What Second City Improv Program taught me!

As someone who has been a comedy buff since I was a child and grew up on TV shows like 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' where these performers would make me laugh not on their accents or impressions but content that they would come up with on the spot. It made perfect sense for me to enroll myself in the world famous Second City Improv Program which was the home to some of the most popular and famous comedians (Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Chris Farley, Seth Meyer etc.) of all time. What I did not realize as I embarked on this 10 month journey starting couple of years ago (February 2015) was how much Improv comedy' was going to make a difference in my life.

I want to share with my LinkedIn/Accenture family some of the key aspects of Improv which in my mind apply to everyone of us in our daily lives both at work and at home.

1. Listening: In Improv comedy, you simply cannot build a scene without listening to what your scene partner is saying because there is NO SCRIPT here and the only way the scene is going anywhere is by listening, processing and then adding your line to the scene.

2. Trust: Another key aspect of Improv is to have absolute trust in your scene partner and on all the CHOICES that he or she makes because it is both of you who create the scene together and not just you. It takes a while but when you master the art of Improv it is in it's simplest form nothing but a GIVE and a TAKE where both of you trust each other enough to create the scene together and go where ever the scene will take you.

3. Commitment: When your scene partner walks into the scene crying and says "Mommy, I failed 8th grade again!!" with tears in their eyes, you (as a 27 year old man) needs to commit to the scene and be a consoling (or Angry which ever you choose) mom to this young teenager. There is no questioning the reality, there is no questioning the character choice made by your scene partner.

4. Confidence: As you walk on stage it is very easy to psych your self out by thinking too much i.e., what am I going to say?, what character am I going to play? Am I going to say something stupid? etc. (At least these were some of the things that came to my mind when I started my journey). When your part of an improv scene, each and every choice you make (what emotion you bring to the scene, what character choice you make, what accent you use in the scene) has to be made with confidence and executed with confidence. The audience will laugh if you are able to play a middle-aged mom who is consoling a teenage boy (from the above scene) even if you are a young man.

5. "Yes, And": This last one is something that all Chicagoans know and is the unwritten motto at Second City. In my humble opinion, the whole concept on Improv Comedy is encapsulated in this one phrase which is what basically every improv comedy actor says in their head (obviously not out loud) every single time they are performing on stage. What this also teaches us that anything and everything that is said by everyone on stage has to be agreed upon and my one line (or few lines) will result in creating something that the audience will enjoy. If you break it down, what we are actually doing is to make oneself be willing to accept what others have to say and take the given opportunity to contribute to the final product.

The first four aspects are very common traits that we hear all the time from "Self help" books to ones teachers, parents, mentors (i.e., the whole world). The last one is somewhat unique to Second City and Improv Comedy is that it taught me to respect everyone's opinions and take them into account before I made a decision or added my own input to a certain matter. This will hit home to all the consultants who are at their clients and are constantly surrounded by negativity and a lot of NOs from both clients and vendors and in some cases from our own fellow teammates. If nothing else, Improv program has taught to stay positive, listen to my colleagues, commit to the work that I do on a day to day basis, speak up with my own ideas with confidence to my superiors (with the risk of being shot down) and of course "Yes, And".

Cheers,

Abhinav Gupta

P.S. For folks who want to get a glimpse of my Improv Graduation Show, you can go to the link below. Want to apologize in advance for the video rotation issue!