One skill at a time: a rep-based approach to changing improv habits

WEBVTT

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So here's something that happens to most of us improvisers when we're taking classes and workshops.

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So you're learning a new skill in these places and you think you understand it.

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Like you can explain it to someone else.

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You can teach them that.

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And then you get into a scene under pressure and your brain does

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the old thing anyways.

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Just like you never learned that new thing.

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You're resorting to that, say, cliche space work that you always did.

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Where's that new thing?

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You're maybe planning ahead in the scene.

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You're writing the scene in your head.

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Or maybe you talk over your scene partner, even though you just learnt how to listen better, or you drop the game after you spent like an eight-class series learning game in level two.

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Whatever your default is, it's firing before you catch it.

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So that gap between knowing something and just doing it automatically, like out of your head.

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On autopilot, that's where a lot of improvisers tend to get stuck.

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And there's a reason that that thing happens.

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I'm Jen DeFon and this is your improv

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brain where I break down improv concepts often through a neurodivergent lens and give you exercises to practice with a SIM partner or solo.

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Your brain, it runs on pathways.

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The more that you use a specific pattern, the faster and more automatic that that brain pathway becomes.

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So your first instinct in a scene is whatever pathway has been reinforced the most.

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If you spent years getting like laughs by making a certain kind of move, your brain will reach for that move before you've even finished, say, listening to what your scene partner's saying.

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Or it'll go there as a default when it doesn't know what other kind of move to make.

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Maybe that's the reason we get a lot of poop jokes and scenes.

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These defaults are your well-worn pathways.

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They're like old roads with deep tire ruts in them.

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Your brain built them because they worked at some point, or at least they felt

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to your brain, like they worked.

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But luckily those pathways can change.

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Now I've been talking about the Olympian Eileen Goo for a few episodes now because she talked about metacognition.

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I love metacognition.

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And things like neuroplasticity in relation to her training for the Olympics.

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Eileen talked about the brain's ability to form new connections based on the things that you practice.

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And the more that you use these pathways, she described how they get wider and faster.

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And if you stop using these pathways

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they start to narrow and fade.

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Now this applies to your improv practice.

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The skill that you drill in a practice group, for example, becomes the instinct that you default to in your performance eventually.

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If you practice listening exercises consistently, listening becomes faster and more automatic under pressure.

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And if you practice like specifics, those specific choices start showing up without any effort, without thinking.

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It feels like you're not thinking.

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And the old default like poop joke doesn't disappear overnight.

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But the new pathway, the non-poop pathway, gets stronger every time that you use it.

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So if you were planning ahead, you no longer need to in improv.

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That's great.

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Woohoo!

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We're out of our head.

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You have new roads and you know how they work.

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And then your brain just starts using them without even thinking.

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It's great.

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So understanding a concept intellectually doesn't change the pathway on its own.

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That's why you can't take that

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eight class series on learning the game of the scene in level two and then suddenly get game.

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It takes a while.

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You know that you should listen more and you still, for example, talk over your partner.

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And you know that you should stay in the moment.

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But you still plan ahead.

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Like knowing is one part of the brain, and then the automatic response lives in another part of the brain.

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So this is why that single workshop or that class series on a skill doesn't stick.

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You need the reps, you need that repetition, repeated, focused practice of that specific

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Behavior or skill.

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That's what you want to make it automatic.

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So Eileen called what she did tinkering like a scientist.

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Those are her words.

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running an experiment over and over and then adjusting and running it again until the desired behavior becomes the default.

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Now in improv terms, this means your practice sessions should target specific skills with enough repetition so they start to compete with your old defaults.

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those poop jokes.

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One round of an exercise teaches the concept, but twenty rounds, twenty reps across, say, a month or two or three

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Starts to build that pathway up.

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And then you need to think about how you're progressing along the way.

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You're gonna notice

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How did it work?

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And how automatic does that feel right now?

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Now for neurodivergent brains, this is like encouraging stuff

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But it's also like frustrating stuff at the very same time.

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Encouraging, because it means that your current defaults are not permanent necessarily.

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Some of them might be, but other ones might not be.

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You're not like stuck being an improviser who always plans ahead or always makes that one move.

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Now it can be frustrating because building new pathways takes repetition and executive function challenges, which we often have, can make sustained, deliberate practice sometimes harder to maintain.

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But there's a prerequisite.

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Your nervous system, it needs to feel safe enough to let you practice these new patterns like honestly and openly.

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And if your body is in a stress response, like fight.

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or flight or freeze.

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It will default to the oldest, like the really reinforced pathway automatically because that's what survival mode does in our brains.

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It's hard to build new defaults when your system is in this protection mode.

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So if you don't have a trusted team or a space to work in, this can be hard to accomplish or slower at least.

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This is why solo practice can help until you find or develop such an environment, and I'll describe that shortly

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So regulation, that comes first.

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If you're walking into a practice, you might already be activated, already anxious, already scanning for these threats.

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and the repetition, the reps maybe aren't gonna land the same way.

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If you take a few minutes to like settle your nervous system before you practice, the c this can like give those new pathways a better chance of forming.

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This is also why an environment where it's really safe to fail matters so much in improv practice for all of us.

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If the room feels safe, our nervous systems stay really regulated, so you can try those new things.

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But if the room feels like it's judgmental or it's evaluating you, your system can go into a protection mode and you're gonna default to whatever pattern kept

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you safe before.

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And remember that safe environments, that solo practices and solo performances, they exist.

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Solo improv.

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is legit, it's creative, it's a valid way to do improv, and it can also really challenge your brain in a great way.

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You can get reps this way.

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even if it involves doing improv with a mannequin like I do.

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So the goal of our exercises this week is volume of repetition on a specific skill.

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So we're isolating a single habit to change or a single skill to develop, working on it exclusively, and we can use a scene partner or a recording for that immediate feedback.

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Now if we try to fix everything at once, we're gonna get stuck in our heads.

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Even the UCB improv manual stresses this idea.

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If you're like struggling with some kind of habit, you want to focus on just one thing, like just listening, or just doing that object work, or just saying yes.

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like exuberantly, exuberant yes, to offers, right?

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You want to do that one thing for a few rehearsals so it eventually becomes second nature.

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And then you move on to the next thing.

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Once you have that metric of success for that one habit that you had, that one thing that you're targeting, you can reduce anxiety around it and start rewriting these default behaviors.

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So the first exercise is going to give you a high number of reps since our goal is volume with very short scenes, and then you're going to get some immediate feedback.

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And we're going to call this one stop that move

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So two players are up and one player is going to share the skill with the coach or the teacher that they want to work on.

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Or this could be a habit.

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The habit to change or that skill.

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The coach or the teacher might want to get these things in advance before the practice so they can set up everything accordingly.

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Now some examples of these habits or these skills you might want to work on blocking or jumping into scenes before they're established, like if you're on a team doing forms or asking questions to get information

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or dropping or changing base reality or the game, or maybe being coy or steamrolling or always going to blue to those poop jokes, whatever it is.

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Now the goal is to work on overriding this default move by both players by doing it way more than normal.

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So everyone is really aware of this thing.

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Like you're focusing the magnifying glass on it, right?

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And this helps switch to the new behavior.

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It helps you see it more clearly.

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So here's an example.

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Say your habit is blocking.

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In the first round, both of you, both players, are gonna block everything.

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The scene starts, your partner says.

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Beautiful day at the at the beach, Jim.

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And then the player two says, No it isn't.

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Player one says, Well, at least we have these sandwiches

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And then player two says, those aren't sandwiches.

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They're rocks.

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Now you're going to do this for a minute or two.

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And then your coach

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starts a new scene and neither of you is gonna block anything and your coach will call it out if you do.

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So if the habit, for example, instead is jumping into scenes early, you're going to do a set with really short scenes and early walk-ons.

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A scene where new information is established only by asking questions the entire scenes or both players keep changing

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Changing the base reality or have a steamrolling duel.

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Like these scenes are meant to be very short, very chaotic

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And they're meant to be discussed and repeated as necessary before you move on to the fixed, the good scenes.

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Now, what you want to notice is these habits or skills being easier to see, easier to notice.

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Get it in your bones.

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Uh, I'm blocking someone here, right?

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Like you want to notice it.

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because when you notice them then you can work on your new pathways.

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So the solo exercise now you can practice some of these skills solo.

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If there's skills that you can work into initiations or monologue or spacework, things like that.

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So target one thing at a time and record yourself so you can watch old patterns adjust over time.

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You see what they look like.

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It'll get in your head and you'll think about them more.

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You want to track your progress, and you should see some evidence of these new pathways forming in your recordings.

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Now, this is also going to help you with some of that evidence-based confidence I talked about in an earlier episode.

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I'll link it in the show notes.

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And also see if you can adapt what you want to target when you're out in the world

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Like this might be things that you can't work on in monologues or on your own.

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For example, you might want to work on, say, steamrolling or not paying attention.

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So with this you could have a conversation with any human in your life.

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It doesn't need to be an improviser.

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And just listen as much as possible.

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See how much you can focus on what they're saying before you think about your response.

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Allow ample pauses.

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That might be another thing you want to work on.

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Pauses, right?

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Don't interrupt them.

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See how much you can remember and recall at the end of the conversation.

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Think about did you use any memory techniques for this recall?

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Like these improv skills are ones that you can build over time, and this will also feed into your confidence and work those new pathways.

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I also have episodes on memory and recall, so I'll link those in the show notes as well.

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That's all I have for this

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One, I'm Jen deHaan, and this is your improv brain.

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Thanks for listening, and bye for now.