I started doing improv in the mid-1990s. I've performed at UCB in New York and LA, The Annoyance in Chicago, Loose Moose in Calgary, SF Sketchfest, and dozens of festivals and theaters in between. I've studied with Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, Keith Johnstone, Mick Napier, and many others. I've directed shows, coached teams, written sketch, worked in film and television, and taught hundreds of students.
If you're wondering how to get good at improv, here are the ten things I'd tell my younger self. None of it is theoretical. All of it is what I wish someone had said to me at year one.
1. Listening is the whole job
Almost every bad scene I've ever been in — and I've been in plenty — came from someone (often me) trying to be funny instead of paying attention. The funny is in the room. Listen for it.
2. Make your scene partner look brilliant
If you commit to making the person across from you look like a genius, two things happen. They relax and do better work. And you stop strangling the scene with your own cleverness.
3. Specificity beats cleverness
'A guy' is forgettable. 'A guy who irons his socks because his mom told him to in 1987' is a scene. Detail is a love letter to the audience.
4. Be affected
Keith Johnstone says scenes are about relationships changing. If nothing happening on stage is actually landing on you, you're performing, not playing. Let it land.
5. Status is everything
Most scenes that feel flat have no status difference. Most scenes that feel alive have one — and it moves. Track who's up, who's down, and when it shifts. That's the engine.
6. You can't think your way out of a bad scene
You can only choose your way out. Commit harder, take a stronger position, or do something physical. Thinking is the enemy of presence.
7. Yes-and is a starting point, not a religion
Beginners use 'yes, and' as a rule. Advanced players use it as a default disposition that they sometimes wisely violate. The point isn't agreement. The point is collaboration.
8. Get reps. Then get more reps.
You don't think your way to better improv. You play your way to it. The students who get great are the ones who show up to jams, take stage time, and aren't precious about it.
9. The audience is on your side
They paid money to come watch people try. They want you to win. Once you really believe that — not as a coping mechanism but as a fact — performing changes.
10. Be kind to younger players
Someone was kind to me. Pass it on. The improv scene is small, the work is hard, and nobody gets here alone.
The one thing that matters most
Keep showing up. The students of mine who became great improvisers, working actors, and confident leaders did not have more talent than the ones who didn't. They had more reps. They came back when it was hard. They were willing to be bad in front of people for long enough to get good.
That's the whole thing. That's what I learned in 30 years.