Above 63

It might surprise you to hear this—but taking an improv class has been one of the best things I’ve done in recent years.

Strangely, it’s also the thing my friends ask me about the most. More than my time in Iceland. And not just with curiosity—there’s a look of horror in their eyes when they ask. I understand that. Improv can be terrifying from the outside. But my friends anxiety doesn’t match my actual experience at all.

I started the class for a couple reasons. First, since I was working alone a lot and I was looking for something that would be social. I was also looking for something that was both creative and fun. I had known about the improv classes at ComedySportz for a long time and now was the time.

I knew this was a good decision after the second class. I had had a particularly bad day and was in a foul mood when I went to class that night. The nice thing about an improv class is that sitting on the sidelines in a bad mood isn’t how it works. You have to leap in. That night the class was filled with improv games, interaction, guidance, and a lot of laughter. When I walked out to my car later that evening I realized I spent most of the class laughing. There was a lot of laughter. Although I enjoy life and laugh a lot, I hadn’t laughed with this level of intensity and duration for a long time. It was big fun every week.

A Class of Strangers, A Room of Support

My classmates and instructor were another reason the experience was so uplifting. Imagine a room of people who (like you) are interested in trying this out, but essentially unsure about what doing this might entail. Imagine that group of people being different than you, your circle of friends, and different from the people you work with day-to-day. They started out as strangers in many ways but soon they became people I could trust and rely on. Everyone in the class pitched in, worked hard, and supported each other as we tried to figure this out. I practiced listening to my classmates and responding in the moment.

The instructor hit the right level of pushing us hard to be our best while supporting us as we made missteps and stumbles. She was one of the best instructors I’ve ever worked with across all subjects. All in all it was a great environment to work in.

There was a show at the end of the class.

I think this is what my friends feared the most. Although I had told some people that I was doing this, when I put the announcement on social media, I got a lot of reactions from friends along the line of “you’re doing what?“

But they got the pronoun wrong in the question. They were asking about me not the we. In English, we use the same pronoun for you in the singular form and you when you refer to a group. Other languages get this distinction right by having different words for this. The you here was plural. The show succeeded because the group succeeded. One of my favorite memories of that night was just before the show started. We were in the green room and many of us were a bit uneasy and awkward before the show. Someone suggested we do some of our warm up exercises. For 20 minutes we bantered and played quick word games to warm up. It pulled us together as a team and we went out on stage as a group and we excelled as a group.

I have no idea whether we were really funny or not. I think we were and we got a lot of laughs. What mattered were the people I was with and how we supported each other during the class and how that translated to the show.

I’ve signed up for the second course this summer. I don’t expect it to be like the first one, but it doesn’t have to be. It will be social and creative (which is what I was looking for in the first place). Everything after that is just bonus.