Though improv is much better experienced in a group setting, I have been asked multiple times if there are ways to practice improv when you can’t take an improv class or rehearse with a troupe. Again, the best way to practice improv is in person with a group. But in a pinch, here are some ideas for working on your improv game alone.
Talk to Your Radio
It sound silly, but you can work on the reaction part of improv just by tuning in to a talk radio show. Pick one person on the show, and work on actively listening to what they’re saying. Formulate your response, and say it out loud. There are a few reasons that this is less than ideal.
-
They’re not going to respond back, so you’ll have a one-sided conversation.
-
You might have a hard time hearing their next line if you’re still talking when they start up again (HINT: stop talking).
-
If you’re listening to a host, you’ll probably get a lot of questions if the host is halfway decent.
On the other hand, this can be a solid exercise for working on justifying non-sequiturs. The odds are very good that you’re going to have pretty much nothing but non-sequiturs being hurled at you. See if you can make the conversation make sense based on your responses. Bonus points if you can do so without using a crutch by pointing out how the host is acting so strangely!
Character Work
You can always, always, always work on a favorite character that you have in almost any circumstance. If you have some time at work—on your break, of course—think about a character that you like to play, and consider how they would respond to that email. Heck, type out the email in character. Delete the “to” fields before you do so that you don’t accidentally send the email in the tone of a cowboy who learned to sing before he learned to shoot. But you can absolutely think as your character.
You can also talk to yourself in character. Give yourself a pep talk. Work out a problem that’s been on your mind. Improvise a dialogue between your character and someone you know. If you can do it in a mirror, all the better. Subtly changing your appearance based on the character your playing helps immediately in two ways. First, it gives your character another distinguishing feature that will help separate the character from your other characters. Second, it gives you an anchor point to help you lock in to that character. If I know my singing cowboy sneers up the right side of his mouth and squints, it’s going to be easier for me to get into that character when I sneer up my mouth and squint. Plus, it’ll help my scene partners (or pardners) know that I’m playing that character.
Write
It sounds counterintuitive to suggest writing sketches, stand-up, journals, stories, poems, and screenplays will help your improv, but it absolutely does. Your creativity is a muscle that can be flexed. When you’re not improvising, you can express your creativity in different ways. Understanding how to tell a story will help your monologuing. Writing poetry is going to make your dialogue better (and probably make you better at musical improv). Writing a screenplay will help you better understand how a narrative comes together.
Oh, and always have a notepad or note app at the ready. Jot down every bit you think of, no matter how silly it seems at the time. You never know when the most fleeting wisp of an idea will develop into something valuable.
Consume Life
Please get away from improv every once in a while. I promise it will make you a better improviser. Read a book that isn’t the Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual or Truth in Comedy. Call a non-improviser friend you haven’t spoken to in a while. Go see a movie that isn’t by Adam McKay. Eat at a restaurant alone. Improv robots who have taken every single improv class, read every book, and seen 10,000 shows are less interesting to me onstage than improvisers who have life experiences they can bring to the stage.
Make sure you don’t let improv take away from living your life.