Why you should try improv comedy (w/ Rick Andrews)

"Improv is making up an idea, a scene, a story on the fly. The inherent nature of that is that you cannot be in control of where it's going to go." That's improv teacher Rick Andrews, who has taught everyone from children to senior citizens to corporate executives to Ira Glass. His central argument is that improv isn't really about being funny—it's about learning to manage uncertainty, and that skill transfers directly into everyday life.

The real skill isn't comedy—it's managing uncertainty

Andrews teaches and performs improvisation, and he's clear about what he's actually offering. "I think if it was just kind of like 'I'll teach you how to be funny,' I don't know that I would feel deeply passionate about it. I think it's more about the sense of presence and creativity and being playful and being less self-judgmental."

The core mechanism is simple: improv forces you to operate without control. "People's brains do not like change in that kind of disruptive feeling," Andrews says. "There's this protective cognitive shell that we throw around where we lock into ideas or we kind of disconnect from what's actually going on." Good improvisers don't develop clairvoyance about where a scene is going. Instead, "you just get very comfortable not knowing what's going to happen."