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Own Your Weirdness: A Guide to Really Good Improv (Performances)
Episode 36 • 20th October 2025 • Your Improv Brain • Jen deHaan
00:00:00 00:18:46

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In this episode, I explain how to commit to your authentic self in your improv practice. You will learn to reframe perceived weaknesses into compelling strengths on stage. Your messy and imperfect parts are exactly what your scenes need.

I discuss how neurodivergent performers can use their unique traits. The episode also covers how to collaborate effectively with scene partners who have different brain wiring. I share a personal story from my past as a dance fitness teacher. A very clumsy moment taught me how to connect with an audience through imperfection. We apply that lesson directly to your scene work.

You will see how specific traits, like a literal take or a deadpan delivery, can be an asset in your performance. I also address traits that can be challenging in a scene, like monologuing. I provide practical methods to manage these traits, such as using a character to guide your choices.

Ultimately, this episode helps you build self-awareness. This allows you to understand your own gifts and collaborate more effectively with your team.

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Get a booklet with six exercises to help you get reps in challenging scenes called "Exercises to Ruin You"

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About

This podcast was created, written, and is hosted by Jen deHaan. You can find her bio here.

This episode was and edited and produced by StereoForest.com. Contact StereoForest for information about producing YOUR podcast, website, and more at reasonable rates.

Join the FREE StereoForest newsletter for all podcast and show updates at members.stereoforest.com.

What does neuroinclusive mean? It means that you create a supportive environment inclusive and accommodating of all cognitive types and abilities to learn, write together, or perform. This, just like the word "neurodiversity", includes both neurodivergent and neurotypical individuals. Which is… you, since that covers everyone!

This podcast was made in British Columbia, Canada by StereoForest Podcasts.

Note

I mention surveys and written versions in earlier episodes. I am moving this content to ImprovUpdate.com on a new being-developed website. You can always send me any comments, thoughts, feedback, or contributions using the contact form on this page.



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Transcripts

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So committing to your authentic self is like brave

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and a really effective move in your improv practice.

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You are allowed to show up as a messy and imperfect,

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creative human.

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And what you bring to the stage is

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what the scene actually needs.

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It's enough.

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You're going to become a great improviser

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by letting yourself put more you into the scene.

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And the messy and the really weird parts of ourselves,

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they make really good improv.

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We all have these perceived weaknesses,

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the parts of us that feel messy or weird.

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But instead of trying to hide those things,

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maybe we should put them right in the middle of the stage,

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right in the center of that scene.

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And if you're a neurodivergent person,

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well, we are often really hyper aware of all of these things.

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And we might be a little more sensitive to some of them.

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We might think that we'll never be good at certain parts

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of improv because maybe many of us

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have lived our lives as the outcasts say in a world that

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wasn't really built for us.

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And if you're not neurodivergent, guess what?

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You improvise with us.

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So you're going to need to know this to be good at improv too

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and meet in the middle with whoever is on your team.

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Because your scene partners often are neurodivergent.

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And unless you do solo improv, well,

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you got to learn to communicate with us

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to be really good at improv.

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It's like part of the deal.

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It takes both of us to communicate.

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And it takes all of us to learn and listen hard

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and meet in the middle.

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Because we've been accommodating

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a neurotypical world our entire lives.

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So in this episode, I'm going to talk

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about how to work with some of these things

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and still commit and own it as our own unique selves.

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We're going to look at how to take things you see

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as your biggest weaknesses and reframe them

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as your most compelling strengths on stage.

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And I'm also going to talk about how this isn't universal

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advice.

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I'm going to cover some of the gotchas and exceptions

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before the end of this episode.

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Hi, I'm Jen deHaan and this is your improv brain.

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I'm an improviser who creates and produce podcasts,

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including improvised ones at Stereo Forest.

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I've taught and coached improv at a few different theaters

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and I used to run the online school at one of them.

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And I love sharing what I've learned

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and continue to figure out about how our brains do

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this thing that we love.

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Because you probably love it if you're listening to this.

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So before we get started, I just wanted to mention

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that I took a bit of a break from the show

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to start a new one that is more applied improv related.

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It's about online genuine performance

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called human internet theory.

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And this show and its newsletter will be delivered

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on maybe a monthly-ish schedule now.

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I haven't totally figured it out yet.

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So now before we get to the specific improv applications,

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I need to tell you a story from a completely different part

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of my performance life to show you how maybe,

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hopefully useful this idea can be.

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So it's a story about being really clumsy

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and it has everything to do with improv actually.

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I was reminded of the story when I was being interviewed

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recently by Marco Escott for her great improv podcast,

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which I'll link in the description and the show notes,

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but not the episode I'm in yet.

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But I'll let you know about that when it comes out.

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So I'm a clumsy human being.

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Let's get back to that.

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I trip over my feet.

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I dump food on my clothes all the time.

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This sweatshirt that I'm wearing,

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if you're watching the video is a recording sweatshirt

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because most of my other hoodies that I wear,

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just like this, have a bunch of food on them all the time.

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And I'm not gonna put that out on the internet willingly.

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I probably have.

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Anyways, I bump into things a lot.

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I also broke my hand in a meditation scene

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during an online improv session,

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once doing spacework revving up a chainsaw.

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That's right, it was a meditation scene.

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I reckon that you might be thinking

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that you have so many questions right now,

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and really I do as well.

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It was a long time ago now,

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and not gonna get into that one.

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But I'm mentioning this because you might be surprised

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that I used to actually teach dance fitness for years.

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And that the clumsy thing comes into the story.

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In 2007, I took my first dance fitness class

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'cause I wanted to get healthier at that time.

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And in pure total neurodivergent form,

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I researched every gym fitness option there was.

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But I kept coming back to the thing that I feared the most.

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The thing that seemed so ridiculous for me to do,

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which was dancing.

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I was an introvert, I was clumsy, I was a nerd.

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I was uncomfortable in group scenarios,

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and I was going to group fitness.

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But I never backed down from a challenge

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kind of like we do in improv.

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So off I went, and I quickly fell in love

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with this thing called dance fitness.

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And despite being pretty bad at it.

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But eight years later,

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I found myself teaching an urban hip hop format myself

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at the front of the room.

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Clumsy, middle-aged me was teaching urban hip hop classes.

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So one of my first regular classes was taking over

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for a mentor of mine at a huge gym.

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And he was a stunning dancer.

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It was just gorgeous, like a top notch human as well.

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So nice.

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He helped choreograph the songs that we were teaching even.

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And he spoke Vietnamese,

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which was the only language many people in this class

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that I was about to take over,

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the only language that many of them spoke.

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Meanwhile, there is me, a bad dancer, much older,

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had social anxiety, and did not speak Vietnamese.

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And also, key point here,

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the stage was two feet off the ground.

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And all I could see was myself falling off that stage.

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So on my very first day taking over teaching this class,

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I was a nervous mess.

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But a front row regular, she had a huge personality,

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gorgeous human being, ran over to me,

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and she took me by my shoulders.

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She looked me dead in the eye,

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and she said with the wisdom of all of her years,

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"Hey, we know you're new, and that does not matter to us.

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We are here to dance for you.

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You are our teacher now."

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And she was right.

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But what her pep talk to me really did

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was it made me commit to that room.

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It made me commit to the people in that room,

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and it made me just be in that room.

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It helped me get out of my head.

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So now let's connect this to improv.

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But before we talk about how to apply this to the scenes,

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let's think about the core problem

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that pep talk actually solved for me.

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I was busy comparing myself to the person

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who had taught before me and the way that they taught.

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And in that light, I would always fail.

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So I was so busy comparing myself to him,

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that he was this better dancer and more experienced

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and amazing human being,

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and could speak the preferred and often only language

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of a majority of the people in that room.

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And I could never bring any of those amazing attributes

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that he brought into the room myself.

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But all I could do was commit to myself

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and what I could bring to that room.

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So that pep talk was step one, just commit.

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And step two was getting over the fear of falling

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due to my perceived weaknesses,

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'cause that put me in my head too.

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And I was still clumsy.

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And I also had to figure out who I was as their teacher.

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Like could a good dance fitness instructor be that clumsy?

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And I wasn't good at visual queuing yet as a new teacher,

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and you have to use your body language and hand signals

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to say what the upcoming query would be.

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And many of the students needed that form of queuing

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because they didn't know English.

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All of my verbal cues meant nothing to them.

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A big part of teaching dance fitness

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is moving around the room.

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You run to the back, you amp people up,

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and you get back to the stage in time

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for like the next move to happen.

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And it takes a lot of reps, a lot of practice,

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it's words and physical action together,

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remembering the choreo,

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which is like the rules in improv, right?

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Like it's a lot like improv.

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Now, one day teaching that class,

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this was many classes later,

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I was running to the back row and I messed up the timing.

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I had like four counts in the music

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to get from the back of this huge room

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onto that two foot tall stage at the front.

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And I was late.

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So I just bolted, I ran as fast as I could.

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And when I was running, it was like time slowed down.

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And I ran towards the stage and I jumped.

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I was full of adrenaline and I overshot the jump.

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And I can remember from behind me this collective gasp

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as everyone stopped dancing and just stared.

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Everyone knew what was going down in that moment.

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It may be me literally.

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I landed on the stage, but I fell over,

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like tripped over my feet and my butt was way up in the air

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in front of a room full of people.

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The music was still playing,

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but the room was completely silent in that moment.

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No one moved.

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And I could like feel that happen.

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So I leapt up, I turned around

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and I threw my arms in the air

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and I yelled into the mic, which was on my head,

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"I'm fine, let's go."

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And the whole room erupted into a cheer.

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And I knew in that moment that I had them.

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Like in that moment, I knew how to work with my clumsy shit.

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Not just in this class,

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but as a dance fitness teacher as a whole.

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Now my role as a teacher wasn't to be

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like that other teacher who I thought was perfect.

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Even him or any of the other ones that I admired.

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It was to connect through humor, which I had,

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and imperfection, which I had a lot of.

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And that was actually me.

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That was my thing.

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That was my style.

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And I could be the dance fitness teacher

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who falls over her own feet and makes it into a bit.

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And I was pretty good at being real at least.

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Like I'm very experienced at being weird

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and like displaying that.

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And by the way, if you like my weird,

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you might also like my newsletter.

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So you can sign up for that at improvupdate.com.

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And you're gonna get a monthly update at least

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about these videos and other improv comedy

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and creative performance related things.

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Now, before I get to the traits

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that are harder to manage,

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let's break down how you can apply this story,

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this lesson to your own perceived weaknesses in improv.

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Emphasis on perceived.

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We need to see how these flaws of ours,

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big air quotes, if you're listening,

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can become your best assets that you can use in your improv.

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So you're gonna bring something different

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to every team and class and show.

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So try not to compare yourself to other people on the team

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or in the theater or that you see on a live stream,

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whoever it is.

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Your clumsy thing, if you're like me, clumsy,

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that can be funny, for example.

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Just try not to get hurt for real,

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like doing chainsaws in a meditation scene or whatever.

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Your first reaction happens to be super literal,

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for example, that can be funny.

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Like I've broken scene partners

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without even knowing why at first.

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So if that resonates,

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you might want to own like your literal take, for example.

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Your monotropism on 15 different subjects

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from your lifespan,

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you can bring specifics and details

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like no one else can on those things.

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This is a strength.

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You might be deadpan in real life.

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Bring that to your scene.

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Turn up the volume on your deadpan.

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So failing can be fun or it can be useful.

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Like that fall on the stage that I described,

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it brought connection to everyone in that room.

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And I've used failing all the time in my teaching.

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I split my pants, I had sweat that looked like pee once.

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I was mortified, but then I called it out

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and over half the class stood around

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talking about incontinence after class

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because they related so hard

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or they cringed about their expected future at that point.

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I used all of it.

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It's rich, it's honest and it's relatable

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and people love it.

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Even if it's used in a scene, right?

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You can do all of this in improv as well.

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But okay, Jen, what about our traits

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that don't work in a scene that are bad for improv?

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Yeah, okay.

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And what I'm saying here is not universal advice.

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For example, one of my neurodivergent traits,

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and I know this is gonna be shocking

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as you listen to my solo podcast on the YouTubes,

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is monologuing.

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But monologuing is something I can't just commit to

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in an improv scene, right?

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That would be terrible as a scene partner

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if all the time I was like this,

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oh shit, the scene brought up dogs

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and Jen's in the scene.

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Oh, we know it's gonna happen now.

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So monologuing is something I really had to be careful about

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as I was learning improv.

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(coughs)

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Oh, my voice.

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So what do you do when you have traits like monologuing

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or something else that like threatens blocking

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your scene partner or just ruining a show?

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So first, if you get a note on whatever the thing is,

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be gentle with yourself.

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We all have to learn.

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It takes time.

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Know that you will make mistakes and you will fail,

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but you are allowed to.

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You're allowed to fail.

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That's why we have practice groups

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and we have classes and we have coaching and all that.

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You can fail and your coaches and those teachers

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and your team are there to have your back and help.

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And if they're not, that's bad improv.

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If they're not having your back, that's bad improv.

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Really good improv, they have your back.

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And I'll help too, right?

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Join our Discord or leave a comment.

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A general tip that might work for some of you

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with some things is to use a character

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to help manage some of these wired in traits.

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Like that dance teacher on stage

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was kind of like a character.

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Mine, I put on the fitness teacher hat

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to take off the social anxiety hat.

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I didn't even know I was doing that at the time,

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but that's what I was doing in retrospect.

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You can do that at improv.

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I will sometimes put a neurotypical character hat

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on when I need to.

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It's like a character and a character,

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which is like putting a hat on a hat or whatever.

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Maybe that's not good, but whatever.

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I like it, it's useful and it seems to work.

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But why I do this?

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My first thought is often my neurodivergent thought.

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And my second thought is often the more neurotypical one

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'cause I'm translating it into neurotypical.

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So if I'm playing that neurotypical character,

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I remember to take my second thought sometimes

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if the scene calls for this.

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And sometimes I just kind of end up

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thinking neurotypical a little bit.

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I don't know, it's weird, something happens.

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Also, sometimes because it's improv,

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you might even use some of these so-called bad traits.

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Like I might need to monologue for a specific character,

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like say a pedantic professor or something.

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Sometimes your scene partners might throw you that

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because the set needs that monologue.

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Or say a scene is dying,

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so they kind of throw you a monologue.

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Here, take it, right?

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We can notice when the need pops up

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and then you can lean into it as a character choice,

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as the scene or the set needs.

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And then you can pull back

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when the scene or set no longer needs that.

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So you can try to think like the character

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that you're taking on,

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which lets you kind of get out of your head,

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but do this still.

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Or you're just like getting out of your own way

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about these traits.

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So do what the scene needs first, give that a try.

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Build your accommodation needs

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into your character when that works.

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So you will change as you keep doing improv.

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Some things might be wired into your brain,

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but you'll learn new ways of working with them.

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You might lean in and commit really hard

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or you might find a trick for working around these things.

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Then commit to that thing.

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Be you first and don't compete with others.

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Because we all have our own brainwirings.

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We're all gonna do these rules differently.

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And then it all kind of miraculously works out in a set.

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Do what you have to and commit to that.

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Be clumsy.

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Fall onto the stage with your butt in the air.

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Hear that gasp and own that thing.

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See what it brings to you and the people around you.

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Because a bunch of carbon copies,

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like improv carbon copies,

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doesn't make the scenes nearly as interesting.

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And even with the things that we're wired with

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in our brains, know that other things will change.

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Our brains are elastic.

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That's why we're learning the improv.

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That's why we're doing reps.

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Just commit to where you are today.

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You'll develop and grow whether or not you like it.

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You'll learn the things that you like.

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And you'll find where you fit in into the scene,

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into the set, into the team and the improv landscape.

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Maybe you're fit in alone doing YouTube's

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in front of a green screen

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with the lights on in a room in your basement.

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Maybe that's where I fit in on the improv landscape.

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Oh my God, I've still got to finish this video.

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So what you're working with here is self-awareness.

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Like that piece of self-awareness I just had

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and learning what collaboration really needs,

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which is understanding yourself.

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So you can show up for the team.

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You can show up for others.

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You can show up for that other person doing the scene.

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You can show up for that mannequin

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that you do solo improv with.

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In a way, you're listening to yourself.

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So you can kind of show others what you're bringing,

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what gifts and what they're playing with.

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When everyone does this and communicates this way,

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we collaborate the best

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because we're all growing as performers together.

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That sounds so sweet and nice.

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So thanks for tuning in on that note

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and I'll be back at some point,

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maybe later this month or maybe next month

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or something for the next episode.

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Bye for now.

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You have been listening to Your Improv Brain,

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a StereoForrest production.

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This show is created and is written, edited,

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and produced by Jen deHaan at StereoForest.com

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You can find show information, show notes, transcripts,

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and contact information at the show's page

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at StereoForrest.com/improvbrain.

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Thanks for listening.

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(gentle music)

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