why do i suck at improv?

Question

I am taking an improv class at this improv club and I suck at it so much.
I usted to be pretty good at it, and I think it has to do with the fact that I am just now(in week 3 and that's b/c it was hard to let go of my ego since I don't know anyone funny and I keep thinking I will find someone funny to plays a game of wits with and after changing to an earlier class and finding out that the other class was more my age)applying what I remember and what I read in the suggested readings and maybe that as a group, we don't hang out as much. (the class is only on saturdays and we meet every sat before class for an hour)
when I took my old improv class, the people in it were people I had worked with in dept plays, in class and behind the scenes and was more familiar with their rhythms,etc.
The majority of the class is over 30 and I don't think that is too much a factor since I worked with someone in my old class who was around the same age and did ok.
any ideas on how to get better?

Answer 1

Stop judging yourself. Just allow yourself to do the exercises without worrying about the results. You will gain more freedom when you stop "watching yourself" onstage. You will fall on your face sometimes, and that's ok. Sometimes, the best things that happen are the accidents.

Also, improv doesn't always have to be funny. Just focus on the objective of the scene, and don't worry about being entertaining to your classmates.

Answer 2

You said that "when I took my old improv class, the people in it were people I had worked with in dept plays, in class and behind the scenes and was more familiar with their rhythms,etc."

WOW, you hit the nail on the head. Before... you knew what to expect & reacted instinctively. You didn't have to stop & think out what to do next. Now, you have to familiarize yourself with the other actors style & rhythms, so that's what's interfering with your "spontaneity". You're going through a learning stage & you will get better as you continue to practice & get more comfortable working with the other improvisers.

In his book "Blink" Malcolm Gladwell talks about the very sophisticated decisions on the spur of the moment, without the benefit of script or plot that makes improv so compelling & terrifying to many actors. "..the truth is that improv isn't random & chaotic at all."
He observed that the improvisers from the improv comedy group called Mother "aren't all the sort of zany, impulsive, free-spirited comedians that you might imagine them to be. Some are quite serious, even nerdy. Every week they get together for a lengthy rehearsal. After each show they gather backstage & critique each other's performance soberly. Why do they practice so much? Because improv is an art form governed by a series of rules, & they want to make sure that when they're up onstage, everyone abides by those rules. 'We think of what we're doing as a lot like basketball'
Basketball is an intricate, high-speed game filled with split-second decisions. But that spontaneity is possible only when everyone first engages in hours of highly repetitive & structured practice-...& agrees to play a carefully defined role on the court. This is the critical lesson of improv, too....
...Good people's decisions... under the fast-moving, high-stress conditions of rapid cognition is a function of training & rules & rehearsal."

Gladwell also gives more detail on how good improvisers develop action. I'll just quote one paragraph here:
"One of the most important of the rules that make improv possible...is the idea of agreements, the notion that a very simple way to create a story--or humor-- is to have characters accept everything that happens to them. ..In life, most of us are highly skilled at suppressing action. All the improvisation teacher has to do is to reverse this skill & he creates very 'gifted' improvisers. Bad improvisers block action, often with a high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action"

Good Luck!

Answer 3

I continuously sucked at improv. on no account cared for it and don't think of it relatively is stable performing training as a results of fact it asked the actor to additionally be the playwright. this is a few tricks. communicate approximately what is going on,hear and concentration on it. Then bypass alongside with what's being stated and accomplished, do no longer negate something or initiate an argument. relax and play. you will discover Improv is precisely what small little ones do whem they are enjoying residing house or pirates or notwithstanding.

Answer 4

dont think so much about being funny...over the summer i had taken improv classes and when i tried to be funny it turned out ebing really stupid, but when i just thought of something random on the top of my head, lots of people thought it was funny. o try and relax and dont think so much about what your going to say, let it come to you.

Answer 5

I think, it's becoz u think too much. when ur in an improv situation u just gotta let go and just focus on "playing the role" of the character.

Answer 6

try again the more you try the better you can get.