We’re All Just Improv-ing Our Way to the Top
“That’s what life’s all about — improvisation. We’re all just improv-ing our way to the top,” said my friend Frankie over the phone after I told her I was on my way to my first improv class.
Yup, improv.
My “acting career” begins and ends at summer camp. It’s pretty much the only stage I’ve ever been on, and only thing I’ve ever done on that stage that remotely resembles improv was when I helped host a “Whose Line Is It Anyway” evening activity back in the summer of 2011. But that was really just a lot of my little sister and I goofing around in front of an easily amused audience of 200+ Jewish children.
I have ALWAYS loved watching improv, though. I used to go to the majority of shows put on by my high school improv group. I found it to be such a bad ass way of expressing yourself — being in the moment without a plan and just going with the flow — that’s awesome!
I’d been thinking about taking an improv class for the past two months. To be honest, I originally considered taking a class because I thought that it would be a super applicable skill for future jobs I hope to apply to. I didn’t expect to get out of it what I did.
I found a class on Eventbrite the day I got to San Francisco — I wanted to force myself to do it right away to minimize the inevitable nervous anticipation.
The class was in the basement of the San Francisco Chronicle building downtown. I walked into a room of adults sitting in an awkward semi-circle. As I sat down, elongating the award semi-circle, I said a shy hello…and got mumbles in return. What was I getting myself into? The following 10 minutes felt like an hour as we sat anxiously. Half-assed small talk was had and awkward silences were plenty.
Finally our instructors arrived and we started off in a full circle shaking out our hands, legs, and bodies by counting down from 5 out loud. Then we did a few name games and threw around an invisible ball to each other.
From there, we were split into two groups — beginners and not beginners — and we were told that by the end of the class we would be performing for each other. Once I heard this, I nodded and smiled, but you know exactly what I was thinking… “shit.” We did a few more exercises that day, but the one depicted in this video was my favorite!
We ended up doing this exercise for the performance, and to my utter surprise…I LOVED IT. Sure, it was a tad nerve-racking to “perform” for the other group, but it was also awesome. For me (as someone who laughs at pretty much anything), the class was really just two hours of consistent laughing, bonding with random people, and learning a tad about the improv art form.
One of the best lessons that I took away from the class was that being funny and getting others to laugh is often not about a clever punch line, but rather, displaying sincerity and being relatable. We laugh at things that are extremely relatable to us.
I’ve never been to therapy. I generally consider writing in my journal as my only form of therapy — and it certainly does the trick — but this felt like a new form of therapy, an escape from the day-to-day, a reminder that being goofy and putting yourself out there is so unbelievably essential.
I’ll be taking my second class next week. Seems like at (almost) 23 ,I’ve found myself a new hobby!
This post is part of a series documenting a personal journey I created for myself starting February 1, 2015. The journey took me from New York City, to Austin, TX, to San Francisco, and ended in Chicago, where I lived in each city for exactly one month. I’m reposting all the 4 Months X 4 Cities stories — this one was originally published on April 5, 2015.
