Zoom improv
19 July 2025
Ok, a lot of people don’t like zoom improv as it can feel artificial….you are in front of a screen and see your peers in little boxes on your screen. It is such a visual medium so there is a lot of the dance who will start and starting at the same time….so a bit awkward… and if you raise your hand to share opinion it feels very being back in primary school like….And with zoom on a mobile phone it is even worse…as chat with others is tricky so you can’t quickly tell your partner what you liked in scenes that you completed, the high fives that you would do in real life.
But hear me out, zoom for me is a perfect addition to real live improv… Not having a regular team or group of friends to give things a go I am dependent for my fix on classes and group workouts, which often clash with my work meetings. And I know I am a fortunate that I live in a place that has got 2 or 3 active improv “schools” only an hour commute away (which often organize 6–8 week courses and one has the weekly 2 hour workout, not everyone in the world has got that.
I love having a change to meet with a friend weekly on zoom and try stuff out… She is more experienced than I am but we both put our heads together and find stuff to train improv skills we find challenging or have fun with …. I love that I can think of something like visualizing a big actor wardrobe and giving the other a genre and let her dress herself from the improv clothes. Describe how they feel, how they smell, the color, the patterns, the odd little imperfections and object work in putting them on…. once she had her outfit for her character. Show me how you would walk in these clothes, how does it make you feel? And from there she would do a mini monologue … that was born out of curiosity… spoiler alert this slow imagination builds authenticity and the character felt deeper and this was not even the internal motivation, point of view … Sometimes we talk and sometimes we do scenes and sometimes we do games to spark our creativity…. It is amazing what drifts to the top in play is often what is keeping us worried and busy in the real world…. but it is a place to explore and daring to feel it out….
Today I joined at 5 am a class do scenes and get notes…. Jumping in with no expectations other than to have fun and see what happens…. But the start when you recognize people you have played with before and feeling that oh boy I get to play with this lot….. it is exciting!
It also makes me realize that we all bring our own experience, teachings and beliefs to this 2 hour window of play. And watching improv scenes I see people grow in confidence and trust. In real life I don’t get to sit back and watch myself in play (yes haven’t got the how do I hide self-view button working yet). I think sometimes hearing the audience is helping your play but another player found it very distracting…. It was an eye opener that we are not all the same…. and while I understand that someone wants to analyze their scene to learn from it next time, it is having a group standing on the sideline not learning. Is this selfish of me to want to push for more play, less talk?
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Some things that have helped me over time to make my improv more watchable I find repeating those mantras as an audience member….
- Don’t talk about it, do it, do it, Do it!
- Your mouth says this, but your body says something else….
- Anger at your scene-partner….. Change it to having this anger towards the environment of something trivial and be a team that can be angry together is more fun to watch. But the conflict seems a big go to…. and seeing it play in front of me I can see why I got the notes often in the beginning do not start by being a Jerk. But in saying this it is super freeing to release the anger as normally I have to be the peacekeeper or the agreeable, so expect bottled anger to come out fizzing! The release of that anger and directing it it to something other than scene partner is powerful…. A total rant monologue full of passion, gorgeous! Use that full body to move and converse that anger…Show do not tell….
- Your body, your position, your movement , your silence it all tells a stronger story than the words and at zoom you have to play with the camera to converse that, so you have to be on higher alert for the little details.
- Bring a brick not a cathedral… I loved having a scene and the environment and how my partner interacted with me and random objects snow globe, star wars, figurines at the flea market, I discovered who we were because of that… one thing at the time and while you can’t make everything matter, choose some parts that do matter and dive deeper.
- Take a breath, be okay with silence… having a word that inspires and makes you think of….money makes me think of tropical holiday, beach makes me think of being grateful…. Totally beautiful scene where me and my best friend are having deep metaphors conversation on the beach. It could have turned into a fight scene, but staying in the moment and taking action throwing away her watch to preserve time…. that stuff can’t be scripted.
- Accept people for how they play and this is normal for their character… what does this tell me? If this is true what else is true? How does that affect my character?
- Don’t act, just be affected, be curious and be in the moment…. Watching people you see when they put on the big acting skills and it feels fake…. but the surprised look when your partner does do something unexpected that is when as an audience member I lean in… The look on the face of a dad having to tell his child they cant spend more time with them…. seeing that processing without words you know what his boss tells him…. The moment before crushing the dreams… that is connection with the audience.
- so many great conversations between friends…. there were lots of slivers of real life where as audience you are a fly on the wall. Specifying of the blue Doritos and the snack machine being the conversation of colleagues that end up in finding common ground of not liking change…
I loved practicing my walk-ons…. define or destroy…. A bubbly personality that makes it worse for the players… putting petrol on the fire with waivers, and do not worry about anything as we have now got Defibrillators in all of the escape rooms. Or the breakup where I can be the waiter with a full course meal (no location given so why not give them a reason to not walk away)….. It is tricky to find the right moment to walk on and not to linger or take over the scene… in and out but yes people like to get you in the scene.
So yes the zoom class I went in at 5 am with no expectations (except I know Jay Sukow and he is one of my favourites, who can create a safe environment and gives enough of a challenge but umphs up the fun and the connections between peers) was such a demonstration and practice of improv lessons I have collected and it was joyful to watch and be in. So thank you players, thank you teach and thank you Karla Dingle for keeping improv online still a thing even if the Covid period is over.
