn’t have to work so hard and it gets a much-needed break.

You’ll be doing things that your brain evolved to do – listening to other people and responding to them. Which isn’t as easy in scenes as that sounds, but your brain also gets a lift when the audience laughs or reacts to what you’re doing. (In the suitcase scene, a few classmates said, Awww. Very gratifying.)

Immediate feedback

Unless you’re taking a workshop with tons of other people, you’ll get notes on your scene from the teacher. Usually they do a pretty good job of complimenting what you did well and mentioning something to work on (they must teach this at Improv Teacher School, assuming such a thing exists.)

Immediate feedback helps you learn faster, and you can practice whatever you learned or heard in the next game you play. That speeds up the learning curve.

Getting immediate feedback on your improv scenes may not directly boost your productivity. However, you might think of some challenges you have where getting feedback would help you speed up your learning process and thereby improve your effectiveness.

Being with humans instead of AI is critical for mental health (and productivity!)

I took one workshop which was kind of insane for improv: no scenes, no games, no words. It was more about movement, and we did one thing and then layered on one more thing and so on. We started just finding the empty spots in the room, which was huge. 

The last thing we did was in small groups of five or six. Bear in mind, we were all strangers. We all had to let the music drive our body movement, and then someone in the group would strike a pose. The rest of us would fill in the negative space with our bodies, and then we would decide how we all moved out of that pose after looking at each other. With no words.

We did pretty well on the first round. But the teacher said she wanted all of us to be wilder with the body movement and then make the pose and movement out of the pose more organic, as if it were one body doing this motion.

And the second time, it actually happened. At least in my group. We were so in tune with each other even as we were moving that we immediately spotted the pose, filled in, and then moved apart with the same motion. It was WILD.

Everything that happened at Improv Con (stays at Improv Con) occurred at the speed of humanity. The scenes we built by connecting with each other, with our human eyes and our human brains, and our human histories and relationships. We took our time getting into the scenes, instead of rushing here and there.

AI cannot do any of this. You could ask it to generate some game ideas, even though that’s stupid and environment-destroying. But you could. (A non-Google search engine like Duck Duck Go can give you the same info but wastes much less water and power.) 

Improv, dancing, movement, and real connection is only for us humans. Maybe the “janky six-fingered plagiarism robot” as Jeff Tiedrich calls it can imitate human connection by blowing smoke up your ass. But it won’t make you smile and laugh the same way your friends and loved ones can.

Towards the end of one of the workshops, we sat in pairs and held each other with our eyes. It was an exercise in holding still, because sometimes you want the focus to be on your scene partner, but still showing your spirit through your eyes. My partner cried, and I held him with just my eyes. Afterward, we shared a big hug, even though before that we were strangers to each other.

I fucking defy you to have that moment with a robot. 

Recap (tl;dr):

Improv is awesome, and certain aspects of it help with productivity. It’s also a very human thing to do and AI can’t share in it. Find some space for yourself to be human.

Wondering how to run a business and still have time for something like an ImprovCon (or your fave fun activity?) I can help. Click here to schedule your free consultation.