Do you ever find yourself doing an improv scene and you're not quite sure what should happen next? If so, one easy hack that I've found works well is to heighten your character's emotions. Emotions can make dialogue flow easily and sound natural, especially when they are coming from a real place. And sometimes all ..read more

Vulnerability is a great way to connect with your scene partner in a deeper way, and usually being vulnerable in a scene leads to unexpected choices because you are working from your heart instead of your head. Where being vulnerable can be the most effective is when your character is being blamed or baited into ..read more

Improvisers have all heard that we need to add specifics to our improv scenes. Specifics are the fuel that keeps scenes going. The more specifics we use, the easier it is to figure out what’s going on. Without specifics, we’re in “Vaugue-land” — not a good place to take our scene partners or the audience. Specifics ..read more

I love watching documentaries and reading biographies about artists because I always get a couple of nuggets of inspiration. That’s why I originally started doing the podcast Improv Nerd so I could learn from other successful improvisers. This summer I watched a lot of documentaries, and here are three that I wanted to share with you that I thought you would like as much ..read more

I have been teaching improv for a very, very, very long time. I never actually set out to be an improv teacher. I just started doing it to make ends meet while I waited for my big break, but over the years, I found that not only did I really enjoy it, but I was ..read more

The reason I think improv is so popular is the social connection it provides. We are in a time where social media has become a substitute for social connections. It has become like an artificial sweetener — we know it's not good for us, but we feel the benefits outweigh the dangers. Our dependency on social media as a ..read more

I will often say to students in my improv classes and workshops who are stuck in their heads, “Move your body and the words will follow.” As simple as it sounds, most of the time they end up saying that my advice is something that surprises them.  They go from being stuck to brilliance. All ..read more

This week is my 8-year-old daughter is taking her first improv camp. I was more excited than she was about it, even though her 20-something-year-old counselor didn’t know that I am “improv” famous when I dropped her off the first day. I was first exposed to improv when I was 18 years old, so to see my daughter ..read more

Taking in compliments has always been hard for me. I squirm a little bit, I want to deflect them. But as I grow as a person and as an artist, it’s important for me to try to take in the good things that people say about me and try to embrace them. Because it’s only ..read more

When you work with the same group of improvisers for a while you can get in rut. You get into roles, like "You’re the one who always edits” or “You’re the one who always does the first scene." You may not even be aware that it is happening.  Recently, I was listening to Andy Richter's podcast and he had Colin Mochrie from “Whose Line Is it Anyway?” on, and Colin was talking about improvising with one of his kid's improv groups and how important it is to work with other improvisers . When we improvise with new people, we can break our patterns and change our roles, which gives us ..read more