The philosophy of yes. That is the secret of successful improvisers, says Stage 2 Improv co-founder Mike Santos
“You take what's given to you and add on to it. You don't say no. You don't question it,” said Santos. “The real world questions. But if you can roll with what's given to you and add to it, you can have the longest scene in the world or the most poignant scene in the world. That's what's so great about yes.”
Santos describes what improvisers can achieve when they have this all-important mindset.
“You get the right people on stage in the right scenarios, and you can have magic happen,” he said. “You can have things that you've never seen before happen in front of 200 people that you'll never see again because improv is a here-in-the-moment, happening-now art form.”
He likens it to clutch baseball.
“It's the bases are loaded. It's the bottom of the ninth all the time. Can you come through? Can you get the hit?”
Improv tells audiences that they, too, have the skills to get that clutch hit when they encounter tough situations in their own lives.
“They gave us something hard to do, and if we succeed at it, it's impressive,” said Santos. “We have the tools to make any difficult situation work. We just need to know how to get through it, and I think that's the overall message that improv does. It looks hard. It is hard. But you can get through it and be successful.”
Stage 2 Improv performs next on Sept. 20 in Art Center Theatre on Marco Island.
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Stage 2, as is true with most improv troupes, performs sketches and songs based on suggestions from the audience. That, Judith Santos pointed out, puts an onus on improvisers to keep up with pop culture.
“It definitely keeps us on our toes, thinking on our feet, keeping our minds sharp,” said Santos. “We have to learn about new things — new songs, new song styles, new bands, new topics — because you never know what you're going to get from the audience. If they're watching TikTok and YouTube and things like that and we don't, when they shout out a suggestion and we don’t know what they’re talking about, we lose connection with our audience.”
That’s one reason that Stage 2 brings several improvisers to performances.
“Then maybe have a player on your bench that knows more about Harry Potter or whatever it is, and they're able to jump in and help out,” said Santos, riffing on her husband’s baseball analogy.
Stage actors similarly derive numerous benefits from improv.
“At the acting school that I went to in San Francisco,” said Judith Santos, “what we would basically do is look at the scene, read it once, put the script down, and then try to improvise it. If you have an idea of where your scene is going, if you forget or flub a line, then you at least know where you need to land.”
In this way, improv teaches actors to create a life beyond the pages of the script.
“So if another actor messes up, you're able to help them. That skill also helps in the real world, too, because if you're a salesperson trying to land your sale and you meet somebody that's so focused on one thing, then you start thinking in lists.”
Santos gives lacrosse as an example.
“Let’s say the prospect mentions that their son plays lacrosse. Awesome. So now I can think of everything that has to do with lacrosse and try to have a conversation with that person to try to get them to want to talk with me, and the next thing you know, you're able to possibly get them to like you and land that sale.”
Thinking in lists translates to other disciplines. It’s also a life skill.
“Everything we do in improv is thinking in categories and this helps open that part of your brain in the way that you think,” she observed.
Santos also finds that this way of thinking helps playwrights, screenwriters and especially comedy writers.
“Improv is kind of a shortcut to writing,” Santos observed. “Improvising is coming up with new dialect and new script on the spot. It’s other alternatives to what could land a joke or could bring a scene or scenario to a better place. We've had people with scripts come to us and ask us to try them out so they can see where the funny could be.”
In improv, response times are virtually instantaneous.
“That’s what short form is all about,” she said. “You don't have time to prepare. OK, so one of the things then that's a benefit for the performer is not only do they have to think in terms of categories, but they have to be quick on their feet.”
Improvisers don’t just have to respond quickly to suggestions from the audience, they have to adapt on the fly to prompts they receive from their fellow performers.
“You could have an idea of where you want the scene to go and you're walking onstage thinking I’m going to be this gruff character, but then Mike says, ‘Hi, Mrs. So-and-So, you look so sweet today.’ Now I'm going to change my disposition based on how he has endowed me. So you also need to be able to change your own agenda.”
Improv also typically entails various forms of nonverbal communication.
“Nonverbal communication can tell you 100 things about a person. You don't have to use words. You can use body language, intention, emotion, and that's all included,” said Santos.
Skills like these have caught the attention of corporate trainers and facilitators, who are increasingly using improv in the workplace. Through improv, they’re helping managers, sales representatives and other employees learn to be fully present, attuned to those around them and open to possibility. In an era where psychological safety and team cohesion are paramount for leaders, improv embraces mistakes as stepping stones, not setbacks. In improv, there are no wrong answers, only unexpected ones encouraging risk-taking and supporting non-judgmental communication leading to greater creativity and innovation.
Kat Ebaugh not only performs with Stage 2, but also teaches improv to performers and lay people alike. She uses the A-B-C approach.
“I teach my students to let go of (A) wanting to be funny, (B) wanting to control, and (C) reactivity and letting good listening skills actually happen. That has to be taught before you get into improv or else you have people talking over each other. Plus, as soon as someone doesn't listen, everything halts.”
In improv, everything depends on deep listening because your next move depends on it. In the workplace, deep listening shows respect and signals safety. When we’re fully present with each other, we build trust, respect and a culture where people feel safe to share. At work, that translates to brainstorming without fear, sharing ideas without ridicule, believing your voice belongs.
Onstage or in the workplace, deep listening empowers people to fix a situation that isn’t working.
“One of my biggest rules is that if something's not working, fix it, change it. People learn differently. People hear and understand differently. If someone doesn’t get what I’m trying to get across, it’s incumbent on me to change what I’m saying, how I’m saying it. I have to change it on the spot, and it's helped me be able to shift my point of view to meet their point of views. So I could see that that would be a benefit for somebody who is in sales, for example.”
Because her classes have so many real-life applications, Ebaugh calls her method practical improv.
“It's not performative improv. It's improv for every day, improv for life.”
Ebaugh shared a story about an improv student named Dorothy to illustrate her point.
“She came to me on the side and said, ‘I am applying for this job. I have a really meek voice. I want you to help me change my voice.’ I said, ‘I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that for you, but let's help you work on your confidence so that people will listen to what you have to say no matter what your voice sounds like because if you're passionate about what you say, they're going to forget the tone and they're going to hear your message.’ So we just spent time working on her confidence and using different improv skills and physicalities to make her feel strong. She had that power within her all along, and it’s exactly the same thing with improv, whether it's for students or adults, performance or not. It's giving you a power that you always had. It's a tool that we're helping you learn how to use.”
From the audience’s perspective, improv is interactive, if not immersive. It’s a very different experience than passively watching a movie and most theater productions.
“Unlike stage productions, the audience leaves feeling part of the show,” observed Santos. “They feel like they are part of that community in that moment by the time they leave.”
After each performance, Stage 2 improvisers typically meet and mingle with their audiences.
“They give us hugs,” Santos said. “I've had people come up to me and tell me very personal things all of a sudden because they had that connection with us. It's been in both areas that had big stages and smaller stages. It doesn't really matter the size of the venue. The audience still feels like they are part of that cast by the time that they leave.”
Performances are always different. Even if the performers are the same, audiences are different, their suggestions are different, and the results are different.
“We have what we call repeat offenders,” said Mike Santos, joking. “People have been coming to see our show since 2012 and they tell us it's different every time.”
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.