My Improv Journey

I thought I would go into a bit of detail about my journey in the world of improvisation. I talked about it briefly in my introductory post, but it was mostly a passing anecdote.

Improv for those of you who don't know is the art of making up theater on the spot. No scripts. No preparation. Just you the audience and perhaps a suggestion. There are two general categories of improvisation. The first is short form improvisation. In shot form, you play spend 2-5 minutes playing a game with established rules. Several of these games are performed while being moderated by a host to create a show. I've provided an example below from the popular show Whose Line is It Anyway.

As you can see the game here is simple. The players are given a prompt pulled out of a high and they do a quick gag and pull then pull something else out of the hat when the players are out of ideas.

In the other category of improvisation, long form, a group of players does a longer show based on a single suggestion from the audience (or no suggestion in some cases). The show can last anywhere from 12-45 minutes and generally have anywhere from 2-10 players. Below is an example of a 2 person no suggestion show with my group the Flower Shop Bangers.

So from these examples I am sure you can see a trend of funny, spontaneous, outgoing actors that grace the improv stage. This is a far cry from the shy, nervous 17 year old that I was when I started doing this.

It all started in the summer of 2007. I was between my junior and senior years of high school and my parents did not want me lying on the couch as I had the previous summer. This is never an easy accomplishment when you have zero work experience and no real skills. I remember driving around Chicago looking for "Help Wanted" signs and filling out applications. This didn't work very well. Thankfully, one day my mother printed out a form for the Mayor Daley Kidstart program. I filled it out and got a call a few days later about a job at the Playground Theater. I accepted the call and was able to audition a few days later.

I entered the theater to do my first audition since my third grade production of Sleeping Beauty. Needless to say I was a bit nervous. Thankfully, I had taken an acting class that year and had an original monologue prepared. I did it and got the part and started the next week.

The program was awesome! I was being paid to take an improv class. We spent the first week really nailing down the core improv concepts of saying yes then adding your own ideas, listening, being energetic, and playing to the height of your intelligence. It became quickly apparent to me how improv was not just about making easy jokes and quips onstage like Whose Line is it Anyway had shown me for years. It was about being in and sharing a moment with your teammates onstage to create a collaborative story for an audience.

I would have done this well in those first few weeks if I had not been so nervous. In one of the first games I ever played, I was the host of the party in the game party quirks and I meekly said "Well I guess I could put the chips here". I don't remember the rest, but I do remember my coaches telling me that I could have said that more energetically.

Although like anything you do in life, I did this enough where something clicked. I'm pretty sure it was a moment where I just stopped caring. I was playing in one of my first long forms (perhaps even my first one ever) and I decided in that moment that I would be the nerdy high school boy trying to ask a girl to be his lab partner. I got really into the physicality, voice and energy of this character and the payoff was phenomenal. The class loved it and they praised me for it for at least the next two days or so. After that, there was no stopping me.

I had so much fun this summer that I never stopped doing this. I improvised short form with my high school troupe during my senior year. I improvised short form, again, at St. Olaf College with Scared Scriptless. Today, I improvise in the improv capital of the world and my hometown Chicago, IL. All this time, I have tried not to let go of those principles I learned in that first week of that summer. Listen to your scene partner. Say yes to them. Add to their ideas. Stay energetic.

Photo from my recent performance at the Grand Rapids Improv Festival

These ideals are easier in theory than execution, but that's why I keep doing this. It provides me with the opportunity to practice habits that make me a better person.

Cheers,
Dan Anderson

PS I feel like my paragraphs about the different types of improvisation is information that a high school English teacher would tell me to remove because it is rather out of place. I will keep it there though because I feel like the community on here might get a general context of what doing improv is like from them.

PPS I don't know why I signed this like a letter. I think I just didn't know how to end it. Improv taught me that mistakes can be spun into a gift if you treat it that way so it stays as well.