Escaping Approval-Disapproval Syndrome in Improv

“You are welcome to take inspiration from these notes for personal use, but don’t copy what I’ve written.” - Cameron D

Many of us are people pleasers who seek approval from external authorities and avoid disapproval from those authorities. To become better improvisers, we must perform free from what Viola Spolin called this Approval-Disapproval Syndrome. When I perform while seeking approval, I perform skilfully but not exceptionally. When I am not seeking approval, I am freer, so perform better.

I perform better because I am freed from doubt. If I perform to please others, then my choices are mediated by what I think others will think. I can never be certain about what others think, so doubt will always exist. Freed from that doubt, my choices are faster and stronger because they are aligned with my own beliefs and personality, not the imagined thoughts of an illegitimate, external authority.

Spontaneity, by definition, has no boss. There is no controller or authority to say that this spontaneous choice is correct or happened at the right time. When an improviser is to be spontaneous, they must be their own boss, feel empowered, and know that their spontaneous decisions are valid. When an improviser is not the boss of their own spontaneous decisions, there are three typical outcomes.

If they are novice improvisers and don’t know anything, they will feel they have no authority, so will make no decisions.
If they are watched by a teacher, they will try to please the teacher by making decisions they think the teacher will like.
If they are performing for an audience, they will try to please the audience by doing what has pleased audiences before. In other words, a decision is valid if it has precedence. Examples of precedence are movie and TV tropes (love at first sight), habitual decisions (funny accent), standard scenes (first date).

Spontaneity requires the removal of authority from the above sources, and the granting of authority to the improviser. If I had to summarise improv training in one sentence, which I don’t, it would be this.

“Spontaneity requires trusting our improv-trained, unconscious brain to respond, unfiltered, after absorbing as much scenic information as possible through hardcore listening.” - Me

Every good sentence requires explanation, so here are the individual terms and their meanings.

Trusting: To trust is to grant authority to something to do a job well.
Improv-trained: Learning and drilling improv skills into habit, so they come to the fore even under the pressure of performance. We hear about this type of response when a paramedic or soldier says ‘my training kicked in’.
Unconscious brain: The part of our brain we don’t consciously control. It’s more powerful than our conscious brain, and it executes most of our actions without conscious input. E.g. walking, driving to work.
Unfiltered: Not filtering actions because they might make us look bad to civilised society, i.e. playing a bad guy or expressing bad thoughts.
Scenic information: What is going on right now, and everything the improviser has noticed in the show so far. What characters and scenes have happened, what has been said, what themes emerged, etc.
Hardcore listening: Listening to what is being said, but also seeing body language, noticing inflection, observing how things are said. In general, absorbing as much input as the improviser is capable of taking in.
Me: To be confirmed.

It is paradoxical to teach a student out of Approval-Disapproval Syndrome because they must learn that doing what they think the teacher wants isn’t the answer. Still, let’s have a go. These exercises target Approval-Disapproval Syndrome by asking the student to take action only because they want to, or taking action when it is not expected.

Independent film

For the next five minutes, you will all be participating in a student art project, aka an independent film. It can be weird, it can be boring, it can be whatever, the content is not important. What is important is that, like a student, you must be committed to whatever you are doing. If you are playing a character, you must be sincere. If you are being a tree, you must be a real tree. You can do whatever you like and change what you are doing as much, or as little, as you like. If you engage with other players, they may engage with you, or they may not. I encourage you to push through feeling silly. You have five minutes starting now.

“I learned this exercise in Edinburgh from my first long-form improv teacher. If I ever remember her name, I will credit her here. God Bless you, unnamed American lady.” - Cameron

Secret Mission

You will perform a Harold. Before we start, I will assign each of you a secret mission. e.g. be an astronaut floating in free space. You can perform your mission at any point in the Harold. When you see someone performing their secret mission, jump onboard and perform it with them. Be on your toes. Everyone must complete their secret mission before the end of the show. Here are some example secret missions.

Replace an onstage character by doing what they do and saying what they say.
Be a ghost trying to communicate with the onstage characters.
Play a talking object.
Be possessed by a demon halfway through a scene.
Play Father Christmas in every scene.
When a scene ends, do not stop playing your part in the scene.
Make a real phone call on your real phone.

“I learned this exercise in Edinburgh from Tara DeFrancisco. God Bless you, named American lady.” - Cameron

Spontaneous and unprompted Happy Birthday

During the next two hours of this workshop, every person here will sing Happy Birthday to themself. When that person starts singing, we will all join in as quickly as possible. You decide when you sing and you sing without permission or announcement. You can sing at any point from now until the end of the workshop. Everyone must sing Happy Birthday to themself from now.