Scott Berkun took an improv class on a dare a decade ago and learned a lot. He also forgot a lot of what he learned, so he went back and took another class recently. First he disabuses us of some assumptions:
- It’s not about being funny.
- You don’t have to be a natural performer.
- It’s not hard to learn.
Then he shares his lessons learned:
- I’d forgotten how to play.
- Life is less stressful.
- Questions and No’s are deadly.
- Improvisation is everywhere.
- Metaphors for Life.
- Doing trumps reading.
I live in Chicago and have known and dealt with many people who have taken these classes.
Berkun’s right, these improv people aren’t funny. They also aren’t creative or good with dealing with change in an unstructured environment.
Improv classes used to take charming misfits and train them to channel their energies into creative performance. But the classes were cheap then. Today improv has become like the rest of the education establishment: more interested in its own needs than that of the students.
These classes are really expensive, and the people who can afford more than one or two typically come from upper-middle-class background and typically have some family money behind them. Improv classes are structured to make sure these folks keep buying more classes, and that’s done by turning them into awesome experiences, but not training them in anything per se. As far as I can tell, no one whose check doesn’t bounce gets told they can’t cut it.
As Berkun admits, improv classes are really just an expensive Romper Room for the otherwise painfuly dull and conformist.
Real comic talent is developed elsewhere these days, but many truly talented people do serve a stint as imrrov instructors, so it’s not like it contributes nothing.