5 Reasons To Consider Improv as Your Next Hobby

5 Reasons To Consider Improv as Your Next Hobby

Are you a fan of the television show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” If so, then you may have imagined yourself being called up to the stage by Drew Carey or Aisha Tyler, thrown into a wacky imaginary scenario with Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, and Ryan Stiles.

Would you be able to improvise your way to having the audience — and even your fellow performers — in stitches?

If so, maybe it’s time to give improv a try for yourself. Here are five great reasons why: 1. Open the Floodgates On those Creative Juices Once you’ve grown up and settled into a job and a daily routine, it can be difficult to exercise your creativity. Improv comedy is a great way to tap into your own creative spark. You’ll get inspiration from the other actors, and you may surprise yourself with some of the creative ideas that start to flow from your own brain.

2. Anything Goes, So Go With the Flow Part of — no, most of — the appeal of improv, for both actors and audience, is that anything can happen. Since there’s no script, you have to be prepared to handle any situation, even though those situations are make-believe. While you might sometimes fail to handle them as well as you could have, you’ll learn from that experience, and be better equipped next time.

Guess what? These skills, developed on the stage, will translate into your everyday life. We all know how maddeningly unpredictable life can be, but after you’ve done improv comedy for a while, you’ll be able to handle those curveballs with ease.

3. You Will Absolutely Build Confidence Not everything you say on stage will be creative or funny. Some of your choices are bound to be less-than-ideal. From failure, however, comes a sense of confidence and freedom. Once you have

flopped at something — and survived — you will be less nervous about trying new things. So while you’re probably going to be terrified the first few times you step into an improv exercise, you’ll live through it, and come out even stronger on the other side.

The next time you’re called upon to speak in public, you will feel an immense sense of confidence.

4. Improv Folks Are Some of the Best Folks Around Not everyone has the courage to stand up in front of others without knowing what’s to come; it takes a certain kind of person to get into improv. Once you join their ranks, you’ll discover that they are fun, funny, open-minded, eager to support their peers, and just darn good people. Additionally, you’ll encounter people whom you never would’ve met otherwise.

5. It’s Just Plain Fun! Once you join an improv group or take an improv class, you are going to laugh. A lot. In fact, your abs will probably hurt the next morning, after laughing so much. Improv comedy is an incredibly fun hobby — and face it, aren’t you getting a little bored watching Netflix night after night?

Rober Gillings is an award winning writer, producer, actor architectural designer, philosopher and financial consultant

This entry was posted in Acting, Theater and tagged comedy, Improv on June 1, 2017.