Communication is important, but comprehension is key

Nobody is perfect at either skill but all parties should be doing both in good faith

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

The most solid advice you can get for improv is to listen and react. All scenes have collaboration at their core, with two or more people working together to make the scene as strong as possible.

At its surface, it’s pretty simple to understand, but going deeper, there are greater dynamics at play - not only in how we approach improv but also in how we communicate in our lives.

To break it down into more specific (read: fancier) words, think of it as communication and comprehension. To define these terms:

Communication: How information is conveyed through words, tone, expressions, physical actions and more.

Comprehension: Understanding what has been communicated, taking in words, tone, expression and more to help inform your response.

While communication is important, comprehension is what makes or breaks a scene. Without it, building a scene is next to impossible.

Our comprehension is shaped by improv’s demands, which are to respond to and build upon what has been established in an interesting way.

That expectation can change how we take in information and place a burden on us. When improving your skills, part of the process is stepping away from this expectation so that you can take things in more clearly.

It’s important to note that no performer is going to have complete comprehension of what the other person is communicating. Nor is any performer going to perfectly communicate an idea in their head every single time.

No performer is a mind reader and part of the process is accepting that sometimes what you communicate or comprehend will differ.

That is part of the fun of improv where something is misunderstood. Those are enjoyable accidents that can lead the scene down an avenue that wouldn’t be discovered through normal means.

Good faith and bad faith

You can develop your comprehension by taking what is said in good faith and building upon it. If you’re playing with someone for the first time, you look to build them up.

If you’re in a group, you can go deeper by understanding your teammate’s performance style, choices, and personality.

Yet part of the process is that, at one point or another, you will end up working with people who make scenes difficult because they lack this comprehension. 

The most common instance involves those who are new to improv. This is pretty harmless, as they haven’t developed the skills necessary to navigate the medium successfully.

Some of the things that might happen is them throwing out punchlines, bringing conflict in too early, talking over you, or blocking progress by doubling down on their ideas. Again, this is a process everyone experiences as we build up our experience. 

If you’re on stage with a new performer and this is happening, treat them gracefully and go with the offers they’re throwing out. Remember that every performer, yourself included, was like that when starting out, so use this as an opportunity to bring both of you up will make you a stronger performer. 

Also, I’ve seen enough instances where new performers start shaky but, over time, find their feet and become strong scene partners.

You need to be cautious about those who make these choices despite having some or a lot of experience - i.e., those who should know better. 

In these cases, no amount of concise communication will ever make up for someone’s lack of comprehension and reluctance to understand. 

This can be more harmful because these people know what’s required for a scene but skirt the lines so that, on the surface, they don’t look like bad scene partners.

So if you find them regularly misunderstanding you, bypassing offers and choices you made for their own idea, twisting what you’re saying in a way that undermines your choices, or blaming you for not understanding their offer, there’s a significant problem.

This goes beyond someone having an off day or a different performance style than you. It’s where scenes with them are tough, and more than note, you feel drained navigating them and ultimately your confidence levels take a dip. Even if you can’t verbalise it, you know something is off.

If you’re on a team with them, it’s best to reconsider if this is the type of person you want to hang around with.

Life is too short to spend time with those who make life difficult for you, so even if it means you’re without a group for a while, it’s better to step away and be happy without one than be unhappy within a group.

(And it goes without saying that if you come across these people in life, it’s recommended to head in the opposite direction).

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