Be Confident!

Improvisers… Do us all a favor: be confident.

I’m taking 6 college classes right now, which means 6 professors doing 6 one-man shows twice a week for captive audiences.

(And some of my fellow students truly behave like captives. Some play Clash Royale during class, others trade stocks, and still others inexplicably spend class after class Bing searching CDC and reading every result)

It’s a tough audience.

Confidence makes all the difference.

I’ve got a couple professors who speak quietly, in apologetic tones and apologetic words. They know we’re not here for their show, so they don’t put one on. To be the only person trying hard in a sea of people who don’t care is well — it’s uncouth.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a couple professors who walk in like rockstars.

(One literally throws on music - his Pandora always defaults to Nickleback radio, which clearly must be a station he listens to - but he’s always incredulous at the Nickleback and changes it to Frank Sinatra)

These guys project confidence. They cover the material, make it clear what’s important and what’s not, they make jokes, they’re engaging, and they don’t waste anyone’s time. If they finish early, they congratulate us all on getting some of our time back.

Guess whose classes are simultaneously easier to take while teaching us more?

You guessed it - the confident professors’ classes are way better. They pull up, you hop in, and they take you for a spin.

The not-confident professors.. It’s easy for your attention to drift, it’s unclear what material in their endless shapeless drone is genuinely important, and everyone involved gets way less out of the class. You’re not being taken for a joy ride. You’re just kinda in the car, and it’s unclear where we’re going and why.

All of this applies to the improv stage

(Well, not the Mean Girls NPV meme, but come on)

We’ve all done bad shows. And we know how uniquely intolerable bad improv shows can be. You know you’re inflicting something on your poor audience.

Improvisers who lack confidence come out and try way too hard - lunging around looking for laughs. This gets the dynamic with the audience all wrong. You come out, clutching at them for laughs - debasing yourself to get them. You’re begging the audience for laughs, rather than giving them a funny show.

Confidence is the solution. When we’re confident, we come out, play committed base reality, and discover funny unusual things that lead to satisfying games. Instead of looking for laughs from the audience, we give them stuff to laugh at.

Be confident. Do it for yourself. Do it for your audience.