A Source of Great Improv Ideas (bonus: Get Out of Your Head)

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Greetings, everyone, and welcome back to Your Improv Brain.

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So let's get technical for a second.

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In any system, output is dependent on input.

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You put fuel in a tank, you eat to get energy,

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paper and ink into a printer to make a book, whatever.

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So to pull specific and engaging and original ideas out of your head,

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you need to put information into it.

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So when we struggle with creativity or ideas in Improv Scenes,

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we're often trying to fix a problem or create

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an approach or a strategy to improve things from the wrong side.

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So to output ideas on stage more efficiently or better,

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you need to consider your input.

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So in this episode, you'll learn why thinking on your feet might not be the goal you think it is,

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and how to get better at ideas using something you might already have a lot of.

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Curiosity.

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By the end of this episode, you'll have a practical plan of action

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for making your scenes richer and more specific than make and model that car,

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and probably a lot less stressful too.

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It's what I like to focus on, and I promise that it doesn't require any memorization, recall or money,

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because I suck at all those things anyways too.

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Hi, I'm Jen deHaan, and I'm an improviser and podcast producer at StereoForest.

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I have taught and coached improv at a few different schools,

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and I improvise in audio dramas that I make at StereoForest,

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and I share some of the things I do here on this podcast.

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So let's get started.

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But hang around to the very end, because I'll explain how this same principle

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is a great way to create really memorable and distinct characters,

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not just easily drop those clever lines into a scene.

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So let's break down the two ways that we generate ideas in a scene.

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The first is kind of like a forced retrieval.

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Your scene partner makes an offer,

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and you consciously scan your memory for some kind of good response.

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This is like an active mental translation.

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You have to exit your character's headspace,

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become the improviser again,

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locate that bit of information from your life,

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and then try to shove it back into your character's reality and voice.

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It can be inefficient, and it definitely puts you in your head.

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The second, and in my opinion, far better method,

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is really passive in nature.

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This is when the idea just kind of appears to you.

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It falls out of your face automatically and in character

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without any conscious effort.

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And this is the goal for many.

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It was my goal for sure.

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So how do we end up with stuff that just comes out of our faces?

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And the answer is actually quite simple.

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You have to keep ingesting, pulling in all that new information during the week.

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You notice things, you think about those things, and you listen really hard.

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You get curious about things.

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And then that information, it just comes from whatever is happening in your life.

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This is very accessible as a process too.

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You don't have to go to new places.

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It doesn't matter what your job is or how much money you have,

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or if you're an extrovert or an introvert.

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This process runs on two main things, experience and curiosity.

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And it can be anything.

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You know, you could be reading a book.

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You could be reading some article about a new junk food that's online.

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It's watching some award-winning nature documentary,

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or it could be just watching a series of short form videos

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about someone's highly specific special interest.

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It's having a conversation with a friend about their boss,

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or your own job or hobby or a book club you're in,

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or some recent bike ride you took through a part of town that you've never seen before.

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You can sit quietly and you can remember new details from some strange family vacation

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you took when you were 10, when you freaked out about leeches at that lake.

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That one where all the very steep sand dunes went into the lake near the Oregon coast.

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And none of this could have been safe for a little kid,

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but your parents didn't give a crap, even though you really did

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because of self-preservation or something, but it was the 80s and it was different then.

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This is all raw data, but getting the data isn't enough.

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You have to process it.

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And that processing part is your own genuine interest.

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It's your curiosity.

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You got to care about the data.

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That will show up in the scene, that caring.

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And when you stumble upon something like raising rescue goats, for instance,

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then it makes you go, "Huh, well, that's weirdly interesting.

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That's the signal.

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So follow it.

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Ponder those rescue goats.

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Revisit the thought during the week.

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Search about them.

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Learn about that community.

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Become a five-minute expert.

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Tell someone about it.

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Get used to letting that process data fall out of your face.

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And each time that you do that,

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you're taking a piece of raw data and you're rendering it.

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You're lodging it in your noggin.

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You're making it part of your readily accessible mental landscape.

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It's your noggin ram.

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Are my nerds in the house right now?

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Yeah.

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Then that fuel will combust automatically when you're in a scene.

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It will happen without you thinking, just like you don't have to consciously think

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about the rules of a Herald or the concept of yes and after you've done improv for a while.

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You kind of run on autopilot.

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You know, those things are baked in by really thinking about those things you notice during

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the week or learn or like you bake in a ton of specific details.

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And those just come automatically to you when there's some trigger in the scene.

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Your scene partner mentions something.

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It comes up.

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So it's natural.

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It's automatic.

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It just falls out of your face.

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Oh, we're at a farmer's market.

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Rescue Goat is somehow coming out of your mouth and you have a bunch of other ideas in there

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too because you ended up learning a lot about goat enthusiasts and their associated goat

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merch last Tuesday when you ran into those short form videos.

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This is how you get out of your head.

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You fill it with so much interesting, sometimes random stuff that there's no room for you

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or for anxiety or what do I say next?

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The work has already been done because you were listening to your life and you were learning

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stuff all week long to get a consistent stream of great ideas on stage.

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You just have to live a curious life while you're off it.

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Whatever your life is like, the time you have, the things you can afford.

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And if no one else will listen to your five minute expert info dumps, find a goat because

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did you know they are highly social animals and rescues often make sure they're placed

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in compatible groups.

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They probably mean groups of goats, but maybe that's not where the scene ends up.

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Something I like to use to create memorable characters is coming right up.

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But first, if this video was helpful, let another improviser know about it.

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And you can leave a comment on this video if you're watching it as a video or in the

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improv update discord about what are some of your favorite sources of data input, the

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ones that help you the most in your creative output.

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A link to the discord is in the show notes or the video description depending on how

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you're consuming this piece of content.

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Okay, so here's something I like to do when creating characters on the fly.

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When you become a temporary expert on something random, you get the start of an entire character.

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You can now embody the person who raises rescue goats.

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What's their point of view?

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How do they see the world?

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How do they live?

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What else must be true about this person?

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Even creating a mental image of what they look like, which is something you might have

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seen if you're watching a video, for example, can be incredibly useful and you don't need

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to jump into stereotypes.

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It's best that you don't.

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And if you're coming from real life, the things that you're learning, it's not necessarily

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going to be a stereotype because it's real.

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See that rich inner life, the things that you're thinking, how you relate to that person, that

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community you create, a character that is specific and grounded and memorable right

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from the beginning of the scene, right?

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When you put that hat on, your input across a week or a month, it doesn't just give you

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ideas, it gives you people.

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And it can be much easier to improvise from that spot.

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So thanks for joining me today.

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I'll be back next Monday with a brand new episode.

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Bye for now.

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You have been listening to Your Improv Brain, a StereoForest production.

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The show is created and is written, edited and produced by Jen deHaan of StereoForest.com.

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You can find show information, show notes, transcripts and contact information at the

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show's page at StereoForest.com/improvbrain.

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Thanks for listening.

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