A head with an hour glass and trees growing inside it
Improv skills change for the better, the way we look at interpret and engage with the world. We become more trusting in ouselves, more confident, better at public and social speaking, generally more relaxed and funny and with much much less of that feeling of being stuck in our head.
We begin listening differently, we notice more details and specifics in everything we do, we start to interpret things in different ways. Situations that once felt rigid or insurmountable start feeling more open and solvable. A moment that used to trigger negative thoughts now opens to different meanings and approaches. Mistakes begin to change from embarrassment, frustration and self judgement, through to acceptance, resilience and curiosity. Life becomes a journey of opportunity instead of a field of obstacles and regret.
There are many reasons people take an improv class, but most do because someone said they should. Friends and family discover improv, maybe they stumbled across it on YouTube, or their favourite actor mentioned it in an interview, or they took a corporate workshop that was framed as improv. Ultimately it’s because someone said they’d be good at it or that they need it. We’ve had students take a class not knowing what improv is and because a life coach recommended it.
Here’s what they don’t tell you: behavioural change takes time.
Improv builds new neural pathways through a process called neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to physically rewire itself. We see this all the time when learning new skills such as sport or academic pursuits for example. All change requires rewiring the brain. Adding new pathways takes time and requires ongoing reinforcement and repetition. For improv to work, old pathways and old ways of thinking also need to change or be removed, requiring much more reinforcement and repetition.
An analogy may help. As a painter, adding paint to an artwork is relatively easy, changing what’s already there is more difficult, and removing paint altogether requires much time and effort. Learning is the same: we need to build new, change existing, and remove old pathways. It all takes time.
We offer a four week shortened version of our 9 week level one improv class as a taster. Students are often unsure what improv is or if they’ll be comfortable taking a class, and they’re they might nervous or scared. A taster class is their “in”. We know people join a class once they’ve experienced it so improv schools usually offer some variation of a taster. Most students then end up taking the full level one class or in our case extending their attendance to the full length class.
At some point in those four to 8 weeks, something happens. People start to notice small changes in their behaviour, or start to see life a little bit differently. At this point students begin to fall into one of two groups: the “I need more of this” group who correctly recognise that change takes time, and the “now I’ve got improv” group who feel they now have all they need in order to change.
No one expects to take three golf lessons and suddenly play like a professional. If you bowl a few games of ten-pin bowling, you don’t expect to immediately develop perfect technique. If you start learning poker, you know it takes many sessions before you begin to really understand the patterns and strategies. Skills take repetition. You practice, you try things, you fail, you adjust, and gradually you build instinct. And if you stop playing after those three golf lessons, the skills will begin to fall away as they’ve not been properly reinforced over time.
Improv is the same, if not more so.
In the beginning, most of your mental energy is spent just remembering the basics — being in the moment, listening, speaking more, making connections, supporting others, being specific, having fun… You’re learning the foundations. Your brain is busy just keeping the ball in play as it works on those neural pathways. Only later does the deeper change begin.
After months — sometimes years — students often realise something surprising. They’re handling conversations differently. They’re more comfortable with uncertainty. They’re quicker to spot humour or opportunity in situations that used to feel stressful. They realise that they are enough, they trust that they will be OK in most circumstances, they’re more creative…
They’ve changed.
It didn’t happen in a single workshop, or even a single 8 week class. It happened gradually through repeated step by step experience, in thousands of small moments listening, adapting and responding.
Learning improv takes time. Transforming yourself takes time. The impact of that lasts a lifetime.