Your Improv Brain

Tired of being told to "just react like you would in real life" to ground an improv scene? This episode of Your Improv Brain explores advanced techniques for playing the voice of reason or grounded characters in a scene or sustaining them long-term. Discover how shifting from simply "acting normal" to dynamically balancing the scene can make you a more adaptable, supportive, and funnier improviser...

Tired of being told to "get out of your head"? This episode of Your Improv Brain explores a different approach. Discover how your active inner voice, often seen as a distraction, can actually become a powerful tool for your improv. Host Jen deHaan and guest Sabrina Banes discuss practical ways to understand and even harness your mental chatter for more grounded, spontaneous, and less anxious perfo...

This episode provides general suggestions to comedians, especially neurodivergent ones like us autistic and ADHD actors in comedy and improv, to protect our minds while engaging in comedy and with others in the community. Find the video for this episode (has my face, not just captions): YouTube video (you can leave your input here!) Find the written article for this episode here: NeurodiversityImp...

Icebreakers. They're common in an improv class, at the top of a jam, or maybe when a team is just getting to know each other. Some people love them. Some people hate them. Some of us have a love/hate relationship depending on the day or the icebreaker in question. Many of the people who really dislike icebreakers are neurodivergent people, which is why such a seemingly simple thing is getting an e...

In part one of this episode series on emotions in improv, we looked at what alexithymia is, who experiences it and the variety of expression, and how it affects improv performers and the shared improv practice. This episode, part two, now explores some ideas of what students can do if they approach exercises with assigned emotions, and what teachers can do to make their classes and exercises more...

Alexithymia involves how a person identifies and experiences emotions, so it has a lot to do with an improv practice. Part one of this two part episode series explores what alexithymia is, how it affects improv, and suggests some ways to practice improv if you experience it. Part two covers some ideas of what students can do if they approach exercises with assigned emotions, and what teachers can...

NOTE: There is now a full resource and downloadable Guides and Worksheets on giving and receiving notes in improv. Find the new resource page here: https://improvupdate.com/notes Notes (feedback) can be confusing for some student performers because of communication differences. This episode discusses what teachers can do to help improve and resolve some of the typical communication issues around q...

NOTE: There is now a full resource and downloadable Guides and Worksheets on giving and receiving notes in improv. Find the new resource page here: https://improvupdate.com/notes Welcome to part two of this three-part series of episodes about receiving notes as neurodivergent improvisers. ( Note: This episode is offered as an early release to supporters, and opens up to everyone on August 27! ) Ge...

NOTE: There is now a full resource and downloadable Guides and Worksheets on giving and receiving notes in improv. Find the new resource page here: https://improvupdate.com/notes This three-part series of episodes is about receiving notes as a neurodivergent improviser. This episode covers WHY getting notes is hard in improv, particularly when there is a communication gap between neurotypes (such...

Most humans have some amount of mental imagery, or visual imagery. You might find that you use the visuals to help you build and remember improv scenes. The extreme ends are considered to be neurodivergence (they are called hyperphantasia and aphantasia), but regardless of what or how much you have you can do great improv. For more information see “part 1” of this episode, which covers how visual...

Neurodivergent humans might communicate in a different way, a way that is difficult for neurotypical humans to understand. Different social communication styles not necessarily a deficit, and it’s not a pathology - it’s a difference . However, having difficulty communicating in a way other people understand it can be frustrating and isolating. Because we’re misunderstood. And we don’t want to be!...

Last week I promised an episode about finding the unusual thing: how you find what’s weird at the top of a scene when you’re setting up the base reality that leads to the game. And here is that episode. Communication is a challenge in improv, especially when we have different neurotypes playing together (which is probably… always). Our cognitive wiring is a fundamental difference between us, and a...

You’re getting an episode that gets real . So this week I experienced something related to last week’s episode ( ep 10 ). I wrote all of the notes for an episode about finding the unusual thing as a neurodivergent improviser. But you’re getting that one next week , friend, because I’ve been thinking about this stuff instead. And you know what happens when we get all focused on a subject. Well… thi...

So in this episode you learn about the spectrum of visual imagination, from lots to none, and explore how you imagine visual details in improv. I cover what the spectrum of phantasia is, from hyperphantasia to aphantasia, then go into how it affects improv. How you visually process details in a scene are not just important for exploring the environment, scene painting, or describing an object (the...

Masking is a common behaviour for autistic and/or ADHD people. It’s a trait that can be subconscious or conscious, and one we take on to suppress natural reactions, responses, physicality or expressions. This, of course, can affect how we position ourselves in scenes if we are trying to be the voice of reason and respond naturally and honestly. Thanks for reading Improv and Neurodiversity - The Fl...

We’ve all heard those sayings like “do not compare your chapter 1 to their chapter 6.” But that can be pretty hard to do. Especially when we get notes that relate to our brain wiring! Maybe we’re reading from, or writing, a completely different book. It can be hard when our brains are so different in a word that’s constructed for a different (neurotypical) wiring altogether. And here we are up on...

This episode was inspired by a discussion I had with another improviser about fast and slow edit moves. They were told by a teammate to edit faster. The answer I gave them was a bit of an opinionated monologue infodump, and I was told I should turn that monologue into a podcast. So here we are. What we're talking about today is edit moves, with focus on the speed of those edit moves and what it mi...

Masking is a common behaviour for autistic and/or ADHD people (or those of us who are both). It's sometimes referred to as camouflaging, mimicking, or being a social chameleon. You might mask subconsciously - you might not even realize you do it! But it's essentially suppressing your natural reactions, responses, physicality or expressions in order to hide some of your natural behaviours or instin...

Very excited about this ep! This week I am joined by Sabrina Banes, an improviser who has a condition called misophonia. Sabrina Banes is an improviser and Tarot reader who lives in Brooklyn with her two cats, Shumai and Althea. She currently performs with her longform indie teams, Jace Spam and Dolly Lana, and with her Improv College narrative house team, Oops! We Fell In Love. Find Sab...

If you are a bottom-up thinker, there are certain techniques in long-form improv that might work better if you try to do top-down thinking instead. Why would you do such a thing? And When? Game and second beats might be challenging to a bottom-up thinker. You need to get used to wrapping up a bunch of details into a single idea, gist, or synopsis regardless of what direction you think in. The syno...

Bottom-up thinking or bottom-up processing is common way for autistics to process information. It’s wired into our brains and affects EVERYTHING. How does this type of thinking affect doing improv scenes, especially when it comes to plots? In particular… when you weren’t expecting a plot, and suddenly things get plotty? Bottom-up thinking affects how we follow sets, pull in information, process, a...

The sense of being perceived is all about the activity you are doing when you are being looked at by other people. Having strong feelings about this kind of perception is common particularly with the autistic neurotype. And it can sure seem illogical or contradictory at times, too. And… people look at you in improv… a lot! Learn about what being perceived means to neurodivergent improvisers. What...

This episode details what neurodivergence is, and why it’s relevant to improv. I include a couple of examples in there. Check out the transcript to see the text version of this episode. Note: This is a very old episode! I have since renamed the show, and updated the format quite a bit. Downloadable content Download the Free Post-Show Reflection Guide: Sent to your inbox when you subscribe to eithe...