Improv for Supercommunication

Take improv classes, read Charles Duhigg’s new book, and never suffer through a painful conversation again

There’s bound to be ideas relevant to improv comedy in any book about communication. But since this is one of the most interesting books about the subject I’ve ever read, let’s go in deeper. Because if you want to be a Supercommunicator, then you need to take improv classes.

I found two big takeaways from Supercommunicators (by Charles Duhigg).

1. A series of small choices creates atmospheres of trust
2. Connection is the most important goal of any conversation

I would never try to sell my copy of Supercommunicators to a used bookstore for two reasons.

1. I love it too much
2. They would look at the amount of dog eared pages, highlighted paragraphs, and exclamation points in the margins and ask me to never come back

The CIA calls themselves the “Nation’s first line of defense.” The organization is vital to U.S. national security and communication is vital to the organization. They are so devoted to communication, Duhigg outlines in his book, that a summary of their training methods is “find ways to connect.” I’ve been teaching, practicing, and obsessing over improv comedy for about 20 years and I’ll say that 99% of the time a scene is good you can credit the performers connecting.

99% of bad scenes are bad because there’s an utter lack of getting on the same page. The remaining 1% of the time is unexplainable because sometimes there’s a scene where one performer is being a complete, unlistening asshole and the other person is a talking fire hydrant for some reason and it just works. I’ve accepted this is just true sometimes and so should you. It really do be like that sometimes.

Okay back to the CIA. Sure, learning how to spy on foreign soil is way more intense than doing an improv comedy scene about gardening, but they work the same muscles. Improv is practicing how to absorb and react to what your scene partner is communicating. You can’t do that (or spy!) without listening. Note that I am not condoning spying and please don’t sign-up for my improv classes because you want to be a better spy. If this is you please be a doll and keep it to yourself. (Should be good practice for you anyway, tbh. You are a spy!)

Improv will also unlock your Supercommunicator self because when you do improv you are basically synchronizing with your scene partner. A good improv teacher will remind you to establish the facts early in a scene and check in with eye contact throughout. Being aligned on context (both factual AND emotional) is deeply meaningful to connection. It makes our comedy funnier and it will also make your real life conversations better.

You can’t deny humanity’s desire to connect. Well, you could but that would be a waste of time and people would be really turned off by that. Folks have flocked to, or created their own, communities for centuries. Even cavemen had Facebook Groups (probably). It would behoove you to explore ways to connect with less effort and more charisma. It’s hard to do hard stuff and if you don’t invest in your communication skills, connecting with others will always be challenging. Improv classes are not only a built-in community (usually!) but they are also, essentially, a communication gym.

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