Is improv for people who can't act?

People are curious, they want to know and I want to tell them, is improv for people who can't act? 

The answer is yes (as is fitting in an improv blog). Absolutely YES! Improv is 100%  an art form where people who "can't act" in the traditional sense can jump on stage and absolutely crush it nonetheless. 

Now it is not as simple as all that, but before we get into the weeds, let me share an anecdote that explains why I am saying that improv comedy is for everyone, not just your modern day Olivier.

I remember before I got into improv I used to play in a weekly basketball game on (believe it or not) Mulberry Street in NYC, a street which I believe was the inspiration for the famous Dr. Seuss book. (I am not going to look it up to see if I am right, it is just something I believe.)

Every once in a while a few guys who weren’t regulars would show up. One of them was maybe the shyest person I had ever met. He wouldn’t look me in the eye, I could barely hear him when he talked and overall the word bashful described him very well. 

After they had played a couple of times one of them revealed that they were improvisers at the UCB Theatre and invited me to see a show. Improvisers! Improvisers?!?

How could the shy bashful man, lets call him Phil, who played basketball with me possibly be a comedy improviser?

I went to see them perform the next week and Phil was unbelievable. He wasn’t an extrovert suddenly or bellowing or anything, but he was a little louder, he seemed a lot more confident, and he got tons of laughs! I remember distinctly that at one point he quietly griped, “Now I am three times as upset as I was before,” and the audience erupted with laughter.

He brought the house down in fact.

I waited for him outside of the theatre after the show. When he emerged I threw up my arms and proclaimed, “Phil! You were spectacular.” But the Phil I was talking to was very different from the Phil I had just seen.

This Phil responded by almost looking at me, mumbling something that could have been a thank you and then becoming very interested in a small book that had been in his pocket.

That really amazed me, that someone could be that great at a performative art but still so shy. I thought about it a lot and over time I came to realize that when Phil was onstage he was a really great listener, very supportive in his improv decision making and always looking to make his scene partners look great.

He was a tremendous collaborator. And that, more than anything else, is the skill you need to focus on in order to be a good improviser. 

I’m not saying that acting doesn’t help. Being able to emote or to adopt a strong character who moves and talks differently than you do or to truthfully connect to your scene partner are all plusses. But Phil really didn’t do any of those things. He would listen. He would understand what his scene partner was suggesting. He  would make moves in accordance with those suggestions that made the person making them look great! 

And while he did it he moved and talked pretty much like himself. He acted, because he wasn’t himself; he would agree he was a pilot or WWI soldier or what have you. But he wasn’t an actor with a capital A. 

I've been teaching and coaching improv for well over a decade now and I have noticed that many newer improvisers wonder whether they can be improvisers if they aren’t good at acting. If that’s you, you can relax. Think about Phil and work on becoming a better collaborator.

I’ve also worked with a lot of professional actors just getting into improv and they often exhibit a confidence that may later betray them. Because while good or even great acting skills can be a great bonus for an improviser, it won’t help or hurt you all that much if you aren’t a great collaborator.

I've seen technically brilliant actors struggle immensely in improv because all their great acting (which may involve screaming or crying or thick accents) can make it harder for them to hear the contributions being made by their scene partners. 

The people dancing around the title for this blog are bad actors and yet, they improvise!

Now I’m not saying if you are a great actor you shouldn’t also do improv. Just focus on collaboration first and once you get that down you’ll know how and when to pull out your great acting skills and they will become a powerful improv tool for you.

Plus if you are a professional actor you should improvise! Because improv helps actors improve in their craft in a number of important ways. 

For example, it can help actors who are trying to break out of a performance rut, meaning that they are always playing similar characters who make similar choices (I hope you are listening, Tom Cruise!). Improv forces spontaneity because supporting your scene partner requires it.

It also enhances listening skills. In scripted work it is easy to fall into the trap of waiting for your cue rather than truly listening. But actors working with scripts stand out when they react emotionally to the subtlest nuances emanating from the other cast members' performances. Improv demands genuine in-the-moment attention to what's happening.

No less important, Actors who improvise gain confidence with unpredictability. Film sets change schedules, directors make last-minute adjustments, and stage performances face unexpected challenges, like missing props or Richard Burton performing drunk. Improv trains actors to handle these situations with poise, if not ease.

A Broadway actor who attended one of our free online workshops put it perfectly: "Improv doesn't replace my acting training; it unlocks it." That shouldn’t be very surprising when the ability to be present, responsive, and truthful in the moment is what makes great acting seem so natural.

Now it isn’t only actors that improv helps. If you’re an introvert who would never dream of belting out a show stopping number in a musical, here are some ways improv can help you.

Improv will increase your confidence, because improv training is based on games designed to celebrate your ideas and to support them. If you worry your ideas aren’t great or funny, get ready to receive a heaping dose of positive reinforcement when you sign up for your first improv class.

Moreover, improv helps shy people network and build social relationships, as any collaborative activity does.

And improv hones and sharpens a number of soft skills critical to success in the corporate world. It isn’t an accident that corporations spend thousands of dollars to bring improvisers to work with their sales, customer service, IT, marketing and, well name the department and improvisers had led workshops for them on creativity, confidence, presentation skills, teamwork, communication, agility… The list goes on and on.

So improv is good for people like Phil too.

Speaking of Phil, I want to revisit that line Phil used to bring down the house. In the scene he was playing the “straight man” or the “voice of reason”. That means it was his job in the scene to play a kind of everyday person who would be bothered or amazed by the person playing the “crazy man” or the “Unusual point of view”. 

I can’t remember what the scene was about anymore (I really wish I could) but I remember that the “crazy man” had made a decision that was really surprising earlier in the scene and Phil had reacted to it by getting upset, really just saying the decision bothered him. And the audience had loved that a lot. Then the scene quieted and there was a sense that the part of the scene that was funny was over and it kind of felt sad, like they had missed their chance to get out on a high note.

Just when it seemed like the scene was going to become really boring, the “crazy man” surprised everyone by making a second surprising decision that felt very much in alignment with his first surprising decision, only this time it was even wilder! (See RFK's presidential campaign for a real life example of such decision making.) 

The scene in that moment swung to Phil. What would he do? How would he react to the full blown insanity his scene partner had just served up? I mean this moment deserved a Honeymooners' level reaction from Ralph Kramden and all we had onstage was Phil.

So Phil looked at his scene partner, took it in, understood what his scene partner wanted and then quietly confessed that, “Now I am three times as upset as I was before.” And the audience erupted in a way I had rarely experienced with close to 20 years of stage experience (if you'll grant me my high school and even junior high theatrical exploits).

And he didn’t act it out, he didn’t have to. He checked the box of what was collaboratively required in the scene by: to be three times as upset in the scene. And he simply spoke that into existence. The same way an improviser walks out onto an empty stage and establishes they are on a yacht by simply saying, “What a lovely yacht we are sailing on.”

So the line brought the house down, not because it was acted well, but because it was collaborated on like a rockstar.