Choose to Know
I moved to a new city and bombed my first improv class — but it taught me a lesson I’ll carry with me forever
Two weeks after moving to Los Angeles, I started an improv class at Groundlings Theatre in Hollywood. Taking the class was part of my plan to fully immerse myself into the city’s creative culture, while hopefully making new friends. Not being able to make new friends was one of my biggest fears about moving to a new city, but I soon realized that making new friends was the least of my problems. What I discovered (and am still discovering) is that I have a connecting-to-people problem.
Realizing this was far more troubling than the no-friends thing — it wasn’t something I had ever really thought about before. The thing about doing improv, though, is that to be good at it, you really have to listen. As a journalist (and a child of narcissists), I’ve always considered myself to be a fantastic listener. I had no other choice! Except in my improv classes, instead of just staring at people as they talked, I had to respond with their same amount of enthusiasm and confidence — the cornerstone of collective storytelling. Much like a wireless internet connection, improv demands that all circuits work in unison in order to have quick, continuous service. In improv, listening carefully and responding in kind is the conduit…
