How To Learn Improv By Watching

Improv is fun. At its heart, it’s play... and if you don’t enjoy playing, then you’re clearly the grumpy dad in a Disney film who’s about to learn some life lessons.

But, whilst we all love doing improv, it’s easy to forget how much you learn by watching improv too.

Here are some ways you can watch and learn:

• Most importantly, by watching improv shows!
• (Closely followed by) watching your teammates in class and rehearsal.
• Watching TV, film, and sketches.
• Watching everyday life and observing yourself.

And what do you do with the things you watch? You copy!

It sounds contentious: simply copy the stuff you like? Like a student plagiarising their essay!? But copying is how we learn. Don’t be afraid to emulate the styles of play that you enjoy until you start solidifying your own voice. More on this later.

First, here’s how to learn by watching.

Watching Shows

Of course, if you want to learn how to improvise on stage you absolutely need to watch shows being improvised on a stage.

All shows are good to learn from - whether it’s a jam, an indie night, or pros doing a sold out show at a West End Theatre.

But what are some helpful things to looking for?

Let me first clarify, the point is not to sit in the audience stroking your chin and occasionally nodding whilst jotting down “excellent framing” in your little notebook. The point is to enjoy the show and laugh and have a nice time.

Afterwards, have a think about:

• Moves or choices you enjoyed and how they relate to something you’re working on.
• If there’s something you tend to find a little tricky in class and rehearsal: when does an improviser you like do that very thing in a way that seems confident and deft? 
• The less spotlighted moments, such as support from the team that helped the show or the scene, or generous offers that helped funny characters shine.
• The show as a whole - the energy and pacing - and how this applies to formats you’re working on.

Watching Your Fellow Teammates / Students

Don’t overlook the importance of watching in your classes and rehearsals too. It’s easy to fall into thinking you’re only learning when you are the one up on stage getting notes. But watching your teammates’ scenes - whether from the audience or from the back line - helps you to better integrate ideas you’re working on.

Remember, notes are for everyone, so even if it’s not you on stage getting feedback, there’s a strong chance that it’ll apply to your own play too!

Watching TV, Film, & Sketches

If you’re watching someone act in a scene, there’s often something to be taken towards your own performance.

You can of course notice the ways people act, how they portray characters or hold themselves. But don’t discard the motivations of characters and the progression of story in scenes.

If you’re in a narrative team then, of course, paying attention to how the plot develops in a film or TV show can help you with your own narrative instincts on stage. What did you find satisfying about certain story moments? Or were there any that you felt didn’t pay off or didn’t have an impact?

Even if you’re not in a narrative team, noticing what drives characters to make choices can help you with playing different characters and points of view on stage. If it’s a comedic character, what is funny about what’s driving them? How do they sustain this character over time? How do they support this character to do their thing?

If it’s a sketch, what moments are the ‘funny’ comedy moments? But also, what moments does the sketch need to not be funny for a bit, before it gets back to the comedy?

All of these elements can be fed into your improv performance.

Watching Everyday Life & Observing Yourself

You are an artist (sorry to break it to you, but if you’re an improviser then you are an artist) and artists are interested in life and in representing and expressing what it means to be human. Even if the way you’re expressing it is to do silly voices on stage.

So noticing life around you is helpful. Sometimes, improv can feel like having to come up with unusual choices to continue to push a scene forwards. But notice your friends, family, co-workers and what makes them do the things they do.

Even more importantly, notice your own behaviour. Becoming a good actor means learning to be really honest about what motivates you, for better or worse. These are truthful moments we can tap into in our performance on stage. Motivations can feel very real, even if an improv scene itself is very silly.

Copying

This is the reason we’re observing at all. We watch so we can apply it to our own performance and, honestly, copy it.

I’m a big believer in copying something to learn it. Copying is something we can often rail against. We’re not “copyists”; we are artists, and we create original works! Yes. But we are also artists learning our skill. Copying the elements of play that we enjoy is how we learn to apply it.

Once you can perform it consistently, understand the skills underlying it and how you can adapt them... THEN you can worry about going for originality.

Any comedian, actor, artist, or musician you enjoy will have started out by copying what they like. They copy and copy and copy until their own voice starts to emerge from all that copying. They start to find their own unique way to apply what they like, with all its influences and inspirations helping turn it into something different.

That’s what we’re doing here. Watch to learn. Copy to embed. Then start discovering what else you can do!