November 13, 2023 • 22 mins
Ever wondered how a daunting experience like improv could turn out to be your secret weapon for communication? Join me as I take you on a roller-coaster ride of my 10-week improv journey, filled with cringe-worthy moments, breakthrough 'aha' moments, and exhilarating live performances. I promise, by the end of this episode, you too will be eager to embrace the discomfort and say "yes and" to improv, including improving your communication skills along the way.
Through my personal anecdotes from the class, I'll share how the strategies we adopted helped us to connect better with others and stay open to their offerings. You'll hear about the instructor who not only taught us improv but also showed us how to trust ourselves and our ideas. You'll learn that being okay with failure and your own 'cringe' can lead to more authentic conversations and connections. So, why not give improv a chance? It could be the key to unlock your communication potential. Listen in, and let's start this journey together.
*Improvisation, or improv, is a form of live theatre in which the plot, characters and dialogue of a game, scene or story are made up in the moment (hideouttheatre.com) - Improv is performed on the TV show Whose Line is it Anyway.
Shoutout to Surfside Playhouse and their incredible instructors, Marco & Adam, in Cocoa Beach, FL for putting on incredible Improv classes!
About Nina
Nina is an author, artist, musician, Human Design Specialist, and podcast host of Receptive Impact. Open & curious to adventure and change, Nina Elise navigates the path of self-discovery, inviting you to explore the boundless opportunities that arise when we step out of our comfort zones.
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Music intro/outro: "In the Forest" by Lesfm
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Receptive Impact Podcast.
I'm your host, nina Elise.
Hello friends, I am back for abrand new episode and we are
going to get into communication.
So this seems to be somethingthat is a very highly sought out
skill, something that I knowthat I definitely can be better
(00:24):
at in a lot of different ways,and it was my intention this
year to explore different waysto improve my communication,
improve my relationships and howI share and how I speak with
others, and this was actuallysomething that I touched on in a
previous episode aboutself-trust, and I wanted to do a
separate episode solely aboutmy journey with improv and the
(00:47):
class that I did.
It was a 12-week class that Idid, with a showcase at the end
where we all did I think it wasan hour and a half two hours of
just a bunch of different improvskits in front of a live
audience, and it ended up beingso much fun, and so I really
want to share my journey oflooking at communication from a
(01:08):
very different standpoint.
So, just to give you a littlebit of a background, I have
actually taken improv classes inthe past, and this was in my
late 20s, when I lived in SouthFlorida, and it was very, very
intimidating.
I just was very insecure, hadreally low self-worth back then,
and the class that I took waswith this really well-known
(01:33):
actor teacher, and going to theclasses was intimidating because
there were so many seriousactors and actresses that were
taking the class every singleweek and they were doing it for
their actual career, and sothese people were hungry to be
(01:55):
the best in the class, and forsomeone who didn't really know
how to speak up, I didn't reallyknow how to trust myself and
trust that whatever would comeup would come up, and I had this
idea that improv was somethingthat you would just had to be
naturally funny at, and I didn'tunderstand that there is
actually a strategy and a systembehind improv and that anyone
(02:19):
can actually do it, and so thatwas my experience in the past.
But it was a fear of mine tojust show up and sound stupid,
basically because I didn't knowwhat was going to come out of me
when I got put on the spot.
And so when I decided to signup for these improv classes, my
intention was to improve mycommunication, to improve my
(02:40):
self-trust within myself and tojust honestly have fun, and so I
signed up for this 12-weekcourse and it ended up being, I
think, around 15 to 20 people inthe class, and what I really
loved about the class was thatthe actual improv instructor is
a communications consultant inreal life, and so the way that
(03:05):
he explained improv, it just itmade so much sense to me.
And how he taught the classes.
It just kept building on eachother and I learned very quickly
that this is actually somethingthat I could learn over time
and actually be good at andactually have a lot of fun with,
and so at the end of thiscourse we did a showcase at the
(03:29):
end and at first I was very like, oh, I don't know that I'm
going to do that.
And then at the end of thecourse I was like, oh, this is
actually really fun because wewent through the skits and you
get really comfortable with thepeople in the class, and so it
actually became very enjoyableover time.
There is an initial hump of likestarting the class and learning
(03:52):
the different skits and thedifferent improv skits that you
do and having like so manycringe moments where you're like
where did that come from?
Why did I say this?
And then you just are sittingthere like for the next 30
minutes to an hour, likereflecting on that and feeling
really stupid about it.
So then, once you have thoseexperiences over and over again,
(04:15):
it becomes less scary,especially when you're in a room
full of other people who aredoing the same thing and you get
to know these people and youget more comfortable with them,
and so it becomes like a veryenjoyable experience.
So, to kind of go over like theactual course and what we
learned, it was very interestingbecause the very first class
was about how to maintainconnection with people.
(04:38):
So there's this phrase calledyes and, and basically it's
about staying open to invitingin what other people are
offering you and saying yes toit and then offering up
something else to extend thestory.
And so this is something thatcan be actually applied to
anything in life.
(04:58):
So, for example, instead ofsomeone coming to me in an
improv skit and saying, hey, youknow, there's this alien that's
outside, I can look at them andsay no, there's no alien
outside and that just kills likethe potentiality of like a
really funny skit or a reallyfunny way of like, like a path
that we could take with thatskit.
And so when you say yes, andthat skit could be hey, there's
(05:22):
an alien in the sky and I couldsay yes, and it looks like it's
taking your mother up to themothership right now and just
kind of expanding on that.
So you're actually just openingyourself up to a lot of
potential opportunities.
And that really stuck with meto say, to think about where in
my life was I saying a lot ofno's to or like cutting people
off?
Because I noticed myself sayingno to things when I was
(05:46):
practicing these skits, and sothat was really eye-opening for
me to see that.
And the class after that we wentinto environment and basically
establishing place and contact.
So why, where, who?
And this was actually reallyimpactful for me as, if you're
familiar with human design, I'ma manifestor in human design and
(06:06):
our strategy is to inform.
And this is actually really bigbecause if you have, if you're
a manifestor and you have thisrepelling aura, you can walk
into a room and people can feelrepelled by you or they can
wonder like, oh, what is thisbig energy walking into the room
?
And so this was helpful in thesense of like I'm learning how
to communicate about who I am,why I'm there and also just you
(06:32):
know the whole context of, likemy intention of why I am there,
so that people don't feelthreatened by me and they can
actually become a part of myreality or my story in real life
and they don't have to be inquestion about why I'm there.
So it was actually reallyhelpful to improve my
communication and be moreintentional about where I'm
(06:54):
going and communicating thatwith people and the context of
improv it was.
You know you're establishing theplace and the context so that
people watching your audiencewatching will understand who you
are, who your character is, thescene of where you're playing
out and then why you're there.
And so you know.
If you're doing a skit andyou're just talking with people
back and forth and they don'tknow who you are because you
(07:16):
haven't said like hey, I'mJohnny and these two other
people on the skit are myparents, people are going to be
guessing who you are.
You might be trying to create ascene about walking down the
street, but people don't knowthat you're walking down the
street unless you actually sayit.
So it was really interesting tolearn that and then take that
in the previous class and startto build on each one after that.
(07:39):
It ultimately became thislesson in learning how to story
tell, and that was another thingthat we learned was, you know,
setting up the beginning, themiddle and the end and creating
this arc and the stories that wewere telling.
After we established place andcontext and then like
establishing our character aswell and the importance of doing
(08:00):
that, and it's like it was sucha reflection for how to
communicate and show up in lifeand it opened me up to be more
creative and to learn how totrust what was coming up and to
be more spontaneous to build onother people's stories when they
would come at me with this newidea and a skit.
(08:20):
And again, this is somethingthat I was able to basically
learn how to get morecomfortable with and improv and,
in a way, really helped mynervous system.
Instead of feeling like a deerin headlights, I learned how to
be comfortable after feelinguncomfortable over and over and
over time, but in a safe space,with people that you know were
(08:41):
very kind and were veryencouraging, so that when I did
feel like I messed up, it wasn'tas scary and I felt like I
could feel more calm and not aslike on edge or judgmental of
myself.
So if that happened to me nowwhere I felt like I was put on
the spot or like when I'm in mywork meetings with my clients.
(09:01):
Now it just feels morecomfortable for me to be able to
work or like speak on the fly,and that was not something that
I felt really comfortable doingbefore this class, and so that
was a really unexpected surprise.
That really helped improve mycommunication.
And another really big thing wasestablishing real relationship
(09:22):
to other people, so kind of likeyour status, and again that
ties back into creating thestory and setting the actual
setting and the environment andthe character up.
And one thing that I reallyreally liked about this class
was you learn how to provideendowments to people, so
basically you're providing theseoffers and information to
(09:43):
others and helping them set upto be funny or creative or to
build off and create this scene.
And it was all about helpingother people.
It wasn't about leaving thingsopen-ended or putting the
pressure on someone else thatwas doing the skit with you to
figure something out.
And this required a lot oflistening, a lot of listening to
(10:04):
what that person was saying tome and then trusting that
whatever wild and wacky thingshowed up in my mind to say that
and to build off of that and tobe more mindful of how I'm
speaking and what is coming upand out of me that is actually
beneficial and helpful for theperson.
So they're not sitting therethinking, oh well, she just
(10:26):
responded with yeah, well, whatdo you mean?
And then putting it back ontothem to make something up that's
more imaginative or creativefor that skit, to keep the scene
moving.
And again, this is somethingthat I felt like I could really
reflect in my everyday life ofwhere am I creating endowments?
Where am I providing offers toothers when I'm in conversation
(10:46):
with them?
Where am I not listening tothem and what they're saying?
And so it became this very biglesson for me to again just
really slow down and listen toother people and take a pause
and say how can I actually makethis a more enlightening or
juicy or playful or funconversation?
(11:07):
And doing this so that I'm notjust putting everything on the
other person and having this bea boring skit or having it being
a boring conversation in reallife.
And so at the end of this 10 or12 weeks of all of these classes
that we did, we were justpracticing over and over again
and we were just learning how toput it all together, and
(11:28):
actually during this time period, I found videos on YouTube for
improv skits that I could do bymyself at home, and so this is
actually something else thathelped me when I was going
through the classes, because Ifelt so uncomfortable and I
didn't feel comfortable inexpressing myself in like wild
(11:50):
and weird ways, I found videosthat I could do for skits that I
could do on my own.
So, for example, one skit Icould do was called 10
characters in 100 seconds, Ithink that's what it was, and so
basically, you would createthis character and you would
switch every 10 seconds.
So I would basically become acowboy for 10 seconds and, like,
(12:14):
fully become that character,and then the timer would go off
and then, off the top of my head, I would say, oh, I'm a teacher
and I would embody that teacherand create a random scene out
of nowhere, and after 10 secondsI would turn to a dog or, like
you know, the next 10 seconds Iwould turn into a banker or a
surfer or whatever.
It is that character that Iwanted to step in and to be, and
(12:36):
so when I was able to do thatin my own space where no one
else was watching me, I learnedhow to get more comfortable and
just laugh at myself, and soafter doing it it became
something that was less scarybecause I got to observe myself
actually being weird and thenfeeling okay with it, and so
that was something that actuallyreally really helped me when I
(12:57):
was doing all of the improvskits.
Like I said, it was definitelyuncomfortable and there were
people in the class thatactually dropped off because
they were very uncomfortable.
After the first couple ofclasses I could tell they were
really struggling For me.
I felt like it was sobeneficial and if you really
just got out of your head, itcould be something that was very
(13:20):
fun and enjoyable.
And, like I said earlier, therewere so many cringe moments and
the classes were two and a halfhours long, and so when I would
go there there would maybe bein the beginning the first few
classes, I would have two orthree cringe moments and I would
just be sitting there likereflecting on that and kind of
(13:43):
beating myself up about how likeuncomfortable it was and like
how stupid whatever I said ordid was, and it was definitely a
lesson in learning how to justbe okay with my own cringe.
Basically, and doing it overand over again, it became
something that was lessthreatening and I became more
(14:06):
and more okay with and again,this is something that I am
noticing how this is showing upin my everyday life of where I'm
showing up and actuallyimplementing how to communicate
and how to approachconversations differently.
So at the end of our 10 or 12week course that we did and all
(14:27):
the classes that we did, we didthis showcase and people just
invited their friends and familyand there were probably 70 or
80 people that showed up and itwas an hour and a half two hour
long showcase and I think I wasin maybe six, seven, eight skits
.
Some were ones that we, like I,was specifically assigned to
them, and then we had the wholegroup show up and do skits, and
(14:49):
so when we started off the firstone that that we did, I had a
cringe moment on stage and Ijust because I had experienced
so many of those in the classesbefore I was able to let it go
within five minutes I was justlike, oh, you know what,
whatever I'm in front of allthese strangers, I don't care, I
don't know anyone in the crowdanyways.
And so after that I was able tojust kind of relax and just had
(15:12):
so much fun on stage.
And if you've ever doneanything on stage before, it's
like the way it was set up forus, you know, the lights are
just shining down on you so youcan't even really see the
audience, and so I was actuallyreally surprised by how not
nervous or affected I was by thefact that there were other
people watching us, because itwas almost like my mind just
(15:33):
kind of turned off and just Iallowed something else to just
leave me, and all the skits thatI was in turned out like so
much fun.
And so that was the learningsand the journey of me going
through improv.
So I'm just gonna kind of do arecap of everything that I
learned, like my final learningsfrom this class.
(15:53):
So number one is just importantto say stay open, so that yes
and statement and reallylearning how to tell a story and
communicate who I am and whatmy intention is, to create trust
and understanding for otherpeople that I'm interacting with
and then just always lookingout for others, so really
setting them up for success andthe way that I am speaking to
(16:17):
them and what I'm sharing withthem and a really large part of
Improv, and what I've reallybeen taking into my everyday
life is just turning off my mindand truly listening to and for
what other people are saying,because most people are always
providing an offer and our firmmind is Is constantly turned on
(16:39):
and we're thinking about whatwe're gonna say next.
It's going to almost deter theconversation into away from
Something that could be reallybeautiful, because someone is
opening up and sharing to youand then you're interjecting
Yourself into the conversationand not really fully listening
to the other person.
(17:00):
So basically you don't need toprepare anything in the mind,
like ever, and and so goingthrough all of this, it has
really helped me to be more inthe moment and be more present
with the person that I am with.
And Another thing was obviouslyself-trust.
Just over time, I reallylearned to not care so much
(17:20):
about this voice in the back ofmy head and to trust the first
thing that came up and Notreally get too attached to what
it was.
So when I was able to do thisand be in flow, that was
actually when the funniestthings came up, and Also just
getting really comfortable withbeing uncomfortable so so many
moments that I felt incrediblyawkward and Dumb about things
(17:44):
that were coming out of my mouth.
So I learned to really get overit.
Just Know that it passes and,honestly, no one remembers
anyways.
So it really helped me see howhard I was on myself and how
much I was judging myself andactually how much power I was
putting into other people'shands and because I cared so
(18:07):
much about what they thought ofme or what they were thinking of
me, when in reality no one iseven thinking about themselves,
because you're just, you know,constantly in your head being
like, oh what did I say?
That right?
Was that funny enough?
And then the final thing wasjust getting really comfortable
with failure and I say that inquotes because it was just
(18:28):
constantly learning to suck andbe okay with it.
And I really appreciated theteachers that we had in the
class because they were verygood at celebrating the sucky
parts and rerouting each personto understand the lesson and the
actual strategy behind why whatthey were doing was incorrect
(18:50):
or not helping with the flow ofimprov and how can they?
They could actually improve,and so they were like that from
the very beginning.
So whenever somebody messed upor they weren't following along
or something happened.
Basically everyone would laughlike he would make it a
laughable moment.
That made you feel verycomfortable and seen and not as
(19:11):
embarrassed, and I reallyappreciated that.
About this teacher is verydifferent than the experience
that I had when I lived in SouthFlorida.
It was much more open and muchmore comfortable to be in that
environment.
So that just sums up the lastfew months where I took improv
(19:32):
classes to improve mycommunication and I hope that
this provided some insight toyou.
So it's a little bit out of thebox.
It was definitely out of mycomfort zone, but it was
something that really taught meso much about myself and at the
end of the day, it was very muchan exercise of really releasing
control and learning how toimprove my communication,
(19:55):
improve my trust in myself andjust have fun in the process and
honestly, it also became a wayfor me to integrate a little bit
more into the community becauseeveryone that that was there
taking the class a lot oftheater people were there and
just really overall incrediblehuman beings and I learned so so
much from being around thesepeople who were new and seasoned
(20:17):
, you know, improv people ortheater people and they were so
kind and helpful and it was justa reminder to me that
everyone's just doing their bestand they're just all wanting to
improve and grow and trysomething different.
And honestly, like half theclass, I would say, everyone was
50 year older, and so it wasreally inspiring to see that
(20:41):
that people were doing this asthey were older and as they were
retired and how they wereopening up and being more
playful and young in theseclasses.
So I will definitely say thatimprov can be for anybody and,
depending on what your intentionis for taking the class, you
know there are a lot ofdifferent reasons for doing it,
(21:02):
but that is definitely somethingthat I highly recommend if
you're looking to explorecommunication and learn how to
develop deeper trust in yourself, because one of the biggest
things that I really learnedwith improv was that it's not
about being funny Like.
There is an actual strategybehind improv and you can get
(21:24):
really, really good at it If youstick with it and you
understand the concepts and thenyou practice them over and over
again and you just have funwith it.
So if anyone who's ever watchedWhose Line is it Anyway?
Or any type of improv showevery time, I would watch that.
I would just think those peoplewere naturally funny, and to
some extent I'm sure they are.
(21:44):
But taking this class reallyhelped me really respect these
people and see them in a wholeanother light, because it is a
practice.
It is something that you doover and over again in order to
really hone your craft and toreally deeply trust yourself and
to understand the concepts andthe strategy behind showing up
(22:06):
and doing these skits.
So that is all that I feel thatI need to talk about with this
episode how improv improved mycommunication, and I hope that
it was helpful and provided adifferent perspective for you to
look at something that may seemscary and now see it in a
(22:27):
different light, as somethingthat you might want to do, or
just look at communication in adifferent light.
So thank you guys so much fortuning in to this episode.
It's always a joy to sit hereand reflect and share these
stories and to share my journey.
So thanks again for tuning inand I will talk to you guys in
(22:48):
the next episode.
Bye.
Welcome to the Receptive Impact Podcast.
I'm your host, nina Elise.
Hello friends, I am back for abrand new episode and we are
going to get into communication.
So this seems to be somethingthat is a very highly sought out
skill, something that I knowthat I definitely can be better
(00:24):
at in a lot of different ways,and it was my intention this
year to explore different waysto improve my communication,
improve my relationships and howI share and how I speak with
others, and this was actuallysomething that I touched on in a
previous episode aboutself-trust, and I wanted to do a
separate episode solely aboutmy journey with improv and the
(00:47):
class that I did.
It was a 12-week class that Idid, with a showcase at the end
where we all did I think it wasan hour and a half two hours of
just a bunch of different improvskits in front of a live
audience, and it ended up beingso much fun, and so I really
want to share my journey oflooking at communication from a
(01:08):
very different standpoint.
So, just to give you a littlebit of a background, I have
actually taken improv classes inthe past, and this was in my
late 20s, when I lived in SouthFlorida, and it was very, very
intimidating.
I just was very insecure, hadreally low self-worth back then,
and the class that I took waswith this really well-known
(01:33):
actor teacher, and going to theclasses was intimidating because
there were so many seriousactors and actresses that were
taking the class every singleweek and they were doing it for
their actual career, and sothese people were hungry to be
(01:55):
the best in the class, and forsomeone who didn't really know
how to speak up, I didn't reallyknow how to trust myself and
trust that whatever would comeup would come up, and I had this
idea that improv was somethingthat you would just had to be
naturally funny at, and I didn'tunderstand that there is
actually a strategy and a systembehind improv and that anyone
(02:19):
can actually do it, and so thatwas my experience in the past.
But it was a fear of mine tojust show up and sound stupid,
basically because I didn't knowwhat was going to come out of me
when I got put on the spot.
And so when I decided to signup for these improv classes, my
intention was to improve mycommunication, to improve my
(02:40):
self-trust within myself and tojust honestly have fun, and so I
signed up for this 12-weekcourse and it ended up being, I
think, around 15 to 20 people inthe class, and what I really
loved about the class was thatthe actual improv instructor is
a communications consultant inreal life, and so the way that
(03:05):
he explained improv, it just itmade so much sense to me.
And how he taught the classes.
It just kept building on eachother and I learned very quickly
that this is actually somethingthat I could learn over time
and actually be good at andactually have a lot of fun with,
and so at the end of thiscourse we did a showcase at the
(03:29):
end and at first I was very like, oh, I don't know that I'm
going to do that.
And then at the end of thecourse I was like, oh, this is
actually really fun because wewent through the skits and you
get really comfortable with thepeople in the class, and so it
actually became very enjoyableover time.
There is an initial hump of likestarting the class and learning
(03:52):
the different skits and thedifferent improv skits that you
do and having like so manycringe moments where you're like
where did that come from?
Why did I say this?
And then you just are sittingthere like for the next 30
minutes to an hour, likereflecting on that and feeling
really stupid about it.
So then, once you have thoseexperiences over and over again,
(04:15):
it becomes less scary,especially when you're in a room
full of other people who aredoing the same thing and you get
to know these people and youget more comfortable with them,
and so it becomes like a veryenjoyable experience.
So, to kind of go over like theactual course and what we
learned, it was very interestingbecause the very first class
was about how to maintainconnection with people.
(04:38):
So there's this phrase calledyes and, and basically it's
about staying open to invitingin what other people are
offering you and saying yes toit and then offering up
something else to extend thestory.
And so this is something thatcan be actually applied to
anything in life.
(04:58):
So, for example, instead ofsomeone coming to me in an
improv skit and saying, hey, youknow, there's this alien that's
outside, I can look at them andsay no, there's no alien
outside and that just kills likethe potentiality of like a
really funny skit or a reallyfunny way of like, like a path
that we could take with thatskit.
And so when you say yes, andthat skit could be hey, there's
(05:22):
an alien in the sky and I couldsay yes, and it looks like it's
taking your mother up to themothership right now and just
kind of expanding on that.
So you're actually just openingyourself up to a lot of
potential opportunities.
And that really stuck with meto say, to think about where in
my life was I saying a lot ofno's to or like cutting people
off?
Because I noticed myself sayingno to things when I was
(05:46):
practicing these skits, and sothat was really eye-opening for
me to see that.
And the class after that we wentinto environment and basically
establishing place and contact.
So why, where, who?
And this was actually reallyimpactful for me as, if you're
familiar with human design, I'ma manifestor in human design and
(06:06):
our strategy is to inform.
And this is actually really bigbecause if you have, if you're
a manifestor and you have thisrepelling aura, you can walk
into a room and people can feelrepelled by you or they can
wonder like, oh, what is thisbig energy walking into the room
?
And so this was helpful in thesense of like I'm learning how
to communicate about who I am,why I'm there and also just you
(06:32):
know the whole context of, likemy intention of why I am there,
so that people don't feelthreatened by me and they can
actually become a part of myreality or my story in real life
and they don't have to be inquestion about why I'm there.
So it was actually reallyhelpful to improve my
communication and be moreintentional about where I'm
(06:54):
going and communicating thatwith people and the context of
improv it was.
You know you're establishing theplace and the context so that
people watching your audiencewatching will understand who you
are, who your character is, thescene of where you're playing
out and then why you're there.
And so you know.
If you're doing a skit andyou're just talking with people
back and forth and they don'tknow who you are because you
(07:16):
haven't said like hey, I'mJohnny and these two other
people on the skit are myparents, people are going to be
guessing who you are.
You might be trying to create ascene about walking down the
street, but people don't knowthat you're walking down the
street unless you actually sayit.
So it was really interesting tolearn that and then take that
in the previous class and startto build on each one after that.
(07:39):
It ultimately became thislesson in learning how to story
tell, and that was another thingthat we learned was, you know,
setting up the beginning, themiddle and the end and creating
this arc and the stories that wewere telling.
After we established place andcontext and then like
establishing our character aswell and the importance of doing
(08:00):
that, and it's like it was sucha reflection for how to
communicate and show up in lifeand it opened me up to be more
creative and to learn how totrust what was coming up and to
be more spontaneous to build onother people's stories when they
would come at me with this newidea and a skit.
(08:20):
And again, this is somethingthat I was able to basically
learn how to get morecomfortable with and improv and,
in a way, really helped mynervous system.
Instead of feeling like a deerin headlights, I learned how to
be comfortable after feelinguncomfortable over and over and
over time, but in a safe space,with people that you know were
(08:41):
very kind and were veryencouraging, so that when I did
feel like I messed up, it wasn'tas scary and I felt like I
could feel more calm and not aslike on edge or judgmental of
myself.
So if that happened to me nowwhere I felt like I was put on
the spot or like when I'm in mywork meetings with my clients.
(09:01):
Now it just feels morecomfortable for me to be able to
work or like speak on the fly,and that was not something that
I felt really comfortable doingbefore this class, and so that
was a really unexpected surprise.
That really helped improve mycommunication.
And another really big thing wasestablishing real relationship
(09:22):
to other people, so kind of likeyour status, and again that
ties back into creating thestory and setting the actual
setting and the environment andthe character up.
And one thing that I reallyreally liked about this class
was you learn how to provideendowments to people, so
basically you're providing theseoffers and information to
(09:43):
others and helping them set upto be funny or creative or to
build off and create this scene.
And it was all about helpingother people.
It wasn't about leaving thingsopen-ended or putting the
pressure on someone else thatwas doing the skit with you to
figure something out.
And this required a lot oflistening, a lot of listening to
(10:04):
what that person was saying tome and then trusting that
whatever wild and wacky thingshowed up in my mind to say that
and to build off of that and tobe more mindful of how I'm
speaking and what is coming upand out of me that is actually
beneficial and helpful for theperson.
So they're not sitting therethinking, oh well, she just
(10:26):
responded with yeah, well, whatdo you mean?
And then putting it back ontothem to make something up that's
more imaginative or creativefor that skit, to keep the scene
moving.
And again, this is somethingthat I felt like I could really
reflect in my everyday life ofwhere am I creating endowments?
Where am I providing offers toothers when I'm in conversation
(10:46):
with them?
Where am I not listening tothem and what they're saying?
And so it became this very biglesson for me to again just
really slow down and listen toother people and take a pause
and say how can I actually makethis a more enlightening or
juicy or playful or funconversation?
(11:07):
And doing this so that I'm notjust putting everything on the
other person and having this bea boring skit or having it being
a boring conversation in reallife.
And so at the end of this 10 or12 weeks of all of these classes
that we did, we were justpracticing over and over again
and we were just learning how toput it all together, and
(11:28):
actually during this time period, I found videos on YouTube for
improv skits that I could do bymyself at home, and so this is
actually something else thathelped me when I was going
through the classes, because Ifelt so uncomfortable and I
didn't feel comfortable inexpressing myself in like wild
(11:50):
and weird ways, I found videosthat I could do for skits that I
could do on my own.
So, for example, one skit Icould do was called 10
characters in 100 seconds, Ithink that's what it was, and so
basically, you would createthis character and you would
switch every 10 seconds.
So I would basically become acowboy for 10 seconds and, like,
(12:14):
fully become that character,and then the timer would go off
and then, off the top of my head, I would say, oh, I'm a teacher
and I would embody that teacherand create a random scene out
of nowhere, and after 10 secondsI would turn to a dog or, like
you know, the next 10 seconds Iwould turn into a banker or a
surfer or whatever.
It is that character that Iwanted to step in and to be, and
(12:36):
so when I was able to do thatin my own space where no one
else was watching me, I learnedhow to get more comfortable and
just laugh at myself, and soafter doing it it became
something that was less scarybecause I got to observe myself
actually being weird and thenfeeling okay with it, and so
that was something that actuallyreally really helped me when I
(12:57):
was doing all of the improvskits.
Like I said, it was definitelyuncomfortable and there were
people in the class thatactually dropped off because
they were very uncomfortable.
After the first couple ofclasses I could tell they were
really struggling For me.
I felt like it was sobeneficial and if you really
just got out of your head, itcould be something that was very
(13:20):
fun and enjoyable.
And, like I said earlier, therewere so many cringe moments and
the classes were two and a halfhours long, and so when I would
go there there would maybe bein the beginning the first few
classes, I would have two orthree cringe moments and I would
just be sitting there likereflecting on that and kind of
(13:43):
beating myself up about how likeuncomfortable it was and like
how stupid whatever I said ordid was, and it was definitely a
lesson in learning how to justbe okay with my own cringe.
Basically, and doing it overand over again, it became
something that was lessthreatening and I became more
(14:06):
and more okay with and again,this is something that I am
noticing how this is showing upin my everyday life of where I'm
showing up and actuallyimplementing how to communicate
and how to approachconversations differently.
So at the end of our 10 or 12week course that we did and all
(14:27):
the classes that we did, we didthis showcase and people just
invited their friends and familyand there were probably 70 or
80 people that showed up and itwas an hour and a half two hour
long showcase and I think I wasin maybe six, seven, eight skits
.
Some were ones that we, like I,was specifically assigned to
them, and then we had the wholegroup show up and do skits, and
(14:49):
so when we started off the firstone that that we did, I had a
cringe moment on stage and Ijust because I had experienced
so many of those in the classesbefore I was able to let it go
within five minutes I was justlike, oh, you know what,
whatever I'm in front of allthese strangers, I don't care, I
don't know anyone in the crowdanyways.
And so after that I was able tojust kind of relax and just had
(15:12):
so much fun on stage.
And if you've ever doneanything on stage before, it's
like the way it was set up forus, you know, the lights are
just shining down on you so youcan't even really see the
audience, and so I was actuallyreally surprised by how not
nervous or affected I was by thefact that there were other
people watching us, because itwas almost like my mind just
(15:33):
kind of turned off and just Iallowed something else to just
leave me, and all the skits thatI was in turned out like so
much fun.
And so that was the learningsand the journey of me going
through improv.
So I'm just gonna kind of do arecap of everything that I
learned, like my final learningsfrom this class.
(15:53):
So number one is just importantto say stay open, so that yes
and statement and reallylearning how to tell a story and
communicate who I am and whatmy intention is, to create trust
and understanding for otherpeople that I'm interacting with
and then just always lookingout for others, so really
setting them up for success andthe way that I am speaking to
(16:17):
them and what I'm sharing withthem and a really large part of
Improv, and what I've reallybeen taking into my everyday
life is just turning off my mindand truly listening to and for
what other people are saying,because most people are always
providing an offer and our firmmind is Is constantly turned on
(16:39):
and we're thinking about whatwe're gonna say next.
It's going to almost deter theconversation into away from
Something that could be reallybeautiful, because someone is
opening up and sharing to youand then you're interjecting
Yourself into the conversationand not really fully listening
to the other person.
(17:00):
So basically you don't need toprepare anything in the mind,
like ever, and and so goingthrough all of this, it has
really helped me to be more inthe moment and be more present
with the person that I am with.
And Another thing was obviouslyself-trust.
Just over time, I reallylearned to not care so much
(17:20):
about this voice in the back ofmy head and to trust the first
thing that came up and Notreally get too attached to what
it was.
So when I was able to do thisand be in flow, that was
actually when the funniestthings came up, and Also just
getting really comfortable withbeing uncomfortable so so many
moments that I felt incrediblyawkward and Dumb about things
(17:44):
that were coming out of my mouth.
So I learned to really get overit.
Just Know that it passes and,honestly, no one remembers
anyways.
So it really helped me see howhard I was on myself and how
much I was judging myself andactually how much power I was
putting into other people'shands and because I cared so
(18:07):
much about what they thought ofme or what they were thinking of
me, when in reality no one iseven thinking about themselves,
because you're just, you know,constantly in your head being
like, oh what did I say?
That right?
Was that funny enough?
And then the final thing wasjust getting really comfortable
with failure and I say that inquotes because it was just
(18:28):
constantly learning to suck andbe okay with it.
And I really appreciated theteachers that we had in the
class because they were verygood at celebrating the sucky
parts and rerouting each personto understand the lesson and the
actual strategy behind why whatthey were doing was incorrect
(18:50):
or not helping with the flow ofimprov and how can they?
They could actually improve,and so they were like that from
the very beginning.
So whenever somebody messed upor they weren't following along
or something happened.
Basically everyone would laughlike he would make it a
laughable moment.
That made you feel verycomfortable and seen and not as
(19:11):
embarrassed, and I reallyappreciated that.
About this teacher is verydifferent than the experience
that I had when I lived in SouthFlorida.
It was much more open and muchmore comfortable to be in that
environment.
So that just sums up the lastfew months where I took improv
(19:32):
classes to improve mycommunication and I hope that
this provided some insight toyou.
So it's a little bit out of thebox.
It was definitely out of mycomfort zone, but it was
something that really taught meso much about myself and at the
end of the day, it was very muchan exercise of really releasing
control and learning how toimprove my communication,
(19:55):
improve my trust in myself andjust have fun in the process and
honestly, it also became a wayfor me to integrate a little bit
more into the community becauseeveryone that that was there
taking the class a lot oftheater people were there and
just really overall incrediblehuman beings and I learned so so
much from being around thesepeople who were new and seasoned
(20:17):
, you know, improv people ortheater people and they were so
kind and helpful and it was justa reminder to me that
everyone's just doing their bestand they're just all wanting to
improve and grow and trysomething different.
And honestly, like half theclass, I would say, everyone was
50 year older, and so it wasreally inspiring to see that
(20:41):
that people were doing this asthey were older and as they were
retired and how they wereopening up and being more
playful and young in theseclasses.
So I will definitely say thatimprov can be for anybody and,
depending on what your intentionis for taking the class, you
know there are a lot ofdifferent reasons for doing it,
(21:02):
but that is definitely somethingthat I highly recommend if
you're looking to explorecommunication and learn how to
develop deeper trust in yourself, because one of the biggest
things that I really learnedwith improv was that it's not
about being funny Like.
There is an actual strategybehind improv and you can get
(21:24):
really, really good at it If youstick with it and you
understand the concepts and thenyou practice them over and over
again and you just have funwith it.
So if anyone who's ever watchedWhose Line is it Anyway?
Or any type of improv showevery time, I would watch that.
I would just think those peoplewere naturally funny, and to
some extent I'm sure they are.
(21:44):
But taking this class reallyhelped me really respect these
people and see them in a wholeanother light, because it is a
practice.
It is something that you doover and over again in order to
really hone your craft and toreally deeply trust yourself and
to understand the concepts andthe strategy behind showing up
(22:06):
and doing these skits.
So that is all that I feel thatI need to talk about with this
episode how improv improved mycommunication, and I hope that
it was helpful and provided adifferent perspective for you to
look at something that may seemscary and now see it in a
(22:27):
different light, as somethingthat you might want to do, or
just look at communication in adifferent light.
So thank you guys so much fortuning in to this episode.
It's always a joy to sit hereand reflect and share these
stories and to share my journey.
So thanks again for tuning inand I will talk to you guys in
(22:48):
the next episode.
Bye.
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