Answer The "More Energy" Improv Note Your OWN Way

WEBVTT

:: 00:00

"Okay, improvisers, before improv, I taught dance fitness,

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"where standing in front of a room

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"and holding everyone's attention for an hour

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"through yelling and jumping and being quite often

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"like too much on purpose was literally my job

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"that I got paid for it.

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"And it's what kept people coming back too

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"so I could keep getting paid for my job."

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It was cliche.

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I was a cliche dance fitness instructor

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despite my autism, but I loved it.

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I'd also have songs where instead of that big energy,

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though I wasn't cliche,

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I brought dramatics instead, acting, drama.

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I could change based on the song and I loved it.

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Now, what I learned there is that presence

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is mostly a set of like mechanical, physical choices

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and practice on purpose.

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And also, really personal to what works for you,

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is what's your thing that you bring

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to make someone just kind of tilt their head

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and pay attention, kind of like a dog.

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That's the energy that you can bring.

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It can be big, it can be small.

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Stay with me for a second.

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Physicality, right?

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This is like where your weight kind of sits in your body.

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And whether your body is like claiming the space

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it's standing in, that it's existing in,

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or it's kind of like apologizing for being there,

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this could also be shown in your voice.

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It's definitely shown in your energy.

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Sometimes just something different that catches attention,

:: 01:51

that's energy, it doesn't have to be big.

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there's often some kind of confidence involved

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in all of this.

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Even if you don't have that big cliche

:: 02:03

dance fitness instructor energy.

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Like not every dance fitness instructor

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has like this big, wild, too much on purpose energy.

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Like some of my favorites,

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my favorite dance fitness instructors

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who are like the best dance fitness instructors,

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they were so much better than me.

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They had like this quiet confidence on stage.

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It's like they just owned the room

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with whatever energy that happened to be.

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It was like big, big energy,

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but it was so quiet and so understated.

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So today I want to take apart one specific note

:: 02:44

that you might hear in improv.

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This is the more energy note.

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So what people like your coaches and teachers

:: 02:52

might be reacting to when they give this note

:: 02:55

and how to get at that thing that they want

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without needing to turn into somebody else entirely

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for like hours on end.

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This is your improv brain, I'm Jen deHaan.

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This is the home for, I don't know,

:: 03:13

cognitive improv nerdery.

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Welcome to the show.

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So if you've been doing improv for any length of time,

:: 03:21

I like to say more than one week,

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but this one might be a few months.

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You have received some kind of note maybe like this,

:: 03:29

like to be bigger, to project more,

:: 03:33

to bring more energy, just like give me more, right?

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It's pretty vague.

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Like, I don't wanna say those words.

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I don't even wanna say those words

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in the context of this show.

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Like probably most of us didn't say anything

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because we didn't want to like question the note.

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Like we didn't want to say anything

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for that clarification, you know?

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Because like, I don't know,

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questioning the note comes up all the time.

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Like you just listen to the notes

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and you don't say anything.

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It was this common note in improv teaching

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or coaching or directing.

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I like to say it's like not very usable though,

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because energy is just doing so much work in that sentence

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and it can mean so many different things.

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Like it's a double duty or a triple duty note.

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And it probably, it might, I don't know,

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it might make you think you need to be the energy

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of like the dance fitness instructor,

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like when I was doing cliche big songs.

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Your teacher, however, watched the scene.

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They felt something in that scene

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was just like under powered somehow to them.

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It was lacking in some way.

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Maybe your teacher couldn't pin down

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what that thing was exactly,

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and the word that came out of their noggin

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was energy, more, give it to me,

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and now you have that note,

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and you're just like, well, what do I change?

:: 05:03

Or you might be thinking, I need to be big, right?

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I need to be a big character, but I'm not.

:: 05:10

Then what?

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So this episode, we're gonna look at some of the things

:: 05:13

that you can do instead of that.

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like being too loud, like just projecting your volume more,

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or too much or too big or too strange,

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or just trying something, something to address that note.

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You're gonna get some like tools here,

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some things you can try, and you don't, again,

:: 05:32

you don't have to be loud,

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and you don't have to be flailing about

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if you don't want to.

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You can if you want, but you don't gotta.

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So there's some things that you could think about

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and try that don't involve any flailing around

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or projecting your voice to volume 11.

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Being intentional about things

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is going to help you appear more confident.

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And it's also possible that you will actually feel

:: 05:55

a bit more that way too, or at least your character will.

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And try to think of these through the lens of the character

:: 06:04

that you are embodying.

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It might be easier that way.

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It sure is for me.

:: 06:09

Yeah, I know you might be different.

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So one thing you can try is focus.

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Notice where is your attention going?

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So an improviser who is watching their partner

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with clear, committed attention just reads as present.

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And an improviser whose focus is just kind of scattered

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all over the room or maybe turned inward,

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it can be read as sort of absent,

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and that will read to a coach as low energy.

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So this thing has nothing to do with your volume at all.

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And I'm not even saying that you need eye contact for focus.

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This is so much more about focusing on something

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in a very intentional way.

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I mean, this could be a button on their shirt.

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It could be your scene partner's ear,

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or it could even be a detail

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that your character is thinking about.

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So it could be your internal focus as a character,

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but about something external in the scene.

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So another one you can do, this is more body mechanics.

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So it's your stance.

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It's where you are positioning your weight in your body.

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So for this one,

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notice how your body is like meeting the floor, right?

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Because a lot of people, humans who are nervous,

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improvisers who are nervous,

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they might be standing with their weight

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kind of back in their body,

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or they might be kind of shifting,

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or they might be kind of drifting around a bit.

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That might read as, "I want to be somewhere else."

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So this could be coming from a place of nervousness,

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of being on that stage, perhaps,

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not your character, but your actual self.

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So getting your weight just sort of grounded,

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that's sort of like sinking down into the floor a little bit,

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just your center of gravity.

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So just think about that center of gravity,

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just pull it downwards.

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If you want, pull it a little bit forward as well,

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that will help stabilize you.

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This really changes how you're read,

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and it doesn't really cost you anything in terms of energy,

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there's no flailing here at all.

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So it's changing how you're read,

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and a lot of times this will read as confidence.

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So then notice like the tempo and the cadence.

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This could be of your speech,

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it could be maybe of your character and the scene.

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So if you're improvising everything,

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the whole scene at one speed,

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like really, really fast, or maybe really, really slow,

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this is one speed, one rhythm, one register,

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that's gonna feel flat, even if it's big, right?

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So you want those changes in tempo.

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Some of what gets called energy

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is really just a variation in energy,

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a variation in this tempo.

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So you can do this while you're speaking

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at a completely normal level.

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So it's just changes.

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Another one is spatially.

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So are you taking up space that you're standing in?

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Or are you just kind of shrinking inwards?

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So this one is gonna sound pretty vague,

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but it is very, very physical.

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So you can think about your arms,

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are they like tucked in?

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Are your shoulders like kind of hunched up by your ears

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or are they pushed downwards?

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'Cause that reads very differently.

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Maybe you're standing sort of at the back of the stage.

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Maybe that's where you kind of established yourself

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and you're not moving around.

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So this is where you're thinking a lot

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about your intentional placement.

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This is of your own limbs attached to your body

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and your head and everything.

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And it's like your intentional placement

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also in the space on the stage or on the screen

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if you're doing something online.

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So how are you embodying that space?

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So just thinking about this oftentimes solves everything

:: 10:19

because just thinking about this means

:: 10:21

that you're being intentional about it.

:: 10:24

So that alone can give you a read of confidence.

:: 10:28

Again, you're not being loud.

:: 10:29

You don't need to be energetic.

:: 10:31

You don't need to be loud.

:: 10:33

I already said that.

:: 10:34

You don't need to be big.

:: 10:36

So it means that you can do things a lot smaller,

:: 10:41

a lot quieter, because you're doing

:: 10:43

those movements intentionally.

:: 10:45

And that can really command a stage.

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It can command a lot of attention.

:: 10:50

So that was a list.

:: 10:52

None of those things are requiring you to be louder.

:: 10:55

None of those things are requiring you

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to be big and extroverted.

:: 10:59

So when you get that note, more energy,

:: 11:03

or even just give me more,

:: 11:06

they might be reacting to a couple of those things

:: 11:09

on the list and just kind of gave you something

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that means all of the things on that list.

:: 11:15

So now you have a lot of those things

:: 11:17

on that list to work with.

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So think of more as being more intentional,

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as having more presence.

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Then you have a lot more flexibility

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in how you approach this note.

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So for me in that dance fitness room,

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I think when I was able to get out of my head

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as a dance fitness instructor,

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that I let a lot of what I did go on autopilot

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so I could focus on the people in the room

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who are essentially my scene partners in that context.

:: 11:47

my energy presence just went way up.

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Again, it wasn't necessarily bigger or louder

:: 11:55

in a lot of those songs,

:: 11:56

unless the song really commanded that sort of thing.

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I was just more intentional with the people in the room

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in a lot of cases, all those scene partners

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that were the people taking the class.

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I was focused a lot more on them,

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and hence I was a lot more intentional

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with a lot of my choices,

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with my connection to the music,

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to translate that whole thing into an overall experience.

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So everything kind of matched as connected

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because of that intention that I had.

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The music with me and the me with the people,

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all of that read as presence and energy

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without needing to be really big and loud.

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So lead with the intent to find that kind of presence,

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which very well might translate into the more energy

:: 12:45

that the note was asking for.

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But there's one more thing,

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there's something else beyond how you move yourself

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or present yourself with intention

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or embody your presence in that room,

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and that thing is stillness or the absence of all of that.

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And that stillness can also read as strength and presence.

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It's a little bit like those juicy pauses

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I mentioned in the previous episode,

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so I'll link to that in the description.

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Because a body that is completely still

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with focus and intent is completely committed.

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It is like one of the most compelling things

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that you can put in front of an audience.

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I mean, if it makes sense,

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they're gonna lean in to that,

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and they will wait for you.

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They will assume that you have decided something,

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because an improviser who has decided something,

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oftentimes stops moving and stops speaking.

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It's like they're waiting for the attention

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or the moment to arrive to announce that decision

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that they've already made.

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Everybody knows that the decision is there.

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They're just waiting with bated breath to hear it or see it.

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And most of the time we do the opposite, right?

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Because we feel underpowered, right?

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We're adding motion, it's kind of like flailing in a way

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'cause you don't maybe know what to do.

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So more gesturing, more pacing, more doing,

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because we're anxious, right?

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We're filling in those gaps so much.

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And that oftentimes gets read as anxiety.

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And anxiety is not the same thing as presence.

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Though from the inside,

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it can kind of feel like the same sort of effort.

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Like anxiety feels like effort,

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so it feels like it should be moving.

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Like I'm doing so much stuff,

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I'm adding all of this stuff to the scene,

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but then it just ends up kind of like sucking

:: 14:49

all of the energy or momentum from it in the end.

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So stillness is another option.

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It's another like tool you can use to try when it fits.

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Try just being like extremely still

:: 15:02

and putting everything into where you're looking.

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Like your energy might be in your eyes

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and that really like deeply juicy pause

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as much as that stance, whatever stance that you're holding.

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And go listen or watch the previous episode

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if you haven't already about those pauses.

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So for a lot of neurodivergent people,

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that performance thing is like not like a new skill

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that we're being taught or coached

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when we eventually drop into improv.

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We might have been doing this kind of performance thing

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all day at work, when we go to the grocery store,

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in every single social situation,

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that's like expecting a very particular version of a human,

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and then we have to build that human version.

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So we're doing this before the improv class,

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we're doing this after the improv class.

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Now this is often called social masking or camouflaging,

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and doing that sort of thing is really expensive

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as far as energy goes, right?

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So there's a lot of nuance in this conversation.

:: 16:12

I'm just like putting the basics in here

:: 16:15

because for some of us,

:: 16:16

some of us neurodivergent humans

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who do this social masking,

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being on stage gives us a freedom

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that means playing a big character,

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even if we are generally quiet outside of improv.

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Like this is now,

:: 16:37

which then means for some of us, not all of us,

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but some of us doing these big characters when we perform

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is actually giving us the freedom

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to be our true selves on stage

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without social repercussions.

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Like for example, I don't get exhausted

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in any kind of character, big or small, quiet or loud,

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because a lot of this to me is freedom.

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But this is my type of neurodivergence

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and absolutely not necessarily someone else's type

:: 17:08

of neurodivergence, is different for all of us.

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Now, I think some improvisers might conclude,

:: 17:15

they might come to this conclusion

:: 17:16

that they're not cut out for improv

:: 17:19

if the energy that they're being asked to do

:: 17:22

is just so against what they want to do with their selves,

:: 17:27

with their bodies, when what actually happened

:: 17:30

is that somebody gave them a note

:: 17:32

that just maybe there wasn't a solution tied to that note

:: 17:37

or it wasn't obvious, right?

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Like it's this kind of note that I'm talking about,

:: 17:41

more energy, right?

:: 17:43

So the adjustment here, and I mean adjustment in the sense

:: 17:47

that everybody needs some adjustment.

:: 17:49

This isn't like a special exemption or anything,

:: 17:52

is to find your own version of presence

:: 17:56

outside of these mechanics and stuff.

:: 17:59

So this could be your focus, your stance, your tempo,

:: 18:02

that sort of space one where you are on the stage.

:: 18:05

Check this all out against your comfort, right?

:: 18:10

All of those are available to you at your natural volume

:: 18:15

at this point in your improv.

:: 18:18

So you might choose to play big sometimes.

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Big can be fun for some people.

:: 18:23

It's a choice you can make if and when you're ready,

:: 18:27

when the scene wants it,

:: 18:29

and you have the capacity and willing to do it.

:: 18:32

And it stops then being some kind of improv tax

:: 18:35

that you're just like paying to be taken seriously

:: 18:38

or whatever, or meet what you interpret that note as.

:: 18:42

Because at the end of the day, to use a cliche phrase,

:: 18:48

improv is meant to be fun,

:: 18:51

or why in the heck are we doing this thing?

:: 18:55

'Cause it sure ain't money or fame.

:: 18:56

So the energy note is gonna keep coming

:: 18:59

'cause teachers will probably keep saying this thing

:: 19:03

and it's a hard habit to break, right?

:: 19:05

And so what you can do is just stop treating it

:: 19:09

as some sort of note to be a louder person

:: 19:12

and treat it as something that you get to choose

:: 19:18

to interpret and finish the note yourself how you want.

:: 19:23

So if you want to work on this sort of stuff

:: 19:26

with other people, I run off-script workshops,

:: 19:30

and this is the kind of the thing that they're for,

:: 19:32

is this confidence building and trying new things

:: 19:36

with a very low stakes environment involved.

:: 19:41

This is one of the themes that I cover,

:: 19:43

and I'll put the link in the description.

:: 19:45

Bye for now.