Steamrolling is one of those topics where most want to talk about the people doing it to them, and very few people want to look at whether they might be doing it themselves. Someone asked me to do an episode…
Every piece of feedback has two layers. There’s the content, the actual information about what happened in the scene. And then there’s the framing, which is how that information arrives. The tone of voice, whether it was said in front…
You learn a new improv skill, you understand it, you could explain it to someone else in plain language, and then you get into a scene and your brain does the old thing anyway. The thing you did before you…
I heard this thing on a clip from the olympics: “I’m an evidence person, not an affirmations person” and I was like “damn, that’s why I really dislike the phrase “you got this.” And a lot of other phrases in…
Think about the best improv team you’ve ever seen. This is the kinda team where every scene felt really easy to watch. Everyone seemed to know when to step in, or when to hold back, and what each person on…
Giving and receiving notes is one of the hardest parts of learning improv. This page has everything I’ve put together on the subject: a full article, downloadable guides, and all of the Your Improv Brain episodes (video and audio) about…
“Get out of your head” is advice that almost every improviser has heard at some point. It makes sense as a goal, but it skips over something worth looking at: what your brain is actually doing when you’re in a…
Emotions make us human. And they’re something we usually want in our scenes, because emotion is what connects you to your scene partner, your character, and the audience. It gives a scene depth. It makes people pay attention. If you…
Initiating a scene can be stressful. And this is true whether you’re new to improv or you’ve been doing it for years. You walk up there, you look at another person or an audience, and sometimes your brain just goes…
Asking questions at the top of an improv scene is a fairly advanced move. And if you’re newer to improv, it can slow your scene down before it even gets started. You’ve probably heard the rule: don’t ask questions. It…