Hello improv friends!

I can't believe this is the 30th episode of the podcast! For those of you who have been on this list since the beginning (which was a practice group that turned into a jam that turned into a newsletter... is this an improv thing?) thank you! And to everyone else, huge thanks for joining and sticking around too!

I love talking about improv, and feel very lucky anyone is sticking around to hear me monologue about this stuff.

So here is episode 30! So. Many. Monologues. Anyway.

This episode has SEVEN hacks to help you past those moments that feel like you or the scene is failing. But those failures are also really useful for learning, and the hacks will help you get more out of the experience to grow faster.

The Secret to Great Improv is 10,000 Failures

There is a different way of thinking about getting better at improv.

Failure is one of the best ways to learn new skills (this is scientific research, not just me talking). Duration, or number of hours doing a thing, is not. So when you accumulate failures, and learn from them (due to immediate feedback), you are growing a lot faster than you would have been if you did an okay scene.

We really try to avoid failures or mistakes in improv, but perhaps playing it safe is holding you back. So in the 30th episode of the show, I talk about failure as a technical problem, and also a very important part of learning improv skills.

It's science.

The work of psychologist Anders Ericsson on “deliberate practice” discovered that expertise comes from a systematic process of failing, correcting, and repeating. If you face a challenge, receive immediate feedback (internally or from an external source) and correct failures then this drives the learning process forward. You iterate, change, and refine your skillset.

And this is true for improv, too.

The really interesting part for us, as performers, is that we can actually have fun with this. When we learn to embrace these mistakes as part of the inescapable process, we can play with them inside a scene.

So in this episode, I have a toolkit of SEVEN different ways you can approach a moment of failure on stage. By learning to handle these moments with a set of tools like the examples provided, you begin to see that failure is just a new piece of information.

Each time you fail and recover, you become a stronger, more adaptable, and more well-rounded improviser. It helps you get out of your head, because you are no longer burdened by the fear of messing up. And that is what makes improv fun.

This is maybe the secret of improv. If not? Keep listening and it’ll be in a future episode. I promise. I was told there was a secret of improv... and if this isn't it, we'll find it.

Listen or Watch

The podcast and the youtube episode contains all seven “scene hacks” that you can try when you feel yourself going blank, messing up, or freezing because you have no idea what’s going on (yeah, that’s probably me doing that thing). And come ask questions or share your own tips in the Improv Update discord general improv chat channel.

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Or listen to the podcast:

Seven in-scene "failure" hac... Jul 28 · Your Improv Brain 18:31   ​

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Thanks again! Talk to you soon. Keep it real. Take it easy. Pet some cats. Walk with dogs.

Important question: Does anyone want recommended songs or TIL style facts again?

Jen.