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Mind Blank on Stage? A 3-Step Reboot for Your Brain
Episode 28 • Bonus Episode • 14th July 2025 • Your Improv Brain • Jen deHaan
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That feeling of your mind going completely blank on stage is a top fear for any performer. But what if it's not a personal failure?

This week, I explain how this is often a biological response to being overwhelmed, not a lack of ideas.

In this episode, you'll learn a simple, three-step system to effectively reboot your brain when it crashes. This practical technique works with your body's natural responses to get you out of your head and painlessly back into the scene, turning a moment of panic into a moment of connection.

You'll also learn the final, most important safety net all improvisers have.

Read and share the web article for this episode, which includes the YouTube video and this podcast. Find it here.

In this episode, I refer to an earlier episode called "A Source of Great Improv Ideas (bonus: Get Out of Your Head)". This was episode 26.

Find the YouTube here.

Read the article and find the podcast here.

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About

This podcast was created, written, and is hosted by Jen deHaan. Jen has certifications related to healthy communities (Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy), nervous system regulation and soon teacher training certification on community resilience. She has a BFA in teaching creative arts to adults. You can find her full bio here.

This podcast was written, recorded and edited in British Columbia, Canada by Jen.



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Transcripts

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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

00:18:32.560 --> 00:18:37.520

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

00:18:37.520 --> 00:18:43.520

transcripts and contact information at the show's page at

00:18:43.520 --> 00:18:48.600

StereoForest.com/improvbrain thanks for listening

00:18:48.760 --> 00:18:50.820

(Music)

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you

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