Make the Other Person Look Good

Your main job in an improv show is to pay really close attention to everything that your scene partners are doing and saying, and no matter what those may be, to make them look amazing. It’s your job to take my low brow comment about the baked beans in the submarine, and respond in a way that makes me look like a genius.

If both players are trying their best to elevate the other, then you both come out looking like champions.

What if you took this approach at work?

It’s About Relationships

Improv scenes often begin with an audience suggestion. For example, you might be told seconds before the scene begins that you and your scene partner are vampires at a bakery. Go!

Students will normally take the cue, and begin to discuss the bakery or vampirism. There aren’t any wrong choices in improv, but discussing the scenery is a boring choice.

The really good scenes are about the people in them and how they relate to each other. Rich emotions and discoveries can be made from the perspective of a vampire, without focusing on the superficial aspects of the characters.

What if you stopped focusing on situations and incidental characteristics of people, and tried exploring what you can learn from each other? (Reply)