Comedians like the late Robin Williams have relied on their finely honed improvisational skills to take audiences on a laughter journey at comedy clubs for decades. What many don’t realize, though, is that these very same techniques can be put to use in everyday peoples’ business and personal lives.
That’s where Alameda’s new improv skills training facility, Improv Central, comes in. The first of its kind in the country, Improv Central’s goal is to “activate the inner improviser in everybody, like the improviser we are every day in our real lives,” says Improv Central founder Claire Slattery. Or, as stated on their website, Improv Central is “a place for everyday people to joyfully navigate their unscripted lives, together.”
An Island native and Alameda High School graduate, Slattery studied drama and communication at Stanford University before diving into the acting life, performing in the Bay Area with the California Shakespeare and American Conservatory Theater companies. Later she held leadership positions with comedy and training organizations Killing My Lobster and Speechless Inc.
This shift led her to switch gears from performing to coaching and eventually contracting with Google and the Nature Conservancy to teach their employees how to give more effective and entertaining presentations on-stage, in meetings and online using improvisational tools and techniques. Slattery says one of the keys to developing one’s improv chops is to let go of perfectionism and the over-preparation that comes with it.
“I’m hoping to undo some of that fear-based over-preparing that we do in our life,” she says. “(For example,) you’re throwing your kids’ birthday party, and it has to be perfect, and you’re getting every party favor, and they have to match identically.”
As a self-described “recovering perfectionist,” Slattery says she wants to free people from perfectionism through through improv.
“How do you trust yourself? How do you show up and practice being able to be curious, letting go of that control, understanding that it might not be perfect, but do you get to be more present in the moment? Do you get to be more rested and then you get to enjoy it? That’s OK,” says Slattery.
A technique Slattery says she uses to get people to loosen up focuses on those work or personal-life moments when people are called upon to expound on what they’re up to: the dreaded “what are you working on?” or “what did you do in school today?” queries.
“We kind of create a monotone approach for ourselves” when faced with this question says Slattery. To combat most people’s tendency to drearily recite a series of events when asked to update everyone on what they’ve been doing lately, Slattery uses a timing method she calls the accordion.
Just as an accordion expands and contracts, Slattery gives her charges different amounts of time to give their updates. She typically starts with giving them one minute to tell their story.
“Then I say, ‘OK, now you have 30 seconds.’ And they have to change their words, their language, they have to edit on the fly. And then I say, ‘OK, great. Now do it in 15 seconds.’ And everyone’s like, ’15 seconds? Are you crazy?’ I’m like, ‘You can do it.’ And then stuff drops away, and they do it in 15 seconds and then I say ‘five seconds.’ And they’re like, ‘What? No way.’ Typically the minute speech whittled down to five seconds turns into a sentence.”
To further drive home the point of how brevity can be a more effective way to communicate, Slattery then asks her students to go back to trying to give a one-minute update.
“None of them can fill a minute, where before they started they’re like, ‘a minute is too short.’ And now it becomes too long,” says Slattery.
Another skill Slattery wants improv newbies to pay special attention to is the art of really listening to others intently.
“I think very successful, grounded, connected, healthy people are really good at deep curious listening. I’m not saying don’t prepare, but at the same time, whatever preparation I did, I need to let go of that so that I can listen to you.”
Wylie Herman, a teacher at Improv Central, hopes the classes will help people become more connected to their fellow personal-device-transfixed humans.
“A lot of people are grappling with how to stay connected to our fellow humans while we’re bombarded by overwhelming distractions and negativity. I hope Improv Central will grow into a safe place where everyday people can come together to connect, inspire and, most importantly, play!” says Herman.
Improv Central is at 500 Central Ave. in Alameda. For more information visit improv-central.com.