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Beyond "React Like Yourself" - Level Up Your Grounded Improv Characters
Episode 24 • Bonus Episode • 16th June 2025 • Your Improv Brain • Jen deHaan
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Tired of being told to "just react like you would in real life" to ground an improv scene? This episode of Your Improv Brain explores advanced techniques for playing the voice of reason or grounded characters in a scene or sustaining them long-term.

Discover how shifting from simply "acting normal" to dynamically balancing the scene can make you a more adaptable, supportive, and funnier improviser, especially if "normal" feels challenging.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube here or find the website article 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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Figuring out our comedic role or purpose in a scene can sometimes be pretty challenging.

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And when it comes to playing a grounded character or the voice of reason,

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most of us are taught something like, "Just react like you would in real life."

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Or some similar variation about you personally outside of the scene, being like that.

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Well, what if I told you that while that is a great place to start,

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there are other techniques you can try if the grounded role remains challenging for you.

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What if being the voice of reason is only part of your character?

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And you can instead be a more responsive, dynamic, and pretty darn useful player in a show.

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Today we're, I guess, leveling up your voice of reason game. We're going to explore why that

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early teaching tool, while useful early on, is just one of the approaches you can take.

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You'll discover how shifting your focus from simply acting normal to actively balancing the scene

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can make you a more adaptable, supportive, and ultimately funnier person in the scene,

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especially as you gain experience and confidence. And this technique might be useful

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even if you have always found playing a voice of reason as yourself an easy thing to do.

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Hi, I'm Jen deHaan and welcome to Your Improv Brain. I create podcasts that include a lot of

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improv comedy in them with Stereo Forest, and I have taught and coached at several improv schools

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as well. Every Monday I'm going to release a new episode of this show on YouTube and as a podcast,

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so subscribe if you haven't already. And stick around, because at the end of this episode I'll

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share one way that this balancing act we're going to discuss today can let you and a scene partner

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get really weird in a scene. So you won't want to miss that bit if you like to get weird and improv

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like I do. But before we go too far, I want to mention that we're focusing on grounding scenes

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through the characters themselves for this episode. You can have a scene where everyone

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is unusual, like a piece in a pod or a character matching scene, and characters like that have

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the option of grounding the world around them instead of the ways that we're going to be discussing.

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I have an episode about these kind of scenes that I'll link to in the show notes or the description

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below if you're on YouTube. So, react as you would normally. That's foundational advice for

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learning how to be a voice of reason within a scene, and that's for good reason. It's a fantastic

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starting point to learn the concept of grounding a scene. It helps you and the audience relate

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to whatever's happening in an absurd, wild scenario or a wild world. And responding to

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weird behaviors and actions as yourself is a great way to start off learning how to accomplish this

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role or add this information within the scene. It provides a relatable human element, or it makes

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the world a relatable one to the audience. And you can be really funny in this role too. Sometimes

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most of the laughs in a scene will come from this really reasonable voice.

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Over time, as you develop and think about this more as you're learning, you might find this advice

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a bit complicated though. What if your normal reaction is to freeze up or to overthink before

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responding to another person? What if your personal normal, and I'm doing air quotes if you're listening

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to this, how your brain works or your lived experience sometimes makes these choices really

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difficult? And that becomes really time consuming. And that can be an issue if it's a really fast

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paced scene, especially when you have a lot of other things to think about in the moment.

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This is where the occasional challenge can then creep in, especially for brains that work in

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different ways. Or if you come from that cultural or regional background where the typical response

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might differ from that of your scene partner or that of the audience, wherever you're doing improv.

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I remember this experience quite well when I was learning this as an autistic improviser,

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trying to channel a generic, stereotypical, normal, again air quotes if you're listening to this,

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sometimes made me second guess my own instincts. I'd be thinking, okay, what's the standard

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operating procedure for reacting to this scenario? What would a typical person say or do or think?

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And all that internal processing, trying to hit some vaguely defined target of normalcy

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that I'd never met in real life outside of the scene could put me in my head. If I knew I had

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to play the voice of reason, if I had to, if I was assigned to it before the scene, or that's where

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I was obviously having to do right off the top. This didn't happen too often, but sometimes it did

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back then. I was actually a lot better if I didn't know I was playing the voice of reason. Sometimes

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I was complimented, hey, good voice of reason, Jen. And I thought I was okay, cool. But being in my head

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is where I live, even outside of the scene when engaging socially most of the time. So it made

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sense that trying to play myself would put me there, in my head, within the scene. I guess what I was

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doing was technically correct, but it still, it wasn't great for improv. And it also just wasn't

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fun. It was stressful. The rest of improv was fun, but this wasn't. And I reckon this experience

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might be relatable to those with other kinds of lived experiences where this hits the same. Like

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if you're doing improv, like I said, in a culture where you didn't grow up, for example. So my early

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solution was to consciously play normal characters. They were unusual characters to me, even if they

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seemed like grounded and voice of reason version of myself to most seam partners and coaches and

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teachers. It worked well back then, and it still does when I do shows today. I don't get in my head

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doing this. It's not a lot of effort, and people think I'm a voice of reason and normal enough,

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I suppose. This might be enough if you're just having challenges playing yourself. Just play a

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character you feel best represents some stereotypical version of normal, whatever that is to you.

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And anyone notes you on what you think is a stereotypical normal, just shrug it off. You

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can ignore that note, send them to me, and I'll have your back. I have some earlier episodes on

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this same topic that I'll link to in the show notes if this topic resonates with you. But what I

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didn't cover in those episodes is how I evolved that approach to grounding scenes because it's

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a little bit more complicated still. And I think it might be useful no matter if you find the voice

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of reason easy or challenging as you learn improv. Instead of aiming for normal character, I aim for

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dynamically balancing the characters in a scene. This, for me, has made things a little bit easier

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and is much more flexible than taking a fixed role, and is actually essential for certain types

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of improv. I find that this approach of balancing the characters is a way to find a more dynamic

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and responsive way of playing your scenes with your partners. And this is the core idea of what I

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want you to take away today. And to be clear, this is not my idea. This is just a comedy technique

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that I find useful for grounding characters, grounding those dynamics between them. It's

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also important to know this is a choice or a tool that you might eventually choose to use when it

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makes sense to you, not necessarily a starting point for improvisers. To effectively balance a scene

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character-wise, you generally need some kind of experience. You need to have developed your own

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comedic voice to some degree, and you need a lot of reps to be able to read a scene and adjust quickly

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to what's happening in the headspace of your character. And you definitely have to have

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listening skills down and not be in your head. So with that said, if you understand the idea of

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grounded worlds and characters but still find it clunky or challenging for your brain, this shift

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in perspective might be useful for you as a tool. And as always in improv, your mileage may vary

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based on your experience, your unique rain wiring and the style of improv you're doing.

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So what are the benefits to balancing what's happening in the moment? Pretty significant ones

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for some scenes and some scenarios. It makes you flexible to respond to what's needed in the moment.

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For example, you might be the unusual character and your scene partner is grounded, but then they

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do something really unusual because that's what the scene called for, or it was like the most

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natural thing for their character to do. And now you can ground that scenario and balance out the

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scene against you were the unusual, but now you're grounding the scene. It highlights the unusual

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action your scene partner is giving. It makes the scene relatable and it adds an opportunity

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for some comedy as well. This doesn't mean quick, rapid or frequent changes in your character

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throughout a scene. And it probably won't happen often, this kind of scenario. But what it might

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mean, well after you've established the base reality and character dynamic and so on, you

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experience that shift in the scene where this adjustment is necessary. It's an energy thing.

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You're just, you're listening hard and you're reacting and you're contrasting or matching your

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character, your character's partner when you need to. This is especially useful in longer scenes or

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mono scenes. The ability to subtly adjust and rebalance as the scene evolves is crucial for

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sustaining interest and coherence. And if you want to see a masterclass in this kind of concept,

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watch the show Nathan for you. Though as soon as you learn this concept and watch for it in

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comedy, you'll see it quite a bit. And let's be honest here. Humans, like we see in that show

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and in comedy, are beautifully inconsistent. We can be perfectly ordinary one minute and then we

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can do something really unexpected in the next. A character who is focused on balancing dynamically

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in a scene can reflect this natural human tendency and it makes your characters more

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three-dimensional as a result. So let's talk about this in practice. I noticed that this is an

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approach I've been taking as an example in my podcast, "Grak Public Access" and using it has

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been essential because it is an ongoing improv show. Like my main character, Togchester Field,

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is one that I've played in two series now for about 20 hours of Finnish podcast. At the time

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of recording this, we're still going. We're going on for a long period of time, I hope.

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So Tog is somewhat unusual themselves and they live in a fairly quirky base reality as well.

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But my character, Tog, needs to react to new characters and new scenarios whenever necessary

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across what's essentially a very long ongoing scene. So dynamically balancing in this scene,

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the super long ongoing one episode after episode, lets that very established character react to any

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character opposite them, either as a voice of reason or remaining unusual depending on what

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the moment needs. And this is also called position flipping and it can be very useful in a shorter

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single scene too after a base reality and that character dynamic is well established. The key

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challenge though is still being honest and believable as the established character, the one that you're

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playing and you can play then both roles. This approach also makes it easier to accommodate

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all kinds of improvisers. Instead of everyone trying to hit that sort of elusive normal that meets

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some statistical average of whoever is watching you, you focus on the present moment, what's

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happening right now. How can my character stay true to who they are, provide a response that

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best supports the overall scenic picture by offering a contrast or a complementary energy.

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Ultimately, your focus can simply be something like this. How would my character respond in a way

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that best supports a contrast to what my scene partners are doing? If you're firmly in the mind

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of your character and you're listening strongly to what's being offered, this sense of balance

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might start to come fairly naturally and automatically to you. Basically, you aren't in your head about

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it and it's less about imposing some predefined normal or fixed role and it's more about responsive

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dynamic play. This kind of mindset might make you a really flexible performer on stage.

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You'll hear a thought about approaching getting really weird in a scene using this concept in

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just a second. But first, let's quickly summarize. Graduating from just act normal,

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just be yourself, to actively balancing the scene can be a powerful, like mind-blowing,

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I don't know. It can be a good step in your improv development if grounded scenes are a

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challenge for you. It leads to more dynamic, adaptable play. It strengthens your ability to

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support any kind of offer and it makes you more versatile and responsive as a scene partner.

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When scenes change, you take on a single character like Tog for a very long time.

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It's about finding the complexity of your character, their unusual and their usual,

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and just supporting whatever flavor that is as opposed to taking a fixed role for the duration

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of the scene, which really makes your characters and scenes and shows a lot more human and a lot

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more relatable. I want to mention that you can find a bunch of improv resources at my free weekly

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newsletter at improvupdate.com. I'll send you new resources every single week. And I'd love for you

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to share this video with other improvisers and drop a comment if you're watching the YouTube video

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about your thoughts about the approach to voice of reason in a scene.

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All right, now for that how to get a really weird observation that I promised. The most

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liberating part about focusing on balancing the energy of a scene is sometimes the balance your

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character brings isn't about being grounded. It can be about offering an equally committed but

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different flavor of strange that really complements your partner's offer. So what if your scene shifts

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and the best answer instead of like opposing that is for you and your scene partner to both get

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weird for a little while. You can absolutely balance this part of the scene that combined

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weird thing in a clear relatable relationship with an interesting relatable contrast.

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So this is really about that energy dynamic but not a rigid definition of who plays what,

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who's grounded, who's unusual. The goal isn't to always be that opposite but to be what the

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scene needs when you need that shift. Can the audience relate? In the end,

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all of this might be as simple as that. So thanks for joining me. We'll see you back here next Monday

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for more improv stuff.

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