Shownotes
Last week I promised an episode about finding the unusual thing: how you find what’s weird at the top of a scene when you’re setting up the base reality that leads to the game. And here is that episode.
Communication is a challenge in improv, especially when we have different neurotypes playing together (which is probably… always). Our cognitive wiring is a fundamental difference between us, and at times it can lead to communication challenges especially when we need to agree on something important (like what’s weird!) to drive a scene forward. Finding the unusual thing, then framing the unusual thing, so everyone is on the same page and can move forward.
And… what’s WEIRD anyway? We usually know, but sometimes it might be a mystery. Because of our wiring and lived experiences. Then what?
This episode includes examples of communication between scene partners. I’ll mention a bit of science about communication in a group situation, and provide real life examples of communication breakdown between neurotypes. But mostly I talk about about improv.
Even if you’re neurotypical, hopefully this ep will help you with noticing the unusual thing in a scene and framing it. And some things to try if and when that’s hard
Hopefully - for all neurotypes - this episode will help you effectively communicate with your scene partners at the top of a scene. So we can all move together efficiently, and on the same page, for the rest of the scene.
And I missed a lot, for sure, so let me know what I missed at FlatImprov.com/substack.
About this podcast & an improv class
This podcast is hosted/produced/whatever by me, Jen deHaan. You can blame me for the whole thing, it’s my fault. You can submit your questions, heckles, comments, blame, more heckles, or even a voice note on the website. Find the contact form for this podcast at FlatImprov.com/substack. See the site for other shows and podcasts and stuff.
You can also subscribe to this podcast where you get your other podcasts - Apple, Spotify, Overcast, Castro, etc. If you like it maybe rate it if you’re on there? I’d appreciate it!
IMPROV CLASS: I have an improv class series starting Feb 28th with WGIS. This class is an improvised morning show. We’ll learn and practice the form for six classes, and then do a four show series delivered both to video and podcast. WHAT YOU LEARN: Character development, sustaining characters, world building, details, clean edits. FUN! Join us! Info here.
TALK AT YOU NEXT WEEK, IMPROV NERD FRIENDS!
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Transcripts
0:15
you know who made it welcome to the neurodiversity and improv podcast from Flat improv I'm Janda Han and I do
0:23
improv stuff I like thinking about improv things a lot these podcasts aren't for telling anyone what to do I'm
0:31
just giving explanations and this is to help encourage classes teams everyone to
0:38
be a little bit more inclusive and to help whoever needs this to just get better and more comfortable at doing
0:45
improv and honestly a lot of us think this way so it's good to know that you're not alone these episodes are to
0:51
help with confidence with feeling more comfortable maybe making things a little bit easier don't force yourself to do
0:58
something you can't or don't don't want to do improv shouldn't be about that these episodes of course are not for
1:04
diagnosis either so don't use these episodes to diagnose yourself or anyone else basically we're just here to be
1:12
improv nerds nerding it out about improv so let's get started let's talk about
1:18
improv or I guess I'm just talking at you about improv and after the plug
1:23
section again I'll just have a section that's for the weirds out there so stick around if that's you and uh you can just
1:30
turn turn me off if you want if you don't want any of this in your ears
1:36
we're talking about weird and unusual in this episode let's get started so I don't know if this episode will be
1:42
controversial this is just my experience though with unusual things in improv
1:48
scenes and I don't think any of these things are necessarily right or wrong no
1:53
matter what you think this is just how I go about doing a thing currently because
1:59
as We Know all of this stuff can change and maybe even go back and forth depending on who you're doing scenes
2:06
with or what day it is we're going to talk about finding the unusual thing in
2:12
a scene today it's part of the game of the scene style of improv a really big
2:17
part of it actually you find an unusual thing in the scene you notice it you make a game out of it and go from there
2:25
however you're going to go you're going to heighten it blow it out explore success win profit whatever I have to
2:32
say though that this along with the voice of reason thing if you're not sure
2:37
what that is go back to episode 9 for more about voice of reason these are
2:43
those things that took me a little bit to figure out they were particularly
2:48
challenging I believe based on my neurodivergent neurotype for example
2:54
teachers would mention what was unusual in a scene what was the very first thing
2:59
that we might not have picked up on and sometimes for me it was things that seemed very normal and I don't think I
3:07
would have ever picked up on it but this is a lot about communication and how we
3:12
think like I was watching this video today made by another autistic person and it was about his communication
3:19
differences between him and his neurotypical wife and it reminds me of
3:24
this a bit he was detailing how his wife would ask him a question and he would
3:30
respond with a very honest automatic response to that question which was
3:35
absolutely not what his wife was after and he mentioned as it was coming out of
3:41
his mouth he'd suddenly realize this is not what she probably wanted to hear this is probably not what she was asking
3:49
about but his response to the question was his first natural response it was
3:55
sensical to him it made sense it would have been expected to him but to his
4:01
neurotypical wife it was unexpected or unusual sometimes these things can be
4:06
funny to neurotypical people sometimes we can even laugh at ourselves and that's how I kind of am sometimes
4:15
sometimes with the unusual thing in a scene like I might not see it instantly
4:20
but I might see it just a second after and it will click in as words are already falling out of my mouth so
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what's unusual ual to other people is sometimes not unusual to us and this is
4:34
just our wiring this is part of our communication we might realize ah they wanted this they expected this it's like
4:42
a translation process sort of a dual translation that might happen in our
4:48
minds now I bet neurod divergent or not you will quite possibly relate in the
4:54
general difficulty in spotting the unusual hearing it or even just commun
4:59
communicating with your scene Partners having enough processing power though to think about all the Improv stuff and
5:08
this as well can be very difficult especially when everyone is starting out
5:14
so I hear this it's hard for all of us no matter what our neurological wiring
5:19
is I do think though it is potentially harder or takes increased effort for
5:25
some or many people who like me are a nerd Divergent neurotype we think
5:31
differently we have an atypical perspective by definition so whether or not some things are unusual that will be
5:39
affected by unique perspectives the ones that we all have and we're doing some extra translation in some cases to
5:46
compensate for some of these communication differences because by definition neurotypicals just a
5:52
statistically higher number of people that we're being doing scenes with so that becomes the default but it doesn't
5:59
doesn't mean that it has to become our default in the scene neurotypical and
6:04
neurod Divergent people often speak a different language and it is due to these wiring differences as we see in
6:11
the earlier example about the husband and the wife we have an extra layer on top of all the other communication
6:18
challenges humans in general have as being unique human beings and that is
6:24
great but some things get lost in translation even when we're speaking the same language as we know this can happen
6:30
between regions and cultures and backgrounds and this neurodivergent neurotypical communication is one other
6:38
way and because we think weird things are normal all the time and vice versa
6:44
for our neurotypical friends this is key Communication Breakdown Territory between scene Partners especially early
6:52
on when we're learning everything else on top of it many things in a scene we will just pick up on as unusual quite
7:00
easily this isn't a universal case some things though will have to take maybe a
7:06
beat to realize Ah that's what the neurotypical people are finding weird okay and some things might still
7:12
probably mystify us so in this next section I'm going to talk about what is finding the unusual and why do we do it
7:20
so the unusual thing what is it it's often described as simply that thing
7:25
that just perks your interest something that would make you turn your head and
7:30
go H it doesn't really have to be big it is often better if it's something that isn't all that weird it's just off
7:39
examples of an unusual thing in a scene I mean it might be something like wow
7:45
r I use a mini disc player in:7:52
u listened to cala the puppet:7:59
the past 3 weeks which probably sounded very specific and also might be a call back to a different show quite often the
8:06
unusual is somewhat subtle and often needs to be framed it might be big and
8:12
weird and bold like the Cala thing or it might be subtle a little bit more subtle
8:18
like the Crayons or someone else might need to make sure everyone in the scenes
8:23
nose for example it's the crayon thing and that's you framing the unusual thing
8:30
like calling it out we either do it where the person that is adding the unusual thing to the scene usually it
8:37
just comes out we're not trying to force it in there or we're listening for it we're listening for the unusual thing
8:44
maybe we're framing it or maybe our scene partner frames it at any rate we all just end up on the same page at some
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point more on this in a second so whatever you do for all of this exactly
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for the unusual thing seeing it noticing it framing it it can depend on who
9:02
you're playing with like your team or maybe it's the style of the theater or
9:07
the community you also might have personal preferences like I like starting with something that's a little
9:14
bit off like the crayon thing and then you can make it weirder through heightening or you can get more specific
9:20
about those things like I wouldn't do something like say I have pickles for
9:26
toes but I might be a pickle per that's really into specific flavors or some
9:33
kind of new pickle cut so it could be real perhaps so noticing the unusual
9:40
thing that often comes from practice from feeling from getting the gist from sort of that gut thing it's less rules
9:47
and structure and more something else and that just sort of the something else
9:54
Essence is often hard for us neurod Divergence I think we often like the
9:59
structure or rule book and all of this seems like a big rule but in the end
10:04
it's kind of not it's more just gut reaction we find an unusual thing
10:11
because it's often the source of the funny and the core nucleus of what a
10:18
game is because weird things are funny and funny is game but you take that nugget and then it just sort of forms
10:24
the game and that forms the scene so making sure you and your scene partner agree on what that weird or unusual
10:32
thing is really early on that helps you have an easier time throughout the scene
10:37
on agreeing what that game is and then how you'll play with that thing so how do we find the unusual thing if it is
10:46
sort of this gut reaction this feeling this thing that we have to notice that doesn't really have a concrete Rules
10:54
book about it well we end up finding that weird or unusual thing with our
11:00
scene Partners sometimes something unusual could be happening it could be an action or it might be an item or it
11:07
might be a behavior of a character it can come from wherever but it does need to be pointed out by someone in the
11:14
scene to the other people in the scene and of course also the audience watching
11:20
so that's when and why we end up framing that weird thing so the framing part is
11:26
simply communicating with your scene partner and to the audience hey this
11:31
thing here is is that's kind of weird and you might even say why it's weird basically you just want everyone to be
11:38
on that same page so you can move forward and have fun with it and I did say the word simply but it's not really
11:45
simple especially in the earlier phases this is done so many different ways and
11:52
as such it's not simple because we also have to notice it we have to communicate
11:58
and communicate in can be a challenge it's not usually as heavy-handed as hey
12:05
that's weird either that would make it easy if we always said hey that's weird but that is a little bit heavy-handed
12:11
and that's something that we might only see when we're say learning we're doing exercises but after that it usually
12:18
isn't at its core though you react to the unusual thing you care about that
12:25
unusual thing and then you go from there and you make it into a scene that's all
12:30
a very simplified version of something that's not all that simple and we often take quite a long time to get better at
12:38
so now let's talk a little bit about why the unusual why is the weird weird for
12:45
the weirdos oh that that's a weird title so things that are normal for neurod
12:50
Divergent people are sometimes weird for neurotypical people and vice versa things that are weird for the neurod
12:57
Divergent are sometimes normal for the neurotypical we're talking about things
13:02
that become Lost in Translation and how neurod Divergent humans do translation
13:09
and that can vary a lot like how I personally translate neurotypical how
13:15
fast that is when it applies it's all going to be different it's going to be different for me than it is for you so
13:22
this is the part where you need to start thinking about or analyzing your own improv practice in this regard notice
13:29
how things work for you or what might not be in place yet and then when you
13:34
find that you can start noticing your own pattern or practice a little bit
13:39
more about the communication why things are weird for us and not weird for
13:46
neurotypicals and vice versa so there was a study that was done and this was done with autistic individuals and
13:53
allistic individuals and this is autistic people and not autistic people and this study combined a group of all
14:01
autistic people together and did the telephone game that's where one person
14:07
starts a message and it goes through all the different people and then the last person repeats that message and how
14:14
close it is to the original message so they did the study with all autistic all
14:20
nonautistic and then a mixture of autistic and not autistic people and
14:25
what they found is in the group of all autistic people the message was about the same at the end the group of all not
14:33
autistic people message was about the same at the end and the mixed group the message was different at the end so a
14:41
simple demonstration of how communication differs between different neurot types so with these communication
14:48
differences of course we're going to start interpreting things in different ways things are going to be understood
14:55
that come out of our mouths in different ways and this can really affect fect what we find unusual or not cuz a lot of
15:03
the times just the way that I might say something or the way that I might answer a question is seen as unusual when to me
15:12
it just totally makes sense and again that's like the video I mentioned earlier with the husband and the wife
15:18
his answer that he gave made sense to him but then he realized oh that is unusual and unexpected to my wife and
15:26
that's how some of the communication that we have in scenes may come out quotee unquote weird or not and this of
15:33
course extends to experiences and all sorts of different things like my regular activities that I do that are
15:40
completely normal for me because that's the way that I live my life as a neurodivergent individual I know is
15:47
going to be unusual to neurotypical people but we have to get used to sort of recognizing that recognizing that
15:54
well the majority of the audience is going to see this as unusual so this is an unusual thing and sometimes that
16:02
might take a beat for us to remember because we're in the moment we're just responding right out of our gut right
16:09
out of our head and we have to do that little blip of transition oh yeah that's
16:14
right that's going to be interpreted as unusual to most people so it is and
16:21
that's okay but we do have to give ourselves the understanding that it might take us a beat to recognize that
16:27
in the moment and that moment that blip is perfectly fine so will it always work
16:33
though not always it might kind of work in just different ways for example I was
16:40
in a group monos scene and that monos scene had a game and I missed some of
16:45
the subtext because sometimes subtext can be difficult especially in this sense and that subtext was the main part
16:53
of the game in this case which is why it kind of tripped me up often times subex text is not the main part of the game so
17:01
I picked up on that game maybe 3/4 of the way through of a very long scene
17:06
like I kind of thought we were playing a game and I didn't realize oh we're playing that game until about 3/4 of the
17:13
way through but in rehashing the scene in my head afterwards cuz I knew I missed it like I realized 34s of the way
17:20
through oh I missed the gamees so I was rewinding that game in my head to see what I missed and I realized I played
17:27
the sub game I heightened the subtext of the game in pretty much exactly the same
17:33
way as had I got the subtext initially maybe even better cuz I wasn't overthinking it either but it still
17:41
worked what I sort of grasped from that experience is that we have a lot of skill that's already kind of built in
17:48
especially if we've done masking for a very long time and I mean masking of course is hard it takes a lot of effort
17:54
it's not a great thing but it is something that we have have experienced for a very long time and that we already
18:01
naturally apply to a lot of our conversations or experiences and we sometimes have that masking kind of on
18:08
autopilot so it can apply to our scenes and can be kind of useful in that case
18:13
perhaps it's also important to remember it's okay to play these things the way
18:19
that you are cuz even if you don't get some things like in this case the
18:25
subtext some of the audience isn't going to either so if you end up needing to
18:30
clarify something in character in scene this can be a good thing that can be of
18:36
service both to the scene and to your audience so in this next section we're going to look at why does it have to be
18:44
the first thing or does it have to be the very very first unusual thing that comes up in the scene so that is what
18:52
some teachers will teach they will say that the first unusual thing is the
18:58
correct one that you must take the very first unusual thing that comes up that
19:05
is perceived by them as unusual and it's sort of seen as a universal
19:10
understanding of what's weird and you might have missed it if they brought it up and that was the only correct unusual
19:18
thing for the game to be based off of later in the scene now this isn't a universal rule even in this game of the
19:25
scene style improv but it is a rule that some teachers will teach that is their
19:31
philosophy and now my opinion is that is a valid philosophy like any others it
19:37
just doesn't work for me as the type of improviser I am with the neurotype that
19:43
I have I have a different philosophy and neither of these are any less good or
19:49
valid or anything they're just different and every philosophy that we come across
19:54
this and other ones will have their own pros and cons just the con of needing to
20:01
find the very very first unusual thing in the scene that con for my brain it's
20:07
too big it has too many drawbacks so I use a different one instead and I do want to point out that ner Divergent
20:14
people some of us myself included can be rule followers if I go into a space that
20:21
has the rule that you must find the very very first unusual thing in the scene
20:28
that that is the correct unusual thing for the scene that is what the teacher
20:33
wants my brain will immediately want to only do that thing perfectly so I must
20:40
find what they think is the unusual thing I must get that thing that's in
20:45
their brain that they noticed as the very first unusual thing that came up at all and if I don't I'm a failure I need
20:53
to cancel all of my future improv engagements I must leave the community and go back back to farming and never
20:59
show my face in these parts ever again that is how my brain works but that is a bit cuz I did feel that way and I'm
21:06
still here so it's a bit anyways as you might notice through that that doing
21:11
things that way finding the very very first unusual thing that will be
21:17
perceived by The Audience by someone else it'll put me in my head I will be scanning is this weird to who is a
21:23
neurotypical person somewhere finding this weird will I catch it will I see it and on and on and on and then I'm not
21:29
enjoying myself I'm not flowing I'm not being a good improviser this way I'm
21:35
deeply in my head and I'm too focused to be a good listener and losing that good
21:41
listening thing I think is too big of a con for the benefit of noticing the
21:46
unusual thing that other people will notice as unusual and other people is
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the key word the alternative is to let go and notice what you find and that to
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me what you find and this might be your seam partner equally what you all agree on is the best unusual thing my way is
22:07
to just loosen up to listen make that the focus and just see what you notice
22:14
you might notice it from your scene partner saying something that's slightly unusual to you or it might be what
22:20
they're framing as unusual which might be something they did or you did and it could be the second or third thing but
22:28
all of it is still early in the scene we're not saying wait for a full minute or something this is what you and your
22:34
scene partner both notice as the unusual thing near the beginning of the scene
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and that's my Philosophy for finding the best unusual thing near the beginning of
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the scene as opposed to the very very very first one and I know that probably this might be making some of you angry
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cuz I'm saying to break a rule someone might have taught you and for those of
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you who are angry I'll have more on this soon so my mindset my brain works way
23:05
better for me not worrying about it being the very first unusual item that
23:11
anyone would see but of course that goes against what some of you have been taught and this also as such might come
23:19
off as rejecting an offer but we can also sort of ask the question was it an
23:24
offer because it might have been too subtle you might not have noticed it not because you're not noticing but because
23:31
of your neurotype so what you want to do is just enhance your listening and you
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will be grabbing a very early offer of an unusual thing and as such you will be
23:43
grabbing a better one it's the one that you're both interested in if you both agree on it and you both communicate
23:50
that thing and I believe that's going to work better for the improvisors and in the end it could very well be working
23:57
better for for the scene and it just takes that stress off the top of the
24:03
scene you aren't as worried about something that is difficult potentially for you to notice or see or hear you
24:12
just know that it is going to happen early on I listen better without the
24:18
pressure of finding that very very first thing that if my seam partner sees and
24:23
Frames something I'll hopefully just get to that immediately anyway ways I'm way
24:28
more focused on my seen partner as opposed to just scanning for those
24:34
unusual things I'm being natural and I'm just using my natural neurotype in this
24:41
process as opposed to trying to do the translation into neurotypical adding
24:46
that neurotypical neurod Divergent translation process takes a lot of Cycles on its own and I believe it's too
24:53
many cycles for improv and once I did that I got a lot more bandwidth in my
24:59
brain anyway so I could just be in the scene and now I just barely notice any
25:04
of it I guess it just sort of happens that much more efficiently now so I think the key here is to just focus on
25:12
being with your scene partner more you're listening you're communicating and I believe that that leads to the
25:19
best thing being picked up as the unusual that leads to the game being on that same page is leading to a better
25:27
scene and that ultimately might be just as fast in the end maybe it even lends
25:35
itself to finding something with your seam Partners better and faster if you
25:42
end up because you're so efficient noticing the very first thing great good
25:47
on you but if it's the second thing that you both agree on that came up and you
25:52
both saw it's weird maybe that's the better game anyways so the one thing that you don't want to do in this
25:59
process is force something weird in us neurod divergents we are pretty good at
26:06
being weird by definition we're Divergent but we don't want to force
26:11
something into the scene this isn't good and it won't be funny and I'm using very
26:16
definitive language there and if that's controversial so be it because I'll stand behind that one you don't want to
26:23
force stuff in you want to just be yourself and if that happens to be weird
26:28
that is fine you'll sometimes be accused of forcing it because sometimes neurotypical people just don't get us
26:35
but make sure that you know you aren't actually forcing something in like truly
26:42
ask yourself don't lie to yourself or just make a mental note of what they
26:48
said in the note and see if you might want to adjust some of that at any rate
26:55
be your honest weird self and you'll sometimes be framed as the
27:01
weird one and that's okay because it's not forced and I know that some of the notes might be a little bit difficult
27:08
like I was just explaining about how sometimes we get framed as the weird one
27:14
or somebody will pick up on something that is particularly weird but it did come from an honest place it might have
27:20
really happened don't let that stuff get too much in your head because it is at the end of the day a really nice
27:27
experience to just let go and be ourselves and we do know that we're Nur div virgin we do know what we are and
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I'm perfectly happy with that and I think that that sort of learning process
27:40
can be a neat one to sort of get through improv and if you choose to adjust great
27:45
but I think the main focus here is just being you and seeing what happens from
27:52
that place and it can be very rewarding in the end so in this next section I'll give some improv tips for the neurod
27:59
Divergence out there first of all know that this is going to be very different for all of us so take any of these tips
28:06
and advice as usual on an as needed basis I'm a very high masking autistic
28:12
ADHD individual so my experience is going to be different from yours probably in that I can read weird I can
28:19
naturally do weird I can kind of mask as neurotypical it affects how I
28:25
communicate my prior experiences in corporate life Etc will have adjusted
28:31
what I know in communication all of this kind of things so standard disclaimer for every episode one thing that really
28:38
helped me a lot in sort of understanding what was unusual how it happened how it
28:43
was grasped in the scene was watching a ton of experienced improvisers doing
28:49
this in online Liv streams from the cities this was the best advice I was
28:56
given and I think it's some of the best advice I can share for a lot of improv things I figure that watching these live
29:03
streams of experienced improvisors is just as important as classes and Reps to
29:09
explain some of this stuff and make it make sense it can be timec consuming and expensive for many of the live streams
29:16
but I do find it extremely helpful so if you can access them I do recommend those
29:21
live streams when you do want to connect with your scene Partners at the top of the scene to do the listening to listen
29:28
hard to connect with them do this in whatever way makes the most sense for
29:34
you to connect this could be through eye contact it might not be that might not be something that you can access and
29:41
that's okay play around and find the best ways to listen hard at the top of
29:47
the scene and find which ways work best for you at the top of the scene don't be
29:52
afraid to explore That Base reality a little bit to set it up clearly and make that make sense for you because that
29:59
Firm Foundation of knowing who your character is and where you are all that sort of thing is really going to help
30:06
you find that unusual thing quickly and someone will frame the unusual it might
30:12
be you but it might be one of your scene Partners make sure you're just scanning for that unusual thing or scanning for
30:20
the framing you can also rely on the framing if you have difficulty picking
30:25
out the unusual thing because maybe that just it doesn't make sense to you watch for the framing because somebody will do
30:32
that framing so maybe watching for the framing is a little bit easier than watching for the unusual and you can
30:38
focus on that until you get more comfortable in general and if you're framing something and maybe your scene
30:44
partner doesn't pick up on that like maybe it's not something that's weird to them but it is weird to you find
30:51
different ways to frame or you can just literally say that's weird or whatever
30:56
you might need to use that hard hand at times especially if you're playing with people you don't know that well yet so
31:03
that harder hand is okay especially in those cases and in general even if you
31:10
are very experienced playing with very experienced people there are times when that hard hand of that's weird is
31:18
perfectly acceptable so don't be afraid to use that when you need to with time and Reps hopefully end up getting this
31:25
all done faster and better and really efficient and funnier and go you that's
31:30
great but remember that that exploration like I was just talking about is valid
31:35
it's especially good for setting the solid foundation of a scene or a set so
31:41
it's not a bad thing if things move a little bit slower because ultimately it
31:46
might make for a better scene in the end and that solid foundation can help with
31:51
other things like setting up stronger characters or giving you the better Foundation for secondary games that you
31:59
can flip between so don't be afraid to explore a little bit so what if you have
32:04
issues in this area well one of the things that you can do is to ask for a set way to point out the unusual and
32:11
frame it this might be in a learning context it might be in a class or you might be coached Etc or you might be
32:18
just working with a team practicing this particular thing so you can all communicate better you might ask for a
32:25
specific type of reaction this could be physical it could be verbal like wow
32:30
that's weird it doesn't matter this is just to learn so whatever works best for you whatever you notice best see if you
32:37
can set up a very specific reaction that's used to frame the unusual and
32:43
that can make it a little bit easier to start noticing unusual things in general
32:49
before they're framed so you can frame them eventually if something doesn't make sense why it's weird discuss this
32:56
afterwards ask your teacher or your coach or even your seam partner why did you find that weird I just didn't
33:02
understand myself and this isn't a commentary on your scene partner or you
33:07
is just a communication thing that exists don't be afraid to have some of
33:12
those discussions afterwards about what made that weird or how do I notice that
33:17
thing this all comes down to the framing because sometimes I'm going to find a thing that my scam partner doesn't find
33:24
weird but I'm going to frame it as such to get everyone on the same page and we don't have to agree that it's weird we
33:31
just have to move on from that place it is agreeing that it's weird for the scene but you don't have to agree that
33:37
it's a weird thing in real life you're just using it for the make them UPS so you can do a lot of this without really
33:46
understanding why something is unusual you might never understand what makes
33:52
those things unusual but you can focus on the frame in part first watching for
33:59
that because it's a lot easier to do especially if you get some help in this area get good at the framing first and
34:06
then focus a little bit more on noticing the unusual thing and you can even take
34:13
something pretty mundane that might not be unusual but frame it as such so a lot
34:19
can get lost in translation between neurotypical and neurod Divergent improvisors and sorting out what is
34:27
unusual in a scene can be a source of difficulty for all of us regardless of
34:32
neurotype but it can be especially hard or a little bit harder when we have
34:38
different cognitive wiring to start off with and that's just because we communicate differently we can work on
34:45
this communication though and that's going to be using techniques like framing the unusual thing and listening
34:52
in more efficient ways to get there and hopefully not worrying about it being
34:58
the very very first unusual thing that other people find unusual it's really
35:04
useful to work with trusted improvisers that you know say in a Practice Group to
35:11
try some exercises to get used to recognizing patterns or how people frame
35:16
in order to get used to noticing the unusual thing it's also a great practice
35:23
to watch really seasoned improvisors say on those Liv streams to see how it's
35:28
done by those with a lot of experience see if you can maybe pick out some of the unusual things before they're
35:35
heightened see if you can see the improvisors noticing it or framing it in
35:40
that top of the scene see if maybe you can notice some of the subtle reactions as well what do they look like get good
35:47
at predicting moves watching improv like that it's kind of a class on its own and
35:53
also don't force it in there just don't worry about about it being that very
35:58
first thing you want to find it early and fairly quick but if you don't syn up
36:03
on the very very first thing personally I don't stress about that what you find
36:08
with your scene partner might be the better unusual thing anyways because you
36:13
both saw it you both agreed on it naturally so listen hard sync up get
36:19
used to communicating with your scene partners and getting on that same page
36:24
with them by what you both find unusual all right that's it for this week let's
36:31
close this episode out I have classes at WG improv school.com I have a lab coming
36:39
up and the lab is a series of classes where we're going to learn a brand new form and we're going to Output it on the
36:47
internet in a new way uh using a newer type of streaming technology that's not
36:53
zoom and it's also going to be output to a podcast on our we just podcast channel
36:59
so go look at the site WG improv school.com it's under the online classes
37:04
page I also have a site of my own at fla improv.com I have a lot of information
37:11
on there about online classes and jams and podcasts and so on and I have a newsletter that comes out a couple times
37:18
per month about what's going on in the community so check that out and also on that same website I have a page for this
37:25
podcast and you can send me messages or if you have a comment about something
37:30
that I've said that you'd like me to read out from you I can do that too so that's at flat improv.com
37:37
substack if you'd like to send me a message and also I told you in this episode to go watch some good live
37:43
streams so I will note that I do mention some of those in my newsletter so if you're wondering where do I go subscribe
37:49
to the newsletter and it will have links in it all right so here's an aside for
37:56
the weirds and I use that term with respect and love it's what I call myself all right so I recently saw a video
38:04
about how accommodating and self-accommodating is good but forcing
38:09
disabled people to do things and be uncomfortable is bad like telling a
38:14
neurod Divergent person to just do this is not great so I want to make it clear
38:21
that I'm not here to say to force yourself to do something something I'm
38:27
basically about accommodating yourself in improv doing you and communicating
38:33
and understanding as much as possible like we kind of have to be able to
38:38
communicate because this is a team thing it's a group thing it's a learning situation so to be part of it all we do
38:45
have to communicate in some ways and communication's always weird there's
38:50
always things getting Lost in Translation speaking up is hard but in some cases we might need need to right
38:57
and uh there's many ways to do all of that and that's what we're focused on here in the series and maybe these are
39:05
workarounds but I think just being aware on both sides neurotypical and neurod
39:10
Divergent is a good first step and if anything happens from this series I hope
39:15
that it's that that people are aware that these differences exist that these differences in communication exist and
39:23
that also we learn that we're not alone that others out there like us dealing
39:29
with exactly these things so communicating as neurod Divergence can
39:35
be a challenge and according to some of those studies we might communicate more effectively with each other like the
39:41
telephone study that I mentioned earlier but none of this is easy even to neurode
39:47
Divergent people communicating can be difficult as well so just remember that
39:52
you don't have to do anything that you don't want to do especially in improv
39:58
this is a very voluntary activity for I think all of us so self accommodate be
40:06
proactive and do what you need to do for improv and most importantly yourself use
40:14
these if they're useful to you and throw away everything that is not do not force
40:21
yourself to do anything and I think that's all I have thanks for listen
40:27
[Music]
40:39
listening you know who made
40:45
it
0:15
you know who made it welcome to the neurodiversity and improv podcast from Flat improv I'm Janda Han and I do
0:23
improv stuff I like thinking about improv things a lot these podcasts aren't for telling anyone what to do I'm
0:31
just giving explanations and this is to help encourage classes teams everyone to
0:38
be a little bit more inclusive and to help whoever needs this to just get better and more comfortable at doing
0:45
improv and honestly a lot of us think this way so it's good to know that you're not alone these episodes are to
0:51
help with confidence with feeling more comfortable maybe making things a little bit easier don't force yourself to do
0:58
something you can't or don't don't want to do improv shouldn't be about that these episodes of course are not for
1:04
diagnosis either so don't use these episodes to diagnose yourself or anyone else basically we're just here to be
1:12
improv nerds nerding it out about improv so let's get started let's talk about
1:18
improv or I guess I'm just talking at you about improv and after the plug
1:23
section again I'll just have a section that's for the weirds out there so stick around if that's you and uh you can just
1:30
turn turn me off if you want if you don't want any of this in your ears
1:36
we're talking about weird and unusual in this episode let's get started so I don't know if this episode will be
1:42
controversial this is just my experience though with unusual things in improv
1:48
scenes and I don't think any of these things are necessarily right or wrong no
1:53
matter what you think this is just how I go about doing a thing currently because
1:59
as We Know all of this stuff can change and maybe even go back and forth depending on who you're doing scenes
2:06
with or what day it is we're going to talk about finding the unusual thing in
2:12
a scene today it's part of the game of the scene style of improv a really big
2:17
part of it actually you find an unusual thing in the scene you notice it you make a game out of it and go from there
2:25
however you're going to go you're going to heighten it blow it out explore success win profit whatever I have to
2:32
say though that this along with the voice of reason thing if you're not sure
2:37
what that is go back to episode 9 for more about voice of reason these are
2:43
those things that took me a little bit to figure out they were particularly
2:48
challenging I believe based on my neurodivergent neurotype for example
2:54
teachers would mention what was unusual in a scene what was the very first thing
2:59
that we might not have picked up on and sometimes for me it was things that seemed very normal and I don't think I
3:07
would have ever picked up on it but this is a lot about communication and how we
3:12
think like I was watching this video today made by another autistic person and it was about his communication
3:19
differences between him and his neurotypical wife and it reminds me of
3:24
this a bit he was detailing how his wife would ask him a question and he would
3:30
respond with a very honest automatic response to that question which was
3:35
absolutely not what his wife was after and he mentioned as it was coming out of
3:41
his mouth he'd suddenly realize this is not what she probably wanted to hear this is probably not what she was asking
3:49
about but his response to the question was his first natural response it was
3:55
sensical to him it made sense it would have been expected to him but to his
4:01
neurotypical wife it was unexpected or unusual sometimes these things can be
4:06
funny to neurotypical people sometimes we can even laugh at ourselves and that's how I kind of am sometimes
4:15
sometimes with the unusual thing in a scene like I might not see it instantly
4:20
but I might see it just a second after and it will click in as words are already falling out of my mouth so
4:28
what's unusual ual to other people is sometimes not unusual to us and this is
4:34
just our wiring this is part of our communication we might realize ah they wanted this they expected this it's like
4:42
a translation process sort of a dual translation that might happen in our
4:48
minds now I bet neurod divergent or not you will quite possibly relate in the
4:54
general difficulty in spotting the unusual hearing it or even just commun
4:59
communicating with your scene Partners having enough processing power though to think about all the Improv stuff and
5:08
this as well can be very difficult especially when everyone is starting out
5:14
so I hear this it's hard for all of us no matter what our neurological wiring
5:19
is I do think though it is potentially harder or takes increased effort for
5:25
some or many people who like me are a nerd Divergent neurotype we think
5:31
differently we have an atypical perspective by definition so whether or not some things are unusual that will be
5:39
affected by unique perspectives the ones that we all have and we're doing some extra translation in some cases to
5:46
compensate for some of these communication differences because by definition neurotypicals just a
5:52
statistically higher number of people that we're being doing scenes with so that becomes the default but it doesn't
5:59
doesn't mean that it has to become our default in the scene neurotypical and
6:04
neurod Divergent people often speak a different language and it is due to these wiring differences as we see in
6:11
the earlier example about the husband and the wife we have an extra layer on top of all the other communication
6:18
challenges humans in general have as being unique human beings and that is
6:24
great but some things get lost in translation even when we're speaking the same language as we know this can happen
6:30
between regions and cultures and backgrounds and this neurodivergent neurotypical communication is one other
6:38
way and because we think weird things are normal all the time and vice versa
6:44
for our neurotypical friends this is key Communication Breakdown Territory between scene Partners especially early
6:52
on when we're learning everything else on top of it many things in a scene we will just pick up on as unusual quite
7:00
easily this isn't a universal case some things though will have to take maybe a
7:06
beat to realize Ah that's what the neurotypical people are finding weird okay and some things might still
7:12
probably mystify us so in this next section I'm going to talk about what is finding the unusual and why do we do it
7:20
so the unusual thing what is it it's often described as simply that thing
7:25
that just perks your interest something that would make you turn your head and
7:30
go H it doesn't really have to be big it is often better if it's something that isn't all that weird it's just off
7:39
examples of an unusual thing in a scene I mean it might be something like wow
7:45
r I use a mini disc player in:7:52
u listened to cala the puppet:7:59
the past 3 weeks which probably sounded very specific and also might be a call back to a different show quite often the
8:06
unusual is somewhat subtle and often needs to be framed it might be big and
8:12
weird and bold like the Cala thing or it might be subtle a little bit more subtle
8:18
like the Crayons or someone else might need to make sure everyone in the scenes
8:23
nose for example it's the crayon thing and that's you framing the unusual thing
8:30
like calling it out we either do it where the person that is adding the unusual thing to the scene usually it
8:37
just comes out we're not trying to force it in there or we're listening for it we're listening for the unusual thing
8:44
maybe we're framing it or maybe our scene partner frames it at any rate we all just end up on the same page at some
8:51
point more on this in a second so whatever you do for all of this exactly
8:57
for the unusual thing seeing it noticing it framing it it can depend on who
9:02
you're playing with like your team or maybe it's the style of the theater or
9:07
the community you also might have personal preferences like I like starting with something that's a little
9:14
bit off like the crayon thing and then you can make it weirder through heightening or you can get more specific
9:20
about those things like I wouldn't do something like say I have pickles for
9:26
toes but I might be a pickle per that's really into specific flavors or some
9:33
kind of new pickle cut so it could be real perhaps so noticing the unusual
9:40
thing that often comes from practice from feeling from getting the gist from sort of that gut thing it's less rules
9:47
and structure and more something else and that just sort of the something else
9:54
Essence is often hard for us neurod Divergence I think we often like the
9:59
structure or rule book and all of this seems like a big rule but in the end
10:04
it's kind of not it's more just gut reaction we find an unusual thing
10:11
because it's often the source of the funny and the core nucleus of what a
10:18
game is because weird things are funny and funny is game but you take that nugget and then it just sort of forms
10:24
the game and that forms the scene so making sure you and your scene partner agree on what that weird or unusual
10:32
thing is really early on that helps you have an easier time throughout the scene
10:37
on agreeing what that game is and then how you'll play with that thing so how do we find the unusual thing if it is
10:46
sort of this gut reaction this feeling this thing that we have to notice that doesn't really have a concrete Rules
10:54
book about it well we end up finding that weird or unusual thing with our
11:00
scene Partners sometimes something unusual could be happening it could be an action or it might be an item or it
11:07
might be a behavior of a character it can come from wherever but it does need to be pointed out by someone in the
11:14
scene to the other people in the scene and of course also the audience watching
11:20
so that's when and why we end up framing that weird thing so the framing part is
11:26
simply communicating with your scene partner and to the audience hey this
11:31
thing here is is that's kind of weird and you might even say why it's weird basically you just want everyone to be
11:38
on that same page so you can move forward and have fun with it and I did say the word simply but it's not really
11:45
simple especially in the earlier phases this is done so many different ways and
11:52
as such it's not simple because we also have to notice it we have to communicate
11:58
and communicate in can be a challenge it's not usually as heavy-handed as hey
12:05
that's weird either that would make it easy if we always said hey that's weird but that is a little bit heavy-handed
12:11
and that's something that we might only see when we're say learning we're doing exercises but after that it usually
12:18
isn't at its core though you react to the unusual thing you care about that
12:25
unusual thing and then you go from there and you make it into a scene that's all
12:30
a very simplified version of something that's not all that simple and we often take quite a long time to get better at
12:38
so now let's talk a little bit about why the unusual why is the weird weird for
12:45
the weirdos oh that that's a weird title so things that are normal for neurod
12:50
Divergent people are sometimes weird for neurotypical people and vice versa things that are weird for the neurod
12:57
Divergent are sometimes normal for the neurotypical we're talking about things
13:02
that become Lost in Translation and how neurod Divergent humans do translation
13:09
and that can vary a lot like how I personally translate neurotypical how
13:15
fast that is when it applies it's all going to be different it's going to be different for me than it is for you so
13:22
this is the part where you need to start thinking about or analyzing your own improv practice in this regard notice
13:29
how things work for you or what might not be in place yet and then when you
13:34
find that you can start noticing your own pattern or practice a little bit
13:39
more about the communication why things are weird for us and not weird for
13:46
neurotypicals and vice versa so there was a study that was done and this was done with autistic individuals and
13:53
allistic individuals and this is autistic people and not autistic people and this study combined a group of all
14:01
autistic people together and did the telephone game that's where one person
14:07
starts a message and it goes through all the different people and then the last person repeats that message and how
14:14
close it is to the original message so they did the study with all autistic all
14:20
nonautistic and then a mixture of autistic and not autistic people and
14:25
what they found is in the group of all autistic people the message was about the same at the end the group of all not
14:33
autistic people message was about the same at the end and the mixed group the message was different at the end so a
14:41
simple demonstration of how communication differs between different neurot types so with these communication
14:48
differences of course we're going to start interpreting things in different ways things are going to be understood
14:55
that come out of our mouths in different ways and this can really affect fect what we find unusual or not cuz a lot of
15:03
the times just the way that I might say something or the way that I might answer a question is seen as unusual when to me
15:12
it just totally makes sense and again that's like the video I mentioned earlier with the husband and the wife
15:18
his answer that he gave made sense to him but then he realized oh that is unusual and unexpected to my wife and
15:26
that's how some of the communication that we have in scenes may come out quotee unquote weird or not and this of
15:33
course extends to experiences and all sorts of different things like my regular activities that I do that are
15:40
completely normal for me because that's the way that I live my life as a neurodivergent individual I know is
15:47
going to be unusual to neurotypical people but we have to get used to sort of recognizing that recognizing that
15:54
well the majority of the audience is going to see this as unusual so this is an unusual thing and sometimes that
16:02
might take a beat for us to remember because we're in the moment we're just responding right out of our gut right
16:09
out of our head and we have to do that little blip of transition oh yeah that's
16:14
right that's going to be interpreted as unusual to most people so it is and
16:21
that's okay but we do have to give ourselves the understanding that it might take us a beat to recognize that
16:27
in the moment and that moment that blip is perfectly fine so will it always work
16:33
though not always it might kind of work in just different ways for example I was
16:40
in a group monos scene and that monos scene had a game and I missed some of
16:45
the subtext because sometimes subtext can be difficult especially in this sense and that subtext was the main part
16:53
of the game in this case which is why it kind of tripped me up often times subex text is not the main part of the game so
17:01
I picked up on that game maybe 3/4 of the way through of a very long scene
17:06
like I kind of thought we were playing a game and I didn't realize oh we're playing that game until about 3/4 of the
17:13
way through but in rehashing the scene in my head afterwards cuz I knew I missed it like I realized 34s of the way
17:20
through oh I missed the gamees so I was rewinding that game in my head to see what I missed and I realized I played
17:27
the sub game I heightened the subtext of the game in pretty much exactly the same
17:33
way as had I got the subtext initially maybe even better cuz I wasn't overthinking it either but it still
17:41
worked what I sort of grasped from that experience is that we have a lot of skill that's already kind of built in
17:48
especially if we've done masking for a very long time and I mean masking of course is hard it takes a lot of effort
17:54
it's not a great thing but it is something that we have have experienced for a very long time and that we already
18:01
naturally apply to a lot of our conversations or experiences and we sometimes have that masking kind of on
18:08
autopilot so it can apply to our scenes and can be kind of useful in that case
18:13
perhaps it's also important to remember it's okay to play these things the way
18:19
that you are cuz even if you don't get some things like in this case the
18:25
subtext some of the audience isn't going to either so if you end up needing to
18:30
clarify something in character in scene this can be a good thing that can be of
18:36
service both to the scene and to your audience so in this next section we're going to look at why does it have to be
18:44
the first thing or does it have to be the very very first unusual thing that comes up in the scene so that is what
18:52
some teachers will teach they will say that the first unusual thing is the
18:58
correct one that you must take the very first unusual thing that comes up that
19:05
is perceived by them as unusual and it's sort of seen as a universal
19:10
understanding of what's weird and you might have missed it if they brought it up and that was the only correct unusual
19:18
thing for the game to be based off of later in the scene now this isn't a universal rule even in this game of the
19:25
scene style improv but it is a rule that some teachers will teach that is their
19:31
philosophy and now my opinion is that is a valid philosophy like any others it
19:37
just doesn't work for me as the type of improviser I am with the neurotype that
19:43
I have I have a different philosophy and neither of these are any less good or
19:49
valid or anything they're just different and every philosophy that we come across
19:54
this and other ones will have their own pros and cons just the con of needing to
20:01
find the very very first unusual thing in the scene that con for my brain it's
20:07
too big it has too many drawbacks so I use a different one instead and I do want to point out that ner Divergent
20:14
people some of us myself included can be rule followers if I go into a space that
20:21
has the rule that you must find the very very first unusual thing in the scene
20:28
that that is the correct unusual thing for the scene that is what the teacher
20:33
wants my brain will immediately want to only do that thing perfectly so I must
20:40
find what they think is the unusual thing I must get that thing that's in
20:45
their brain that they noticed as the very first unusual thing that came up at all and if I don't I'm a failure I need
20:53
to cancel all of my future improv engagements I must leave the community and go back back to farming and never
20:59
show my face in these parts ever again that is how my brain works but that is a bit cuz I did feel that way and I'm
21:06
still here so it's a bit anyways as you might notice through that that doing
21:11
things that way finding the very very first unusual thing that will be
21:17
perceived by The Audience by someone else it'll put me in my head I will be scanning is this weird to who is a
21:23
neurotypical person somewhere finding this weird will I catch it will I see it and on and on and on and then I'm not
21:29
enjoying myself I'm not flowing I'm not being a good improviser this way I'm
21:35
deeply in my head and I'm too focused to be a good listener and losing that good
21:41
listening thing I think is too big of a con for the benefit of noticing the
21:46
unusual thing that other people will notice as unusual and other people is
21:52
the key word the alternative is to let go and notice what you find and that to
21:58
me what you find and this might be your seam partner equally what you all agree on is the best unusual thing my way is
22:07
to just loosen up to listen make that the focus and just see what you notice
22:14
you might notice it from your scene partner saying something that's slightly unusual to you or it might be what
22:20
they're framing as unusual which might be something they did or you did and it could be the second or third thing but
22:28
all of it is still early in the scene we're not saying wait for a full minute or something this is what you and your
22:34
scene partner both notice as the unusual thing near the beginning of the scene
22:40
and that's my Philosophy for finding the best unusual thing near the beginning of
22:46
the scene as opposed to the very very very first one and I know that probably this might be making some of you angry
22:53
cuz I'm saying to break a rule someone might have taught you and for those of
22:59
you who are angry I'll have more on this soon so my mindset my brain works way
23:05
better for me not worrying about it being the very first unusual item that
23:11
anyone would see but of course that goes against what some of you have been taught and this also as such might come
23:19
off as rejecting an offer but we can also sort of ask the question was it an
23:24
offer because it might have been too subtle you might not have noticed it not because you're not noticing but because
23:31
of your neurotype so what you want to do is just enhance your listening and you
23:36
will be grabbing a very early offer of an unusual thing and as such you will be
23:43
grabbing a better one it's the one that you're both interested in if you both agree on it and you both communicate
23:50
that thing and I believe that's going to work better for the improvisors and in the end it could very well be working
23:57
better for for the scene and it just takes that stress off the top of the
24:03
scene you aren't as worried about something that is difficult potentially for you to notice or see or hear you
24:12
just know that it is going to happen early on I listen better without the
24:18
pressure of finding that very very first thing that if my seam partner sees and
24:23
Frames something I'll hopefully just get to that immediately anyway ways I'm way
24:28
more focused on my seen partner as opposed to just scanning for those
24:34
unusual things I'm being natural and I'm just using my natural neurotype in this
24:41
process as opposed to trying to do the translation into neurotypical adding
24:46
that neurotypical neurod Divergent translation process takes a lot of Cycles on its own and I believe it's too
24:53
many cycles for improv and once I did that I got a lot more bandwidth in my
24:59
brain anyway so I could just be in the scene and now I just barely notice any
25:04
of it I guess it just sort of happens that much more efficiently now so I think the key here is to just focus on
25:12
being with your scene partner more you're listening you're communicating and I believe that that leads to the
25:19
best thing being picked up as the unusual that leads to the game being on that same page is leading to a better
25:27
scene and that ultimately might be just as fast in the end maybe it even lends
25:35
itself to finding something with your seam Partners better and faster if you
25:42
end up because you're so efficient noticing the very first thing great good
25:47
on you but if it's the second thing that you both agree on that came up and you
25:52
both saw it's weird maybe that's the better game anyways so the one thing that you don't want to do in this
25:59
process is force something weird in us neurod divergents we are pretty good at
26:06
being weird by definition we're Divergent but we don't want to force
26:11
something into the scene this isn't good and it won't be funny and I'm using very
26:16
definitive language there and if that's controversial so be it because I'll stand behind that one you don't want to
26:23
force stuff in you want to just be yourself and if that happens to be weird
26:28
that is fine you'll sometimes be accused of forcing it because sometimes neurotypical people just don't get us
26:35
but make sure that you know you aren't actually forcing something in like truly
26:42
ask yourself don't lie to yourself or just make a mental note of what they
26:48
said in the note and see if you might want to adjust some of that at any rate
26:55
be your honest weird self and you'll sometimes be framed as the
27:01
weird one and that's okay because it's not forced and I know that some of the notes might be a little bit difficult
27:08
like I was just explaining about how sometimes we get framed as the weird one
27:14
or somebody will pick up on something that is particularly weird but it did come from an honest place it might have
27:20
really happened don't let that stuff get too much in your head because it is at the end of the day a really nice
27:27
experience to just let go and be ourselves and we do know that we're Nur div virgin we do know what we are and
27:35
I'm perfectly happy with that and I think that that sort of learning process
27:40
can be a neat one to sort of get through improv and if you choose to adjust great
27:45
but I think the main focus here is just being you and seeing what happens from
27:52
that place and it can be very rewarding in the end so in this next section I'll give some improv tips for the neurod
27:59
Divergence out there first of all know that this is going to be very different for all of us so take any of these tips
28:06
and advice as usual on an as needed basis I'm a very high masking autistic
28:12
ADHD individual so my experience is going to be different from yours probably in that I can read weird I can
28:19
naturally do weird I can kind of mask as neurotypical it affects how I
28:25
communicate my prior experiences in corporate life Etc will have adjusted
28:31
what I know in communication all of this kind of things so standard disclaimer for every episode one thing that really
28:38
helped me a lot in sort of understanding what was unusual how it happened how it
28:43
was grasped in the scene was watching a ton of experienced improvisers doing
28:49
this in online Liv streams from the cities this was the best advice I was
28:56
given and I think it's some of the best advice I can share for a lot of improv things I figure that watching these live
29:03
streams of experienced improvisors is just as important as classes and Reps to
29:09
explain some of this stuff and make it make sense it can be timec consuming and expensive for many of the live streams
29:16
but I do find it extremely helpful so if you can access them I do recommend those
29:21
live streams when you do want to connect with your scene Partners at the top of the scene to do the listening to listen
29:28
hard to connect with them do this in whatever way makes the most sense for
29:34
you to connect this could be through eye contact it might not be that might not be something that you can access and
29:41
that's okay play around and find the best ways to listen hard at the top of
29:47
the scene and find which ways work best for you at the top of the scene don't be
29:52
afraid to explore That Base reality a little bit to set it up clearly and make that make sense for you because that
29:59
Firm Foundation of knowing who your character is and where you are all that sort of thing is really going to help
30:06
you find that unusual thing quickly and someone will frame the unusual it might
30:12
be you but it might be one of your scene Partners make sure you're just scanning for that unusual thing or scanning for
30:20
the framing you can also rely on the framing if you have difficulty picking
30:25
out the unusual thing because maybe that just it doesn't make sense to you watch for the framing because somebody will do
30:32
that framing so maybe watching for the framing is a little bit easier than watching for the unusual and you can
30:38
focus on that until you get more comfortable in general and if you're framing something and maybe your scene
30:44
partner doesn't pick up on that like maybe it's not something that's weird to them but it is weird to you find
30:51
different ways to frame or you can just literally say that's weird or whatever
30:56
you might need to use that hard hand at times especially if you're playing with people you don't know that well yet so
31:03
that harder hand is okay especially in those cases and in general even if you
31:10
are very experienced playing with very experienced people there are times when that hard hand of that's weird is
31:18
perfectly acceptable so don't be afraid to use that when you need to with time and Reps hopefully end up getting this
31:25
all done faster and better and really efficient and funnier and go you that's
31:30
great but remember that that exploration like I was just talking about is valid
31:35
it's especially good for setting the solid foundation of a scene or a set so
31:41
it's not a bad thing if things move a little bit slower because ultimately it
31:46
might make for a better scene in the end and that solid foundation can help with
31:51
other things like setting up stronger characters or giving you the better Foundation for secondary games that you
31:59
can flip between so don't be afraid to explore a little bit so what if you have
32:04
issues in this area well one of the things that you can do is to ask for a set way to point out the unusual and
32:11
frame it this might be in a learning context it might be in a class or you might be coached Etc or you might be
32:18
just working with a team practicing this particular thing so you can all communicate better you might ask for a
32:25
specific type of reaction this could be physical it could be verbal like wow
32:30
that's weird it doesn't matter this is just to learn so whatever works best for you whatever you notice best see if you
32:37
can set up a very specific reaction that's used to frame the unusual and
32:43
that can make it a little bit easier to start noticing unusual things in general
32:49
before they're framed so you can frame them eventually if something doesn't make sense why it's weird discuss this
32:56
afterwards ask your teacher or your coach or even your seam partner why did you find that weird I just didn't
33:02
understand myself and this isn't a commentary on your scene partner or you
33:07
is just a communication thing that exists don't be afraid to have some of
33:12
those discussions afterwards about what made that weird or how do I notice that
33:17
thing this all comes down to the framing because sometimes I'm going to find a thing that my scam partner doesn't find
33:24
weird but I'm going to frame it as such to get everyone on the same page and we don't have to agree that it's weird we
33:31
just have to move on from that place it is agreeing that it's weird for the scene but you don't have to agree that
33:37
it's a weird thing in real life you're just using it for the make them UPS so you can do a lot of this without really
33:46
understanding why something is unusual you might never understand what makes
33:52
those things unusual but you can focus on the frame in part first watching for
33:59
that because it's a lot easier to do especially if you get some help in this area get good at the framing first and
34:06
then focus a little bit more on noticing the unusual thing and you can even take
34:13
something pretty mundane that might not be unusual but frame it as such so a lot
34:19
can get lost in translation between neurotypical and neurod Divergent improvisors and sorting out what is
34:27
unusual in a scene can be a source of difficulty for all of us regardless of
34:32
neurotype but it can be especially hard or a little bit harder when we have
34:38
different cognitive wiring to start off with and that's just because we communicate differently we can work on
34:45
this communication though and that's going to be using techniques like framing the unusual thing and listening
34:52
in more efficient ways to get there and hopefully not worrying about it being
34:58
the very very first unusual thing that other people find unusual it's really
35:04
useful to work with trusted improvisers that you know say in a Practice Group to
35:11
try some exercises to get used to recognizing patterns or how people frame
35:16
in order to get used to noticing the unusual thing it's also a great practice
35:23
to watch really seasoned improvisors say on those Liv streams to see how it's
35:28
done by those with a lot of experience see if you can maybe pick out some of the unusual things before they're
35:35
heightened see if you can see the improvisors noticing it or framing it in
35:40
that top of the scene see if maybe you can notice some of the subtle reactions as well what do they look like get good
35:47
at predicting moves watching improv like that it's kind of a class on its own and
35:53
also don't force it in there just don't worry about about it being that very
35:58
first thing you want to find it early and fairly quick but if you don't syn up
36:03
on the very very first thing personally I don't stress about that what you find
36:08
with your scene partner might be the better unusual thing anyways because you
36:13
both saw it you both agreed on it naturally so listen hard sync up get
36:19
used to communicating with your scene partners and getting on that same page
36:24
with them by what you both find unusual all right that's it for this week let's
36:31
close this episode out I have classes at WG improv school.com I have a lab coming
36:39
up and the lab is a series of classes where we're going to learn a brand new form and we're going to Output it on the
36:47
internet in a new way uh using a newer type of streaming technology that's not
36:53
zoom and it's also going to be output to a podcast on our we just podcast channel
36:59
so go look at the site WG improv school.com it's under the online classes
37:04
page I also have a site of my own at fla improv.com I have a lot of information
37:11
on there about online classes and jams and podcasts and so on and I have a newsletter that comes out a couple times
37:18
per month about what's going on in the community so check that out and also on that same website I have a page for this
37:25
podcast and you can send me messages or if you have a comment about something
37:30
that I've said that you'd like me to read out from you I can do that too so that's at flat improv.com
37:37
substack if you'd like to send me a message and also I told you in this episode to go watch some good live
37:43
streams so I will note that I do mention some of those in my newsletter so if you're wondering where do I go subscribe
37:49
to the newsletter and it will have links in it all right so here's an aside for
37:56
the weirds and I use that term with respect and love it's what I call myself all right so I recently saw a video
38:04
about how accommodating and self-accommodating is good but forcing
38:09
disabled people to do things and be uncomfortable is bad like telling a
38:14
neurod Divergent person to just do this is not great so I want to make it clear
38:21
that I'm not here to say to force yourself to do something something I'm
38:27
basically about accommodating yourself in improv doing you and communicating
38:33
and understanding as much as possible like we kind of have to be able to
38:38
communicate because this is a team thing it's a group thing it's a learning situation so to be part of it all we do
38:45
have to communicate in some ways and communication's always weird there's
38:50
always things getting Lost in Translation speaking up is hard but in some cases we might need need to right
38:57
and uh there's many ways to do all of that and that's what we're focused on here in the series and maybe these are
39:05
workarounds but I think just being aware on both sides neurotypical and neurod
39:10
Divergent is a good first step and if anything happens from this series I hope
39:15
that it's that that people are aware that these differences exist that these differences in communication exist and
39:23
that also we learn that we're not alone that others out there like us dealing
39:29
with exactly these things so communicating as neurod Divergence can
39:35
be a challenge and according to some of those studies we might communicate more effectively with each other like the
39:41
telephone study that I mentioned earlier but none of this is easy even to neurode
39:47
Divergent people communicating can be difficult as well so just remember that
39:52
you don't have to do anything that you don't want to do especially in improv
39:58
this is a very voluntary activity for I think all of us so self accommodate be
40:06
proactive and do what you need to do for improv and most importantly yourself use
40:14
these if they're useful to you and throw away everything that is not do not force
40:21
yourself to do anything and I think that's all I have thanks for listen
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[Music]
40:39
listening you know who made
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