You get the "more energy" note in improv and nobody tells you what to actually change. I take that note apart and look at what your teacher was probably reacting to.

The energy note does a lot of work in one word, so it can mean several different things at once, and most of us never ask for the clarification. In this episode I go through what a coach might be seeing when a scene reads as underpowered, and the mechanical choices available to you at your completely normal speaking volume. I also get into why the thing most of us do when we feel underpowered tends to make it worse, and why the option nobody suggests might be the one that holds a room. Before improv I taught dance fitness, and the presence I learned there had less to do with being loud than you might think.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

• What your teacher is probably reacting to when they say "more energy"
• The four things you can adjust without raising your volume at all
• Why adding motion when you feel underpowered often reads as something else entirely
• The choice that can command a stage without you doing anything
• How to finish the energy note yourself instead of paying an improv tax

CHAPTERS:

0:00 What dance fitness taught me about presence

2:35 Taking apart the "more energy" note

3:05 Show ident

3:50 Why the note is hard to use

6:00 Focus, and where your attention goes

7:19 Stance and where your weight sits

8:27 Tempo and cadence in a scene

9:13 How you take up the space

10:59 Reading "more" as more intentional

12:30 The option beyond movement

13:48 Why we add motion when we feel underpowered

15:16 Performance you might already be doing all day

17:04 Choosing big when you want it

18:47 Finishing the note yourself

RESOURCES:

Previous episode on pauses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vWZM6qoEM8

Off Script workshops: https://YourImprovBrain.com/offscript

Downloadable content

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About

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

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

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WEBVTT

00:00:00.001 --> 00:00:03.580

"Okay, improvisers, before improv, I taught dance fitness,

00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:06.260

"where standing in front of a room

00:00:06.560 --> 00:00:09.680

"and holding everyone's attention for an hour

00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:13.320

"through yelling and jumping and being quite often

00:00:13.340 --> 00:00:17.520

"like too much on purpose was literally my job

00:00:17.520 --> 00:00:18.560

"that I got paid for it.

00:00:18.560 --> 00:00:21.300

"And it's what kept people coming back too

00:00:21.540 --> 00:00:24.300

"so I could keep getting paid for my job."

00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:25.080

It was cliche.

00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:29.400

I was a cliche dance fitness instructor

00:00:29.400 --> 00:00:32.000

despite my autism, but I loved it.

00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:37.700

I'd also have songs where instead of that big energy,

00:00:38.400 --> 00:00:40.800

though I wasn't cliche,

00:00:41.440 --> 00:00:45.600

I brought dramatics instead, acting, drama.

00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:50.360

I could change based on the song and I loved it.

00:00:50.820 --> 00:00:53.860

Now, what I learned there is that presence

00:00:53.860 --> 00:00:59.380

is mostly a set of like mechanical, physical choices

00:00:59.380 --> 00:01:01.020

and practice on purpose.

00:01:01.300 --> 00:01:05.379

And also, really personal to what works for you,

00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:08.740

is what's your thing that you bring

00:01:08.860 --> 00:01:12.640

to make someone just kind of tilt their head

00:01:12.680 --> 00:01:14.980

and pay attention, kind of like a dog.

00:01:15.580 --> 00:01:17.740

That's the energy that you can bring.

00:01:17.940 --> 00:01:20.500

It can be big, it can be small.

00:01:20.740 --> 00:01:22.640

Stay with me for a second.

00:01:23.539 --> 00:01:24.380

Physicality, right?

00:01:24.980 --> 00:01:29.480

This is like where your weight kind of sits in your body.

00:01:29.960 --> 00:01:33.480

And whether your body is like claiming the space

00:01:33.560 --> 00:01:36.600

it's standing in, that it's existing in,

00:01:37.260 --> 00:01:40.760

or it's kind of like apologizing for being there,

00:01:40.960 --> 00:01:43.500

this could also be shown in your voice.

00:01:44.020 --> 00:01:45.980

It's definitely shown in your energy.

00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:51.220

Sometimes just something different that catches attention,

00:01:51.940 --> 00:01:53.760

that's energy, it doesn't have to be big.

00:01:54.300 --> 00:01:58.580

there's often some kind of confidence involved

00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:00.020

in all of this.

00:02:00.100 --> 00:02:03.320

Even if you don't have that big cliche

00:02:03.900 --> 00:02:05.960

dance fitness instructor energy.

00:02:06.660 --> 00:02:09.280

Like not every dance fitness instructor

00:02:09.679 --> 00:02:14.700

has like this big, wild, too much on purpose energy.

00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:16.660

Like some of my favorites,

00:02:16.820 --> 00:02:18.720

my favorite dance fitness instructors

00:02:18.720 --> 00:02:21.540

who are like the best dance fitness instructors,

00:02:21.760 --> 00:02:23.220

they were so much better than me.

00:02:23.460 --> 00:02:27.060

They had like this quiet confidence on stage.

00:02:27.580 --> 00:02:29.640

It's like they just owned the room

00:02:29.760 --> 00:02:32.080

with whatever energy that happened to be.

00:02:32.430 --> 00:02:35.300

It was like big, big energy,

00:02:35.440 --> 00:02:38.500

but it was so quiet and so understated.

00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:44.280

So today I want to take apart one specific note

00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:46.080

that you might hear in improv.

00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:48.780

This is the more energy note.

00:02:49.060 --> 00:02:52.059

So what people like your coaches and teachers

00:02:52.060 --> 00:02:54.880

might be reacting to when they give this note

00:02:55.560 --> 00:03:00.140

and how to get at that thing that they want

00:03:00.620 --> 00:03:04.560

without needing to turn into somebody else entirely

00:03:05.160 --> 00:03:06.880

for like hours on end.

00:03:07.040 --> 00:03:09.420

This is your improv brain, I'm Jen deHaan.

00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:13.140

This is the home for, I don't know,

00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:15.540

cognitive improv nerdery.

00:03:16.160 --> 00:03:17.100

Welcome to the show.

00:03:17.220 --> 00:03:21.260

So if you've been doing improv for any length of time,

00:03:21.700 --> 00:03:23.180

I like to say more than one week,

00:03:23.260 --> 00:03:24.420

but this one might be a few months.

00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:29.640

You have received some kind of note maybe like this,

00:03:29.720 --> 00:03:33.180

like to be bigger, to project more,

00:03:33.500 --> 00:03:37.680

to bring more energy, just like give me more, right?

00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:39.400

It's pretty vague.

00:03:40.920 --> 00:03:42.960

Like, I don't wanna say those words.

00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:44.960

I don't even wanna say those words

00:03:45.020 --> 00:03:46.540

in the context of this show.

00:03:47.160 --> 00:03:50.699

Like probably most of us didn't say anything

00:03:50.700 --> 00:03:53.420

because we didn't want to like question the note.

00:03:53.740 --> 00:03:54.960

Like we didn't want to say anything

00:03:54.980 --> 00:03:56.620

for that clarification, you know?

00:03:57.100 --> 00:03:58.260

Because like, I don't know,

00:03:58.380 --> 00:04:00.440

questioning the note comes up all the time.

00:04:00.600 --> 00:04:02.180

Like you just listen to the notes

00:04:02.180 --> 00:04:03.060

and you don't say anything.

00:04:03.440 --> 00:04:05.840

It was this common note in improv teaching

00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:07.040

or coaching or directing.

00:04:07.440 --> 00:04:10.200

I like to say it's like not very usable though,

00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:15.340

because energy is just doing so much work in that sentence

00:04:15.440 --> 00:04:17.720

and it can mean so many different things.

00:04:18.100 --> 00:04:20.820

Like it's a double duty or a triple duty note.

00:04:21.200 --> 00:04:23.880

And it probably, it might, I don't know,

00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:27.120

it might make you think you need to be the energy

00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:29.440

of like the dance fitness instructor,

00:04:29.870 --> 00:04:33.020

like when I was doing cliche big songs.

00:04:33.580 --> 00:04:37.420

Your teacher, however, watched the scene.

00:04:38.420 --> 00:04:41.160

They felt something in that scene

00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:44.640

was just like under powered somehow to them.

00:04:44.640 --> 00:04:46.240

It was lacking in some way.

00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:49.400

Maybe your teacher couldn't pin down

00:04:49.820 --> 00:04:51.500

what that thing was exactly,

00:04:52.280 --> 00:04:55.340

and the word that came out of their noggin

00:04:55.420 --> 00:04:57.140

was energy, more, give it to me,

00:04:57.500 --> 00:04:59.680

and now you have that note,

00:05:00.880 --> 00:05:02.980

and you're just like, well, what do I change?

00:05:03.300 --> 00:05:06.380

Or you might be thinking, I need to be big, right?

00:05:06.520 --> 00:05:09.780

I need to be a big character, but I'm not.

00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:10.560

Then what?

00:05:11.200 --> 00:05:13.480

So this episode, we're gonna look at some of the things

00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:15.960

that you can do instead of that.

00:05:16.280 --> 00:05:20.200

like being too loud, like just projecting your volume more,

00:05:20.460 --> 00:05:22.240

or too much or too big or too strange,

00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:25.760

or just trying something, something to address that note.

00:05:26.340 --> 00:05:29.080

You're gonna get some like tools here,

00:05:29.480 --> 00:05:32.320

some things you can try, and you don't, again,

00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:33.900

you don't have to be loud,

00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:35.660

and you don't have to be flailing about

00:05:36.200 --> 00:05:37.000

if you don't want to.

00:05:37.160 --> 00:05:38.860

You can if you want, but you don't gotta.

00:05:39.060 --> 00:05:40.840

So there's some things that you could think about

00:05:40.920 --> 00:05:44.279

and try that don't involve any flailing around

00:05:44.280 --> 00:05:46.740

or projecting your voice to volume 11.

00:05:47.440 --> 00:05:49.500

Being intentional about things

00:05:49.580 --> 00:05:51.680

is going to help you appear more confident.

00:05:52.100 --> 00:05:55.120

And it's also possible that you will actually feel

00:05:55.420 --> 00:05:59.560

a bit more that way too, or at least your character will.

00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:04.840

And try to think of these through the lens of the character

00:06:04.940 --> 00:06:06.700

that you are embodying.

00:06:06.880 --> 00:06:08.320

It might be easier that way.

00:06:08.380 --> 00:06:09.400

It sure is for me.

00:06:09.640 --> 00:06:10.760

Yeah, I know you might be different.

00:06:11.020 --> 00:06:13.220

So one thing you can try is focus.

00:06:13.620 --> 00:06:17.900

Notice where is your attention going?

00:06:18.460 --> 00:06:20.840

So an improviser who is watching their partner

00:06:21.020 --> 00:06:26.060

with clear, committed attention just reads as present.

00:06:26.420 --> 00:06:29.340

And an improviser whose focus is just kind of scattered

00:06:29.340 --> 00:06:31.640

all over the room or maybe turned inward,

00:06:32.460 --> 00:06:34.440

it can be read as sort of absent,

00:06:34.960 --> 00:06:39.020

and that will read to a coach as low energy.

00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:44.460

So this thing has nothing to do with your volume at all.

00:06:44.640 --> 00:06:48.220

And I'm not even saying that you need eye contact for focus.

00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:52.760

This is so much more about focusing on something

00:06:53.640 --> 00:06:55.480

in a very intentional way.

00:06:55.930 --> 00:06:58.780

I mean, this could be a button on their shirt.

00:06:58.780 --> 00:07:01.340

It could be your scene partner's ear,

00:07:02.080 --> 00:07:04.060

or it could even be a detail

00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:07.800

that your character is thinking about.

00:07:08.260 --> 00:07:11.520

So it could be your internal focus as a character,

00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:14.520

but about something external in the scene.

00:07:15.820 --> 00:07:18.980

So another one you can do, this is more body mechanics.

00:07:19.320 --> 00:07:20.940

So it's your stance.

00:07:21.340 --> 00:07:24.960

It's where you are positioning your weight in your body.

00:07:26.680 --> 00:07:27.500

So for this one,

00:07:27.780 --> 00:07:31.660

notice how your body is like meeting the floor, right?

00:07:32.100 --> 00:07:35.980

Because a lot of people, humans who are nervous,

00:07:36.140 --> 00:07:37.720

improvisers who are nervous,

00:07:38.350 --> 00:07:40.280

they might be standing with their weight

00:07:40.450 --> 00:07:42.500

kind of back in their body,

00:07:42.570 --> 00:07:44.420

or they might be kind of shifting,

00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:47.300

or they might be kind of drifting around a bit.

00:07:47.560 --> 00:07:51.820

That might read as, "I want to be somewhere else."

00:07:51.820 --> 00:07:54.620

So this could be coming from a place of nervousness,

00:07:54.620 --> 00:07:56.220

of being on that stage, perhaps,

00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.300

not your character, but your actual self.

00:07:59.900 --> 00:08:02.640

So getting your weight just sort of grounded,

00:08:02.900 --> 00:08:06.920

that's sort of like sinking down into the floor a little bit,

00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:08.900

just your center of gravity.

00:08:09.270 --> 00:08:11.600

So just think about that center of gravity,

00:08:11.780 --> 00:08:12.780

just pull it downwards.

00:08:13.290 --> 00:08:15.900

If you want, pull it a little bit forward as well,

00:08:16.020 --> 00:08:17.540

that will help stabilize you.

00:08:17.880 --> 00:08:20.320

This really changes how you're read,

00:08:20.640 --> 00:08:24.100

and it doesn't really cost you anything in terms of energy,

00:08:24.340 --> 00:08:26.740

there's no flailing here at all.

00:08:27.090 --> 00:08:28.580

So it's changing how you're read,

00:08:28.740 --> 00:08:31.440

and a lot of times this will read as confidence.

00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:34.740

So then notice like the tempo and the cadence.

00:08:34.800 --> 00:08:36.539

This could be of your speech,

00:08:36.640 --> 00:08:39.400

it could be maybe of your character and the scene.

00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:41.659

So if you're improvising everything,

00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:44.060

the whole scene at one speed,

00:08:44.500 --> 00:08:47.140

like really, really fast, or maybe really, really slow,

00:08:47.280 --> 00:08:50.220

this is one speed, one rhythm, one register,

00:08:50.800 --> 00:08:54.340

that's gonna feel flat, even if it's big, right?

00:08:54.360 --> 00:08:57.060

So you want those changes in tempo.

00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:01.080

Some of what gets called energy

00:09:01.580 --> 00:09:04.880

is really just a variation in energy,

00:09:05.060 --> 00:09:06.760

a variation in this tempo.

00:09:07.010 --> 00:09:09.560

So you can do this while you're speaking

00:09:09.810 --> 00:09:12.320

at a completely normal level.

00:09:13.210 --> 00:09:14.740

So it's just changes.

00:09:15.740 --> 00:09:18.460

Another one is spatially.

00:09:18.670 --> 00:09:22.140

So are you taking up space that you're standing in?

00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:25.380

Or are you just kind of shrinking inwards?

00:09:25.680 --> 00:09:28.820

So this one is gonna sound pretty vague,

00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:31.520

but it is very, very physical.

00:09:31.630 --> 00:09:33.640

So you can think about your arms,

00:09:34.090 --> 00:09:35.420

are they like tucked in?

00:09:35.750 --> 00:09:39.220

Are your shoulders like kind of hunched up by your ears

00:09:39.280 --> 00:09:40.580

or are they pushed downwards?

00:09:41.720 --> 00:09:43.200

'Cause that reads very differently.

00:09:43.880 --> 00:09:47.360

Maybe you're standing sort of at the back of the stage.

00:09:47.640 --> 00:09:49.820

Maybe that's where you kind of established yourself

00:09:49.980 --> 00:09:50.980

and you're not moving around.

00:09:51.160 --> 00:09:53.459

So this is where you're thinking a lot

00:09:53.460 --> 00:09:55.700

about your intentional placement.

00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:00.120

This is of your own limbs attached to your body

00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:01.920

and your head and everything.

00:10:02.900 --> 00:10:05.640

And it's like your intentional placement

00:10:05.930 --> 00:10:09.520

also in the space on the stage or on the screen

00:10:09.560 --> 00:10:11.140

if you're doing something online.

00:10:11.590 --> 00:10:14.600

So how are you embodying that space?

00:10:14.870 --> 00:10:19.640

So just thinking about this oftentimes solves everything

00:10:19.760 --> 00:10:21.979

because just thinking about this means

00:10:21.980 --> 00:10:23.720

that you're being intentional about it.

00:10:24.140 --> 00:10:27.700

So that alone can give you a read of confidence.

00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:29.420

Again, you're not being loud.

00:10:29.620 --> 00:10:31.120

You don't need to be energetic.

00:10:31.380 --> 00:10:32.660

You don't need to be loud.

00:10:33.500 --> 00:10:34.580

I already said that.

00:10:34.700 --> 00:10:36.140

You don't need to be big.

00:10:36.880 --> 00:10:40.740

So it means that you can do things a lot smaller,

00:10:41.040 --> 00:10:42.940

a lot quieter, because you're doing

00:10:43.040 --> 00:10:44.740

those movements intentionally.

00:10:45.500 --> 00:10:48.380

And that can really command a stage.

00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:50.060

It can command a lot of attention.

00:10:50.540 --> 00:10:51.760

So that was a list.

00:10:52.300 --> 00:10:54.960

None of those things are requiring you to be louder.

00:10:55.420 --> 00:10:57.220

None of those things are requiring you

00:10:57.220 --> 00:10:58.920

to be big and extroverted.

00:10:59.980 --> 00:11:03.640

So when you get that note, more energy,

00:11:03.820 --> 00:11:05.240

or even just give me more,

00:11:06.200 --> 00:11:09.120

they might be reacting to a couple of those things

00:11:09.160 --> 00:11:12.640

on the list and just kind of gave you something

00:11:12.780 --> 00:11:14.900

that means all of the things on that list.

00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:17.340

So now you have a lot of those things

00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:18.700

on that list to work with.

00:11:19.100 --> 00:11:22.500

So think of more as being more intentional,

00:11:23.640 --> 00:11:25.440

as having more presence.

00:11:25.660 --> 00:11:27.360

Then you have a lot more flexibility

00:11:27.880 --> 00:11:30.500

in how you approach this note.

00:11:30.740 --> 00:11:32.860

So for me in that dance fitness room,

00:11:33.420 --> 00:11:35.880

I think when I was able to get out of my head

00:11:36.020 --> 00:11:37.680

as a dance fitness instructor,

00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:42.460

that I let a lot of what I did go on autopilot

00:11:42.560 --> 00:11:44.540

so I could focus on the people in the room

00:11:44.640 --> 00:11:47.360

who are essentially my scene partners in that context.

00:11:47.660 --> 00:11:51.460

my energy presence just went way up.

00:11:52.160 --> 00:11:54.900

Again, it wasn't necessarily bigger or louder

00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:56.740

in a lot of those songs,

00:11:56.940 --> 00:11:59.260

unless the song really commanded that sort of thing.

00:11:59.560 --> 00:12:03.120

I was just more intentional with the people in the room

00:12:03.400 --> 00:12:05.680

in a lot of cases, all those scene partners

00:12:05.880 --> 00:12:07.940

that were the people taking the class.

00:12:07.940 --> 00:12:10.280

I was focused a lot more on them,

00:12:10.780 --> 00:12:12.580

and hence I was a lot more intentional

00:12:13.180 --> 00:12:14.700

with a lot of my choices,

00:12:14.880 --> 00:12:16.540

with my connection to the music,

00:12:16.940 --> 00:12:21.720

to translate that whole thing into an overall experience.

00:12:21.970 --> 00:12:24.840

So everything kind of matched as connected

00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:27.440

because of that intention that I had.

00:12:27.670 --> 00:12:30.480

The music with me and the me with the people,

00:12:30.600 --> 00:12:33.500

all of that read as presence and energy

00:12:33.780 --> 00:12:37.140

without needing to be really big and loud.

00:12:37.470 --> 00:12:40.820

So lead with the intent to find that kind of presence,

00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:45.859

which very well might translate into the more energy

00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:47.920

that the note was asking for.

00:12:47.940 --> 00:12:49.480

But there's one more thing,

00:12:49.660 --> 00:12:52.800

there's something else beyond how you move yourself

00:12:52.980 --> 00:12:55.980

or present yourself with intention

00:12:56.380 --> 00:12:58.800

or embody your presence in that room,

00:12:59.240 --> 00:13:04.740

and that thing is stillness or the absence of all of that.

00:13:05.220 --> 00:13:10.040

And that stillness can also read as strength and presence.

00:13:10.600 --> 00:13:12.920

It's a little bit like those juicy pauses

00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:15.000

I mentioned in the previous episode,

00:13:15.160 --> 00:13:17.180

so I'll link to that in the description.

00:13:17.580 --> 00:13:20.040

Because a body that is completely still

00:13:20.740 --> 00:13:23.780

with focus and intent is completely committed.

00:13:24.380 --> 00:13:26.760

It is like one of the most compelling things

00:13:26.820 --> 00:13:29.160

that you can put in front of an audience.

00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:32.180

I mean, if it makes sense,

00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:35.020

they're gonna lean in to that,

00:13:35.400 --> 00:13:36.960

and they will wait for you.

00:13:37.180 --> 00:13:40.220

They will assume that you have decided something,

00:13:40.440 --> 00:13:44.080

because an improviser who has decided something,

00:13:44.620 --> 00:13:48.200

oftentimes stops moving and stops speaking.

00:13:48.420 --> 00:13:51.200

It's like they're waiting for the attention

00:13:51.370 --> 00:13:55.720

or the moment to arrive to announce that decision

00:13:56.060 --> 00:13:57.340

that they've already made.

00:13:57.440 --> 00:13:59.660

Everybody knows that the decision is there.

00:13:59.800 --> 00:14:04.140

They're just waiting with bated breath to hear it or see it.

00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:07.820

And most of the time we do the opposite, right?

00:14:08.220 --> 00:14:11.220

Because we feel underpowered, right?

00:14:11.560 --> 00:14:14.600

We're adding motion, it's kind of like flailing in a way

00:14:14.600 --> 00:14:16.500

'cause you don't maybe know what to do.

00:14:16.700 --> 00:14:20.440

So more gesturing, more pacing, more doing,

00:14:20.680 --> 00:14:23.260

because we're anxious, right?

00:14:23.340 --> 00:14:26.320

We're filling in those gaps so much.

00:14:27.400 --> 00:14:30.420

And that oftentimes gets read as anxiety.

00:14:30.580 --> 00:14:33.260

And anxiety is not the same thing as presence.

00:14:33.820 --> 00:14:34.900

Though from the inside,

00:14:35.060 --> 00:14:37.680

it can kind of feel like the same sort of effort.

00:14:37.920 --> 00:14:39.760

Like anxiety feels like effort,

00:14:39.880 --> 00:14:41.680

so it feels like it should be moving.

00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:44.040

Like I'm doing so much stuff,

00:14:44.120 --> 00:14:46.380

I'm adding all of this stuff to the scene,

00:14:47.100 --> 00:14:49.400

but then it just ends up kind of like sucking

00:14:49.640 --> 00:14:52.940

all of the energy or momentum from it in the end.

00:14:53.620 --> 00:14:55.360

So stillness is another option.

00:14:55.580 --> 00:14:59.740

It's another like tool you can use to try when it fits.

00:15:00.200 --> 00:15:02.260

Try just being like extremely still

00:15:02.700 --> 00:15:06.220

and putting everything into where you're looking.

00:15:06.660 --> 00:15:08.660

Like your energy might be in your eyes

00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:13.119

and that really like deeply juicy pause

00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:16.440

as much as that stance, whatever stance that you're holding.

00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:19.420

And go listen or watch the previous episode

00:15:19.500 --> 00:15:21.200

if you haven't already about those pauses.

00:15:21.580 --> 00:15:23.380

So for a lot of neurodivergent people,

00:15:23.540 --> 00:15:27.400

that performance thing is like not like a new skill

00:15:27.560 --> 00:15:29.400

that we're being taught or coached

00:15:29.400 --> 00:15:32.020

when we eventually drop into improv.

00:15:32.380 --> 00:15:36.080

We might have been doing this kind of performance thing

00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:40.300

all day at work, when we go to the grocery store,

00:15:40.780 --> 00:15:43.000

in every single social situation,

00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:47.840

that's like expecting a very particular version of a human,

00:15:48.300 --> 00:15:51.660

and then we have to build that human version.

00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:56.100

So we're doing this before the improv class,

00:15:56.100 --> 00:15:58.800

we're doing this after the improv class.

00:15:58.900 --> 00:16:02.700

Now this is often called social masking or camouflaging,

00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:05.860

and doing that sort of thing is really expensive

00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:08.900

as far as energy goes, right?

00:16:09.340 --> 00:16:12.460

So there's a lot of nuance in this conversation.

00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:14.940

I'm just like putting the basics in here

00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:16.420

because for some of us,

00:16:16.920 --> 00:16:18.320

some of us neurodivergent humans

00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:19.960

who do this social masking,

00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:23.500

being on stage gives us a freedom

00:16:24.100 --> 00:16:26.940

that means playing a big character,

00:16:27.480 --> 00:16:33.740

even if we are generally quiet outside of improv.

00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:36.380

Like this is now,

00:16:37.220 --> 00:16:40.040

which then means for some of us, not all of us,

00:16:40.160 --> 00:16:44.200

but some of us doing these big characters when we perform

00:16:44.280 --> 00:16:46.380

is actually giving us the freedom

00:16:46.700 --> 00:16:49.160

to be our true selves on stage

00:16:49.520 --> 00:16:51.500

without social repercussions.

00:16:52.020 --> 00:16:54.680

Like for example, I don't get exhausted

00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:57.600

in any kind of character, big or small, quiet or loud,

00:16:57.980 --> 00:17:00.780

because a lot of this to me is freedom.

00:17:01.160 --> 00:17:04.779

But this is my type of neurodivergence

00:17:04.780 --> 00:17:08.640

and absolutely not necessarily someone else's type

00:17:08.800 --> 00:17:11.319

of neurodivergence, is different for all of us.

00:17:11.819 --> 00:17:15.280

Now, I think some improvisers might conclude,

00:17:15.310 --> 00:17:16.760

they might come to this conclusion

00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:18.920

that they're not cut out for improv

00:17:19.339 --> 00:17:21.959

if the energy that they're being asked to do

00:17:22.339 --> 00:17:26.699

is just so against what they want to do with their selves,

00:17:27.420 --> 00:17:30.300

with their bodies, when what actually happened

00:17:30.300 --> 00:17:32.419

is that somebody gave them a note

00:17:32.420 --> 00:17:37.380

that just maybe there wasn't a solution tied to that note

00:17:37.400 --> 00:17:39.060

or it wasn't obvious, right?

00:17:39.260 --> 00:17:41.460

Like it's this kind of note that I'm talking about,

00:17:41.520 --> 00:17:43.360

more energy, right?

00:17:43.780 --> 00:17:47.140

So the adjustment here, and I mean adjustment in the sense

00:17:47.220 --> 00:17:49.120

that everybody needs some adjustment.

00:17:49.280 --> 00:17:51.680

This isn't like a special exemption or anything,

00:17:52.010 --> 00:17:55.600

is to find your own version of presence

00:17:56.300 --> 00:17:58.640

outside of these mechanics and stuff.

00:17:59.080 --> 00:18:01.780

So this could be your focus, your stance, your tempo,

00:18:02.280 --> 00:18:05.440

that sort of space one where you are on the stage.

00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:10.020

Check this all out against your comfort, right?

00:18:10.340 --> 00:18:15.220

All of those are available to you at your natural volume

00:18:15.420 --> 00:18:17.920

at this point in your improv.

00:18:18.080 --> 00:18:21.460

So you might choose to play big sometimes.

00:18:21.660 --> 00:18:23.800

Big can be fun for some people.

00:18:23.960 --> 00:18:27.140

It's a choice you can make if and when you're ready,

00:18:27.580 --> 00:18:28.820

when the scene wants it,

00:18:29.120 --> 00:18:32.040

and you have the capacity and willing to do it.

00:18:32.220 --> 00:18:35.260

And it stops then being some kind of improv tax

00:18:35.700 --> 00:18:38.460

that you're just like paying to be taken seriously

00:18:38.490 --> 00:18:42.460

or whatever, or meet what you interpret that note as.

00:18:42.800 --> 00:18:48.000

Because at the end of the day, to use a cliche phrase,

00:18:48.780 --> 00:18:51.240

improv is meant to be fun,

00:18:51.560 --> 00:18:54.260

or why in the heck are we doing this thing?

00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:56.620

'Cause it sure ain't money or fame.

00:18:56.780 --> 00:18:59.100

So the energy note is gonna keep coming

00:18:59.100 --> 00:19:02.820

'cause teachers will probably keep saying this thing

00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:05.300

and it's a hard habit to break, right?

00:19:05.840 --> 00:19:09.120

And so what you can do is just stop treating it

00:19:09.300 --> 00:19:12.300

as some sort of note to be a louder person

00:19:12.740 --> 00:19:17.900

and treat it as something that you get to choose

00:19:18.300 --> 00:19:23.200

to interpret and finish the note yourself how you want.

00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:26.500

So if you want to work on this sort of stuff

00:19:26.500 --> 00:19:29.120

with other people, I run off-script workshops,

00:19:30.020 --> 00:19:32.380

and this is the kind of the thing that they're for,

00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:36.780

is this confidence building and trying new things

00:19:36.900 --> 00:19:40.920

with a very low stakes environment involved.

00:19:41.280 --> 00:19:43.540

This is one of the themes that I cover,

00:19:43.590 --> 00:19:45.200

and I'll put the link in the description.

00:19:45.840 --> 00:19:46.560

Bye for now.