Episode 12: Finding the unusual thing (and communicating better in scenes)

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you know who made it welcome to the neurodiversity and improv podcast from Flat improv I'm Janda Han and I do

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improv stuff I like thinking about improv things a lot these podcasts aren't for telling anyone what to do I'm

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just giving explanations and this is to help encourage classes teams everyone to

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be a little bit more inclusive and to help whoever needs this to just get better and more comfortable at doing

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improv and honestly a lot of us think this way so it's good to know that you're not alone these episodes are to

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help with confidence with feeling more comfortable maybe making things a little bit easier don't force yourself to do

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something you can't or don't don't want to do improv shouldn't be about that these episodes of course are not for

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diagnosis either so don't use these episodes to diagnose yourself or anyone else basically we're just here to be

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improv nerds nerding it out about improv so let's get started let's talk about

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improv or I guess I'm just talking at you about improv and after the plug

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section again I'll just have a section that's for the weirds out there so stick around if that's you and uh you can just

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turn turn me off if you want if you don't want any of this in your ears

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we're talking about weird and unusual in this episode let's get started so I don't know if this episode will be

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controversial this is just my experience though with unusual things in improv

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scenes and I don't think any of these things are necessarily right or wrong no

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matter what you think this is just how I go about doing a thing currently because

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as We Know all of this stuff can change and maybe even go back and forth depending on who you're doing scenes

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with or what day it is we're going to talk about finding the unusual thing in

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a scene today it's part of the game of the scene style of improv a really big

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part of it actually you find an unusual thing in the scene you notice it you make a game out of it and go from there

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however you're going to go you're going to heighten it blow it out explore success win profit whatever I have to

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say though that this along with the voice of reason thing if you're not sure

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what that is go back to episode 9 for more about voice of reason these are

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those things that took me a little bit to figure out they were particularly

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challenging I believe based on my neurodivergent neurotype for example

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teachers would mention what was unusual in a scene what was the very first thing

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that we might not have picked up on and sometimes for me it was things that seemed very normal and I don't think I

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would have ever picked up on it but this is a lot about communication and how we

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think like I was watching this video today made by another autistic person and it was about his communication

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differences between him and his neurotypical wife and it reminds me of

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this a bit he was detailing how his wife would ask him a question and he would

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respond with a very honest automatic response to that question which was

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absolutely not what his wife was after and he mentioned as it was coming out of

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his mouth he'd suddenly realize this is not what she probably wanted to hear this is probably not what she was asking

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about but his response to the question was his first natural response it was

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sensical to him it made sense it would have been expected to him but to his

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neurotypical wife it was unexpected or unusual sometimes these things can be

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funny to neurotypical people sometimes we can even laugh at ourselves and that's how I kind of am sometimes

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sometimes with the unusual thing in a scene like I might not see it instantly

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but I might see it just a second after and it will click in as words are already falling out of my mouth so

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what's unusual ual to other people is sometimes not unusual to us and this is

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just our wiring this is part of our communication we might realize ah they wanted this they expected this it's like

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a translation process sort of a dual translation that might happen in our

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minds now I bet neurod divergent or not you will quite possibly relate in the

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general difficulty in spotting the unusual hearing it or even just commun

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communicating with your scene Partners having enough processing power though to think about all the Improv stuff and

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this as well can be very difficult especially when everyone is starting out

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so I hear this it's hard for all of us no matter what our neurological wiring

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is I do think though it is potentially harder or takes increased effort for

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some or many people who like me are a nerd Divergent neurotype we think

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differently we have an atypical perspective by definition so whether or not some things are unusual that will be

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affected by unique perspectives the ones that we all have and we're doing some extra translation in some cases to

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compensate for some of these communication differences because by definition neurotypicals just a

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statistically higher number of people that we're being doing scenes with so that becomes the default but it doesn't

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doesn't mean that it has to become our default in the scene neurotypical and

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neurod Divergent people often speak a different language and it is due to these wiring differences as we see in

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the earlier example about the husband and the wife we have an extra layer on top of all the other communication

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challenges humans in general have as being unique human beings and that is

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great but some things get lost in translation even when we're speaking the same language as we know this can happen

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between regions and cultures and backgrounds and this neurodivergent neurotypical communication is one other

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way and because we think weird things are normal all the time and vice versa

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for our neurotypical friends this is key Communication Breakdown Territory between scene Partners especially early

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on when we're learning everything else on top of it many things in a scene we will just pick up on as unusual quite

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easily this isn't a universal case some things though will have to take maybe a

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beat to realize Ah that's what the neurotypical people are finding weird okay and some things might still

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probably mystify us so in this next section I'm going to talk about what is finding the unusual and why do we do it

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so the unusual thing what is it it's often described as simply that thing

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that just perks your interest something that would make you turn your head and

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go H it doesn't really have to be big it is often better if it's something that isn't all that weird it's just off

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examples of an unusual thing in a scene I mean it might be something like wow

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r I use a mini disc player in: 2024

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u listened to cala the puppet: 1900

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the past 3 weeks which probably sounded very specific and also might be a call back to a different show quite often the

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unusual is somewhat subtle and often needs to be framed it might be big and

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weird and bold like the Cala thing or it might be subtle a little bit more subtle

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like the Crayons or someone else might need to make sure everyone in the scenes

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nose for example it's the crayon thing and that's you framing the unusual thing

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like calling it out we either do it where the person that is adding the unusual thing to the scene usually it

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just comes out we're not trying to force it in there or we're listening for it we're listening for the unusual thing

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maybe we're framing it or maybe our scene partner frames it at any rate we all just end up on the same page at some

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point more on this in a second so whatever you do for all of this exactly

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for the unusual thing seeing it noticing it framing it it can depend on who

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you're playing with like your team or maybe it's the style of the theater or

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the community you also might have personal preferences like I like starting with something that's a little

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bit off like the crayon thing and then you can make it weirder through heightening or you can get more specific

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about those things like I wouldn't do something like say I have pickles for

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toes but I might be a pickle per that's really into specific flavors or some

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kind of new pickle cut so it could be real perhaps so noticing the unusual

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thing that often comes from practice from feeling from getting the gist from sort of that gut thing it's less rules

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and structure and more something else and that just sort of the something else

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Essence is often hard for us neurod Divergence I think we often like the

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structure or rule book and all of this seems like a big rule but in the end

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it's kind of not it's more just gut reaction we find an unusual thing

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because it's often the source of the funny and the core nucleus of what a

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game is because weird things are funny and funny is game but you take that nugget and then it just sort of forms

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the game and that forms the scene so making sure you and your scene partner agree on what that weird or unusual

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thing is really early on that helps you have an easier time throughout the scene

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on agreeing what that game is and then how you'll play with that thing so how do we find the unusual thing if it is

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sort of this gut reaction this feeling this thing that we have to notice that doesn't really have a concrete Rules

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book about it well we end up finding that weird or unusual thing with our

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scene Partners sometimes something unusual could be happening it could be an action or it might be an item or it

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might be a behavior of a character it can come from wherever but it does need to be pointed out by someone in the

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scene to the other people in the scene and of course also the audience watching

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so that's when and why we end up framing that weird thing so the framing part is

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simply communicating with your scene partner and to the audience hey this

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thing here is is that's kind of weird and you might even say why it's weird basically you just want everyone to be

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on that same page so you can move forward and have fun with it and I did say the word simply but it's not really

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simple especially in the earlier phases this is done so many different ways and

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as such it's not simple because we also have to notice it we have to communicate

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and communicate in can be a challenge it's not usually as heavy-handed as hey

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that's weird either that would make it easy if we always said hey that's weird but that is a little bit heavy-handed

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and that's something that we might only see when we're say learning we're doing exercises but after that it usually

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isn't at its core though you react to the unusual thing you care about that

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unusual thing and then you go from there and you make it into a scene that's all

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a very simplified version of something that's not all that simple and we often take quite a long time to get better at

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so now let's talk a little bit about why the unusual why is the weird weird for

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the weirdos oh that that's a weird title so things that are normal for neurod

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Divergent people are sometimes weird for neurotypical people and vice versa things that are weird for the neurod

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Divergent are sometimes normal for the neurotypical we're talking about things

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that become Lost in Translation and how neurod Divergent humans do translation

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and that can vary a lot like how I personally translate neurotypical how

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fast that is when it applies it's all going to be different it's going to be different for me than it is for you so

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this is the part where you need to start thinking about or analyzing your own improv practice in this regard notice

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how things work for you or what might not be in place yet and then when you

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find that you can start noticing your own pattern or practice a little bit

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more about the communication why things are weird for us and not weird for

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neurotypicals and vice versa so there was a study that was done and this was done with autistic individuals and

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allistic individuals and this is autistic people and not autistic people and this study combined a group of all

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autistic people together and did the telephone game that's where one person

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starts a message and it goes through all the different people and then the last person repeats that message and how

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close it is to the original message so they did the study with all autistic all

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nonautistic and then a mixture of autistic and not autistic people and

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what they found is in the group of all autistic people the message was about the same at the end the group of all not

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autistic people message was about the same at the end and the mixed group the message was different at the end so a

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simple demonstration of how communication differs between different neurot types so with these communication

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differences of course we're going to start interpreting things in different ways things are going to be understood

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that come out of our mouths in different ways and this can really affect fect what we find unusual or not cuz a lot of

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the times just the way that I might say something or the way that I might answer a question is seen as unusual when to me

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it just totally makes sense and again that's like the video I mentioned earlier with the husband and the wife

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his answer that he gave made sense to him but then he realized oh that is unusual and unexpected to my wife and

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that's how some of the communication that we have in scenes may come out quotee unquote weird or not and this of

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course extends to experiences and all sorts of different things like my regular activities that I do that are

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completely normal for me because that's the way that I live my life as a neurodivergent individual I know is

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going to be unusual to neurotypical people but we have to get used to sort of recognizing that recognizing that

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well the majority of the audience is going to see this as unusual so this is an unusual thing and sometimes that

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might take a beat for us to remember because we're in the moment we're just responding right out of our gut right

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out of our head and we have to do that little blip of transition oh yeah that's

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right that's going to be interpreted as unusual to most people so it is and

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that's okay but we do have to give ourselves the understanding that it might take us a beat to recognize that

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in the moment and that moment that blip is perfectly fine so will it always work

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though not always it might kind of work in just different ways for example I was

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in a group monos scene and that monos scene had a game and I missed some of

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the subtext because sometimes subtext can be difficult especially in this sense and that subtext was the main part

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of the game in this case which is why it kind of tripped me up often times subex text is not the main part of the game so

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I picked up on that game maybe 3/4 of the way through of a very long scene

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like I kind of thought we were playing a game and I didn't realize oh we're playing that game until about 3/4 of the

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way through but in rehashing the scene in my head afterwards cuz I knew I missed it like I realized 34s of the way

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through oh I missed the gamees so I was rewinding that game in my head to see what I missed and I realized I played

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the sub game I heightened the subtext of the game in pretty much exactly the same

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way as had I got the subtext initially maybe even better cuz I wasn't overthinking it either but it still

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worked what I sort of grasped from that experience is that we have a lot of skill that's already kind of built in

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especially if we've done masking for a very long time and I mean masking of course is hard it takes a lot of effort

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it's not a great thing but it is something that we have have experienced for a very long time and that we already

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naturally apply to a lot of our conversations or experiences and we sometimes have that masking kind of on

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autopilot so it can apply to our scenes and can be kind of useful in that case

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perhaps it's also important to remember it's okay to play these things the way

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that you are cuz even if you don't get some things like in this case the

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subtext some of the audience isn't going to either so if you end up needing to

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clarify something in character in scene this can be a good thing that can be of

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service both to the scene and to your audience so in this next section we're going to look at why does it have to be

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the first thing or does it have to be the very very first unusual thing that comes up in the scene so that is what

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some teachers will teach they will say that the first unusual thing is the

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correct one that you must take the very first unusual thing that comes up that

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is perceived by them as unusual and it's sort of seen as a universal

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understanding of what's weird and you might have missed it if they brought it up and that was the only correct unusual

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thing for the game to be based off of later in the scene now this isn't a universal rule even in this game of the

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scene style improv but it is a rule that some teachers will teach that is their

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philosophy and now my opinion is that is a valid philosophy like any others it

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just doesn't work for me as the type of improviser I am with the neurotype that

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I have I have a different philosophy and neither of these are any less good or

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valid or anything they're just different and every philosophy that we come across

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this and other ones will have their own pros and cons just the con of needing to

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find the very very first unusual thing in the scene that con for my brain it's

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too big it has too many drawbacks so I use a different one instead and I do want to point out that ner Divergent

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people some of us myself included can be rule followers if I go into a space that

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has the rule that you must find the very very first unusual thing in the scene

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that that is the correct unusual thing for the scene that is what the teacher

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wants my brain will immediately want to only do that thing perfectly so I must

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find what they think is the unusual thing I must get that thing that's in

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their brain that they noticed as the very first unusual thing that came up at all and if I don't I'm a failure I need

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to cancel all of my future improv engagements I must leave the community and go back back to farming and never

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show my face in these parts ever again that is how my brain works but that is a bit cuz I did feel that way and I'm

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still here so it's a bit anyways as you might notice through that that doing

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things that way finding the very very first unusual thing that will be

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perceived by The Audience by someone else it'll put me in my head I will be scanning is this weird to who is a

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neurotypical person somewhere finding this weird will I catch it will I see it and on and on and on and then I'm not

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enjoying myself I'm not flowing I'm not being a good improviser this way I'm

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deeply in my head and I'm too focused to be a good listener and losing that good

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listening thing I think is too big of a con for the benefit of noticing the

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unusual thing that other people will notice as unusual and other people is

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the key word the alternative is to let go and notice what you find and that to

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me what you find and this might be your seam partner equally what you all agree on is the best unusual thing my way is

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to just loosen up to listen make that the focus and just see what you notice

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you might notice it from your scene partner saying something that's slightly unusual to you or it might be what

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they're framing as unusual which might be something they did or you did and it could be the second or third thing but

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all of it is still early in the scene we're not saying wait for a full minute or something this is what you and your

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scene partner both notice as the unusual thing near the beginning of the scene

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and that's my Philosophy for finding the best unusual thing near the beginning of

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the scene as opposed to the very very very first one and I know that probably this might be making some of you angry

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cuz I'm saying to break a rule someone might have taught you and for those of

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you who are angry I'll have more on this soon so my mindset my brain works way

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better for me not worrying about it being the very first unusual item that

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anyone would see but of course that goes against what some of you have been taught and this also as such might come

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off as rejecting an offer but we can also sort of ask the question was it an

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offer because it might have been too subtle you might not have noticed it not because you're not noticing but because

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of your neurotype so what you want to do is just enhance your listening and you

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will be grabbing a very early offer of an unusual thing and as such you will be

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grabbing a better one it's the one that you're both interested in if you both agree on it and you both communicate

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that thing and I believe that's going to work better for the improvisors and in the end it could very well be working

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better for for the scene and it just takes that stress off the top of the

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scene you aren't as worried about something that is difficult potentially for you to notice or see or hear you

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just know that it is going to happen early on I listen better without the

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pressure of finding that very very first thing that if my seam partner sees and

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Frames something I'll hopefully just get to that immediately anyway ways I'm way

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more focused on my seen partner as opposed to just scanning for those

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unusual things I'm being natural and I'm just using my natural neurotype in this

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process as opposed to trying to do the translation into neurotypical adding

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that neurotypical neurod Divergent translation process takes a lot of Cycles on its own and I believe it's too

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many cycles for improv and once I did that I got a lot more bandwidth in my

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brain anyway so I could just be in the scene and now I just barely notice any

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of it I guess it just sort of happens that much more efficiently now so I think the key here is to just focus on

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being with your scene partner more you're listening you're communicating and I believe that that leads to the

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best thing being picked up as the unusual that leads to the game being on that same page is leading to a better

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scene and that ultimately might be just as fast in the end maybe it even lends

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itself to finding something with your seam Partners better and faster if you

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end up because you're so efficient noticing the very first thing great good

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on you but if it's the second thing that you both agree on that came up and you

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both saw it's weird maybe that's the better game anyways so the one thing that you don't want to do in this

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process is force something weird in us neurod divergents we are pretty good at

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being weird by definition we're Divergent but we don't want to force

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something into the scene this isn't good and it won't be funny and I'm using very

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definitive language there and if that's controversial so be it because I'll stand behind that one you don't want to

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force stuff in you want to just be yourself and if that happens to be weird

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that is fine you'll sometimes be accused of forcing it because sometimes neurotypical people just don't get us

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but make sure that you know you aren't actually forcing something in like truly

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ask yourself don't lie to yourself or just make a mental note of what they

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said in the note and see if you might want to adjust some of that at any rate

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be your honest weird self and you'll sometimes be framed as the

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weird one and that's okay because it's not forced and I know that some of the notes might be a little bit difficult

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like I was just explaining about how sometimes we get framed as the weird one

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or somebody will pick up on something that is particularly weird but it did come from an honest place it might have

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really happened don't let that stuff get too much in your head because it is at the end of the day a really nice

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experience to just let go and be ourselves and we do know that we're Nur div virgin we do know what we are and

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I'm perfectly happy with that and I think that that sort of learning process

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can be a neat one to sort of get through improv and if you choose to adjust great

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but I think the main focus here is just being you and seeing what happens from

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that place and it can be very rewarding in the end so in this next section I'll give some improv tips for the neurod

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Divergence out there first of all know that this is going to be very different for all of us so take any of these tips

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and advice as usual on an as needed basis I'm a very high masking autistic

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ADHD individual so my experience is going to be different from yours probably in that I can read weird I can

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naturally do weird I can kind of mask as neurotypical it affects how I

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communicate my prior experiences in corporate life Etc will have adjusted

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what I know in communication all of this kind of things so standard disclaimer for every episode one thing that really

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helped me a lot in sort of understanding what was unusual how it happened how it

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was grasped in the scene was watching a ton of experienced improvisers doing

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this in online Liv streams from the cities this was the best advice I was

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given and I think it's some of the best advice I can share for a lot of improv things I figure that watching these live

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streams of experienced improvisors is just as important as classes and Reps to

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explain some of this stuff and make it make sense it can be timec consuming and expensive for many of the live streams

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but I do find it extremely helpful so if you can access them I do recommend those

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live streams when you do want to connect with your scene Partners at the top of the scene to do the listening to listen

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hard to connect with them do this in whatever way makes the most sense for

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you to connect this could be through eye contact it might not be that might not be something that you can access and

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that's okay play around and find the best ways to listen hard at the top of

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the scene and find which ways work best for you at the top of the scene don't be

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afraid to explore That Base reality a little bit to set it up clearly and make that make sense for you because that

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Firm Foundation of knowing who your character is and where you are all that sort of thing is really going to help

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you find that unusual thing quickly and someone will frame the unusual it might

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be you but it might be one of your scene Partners make sure you're just scanning for that unusual thing or scanning for

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the framing you can also rely on the framing if you have difficulty picking

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out the unusual thing because maybe that just it doesn't make sense to you watch for the framing because somebody will do

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that framing so maybe watching for the framing is a little bit easier than watching for the unusual and you can

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focus on that until you get more comfortable in general and if you're framing something and maybe your scene

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partner doesn't pick up on that like maybe it's not something that's weird to them but it is weird to you find

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different ways to frame or you can just literally say that's weird or whatever

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you might need to use that hard hand at times especially if you're playing with people you don't know that well yet so

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that harder hand is okay especially in those cases and in general even if you

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are very experienced playing with very experienced people there are times when that hard hand of that's weird is

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perfectly acceptable so don't be afraid to use that when you need to with time and Reps hopefully end up getting this

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all done faster and better and really efficient and funnier and go you that's

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great but remember that that exploration like I was just talking about is valid

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it's especially good for setting the solid foundation of a scene or a set so

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it's not a bad thing if things move a little bit slower because ultimately it

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might make for a better scene in the end and that solid foundation can help with

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other things like setting up stronger characters or giving you the better Foundation for secondary games that you

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can flip between so don't be afraid to explore a little bit so what if you have

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issues in this area well one of the things that you can do is to ask for a set way to point out the unusual and

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frame it this might be in a learning context it might be in a class or you might be coached Etc or you might be

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just working with a team practicing this particular thing so you can all communicate better you might ask for a

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specific type of reaction this could be physical it could be verbal like wow

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that's weird it doesn't matter this is just to learn so whatever works best for you whatever you notice best see if you

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can set up a very specific reaction that's used to frame the unusual and

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that can make it a little bit easier to start noticing unusual things in general

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before they're framed so you can frame them eventually if something doesn't make sense why it's weird discuss this

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afterwards ask your teacher or your coach or even your seam partner why did you find that weird I just didn't

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understand myself and this isn't a commentary on your scene partner or you

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is just a communication thing that exists don't be afraid to have some of

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those discussions afterwards about what made that weird or how do I notice that

33:17

thing this all comes down to the framing because sometimes I'm going to find a thing that my scam partner doesn't find

33:24

weird but I'm going to frame it as such to get everyone on the same page and we don't have to agree that it's weird we

33:31

just have to move on from that place it is agreeing that it's weird for the scene but you don't have to agree that

33:37

it's a weird thing in real life you're just using it for the make them UPS so you can do a lot of this without really

33:46

understanding why something is unusual you might never understand what makes

33:52

those things unusual but you can focus on the frame in part first watching for

33:59

that because it's a lot easier to do especially if you get some help in this area get good at the framing first and

34:06

then focus a little bit more on noticing the unusual thing and you can even take

34:13

something pretty mundane that might not be unusual but frame it as such so a lot

34:19

can get lost in translation between neurotypical and neurod Divergent improvisors and sorting out what is

34:27

unusual in a scene can be a source of difficulty for all of us regardless of

34:32

neurotype but it can be especially hard or a little bit harder when we have

34:38

different cognitive wiring to start off with and that's just because we communicate differently we can work on

34:45

this communication though and that's going to be using techniques like framing the unusual thing and listening

34:52

in more efficient ways to get there and hopefully not worrying about it being

34:58

the very very first unusual thing that other people find unusual it's really

35:04

useful to work with trusted improvisers that you know say in a Practice Group to

35:11

try some exercises to get used to recognizing patterns or how people frame

35:16

in order to get used to noticing the unusual thing it's also a great practice

35:23

to watch really seasoned improvisors say on those Liv streams to see how it's

35:28

done by those with a lot of experience see if you can maybe pick out some of the unusual things before they're

35:35

heightened see if you can see the improvisors noticing it or framing it in

35:40

that top of the scene see if maybe you can notice some of the subtle reactions as well what do they look like get good

35:47

at predicting moves watching improv like that it's kind of a class on its own and

35:53

also don't force it in there just don't worry about about it being that very

35:58

first thing you want to find it early and fairly quick but if you don't syn up

36:03

on the very very first thing personally I don't stress about that what you find

36:08

with your scene partner might be the better unusual thing anyways because you

36:13

both saw it you both agreed on it naturally so listen hard sync up get

36:19

used to communicating with your scene partners and getting on that same page

36:24

with them by what you both find unusual all right that's it for this week let's

36:31

close this episode out I have classes at WG improv school.com I have a lab coming

36:39

up and the lab is a series of classes where we're going to learn a brand new form and we're going to Output it on the

36:47

internet in a new way uh using a newer type of streaming technology that's not

36:53

zoom and it's also going to be output to a podcast on our we just podcast channel

36:59

so go look at the site WG improv school.com it's under the online classes

37:04

page I also have a site of my own at fla improv.com I have a lot of information

37:11

on there about online classes and jams and podcasts and so on and I have a newsletter that comes out a couple times

37:18

per month about what's going on in the community so check that out and also on that same website I have a page for this

37:25

podcast and you can send me messages or if you have a comment about something

37:30

that I've said that you'd like me to read out from you I can do that too so that's at flat improv.com

37:37

substack if you'd like to send me a message and also I told you in this episode to go watch some good live

37:43

streams so I will note that I do mention some of those in my newsletter so if you're wondering where do I go subscribe

37:49

to the newsletter and it will have links in it all right so here's an aside for

37:56

the weirds and I use that term with respect and love it's what I call myself all right so I recently saw a video

38:04

about how accommodating and self-accommodating is good but forcing

38:09

disabled people to do things and be uncomfortable is bad like telling a

38:14

neurod Divergent person to just do this is not great so I want to make it clear

38:21

that I'm not here to say to force yourself to do something something I'm

38:27

basically about accommodating yourself in improv doing you and communicating

38:33

and understanding as much as possible like we kind of have to be able to

38:38

communicate because this is a team thing it's a group thing it's a learning situation so to be part of it all we do

38:45

have to communicate in some ways and communication's always weird there's

38:50

always things getting Lost in Translation speaking up is hard but in some cases we might need need to right

38:57

and uh there's many ways to do all of that and that's what we're focused on here in the series and maybe these are

39:05

workarounds but I think just being aware on both sides neurotypical and neurod

39:10

Divergent is a good first step and if anything happens from this series I hope

39:15

that it's that that people are aware that these differences exist that these differences in communication exist and

39:23

that also we learn that we're not alone that others out there like us dealing

39:29

with exactly these things so communicating as neurod Divergence can

39:35

be a challenge and according to some of those studies we might communicate more effectively with each other like the

39:41

telephone study that I mentioned earlier but none of this is easy even to neurode

39:47

Divergent people communicating can be difficult as well so just remember that

39:52

you don't have to do anything that you don't want to do especially in improv

39:58

this is a very voluntary activity for I think all of us so self accommodate be

40:06

proactive and do what you need to do for improv and most importantly yourself use

40:14

these if they're useful to you and throw away everything that is not do not force

40:21

yourself to do anything and I think that's all I have thanks for listen

40:27

[Music]

40:39

listening you know who made

40:45

it

0:15

you know who made it welcome to the neurodiversity and improv podcast from Flat improv I'm Janda Han and I do

0:23

improv stuff I like thinking about improv things a lot these podcasts aren't for telling anyone what to do I'm

0:31

just giving explanations and this is to help encourage classes teams everyone to

0:38

be a little bit more inclusive and to help whoever needs this to just get better and more comfortable at doing

0:45

improv and honestly a lot of us think this way so it's good to know that you're not alone these episodes are to

0:51

help with confidence with feeling more comfortable maybe making things a little bit easier don't force yourself to do

0:58

something you can't or don't don't want to do improv shouldn't be about that these episodes of course are not for

1:04

diagnosis either so don't use these episodes to diagnose yourself or anyone else basically we're just here to be

1:12

improv nerds nerding it out about improv so let's get started let's talk about

1:18

improv or I guess I'm just talking at you about improv and after the plug

1:23

section again I'll just have a section that's for the weirds out there so stick around if that's you and uh you can just

1:30

turn turn me off if you want if you don't want any of this in your ears

1:36

we're talking about weird and unusual in this episode let's get started so I don't know if this episode will be

1:42

controversial this is just my experience though with unusual things in improv

1:48

scenes and I don't think any of these things are necessarily right or wrong no

1:53

matter what you think this is just how I go about doing a thing currently because

1:59

as We Know all of this stuff can change and maybe even go back and forth depending on who you're doing scenes

2:06

with or what day it is we're going to talk about finding the unusual thing in

2:12

a scene today it's part of the game of the scene style of improv a really big

2:17

part of it actually you find an unusual thing in the scene you notice it you make a game out of it and go from there

2:25

however you're going to go you're going to heighten it blow it out explore success win profit whatever I have to

2:32

say though that this along with the voice of reason thing if you're not sure

2:37

what that is go back to episode 9 for more about voice of reason these are

2:43

those things that took me a little bit to figure out they were particularly

2:48

challenging I believe based on my neurodivergent neurotype for example

2:54

teachers would mention what was unusual in a scene what was the very first thing

2:59

that we might not have picked up on and sometimes for me it was things that seemed very normal and I don't think I

3:07

would have ever picked up on it but this is a lot about communication and how we

3:12

think like I was watching this video today made by another autistic person and it was about his communication

3:19

differences between him and his neurotypical wife and it reminds me of

3:24

this a bit he was detailing how his wife would ask him a question and he would

3:30

respond with a very honest automatic response to that question which was

3:35

absolutely not what his wife was after and he mentioned as it was coming out of

3:41

his mouth he'd suddenly realize this is not what she probably wanted to hear this is probably not what she was asking

3:49

about but his response to the question was his first natural response it was

3:55

sensical to him it made sense it would have been expected to him but to his

4:01

neurotypical wife it was unexpected or unusual sometimes these things can be

4:06

funny to neurotypical people sometimes we can even laugh at ourselves and that's how I kind of am sometimes

4:15

sometimes with the unusual thing in a scene like I might not see it instantly

4:20

but I might see it just a second after and it will click in as words are already falling out of my mouth so

4:28

what's unusual ual to other people is sometimes not unusual to us and this is

4:34

just our wiring this is part of our communication we might realize ah they wanted this they expected this it's like

4:42

a translation process sort of a dual translation that might happen in our

4:48

minds now I bet neurod divergent or not you will quite possibly relate in the

4:54

general difficulty in spotting the unusual hearing it or even just commun

4:59

communicating with your scene Partners having enough processing power though to think about all the Improv stuff and

5:08

this as well can be very difficult especially when everyone is starting out

5:14

so I hear this it's hard for all of us no matter what our neurological wiring

5:19

is I do think though it is potentially harder or takes increased effort for

5:25

some or many people who like me are a nerd Divergent neurotype we think

5:31

differently we have an atypical perspective by definition so whether or not some things are unusual that will be

5:39

affected by unique perspectives the ones that we all have and we're doing some extra translation in some cases to

5:46

compensate for some of these communication differences because by definition neurotypicals just a

5:52

statistically higher number of people that we're being doing scenes with so that becomes the default but it doesn't

5:59

doesn't mean that it has to become our default in the scene neurotypical and

6:04

neurod Divergent people often speak a different language and it is due to these wiring differences as we see in

6:11

the earlier example about the husband and the wife we have an extra layer on top of all the other communication

6:18

challenges humans in general have as being unique human beings and that is

6:24

great but some things get lost in translation even when we're speaking the same language as we know this can happen

6:30

between regions and cultures and backgrounds and this neurodivergent neurotypical communication is one other

6:38

way and because we think weird things are normal all the time and vice versa

6:44

for our neurotypical friends this is key Communication Breakdown Territory between scene Partners especially early

6:52

on when we're learning everything else on top of it many things in a scene we will just pick up on as unusual quite

7:00

easily this isn't a universal case some things though will have to take maybe a

7:06

beat to realize Ah that's what the neurotypical people are finding weird okay and some things might still

7:12

probably mystify us so in this next section I'm going to talk about what is finding the unusual and why do we do it

7:20

so the unusual thing what is it it's often described as simply that thing

7:25

that just perks your interest something that would make you turn your head and

7:30

go H it doesn't really have to be big it is often better if it's something that isn't all that weird it's just off

7:39

examples of an unusual thing in a scene I mean it might be something like wow

7:45

r I use a mini disc player in: 2024

7:52

u listened to cala the puppet: 1900

7:59

the past 3 weeks which probably sounded very specific and also might be a call back to a different show quite often the

8:06

unusual is somewhat subtle and often needs to be framed it might be big and

8:12

weird and bold like the Cala thing or it might be subtle a little bit more subtle

8:18

like the Crayons or someone else might need to make sure everyone in the scenes

8:23

nose for example it's the crayon thing and that's you framing the unusual thing

8:30

like calling it out we either do it where the person that is adding the unusual thing to the scene usually it

8:37

just comes out we're not trying to force it in there or we're listening for it we're listening for the unusual thing

8:44

maybe we're framing it or maybe our scene partner frames it at any rate we all just end up on the same page at some

8:51

point more on this in a second so whatever you do for all of this exactly

8:57

for the unusual thing seeing it noticing it framing it it can depend on who

9:02

you're playing with like your team or maybe it's the style of the theater or

9:07

the community you also might have personal preferences like I like starting with something that's a little

9:14

bit off like the crayon thing and then you can make it weirder through heightening or you can get more specific

9:20

about those things like I wouldn't do something like say I have pickles for

9:26

toes but I might be a pickle per that's really into specific flavors or some

9:33

kind of new pickle cut so it could be real perhaps so noticing the unusual

9:40

thing that often comes from practice from feeling from getting the gist from sort of that gut thing it's less rules

9:47

and structure and more something else and that just sort of the something else

9:54

Essence is often hard for us neurod Divergence I think we often like the

9:59

structure or rule book and all of this seems like a big rule but in the end

10:04

it's kind of not it's more just gut reaction we find an unusual thing

10:11

because it's often the source of the funny and the core nucleus of what a

10:18

game is because weird things are funny and funny is game but you take that nugget and then it just sort of forms

10:24

the game and that forms the scene so making sure you and your scene partner agree on what that weird or unusual

10:32

thing is really early on that helps you have an easier time throughout the scene

10:37

on agreeing what that game is and then how you'll play with that thing so how do we find the unusual thing if it is

10:46

sort of this gut reaction this feeling this thing that we have to notice that doesn't really have a concrete Rules

10:54

book about it well we end up finding that weird or unusual thing with our

11:00

scene Partners sometimes something unusual could be happening it could be an action or it might be an item or it

11:07

might be a behavior of a character it can come from wherever but it does need to be pointed out by someone in the

11:14

scene to the other people in the scene and of course also the audience watching

11:20

so that's when and why we end up framing that weird thing so the framing part is

11:26

simply communicating with your scene partner and to the audience hey this

11:31

thing here is is that's kind of weird and you might even say why it's weird basically you just want everyone to be

11:38

on that same page so you can move forward and have fun with it and I did say the word simply but it's not really

11:45

simple especially in the earlier phases this is done so many different ways and

11:52

as such it's not simple because we also have to notice it we have to communicate

11:58

and communicate in can be a challenge it's not usually as heavy-handed as hey

12:05

that's weird either that would make it easy if we always said hey that's weird but that is a little bit heavy-handed

12:11

and that's something that we might only see when we're say learning we're doing exercises but after that it usually

12:18

isn't at its core though you react to the unusual thing you care about that

12:25

unusual thing and then you go from there and you make it into a scene that's all

12:30

a very simplified version of something that's not all that simple and we often take quite a long time to get better at

12:38

so now let's talk a little bit about why the unusual why is the weird weird for

12:45

the weirdos oh that that's a weird title so things that are normal for neurod

12:50

Divergent people are sometimes weird for neurotypical people and vice versa things that are weird for the neurod

12:57

Divergent are sometimes normal for the neurotypical we're talking about things

13:02

that become Lost in Translation and how neurod Divergent humans do translation

13:09

and that can vary a lot like how I personally translate neurotypical how

13:15

fast that is when it applies it's all going to be different it's going to be different for me than it is for you so

13:22

this is the part where you need to start thinking about or analyzing your own improv practice in this regard notice

13:29

how things work for you or what might not be in place yet and then when you

13:34

find that you can start noticing your own pattern or practice a little bit

13:39

more about the communication why things are weird for us and not weird for

13:46

neurotypicals and vice versa so there was a study that was done and this was done with autistic individuals and

13:53

allistic individuals and this is autistic people and not autistic people and this study combined a group of all

14:01

autistic people together and did the telephone game that's where one person

14:07

starts a message and it goes through all the different people and then the last person repeats that message and how

14:14

close it is to the original message so they did the study with all autistic all

14:20

nonautistic and then a mixture of autistic and not autistic people and

14:25

what they found is in the group of all autistic people the message was about the same at the end the group of all not

14:33

autistic people message was about the same at the end and the mixed group the message was different at the end so a

14:41

simple demonstration of how communication differs between different neurot types so with these communication

14:48

differences of course we're going to start interpreting things in different ways things are going to be understood

14:55

that come out of our mouths in different ways and this can really affect fect what we find unusual or not cuz a lot of

15:03

the times just the way that I might say something or the way that I might answer a question is seen as unusual when to me

15:12

it just totally makes sense and again that's like the video I mentioned earlier with the husband and the wife

15:18

his answer that he gave made sense to him but then he realized oh that is unusual and unexpected to my wife and

15:26

that's how some of the communication that we have in scenes may come out quotee unquote weird or not and this of

15:33

course extends to experiences and all sorts of different things like my regular activities that I do that are

15:40

completely normal for me because that's the way that I live my life as a neurodivergent individual I know is

15:47

going to be unusual to neurotypical people but we have to get used to sort of recognizing that recognizing that

15:54

well the majority of the audience is going to see this as unusual so this is an unusual thing and sometimes that

16:02

might take a beat for us to remember because we're in the moment we're just responding right out of our gut right

16:09

out of our head and we have to do that little blip of transition oh yeah that's

16:14

right that's going to be interpreted as unusual to most people so it is and

16:21

that's okay but we do have to give ourselves the understanding that it might take us a beat to recognize that

16:27

in the moment and that moment that blip is perfectly fine so will it always work

16:33

though not always it might kind of work in just different ways for example I was

16:40

in a group monos scene and that monos scene had a game and I missed some of

16:45

the subtext because sometimes subtext can be difficult especially in this sense and that subtext was the main part

16:53

of the game in this case which is why it kind of tripped me up often times subex text is not the main part of the game so

17:01

I picked up on that game maybe 3/4 of the way through of a very long scene

17:06

like I kind of thought we were playing a game and I didn't realize oh we're playing that game until about 3/4 of the

17:13

way through but in rehashing the scene in my head afterwards cuz I knew I missed it like I realized 34s of the way

17:20

through oh I missed the gamees so I was rewinding that game in my head to see what I missed and I realized I played

17:27

the sub game I heightened the subtext of the game in pretty much exactly the same

17:33

way as had I got the subtext initially maybe even better cuz I wasn't overthinking it either but it still

17:41

worked what I sort of grasped from that experience is that we have a lot of skill that's already kind of built in

17:48

especially if we've done masking for a very long time and I mean masking of course is hard it takes a lot of effort

17:54

it's not a great thing but it is something that we have have experienced for a very long time and that we already

18:01

naturally apply to a lot of our conversations or experiences and we sometimes have that masking kind of on

18:08

autopilot so it can apply to our scenes and can be kind of useful in that case

18:13

perhaps it's also important to remember it's okay to play these things the way

18:19

that you are cuz even if you don't get some things like in this case the

18:25

subtext some of the audience isn't going to either so if you end up needing to

18:30

clarify something in character in scene this can be a good thing that can be of

18:36

service both to the scene and to your audience so in this next section we're going to look at why does it have to be

18:44

the first thing or does it have to be the very very first unusual thing that comes up in the scene so that is what

18:52

some teachers will teach they will say that the first unusual thing is the

18:58

correct one that you must take the very first unusual thing that comes up that

19:05

is perceived by them as unusual and it's sort of seen as a universal

19:10

understanding of what's weird and you might have missed it if they brought it up and that was the only correct unusual

19:18

thing for the game to be based off of later in the scene now this isn't a universal rule even in this game of the

19:25

scene style improv but it is a rule that some teachers will teach that is their

19:31

philosophy and now my opinion is that is a valid philosophy like any others it

19:37

just doesn't work for me as the type of improviser I am with the neurotype that

19:43

I have I have a different philosophy and neither of these are any less good or

19:49

valid or anything they're just different and every philosophy that we come across

19:54

this and other ones will have their own pros and cons just the con of needing to

20:01

find the very very first unusual thing in the scene that con for my brain it's

20:07

too big it has too many drawbacks so I use a different one instead and I do want to point out that ner Divergent

20:14

people some of us myself included can be rule followers if I go into a space that

20:21

has the rule that you must find the very very first unusual thing in the scene

20:28

that that is the correct unusual thing for the scene that is what the teacher

20:33

wants my brain will immediately want to only do that thing perfectly so I must

20:40

find what they think is the unusual thing I must get that thing that's in

20:45

their brain that they noticed as the very first unusual thing that came up at all and if I don't I'm a failure I need

20:53

to cancel all of my future improv engagements I must leave the community and go back back to farming and never

20:59

show my face in these parts ever again that is how my brain works but that is a bit cuz I did feel that way and I'm

21:06

still here so it's a bit anyways as you might notice through that that doing

21:11

things that way finding the very very first unusual thing that will be

21:17

perceived by The Audience by someone else it'll put me in my head I will be scanning is this weird to who is a

21:23

neurotypical person somewhere finding this weird will I catch it will I see it and on and on and on and then I'm not

21:29

enjoying myself I'm not flowing I'm not being a good improviser this way I'm

21:35

deeply in my head and I'm too focused to be a good listener and losing that good

21:41

listening thing I think is too big of a con for the benefit of noticing the

21:46

unusual thing that other people will notice as unusual and other people is

21:52

the key word the alternative is to let go and notice what you find and that to

21:58

me what you find and this might be your seam partner equally what you all agree on is the best unusual thing my way is

22:07

to just loosen up to listen make that the focus and just see what you notice

22:14

you might notice it from your scene partner saying something that's slightly unusual to you or it might be what

22:20

they're framing as unusual which might be something they did or you did and it could be the second or third thing but

22:28

all of it is still early in the scene we're not saying wait for a full minute or something this is what you and your

22:34

scene partner both notice as the unusual thing near the beginning of the scene

22:40

and that's my Philosophy for finding the best unusual thing near the beginning of

22:46

the scene as opposed to the very very very first one and I know that probably this might be making some of you angry

22:53

cuz I'm saying to break a rule someone might have taught you and for those of

22:59

you who are angry I'll have more on this soon so my mindset my brain works way

23:05

better for me not worrying about it being the very first unusual item that

23:11

anyone would see but of course that goes against what some of you have been taught and this also as such might come

23:19

off as rejecting an offer but we can also sort of ask the question was it an

23:24

offer because it might have been too subtle you might not have noticed it not because you're not noticing but because

23:31

of your neurotype so what you want to do is just enhance your listening and you

23:36

will be grabbing a very early offer of an unusual thing and as such you will be

23:43

grabbing a better one it's the one that you're both interested in if you both agree on it and you both communicate

23:50

that thing and I believe that's going to work better for the improvisors and in the end it could very well be working

23:57

better for for the scene and it just takes that stress off the top of the

24:03

scene you aren't as worried about something that is difficult potentially for you to notice or see or hear you

24:12

just know that it is going to happen early on I listen better without the

24:18

pressure of finding that very very first thing that if my seam partner sees and

24:23

Frames something I'll hopefully just get to that immediately anyway ways I'm way

24:28

more focused on my seen partner as opposed to just scanning for those

24:34

unusual things I'm being natural and I'm just using my natural neurotype in this

24:41

process as opposed to trying to do the translation into neurotypical adding

24:46

that neurotypical neurod Divergent translation process takes a lot of Cycles on its own and I believe it's too

24:53

many cycles for improv and once I did that I got a lot more bandwidth in my

24:59

brain anyway so I could just be in the scene and now I just barely notice any

25:04

of it I guess it just sort of happens that much more efficiently now so I think the key here is to just focus on

25:12

being with your scene partner more you're listening you're communicating and I believe that that leads to the

25:19

best thing being picked up as the unusual that leads to the game being on that same page is leading to a better

25:27

scene and that ultimately might be just as fast in the end maybe it even lends

25:35

itself to finding something with your seam Partners better and faster if you

25:42

end up because you're so efficient noticing the very first thing great good

25:47

on you but if it's the second thing that you both agree on that came up and you

25:52

both saw it's weird maybe that's the better game anyways so the one thing that you don't want to do in this

25:59

process is force something weird in us neurod divergents we are pretty good at

26:06

being weird by definition we're Divergent but we don't want to force

26:11

something into the scene this isn't good and it won't be funny and I'm using very

26:16

definitive language there and if that's controversial so be it because I'll stand behind that one you don't want to

26:23

force stuff in you want to just be yourself and if that happens to be weird

26:28

that is fine you'll sometimes be accused of forcing it because sometimes neurotypical people just don't get us

26:35

but make sure that you know you aren't actually forcing something in like truly

26:42

ask yourself don't lie to yourself or just make a mental note of what they

26:48

said in the note and see if you might want to adjust some of that at any rate

26:55

be your honest weird self and you'll sometimes be framed as the

27:01

weird one and that's okay because it's not forced and I know that some of the notes might be a little bit difficult

27:08

like I was just explaining about how sometimes we get framed as the weird one

27:14

or somebody will pick up on something that is particularly weird but it did come from an honest place it might have

27:20

really happened don't let that stuff get too much in your head because it is at the end of the day a really nice

27:27

experience to just let go and be ourselves and we do know that we're Nur div virgin we do know what we are and

27:35

I'm perfectly happy with that and I think that that sort of learning process

27:40

can be a neat one to sort of get through improv and if you choose to adjust great

27:45

but I think the main focus here is just being you and seeing what happens from

27:52

that place and it can be very rewarding in the end so in this next section I'll give some improv tips for the neurod

27:59

Divergence out there first of all know that this is going to be very different for all of us so take any of these tips

28:06

and advice as usual on an as needed basis I'm a very high masking autistic

28:12

ADHD individual so my experience is going to be different from yours probably in that I can read weird I can

28:19

naturally do weird I can kind of mask as neurotypical it affects how I

28:25

communicate my prior experiences in corporate life Etc will have adjusted

28:31

what I know in communication all of this kind of things so standard disclaimer for every episode one thing that really

28:38

helped me a lot in sort of understanding what was unusual how it happened how it

28:43

was grasped in the scene was watching a ton of experienced improvisers doing

28:49

this in online Liv streams from the cities this was the best advice I was

28:56

given and I think it's some of the best advice I can share for a lot of improv things I figure that watching these live

29:03

streams of experienced improvisors is just as important as classes and Reps to

29:09

explain some of this stuff and make it make sense it can be timec consuming and expensive for many of the live streams

29:16

but I do find it extremely helpful so if you can access them I do recommend those

29:21

live streams when you do want to connect with your scene Partners at the top of the scene to do the listening to listen

29:28

hard to connect with them do this in whatever way makes the most sense for

29:34

you to connect this could be through eye contact it might not be that might not be something that you can access and

29:41

that's okay play around and find the best ways to listen hard at the top of

29:47

the scene and find which ways work best for you at the top of the scene don't be

29:52

afraid to explore That Base reality a little bit to set it up clearly and make that make sense for you because that

29:59

Firm Foundation of knowing who your character is and where you are all that sort of thing is really going to help

30:06

you find that unusual thing quickly and someone will frame the unusual it might

30:12

be you but it might be one of your scene Partners make sure you're just scanning for that unusual thing or scanning for

30:20

the framing you can also rely on the framing if you have difficulty picking

30:25

out the unusual thing because maybe that just it doesn't make sense to you watch for the framing because somebody will do

30:32

that framing so maybe watching for the framing is a little bit easier than watching for the unusual and you can

30:38

focus on that until you get more comfortable in general and if you're framing something and maybe your scene

30:44

partner doesn't pick up on that like maybe it's not something that's weird to them but it is weird to you find

30:51

different ways to frame or you can just literally say that's weird or whatever

30:56

you might need to use that hard hand at times especially if you're playing with people you don't know that well yet so

31:03

that harder hand is okay especially in those cases and in general even if you

31:10

are very experienced playing with very experienced people there are times when that hard hand of that's weird is

31:18

perfectly acceptable so don't be afraid to use that when you need to with time and Reps hopefully end up getting this

31:25

all done faster and better and really efficient and funnier and go you that's

31:30

great but remember that that exploration like I was just talking about is valid

31:35

it's especially good for setting the solid foundation of a scene or a set so

31:41

it's not a bad thing if things move a little bit slower because ultimately it

31:46

might make for a better scene in the end and that solid foundation can help with

31:51

other things like setting up stronger characters or giving you the better Foundation for secondary games that you

31:59

can flip between so don't be afraid to explore a little bit so what if you have

32:04

issues in this area well one of the things that you can do is to ask for a set way to point out the unusual and

32:11

frame it this might be in a learning context it might be in a class or you might be coached Etc or you might be

32:18

just working with a team practicing this particular thing so you can all communicate better you might ask for a

32:25

specific type of reaction this could be physical it could be verbal like wow

32:30

that's weird it doesn't matter this is just to learn so whatever works best for you whatever you notice best see if you

32:37

can set up a very specific reaction that's used to frame the unusual and

32:43

that can make it a little bit easier to start noticing unusual things in general

32:49

before they're framed so you can frame them eventually if something doesn't make sense why it's weird discuss this

32:56

afterwards ask your teacher or your coach or even your seam partner why did you find that weird I just didn't

33:02

understand myself and this isn't a commentary on your scene partner or you

33:07

is just a communication thing that exists don't be afraid to have some of

33:12

those discussions afterwards about what made that weird or how do I notice that

33:17

thing this all comes down to the framing because sometimes I'm going to find a thing that my scam partner doesn't find

33:24

weird but I'm going to frame it as such to get everyone on the same page and we don't have to agree that it's weird we

33:31

just have to move on from that place it is agreeing that it's weird for the scene but you don't have to agree that

33:37

it's a weird thing in real life you're just using it for the make them UPS so you can do a lot of this without really

33:46

understanding why something is unusual you might never understand what makes

33:52

those things unusual but you can focus on the frame in part first watching for

33:59

that because it's a lot easier to do especially if you get some help in this area get good at the framing first and

34:06

then focus a little bit more on noticing the unusual thing and you can even take

34:13

something pretty mundane that might not be unusual but frame it as such so a lot

34:19

can get lost in translation between neurotypical and neurod Divergent improvisors and sorting out what is

34:27

unusual in a scene can be a source of difficulty for all of us regardless of

34:32

neurotype but it can be especially hard or a little bit harder when we have

34:38

different cognitive wiring to start off with and that's just because we communicate differently we can work on

34:45

this communication though and that's going to be using techniques like framing the unusual thing and listening

34:52

in more efficient ways to get there and hopefully not worrying about it being

34:58

the very very first unusual thing that other people find unusual it's really

35:04

useful to work with trusted improvisers that you know say in a Practice Group to

35:11

try some exercises to get used to recognizing patterns or how people frame

35:16

in order to get used to noticing the unusual thing it's also a great practice

35:23

to watch really seasoned improvisors say on those Liv streams to see how it's

35:28

done by those with a lot of experience see if you can maybe pick out some of the unusual things before they're

35:35

heightened see if you can see the improvisors noticing it or framing it in

35:40

that top of the scene see if maybe you can notice some of the subtle reactions as well what do they look like get good

35:47

at predicting moves watching improv like that it's kind of a class on its own and

35:53

also don't force it in there just don't worry about about it being that very

35:58

first thing you want to find it early and fairly quick but if you don't syn up

36:03

on the very very first thing personally I don't stress about that what you find

36:08

with your scene partner might be the better unusual thing anyways because you

36:13

both saw it you both agreed on it naturally so listen hard sync up get

36:19

used to communicating with your scene partners and getting on that same page

36:24

with them by what you both find unusual all right that's it for this week let's

36:31

close this episode out I have classes at WG improv school.com I have a lab coming

36:39

up and the lab is a series of classes where we're going to learn a brand new form and we're going to Output it on the

36:47

internet in a new way uh using a newer type of streaming technology that's not

36:53

zoom and it's also going to be output to a podcast on our we just podcast channel

36:59

so go look at the site WG improv school.com it's under the online classes

37:04

page I also have a site of my own at fla improv.com I have a lot of information

37:11

on there about online classes and jams and podcasts and so on and I have a newsletter that comes out a couple times

37:18

per month about what's going on in the community so check that out and also on that same website I have a page for this

37:25

podcast and you can send me messages or if you have a comment about something

37:30

that I've said that you'd like me to read out from you I can do that too so that's at flat improv.com

37:37

substack if you'd like to send me a message and also I told you in this episode to go watch some good live

37:43

streams so I will note that I do mention some of those in my newsletter so if you're wondering where do I go subscribe

37:49

to the newsletter and it will have links in it all right so here's an aside for

37:56

the weirds and I use that term with respect and love it's what I call myself all right so I recently saw a video

38:04

about how accommodating and self-accommodating is good but forcing

38:09

disabled people to do things and be uncomfortable is bad like telling a

38:14

neurod Divergent person to just do this is not great so I want to make it clear

38:21

that I'm not here to say to force yourself to do something something I'm

38:27

basically about accommodating yourself in improv doing you and communicating

38:33

and understanding as much as possible like we kind of have to be able to

38:38

communicate because this is a team thing it's a group thing it's a learning situation so to be part of it all we do

38:45

have to communicate in some ways and communication's always weird there's

38:50

always things getting Lost in Translation speaking up is hard but in some cases we might need need to right

38:57

and uh there's many ways to do all of that and that's what we're focused on here in the series and maybe these are

39:05

workarounds but I think just being aware on both sides neurotypical and neurod

39:10

Divergent is a good first step and if anything happens from this series I hope

39:15

that it's that that people are aware that these differences exist that these differences in communication exist and

39:23

that also we learn that we're not alone that others out there like us dealing

39:29

with exactly these things so communicating as neurod Divergence can

39:35

be a challenge and according to some of those studies we might communicate more effectively with each other like the

39:41

telephone study that I mentioned earlier but none of this is easy even to neurode

39:47

Divergent people communicating can be difficult as well so just remember that

39:52

you don't have to do anything that you don't want to do especially in improv

39:58

this is a very voluntary activity for I think all of us so self accommodate be

40:06

proactive and do what you need to do for improv and most importantly yourself use

40:14

these if they're useful to you and throw away everything that is not do not force

40:21

yourself to do anything and I think that's all I have thanks for listen

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[Music]

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listening you know who made

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