Mind Blank on Stage? A 3-Step Reboot for Your Brain

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[Music]

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You're in a scene. It's going fine. Then your scene partner says a line and you

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open your mouth to respond and there's nothing. Absolutely nothing. Your improv

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brain is a blank, a white empty room. Maybe some of the advice you've always

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heard is just say something, whatever comes to your mind next. And maybe that

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advice is the reason you're stuck in the first place. You need some specifics or

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a process to find that next thing. That feeling of your mind shutting down or

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going blank on stage is horrible. And if you felt it, you're not alone. It's

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usually a top five fear for any performer. Today you'll hear one process for

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actively working through this feeling. I'm going to give you a simple three-step

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system to effectively reboot your brain when it crashes out while performing.

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This isn't about being clever or a better thinker or thinking fast on your

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feet because we don't really want to think in improv, do we? This is a

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technique that works with your biology, not against it, to get you painlessly

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back into the scene. Hi and welcome to your improv brain. I'm Jen deHaan and I've

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taught and coached improv with several schools and I release improv resources

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at improvupdate.com. I also run StereoForest which specializes in

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improvised comedy, audio drama series, and podcast production. I especially love

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developing characters and shows and I love improv and sharing my love of it

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here on this show. So back to today's topic and a really important question.

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What happens if you try this three-step system? I'm about to drop into this

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episode and you're still stuck. What's the safety net? What's that final thing you

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can do? And I'll answer that question by the end of this episode. In a recent

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episode I talked about one way to always have stuff to draw from, ready to add

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into a scene or to create a new relatable character on the spot. And I'll link

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that episode in the description and the show notes. And even while having a bunch

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of inspiration ready to go, like I explained in that episode, can reduce

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the chances of your mind going blank while you're performing, it can still

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happen. So let's talk about why your brain goes blank. It's not a personal

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failing. It's not a sign that you're bad at improv or don't have those ideas or

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references to draw from. It's often an issue of what's called cognitive load.

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You can think of your brain kind of like a computer and right now it has too many

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programs running all at once. So think about it. You're trying to listen to

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your scene partner. You're trying to remember the rules of improv. You're

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aware of the audience watching you. Maybe those stage lights are hot or

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there's a weird smell in the room. Maybe you had a terrible day at work even

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before you got to the theater or someone is fake eating really loud on stage

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and you cannot hear anything else right now. Your brain is trying to process

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everything all at once today right now. And just like a laptop with too many of

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those resource intensive buggy creative applications open, it crashes. You

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experience a system freeze and this is completely normal. It's a biological

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response to being overwhelmed above threshold. So this is something that

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happened to me quite regularly when I was teaching dance fitness. This might

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seem unrelated to improv but it's pretty much the same idea when I was

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performing on stage and it happened often because there are few more

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variables that you hit more often in dance fitness performance. There's music,

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there's lights, there's heat, there's any aches and pains, there's upsets before

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the class started perhaps. And why it was so common is the people in front of me.

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I had to have focus on what was happening in the room with the participants

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which is kind of like an audience because I was responsible for their safety

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on top of everything else I had going on. And that would cause my brain to go

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blank about the choreo and the cues sometime if I was already close to that

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threshold. If I was thinking about if someone was comfortable and safe over

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there and uh-oh what am I doing with my feet and my arms and the words what is

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the next piece of choreo and this was so common I had to have equivalent systems

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kind of like the one I'm about to describe in this episode I had to have

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them on hand. But I kind of knew what days I was more likely for this to happen

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and this was always due to hitting some threshold in my brain and the moves and

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the things I knew backwards and forwards just wouldn't drop in to place and my

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body and brain had to just do something else. This is biology, it's not a

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character flaw, it's not your failure. You know improv, you just didn't receive

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anything in that particular moment and that's okay. Now before we get into the

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three steps to reboot your brain there's one similar case that we should address

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first because sometimes your mind is blank on how to respond because you

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genuinely didn't understand or hear what your scene partner just said or maybe

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you feel like you're missing some important subtext that they dropped. In

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this situation the fix is simple just ask your scene partner in character. If

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they say something confusing you can respond as your character and say sorry

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what was that? The spaghetti factory is so loud or wait what did you mean by that

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Brenda? This is always allowed it not only helps you but it also helps clarify

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the scene for the audience who might be just as confused as you are about the

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subtext or an inferred meaning that might have been there or maybe it wasn't

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they might not have seen the facial expression from where they're sitting in

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the audience or maybe it was too loud in the room or if it's me I'm just really

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bad at subtext sometimes or most of the time because I'm autistic and as a side

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note in this case in improv you can also add what you inferred into the scene and

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guess what they got a yes and that even if it's not exactly what they meant

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improv it's one of the reasons why more comfortable on stage than off it but

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that's a different episode okay so let's say that's not the case you heard them

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you understood them and still nothing came to mind your mind is blank

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everything just dropped out so before you do anything else step zero bonus step

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and the most important thing to do is to just pause and take a breath

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pausing is okay in fact pausing is good we do it all the time in real life people

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pause to think they pause when they're emotional it's a human thing to do so

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let's first get comfortable with the idea that a pause adds to your character it

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adds richness it's not a rookie move or something unacceptable it's actually

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very good improv it's good acting and good character work since it's human and

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it's very relatable the key is to just stay in character while you do it just

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stand there as your character and breathe if something is available to you you

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could even make like a small emotional sound like a sigh or a little laugh or a

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physical reaction like rubbing your temples but if you're doing nothing

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that's okay too just stay present with your character okay so you've taken that

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pause maybe that alone will work or maybe not so now let's reboot and here are

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the three steps step one focus outwards when your mind is blank it's almost

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always because you're focused inward on like your own panic you're thinking oh

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no I have nothing they're all looking at me and I'm failing the first step is to

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break that inward spiral and force your attention outwards look at something

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anything outside of your own head look at your scene partner's face really look

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at it look at that shirt that they're wearing look at an imaginary object in

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the room a couch a window a painting on the wall pick one thing and put all of

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your focus on that then you can simply comment on it like looking at your

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partner you could say you look exhausted or looking at that imaginary couch you

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could say this is an old couch and that's it that's step one forcing your

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brain to observe and state a very simple physical reality you can yank

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yourself perhaps out of that internal panic spiral and you might find this is

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enough to just bring yourself and bring your brain back online but if you're

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still feeling a little bit blank or a little bit shaky you can move to step

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two so step two is the emotional reaction you focused on that object this old

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couch the next step is to ask yourself one simple question how does my

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character feel about that couch or how does my character feel about my scene

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partner's expression in this moment then you just respond with whatever you're

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feeling so you might have said oh this old couch your emotional reaction could

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be I love so how comfortable it is or it could be I can't believe your mother

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left this thing to us in her will if you commented on your partner that they

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look exhausted your emotional reaction could be I'm exhausted - what this does

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is instantly generate a relationship and a point of view for your character

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you're not just two talking heads on a stage you're two people who have a

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shared feeling about whatever thing it is in your environment or in your

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immediate presence this immediately deepens the scene and it connects you

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back into what's happening right now now if you've done that and you still feel a

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little bit stuck in the scene there is a step three so let's move on to that one

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now step three make a related statement or ask a question use that emotional

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reaction you just did to throw the ball to your scene partner this gives you

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another moment to breathe and gets them involved in building the next piece of

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the scene with you so let's go back to our examples for a second if you said I

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love how comfortable this old couch is you could follow up with a statement like

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we should never get rid of it or you might ask think we could find another

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one like it for the cabin or something if you said I'm exhausted too maybe you

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could then say we should sell the business or ask perhaps we need to take

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a break and maybe get the dogs out to the beach now I know many of us are taught

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early on in our improv training don't ask questions just don't ask but that

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rules often misunderstood it's meant to stop us from asking open-ended questions

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that put all of the work onto our scene partner like where are we or what are we

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doing or who are you these are the kinds of questions that we're talking about

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that are open-ended but the ones here that I'm suggesting are different these

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are questions that add something new to the scene they add information or they

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denote a desire or a little bit of a brief new direction they help you and

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they help the scene because they're behaving a little bit more like

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statements than questions so these kind of statement like questions are

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absolutely fine and also you're just trying to get the scene back so even if

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they aren't statement like just do what's going to work for you in this

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moment the other benefit of this whole three-step process is it can give the

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scene a bit of a rest if you're in a fast-paced game or in a dense narrative

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taking a moment to do this can pause the action while adding a new dimension of

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character or emotion into the scene and when you return to that game or return

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to the narrative it will be richer because of this little scenic detour this

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again is just plain old good improv and this system is really similar to what

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I've used in dance fitness classes the ones I mentioned earlier near the

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beginning of this episode I taught myself to automatically kick into some

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move for everyone to follow it was the wrong move but I kicked into it and I

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would admit to the room that we were doing the wrong choreo because sometimes

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the choreography came even with a blank mind but if it didn't this system took

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over and I had a set of moves that almost always worked no matter what the

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music was and I just start doing one of them and focus on admitting that we are

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doing the wrong move while laughing and during that moment I'd refocus I'd relax

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people would laugh from my admission of doing the wrong thing and those things

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would always cause my brain to reconnect to the class and the music and

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everything would somehow return and guess what the people in the room loved

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those moments the best including me so that's it that's the three-step system

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focus outward find your emotional reaction and then make a statement or

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ask a good question and in a second I'll give you one more tip if your mind is

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still blank after this process but first if this video was helpful I love for

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you to click like on it so I know to keep making these things share it with

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improvisers you know that also might find it useful and I have a lot more

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videos and resources at improvupdate.com and a discord community where we chat

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about doing improv and teaching improv and coaching it too so join us there and

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leave a comment on YouTube or in the discord about what's the one external

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thing that you always seem to notice or point out while you're in a scene is it

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their hair is it the dog so now let's answer the question that I posed at the

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start of this episode what happens if you go through all three of these steps

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and your mind is still blank what's the final safety net and the answer is

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pretty simple it's your scene partner we have all been there every single

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improviser from people doing their first class to people who are 20 years in we've

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all had days where life is just overwhelming and if someone hasn't ever

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had this happen to them they're probably just lying or they're not human like us

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but regardless your scene partners are there to have your back no matter what

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they have absolutely been in this exact position before if you have a scene

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partner who is experienced or someone you know really well and you've done a

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ton of scenes with them sometimes all it takes is a look a quick glance that says

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help I'm lost and they will just like you know what that look is because they've

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experienced it in the past they'll take the lead they'll make a strong offer

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they'll add some more detail they'll ask your character a question they know you

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can answer to get you back into the scene they will carry that scene out until

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you can get back on your feet that trust is the final and most important safety

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net that we have in improv you're not up there alone we all have each other's

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backs so thanks for tuning in and I'll be here next Monday for the next episode

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bye for now you have been listening to your improv brain a StereoForest

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production this show is created and is written edited and produced by Jen

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deHaan of StereoForest.com you can find show information show notes

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transcripts and contact information at the show's page at

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StereoForest.com/improvbrain thanks for listening

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(Music)

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you

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