Beyond "React Like Yourself" - Level Up Your Grounded Improv Characters

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Figuring out our comedic role or purpose in a scene can sometimes be pretty challenging.

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And when it comes to playing a grounded character or the voice of reason,

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most of us are taught something like, "Just react like you would in real life."

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Or some similar variation about you personally outside of the scene, being like that.

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Well, what if I told you that while that is a great place to start,

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there are other techniques you can try if the grounded role remains challenging for you.

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What if being the voice of reason is only part of your character?

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And you can instead be a more responsive, dynamic, and pretty darn useful player in a show.

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Today we're, I guess, leveling up your voice of reason game. We're going to explore why that

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early teaching tool, while useful early on, is just one of the approaches you can take.

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You'll discover how shifting your focus from simply acting normal to actively balancing the scene

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can make you a more adaptable, supportive, and ultimately funnier person in the scene,

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especially as you gain experience and confidence. And this technique might be useful

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even if you have always found playing a voice of reason as yourself an easy thing to do.

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Hi, I'm Jen deHaan and welcome to Your Improv Brain. I create podcasts that include a lot of

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improv comedy in them with Stereo Forest, and I have taught and coached at several improv schools

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as well. Every Monday I'm going to release a new episode of this show on YouTube and as a podcast,

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so subscribe if you haven't already. And stick around, because at the end of this episode I'll

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share one way that this balancing act we're going to discuss today can let you and a scene partner

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get really weird in a scene. So you won't want to miss that bit if you like to get weird and improv

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like I do. But before we go too far, I want to mention that we're focusing on grounding scenes

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through the characters themselves for this episode. You can have a scene where everyone

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is unusual, like a piece in a pod or a character matching scene, and characters like that have

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the option of grounding the world around them instead of the ways that we're going to be discussing.

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I have an episode about these kind of scenes that I'll link to in the show notes or the description

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below if you're on YouTube. So, react as you would normally. That's foundational advice for

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learning how to be a voice of reason within a scene, and that's for good reason. It's a fantastic

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starting point to learn the concept of grounding a scene. It helps you and the audience relate

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to whatever's happening in an absurd, wild scenario or a wild world. And responding to

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weird behaviors and actions as yourself is a great way to start off learning how to accomplish this

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role or add this information within the scene. It provides a relatable human element, or it makes

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the world a relatable one to the audience. And you can be really funny in this role too. Sometimes

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most of the laughs in a scene will come from this really reasonable voice.

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Over time, as you develop and think about this more as you're learning, you might find this advice

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a bit complicated though. What if your normal reaction is to freeze up or to overthink before

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responding to another person? What if your personal normal, and I'm doing air quotes if you're listening

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to this, how your brain works or your lived experience sometimes makes these choices really

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difficult? And that becomes really time consuming. And that can be an issue if it's a really fast

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paced scene, especially when you have a lot of other things to think about in the moment.

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This is where the occasional challenge can then creep in, especially for brains that work in

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different ways. Or if you come from that cultural or regional background where the typical response

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might differ from that of your scene partner or that of the audience, wherever you're doing improv.

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I remember this experience quite well when I was learning this as an autistic improviser,

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trying to channel a generic, stereotypical, normal, again air quotes if you're listening to this,

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sometimes made me second guess my own instincts. I'd be thinking, okay, what's the standard

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operating procedure for reacting to this scenario? What would a typical person say or do or think?

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And all that internal processing, trying to hit some vaguely defined target of normalcy

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that I'd never met in real life outside of the scene could put me in my head. If I knew I had

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to play the voice of reason, if I had to, if I was assigned to it before the scene, or that's where

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I was obviously having to do right off the top. This didn't happen too often, but sometimes it did

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back then. I was actually a lot better if I didn't know I was playing the voice of reason. Sometimes

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I was complimented, hey, good voice of reason, Jen. And I thought I was okay, cool. But being in my head

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is where I live, even outside of the scene when engaging socially most of the time. So it made

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sense that trying to play myself would put me there, in my head, within the scene. I guess what I was

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doing was technically correct, but it still, it wasn't great for improv. And it also just wasn't

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fun. It was stressful. The rest of improv was fun, but this wasn't. And I reckon this experience

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might be relatable to those with other kinds of lived experiences where this hits the same. Like

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if you're doing improv, like I said, in a culture where you didn't grow up, for example. So my early

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solution was to consciously play normal characters. They were unusual characters to me, even if they

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seemed like grounded and voice of reason version of myself to most seam partners and coaches and

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teachers. It worked well back then, and it still does when I do shows today. I don't get in my head

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doing this. It's not a lot of effort, and people think I'm a voice of reason and normal enough,

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I suppose. This might be enough if you're just having challenges playing yourself. Just play a

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character you feel best represents some stereotypical version of normal, whatever that is to you.

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And anyone notes you on what you think is a stereotypical normal, just shrug it off. You

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can ignore that note, send them to me, and I'll have your back. I have some earlier episodes on

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this same topic that I'll link to in the show notes if this topic resonates with you. But what I

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didn't cover in those episodes is how I evolved that approach to grounding scenes because it's

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a little bit more complicated still. And I think it might be useful no matter if you find the voice

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of reason easy or challenging as you learn improv. Instead of aiming for normal character, I aim for

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dynamically balancing the characters in a scene. This, for me, has made things a little bit easier

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and is much more flexible than taking a fixed role, and is actually essential for certain types

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of improv. I find that this approach of balancing the characters is a way to find a more dynamic

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and responsive way of playing your scenes with your partners. And this is the core idea of what I

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want you to take away today. And to be clear, this is not my idea. This is just a comedy technique

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that I find useful for grounding characters, grounding those dynamics between them. It's

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also important to know this is a choice or a tool that you might eventually choose to use when it

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makes sense to you, not necessarily a starting point for improvisers. To effectively balance a scene

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character-wise, you generally need some kind of experience. You need to have developed your own

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comedic voice to some degree, and you need a lot of reps to be able to read a scene and adjust quickly

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to what's happening in the headspace of your character. And you definitely have to have

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listening skills down and not be in your head. So with that said, if you understand the idea of

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grounded worlds and characters but still find it clunky or challenging for your brain, this shift

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in perspective might be useful for you as a tool. And as always in improv, your mileage may vary

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based on your experience, your unique rain wiring and the style of improv you're doing.

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So what are the benefits to balancing what's happening in the moment? Pretty significant ones

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for some scenes and some scenarios. It makes you flexible to respond to what's needed in the moment.

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For example, you might be the unusual character and your scene partner is grounded, but then they

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do something really unusual because that's what the scene called for, or it was like the most

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natural thing for their character to do. And now you can ground that scenario and balance out the

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scene against you were the unusual, but now you're grounding the scene. It highlights the unusual

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action your scene partner is giving. It makes the scene relatable and it adds an opportunity

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for some comedy as well. This doesn't mean quick, rapid or frequent changes in your character

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throughout a scene. And it probably won't happen often, this kind of scenario. But what it might

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mean, well after you've established the base reality and character dynamic and so on, you

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experience that shift in the scene where this adjustment is necessary. It's an energy thing.

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You're just, you're listening hard and you're reacting and you're contrasting or matching your

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character, your character's partner when you need to. This is especially useful in longer scenes or

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mono scenes. The ability to subtly adjust and rebalance as the scene evolves is crucial for

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sustaining interest and coherence. And if you want to see a masterclass in this kind of concept,

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watch the show Nathan for you. Though as soon as you learn this concept and watch for it in

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comedy, you'll see it quite a bit. And let's be honest here. Humans, like we see in that show

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and in comedy, are beautifully inconsistent. We can be perfectly ordinary one minute and then we

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can do something really unexpected in the next. A character who is focused on balancing dynamically

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in a scene can reflect this natural human tendency and it makes your characters more

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three-dimensional as a result. So let's talk about this in practice. I noticed that this is an

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approach I've been taking as an example in my podcast, "Grak Public Access" and using it has

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been essential because it is an ongoing improv show. Like my main character, Togchester Field,

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is one that I've played in two series now for about 20 hours of Finnish podcast. At the time

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of recording this, we're still going. We're going on for a long period of time, I hope.

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So Tog is somewhat unusual themselves and they live in a fairly quirky base reality as well.

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But my character, Tog, needs to react to new characters and new scenarios whenever necessary

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across what's essentially a very long ongoing scene. So dynamically balancing in this scene,

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the super long ongoing one episode after episode, lets that very established character react to any

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character opposite them, either as a voice of reason or remaining unusual depending on what

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the moment needs. And this is also called position flipping and it can be very useful in a shorter

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single scene too after a base reality and that character dynamic is well established. The key

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challenge though is still being honest and believable as the established character, the one that you're

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playing and you can play then both roles. This approach also makes it easier to accommodate

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all kinds of improvisers. Instead of everyone trying to hit that sort of elusive normal that meets

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some statistical average of whoever is watching you, you focus on the present moment, what's

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happening right now. How can my character stay true to who they are, provide a response that

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best supports the overall scenic picture by offering a contrast or a complementary energy.

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Ultimately, your focus can simply be something like this. How would my character respond in a way

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that best supports a contrast to what my scene partners are doing? If you're firmly in the mind

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of your character and you're listening strongly to what's being offered, this sense of balance

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might start to come fairly naturally and automatically to you. Basically, you aren't in your head about

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it and it's less about imposing some predefined normal or fixed role and it's more about responsive

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dynamic play. This kind of mindset might make you a really flexible performer on stage.

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You'll hear a thought about approaching getting really weird in a scene using this concept in

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just a second. But first, let's quickly summarize. Graduating from just act normal,

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just be yourself, to actively balancing the scene can be a powerful, like mind-blowing,

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I don't know. It can be a good step in your improv development if grounded scenes are a

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challenge for you. It leads to more dynamic, adaptable play. It strengthens your ability to

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support any kind of offer and it makes you more versatile and responsive as a scene partner.

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When scenes change, you take on a single character like Tog for a very long time.

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It's about finding the complexity of your character, their unusual and their usual,

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and just supporting whatever flavor that is as opposed to taking a fixed role for the duration

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of the scene, which really makes your characters and scenes and shows a lot more human and a lot

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more relatable. I want to mention that you can find a bunch of improv resources at my free weekly

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newsletter at improvupdate.com. I'll send you new resources every single week. And I'd love for you

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to share this video with other improvisers and drop a comment if you're watching the YouTube video

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about your thoughts about the approach to voice of reason in a scene.

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All right, now for that how to get a really weird observation that I promised. The most

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liberating part about focusing on balancing the energy of a scene is sometimes the balance your

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character brings isn't about being grounded. It can be about offering an equally committed but

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different flavor of strange that really complements your partner's offer. So what if your scene shifts

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and the best answer instead of like opposing that is for you and your scene partner to both get

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weird for a little while. You can absolutely balance this part of the scene that combined

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weird thing in a clear relatable relationship with an interesting relatable contrast.

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So this is really about that energy dynamic but not a rigid definition of who plays what,

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who's grounded, who's unusual. The goal isn't to always be that opposite but to be what the

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scene needs when you need that shift. Can the audience relate? In the end,

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all of this might be as simple as that. So thanks for joining me. We'll see you back here next Monday

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for more improv stuff.