Austin Improv

I think most improvisers have confronted ego, judgment, and the ugly thought (when on stage) that "I don't want to do that. That's not a thing that I do."

(Maybe if the Dalai Lama or Eckhart Tolle were improvisers...)

Being a guy who is an overly-analytical nerd, I also know something about confronting ego with yet more over-analysis, e.g. "Hey, I'm thinking/judging too much in scenes! Okay, how can I analytically think my way out of this problem? There must be a way!"

Here are a few concrete things:

--If one of your scene partners is doing something that your analytical mind-brain doesn't like, start doing the same thing, but even more intensely. Be a bigger douche than them.

--Try playing dumber, more physical characters. (Note: Not mentally-challenged total morons, just "mediocre misfits". You can still play these characters to the top of their integrity.)

--Get in your body more; be more physical--play fight, make faces, swing a sword, do a cartwheel. It's hard to be full of pride when you're playing a pirate, wrestling your scene partner.

That kind of stuff has helped me a bit. And oy vey I've needed it.

Years ago, 1997 to be exact, I was in Italy for a month and a half, studying Italian and traveling a bit. I was in the Battistero Di San Giovanni in Florence, and I looked up at the big gold mosaic of Jesus on the ceiling. The words came into my head "You are too proud." I sat in a pew and reflected for a minute, asking what I should do. I walked outside and the answer appeared to me, in a big lit sign, in English so I could understand it: "CHANGE."