Remaining open to 'who' your character is, what they stand for, what they love, what they hate, and more, keeps you open and alive to your audience (on stage and in the real world). You can be flexible, surprise yourself, and learn about points of view different from your own.

Listening as a gateway to presence and reduced self-consciousness.

Mistakes scare the crap out of us, but they're usually only as bad as you think they are! They have wonderful upsides.

Starting a scene is one of, if not the most, difficult and critical things in improv. I discuss two of the ways to begin scenes and reveal my favourite!

Falling in love. Hanging with good friends. Being in a moment. These are all times when we tend to lose ourselves, get over our self-consciousness, and forget about our selfish needs and serve an experience.

Whether on stage or in life real, try not to gaslights others. In improv, it often leads into the argument trap. In life, it escalates tension, shows others you're not listening, and more. Instead, treat the opinions of others as legitimately theirs and deal with it except in one situation.

Scenes in which the characters are strangers to each other come with an extra added level of difficulty. For that reason, I encourage improvisers to stay away from them. But, when they do happen to try and figure out what's at stake.

Having a process in a scene will help in a multitude of ways, however, there are also a couple major pitfalls with which to be aware.

A discussion of the third exercise I use when starting almost every class I teach. I Am A... is a game of patterns in which three people are elements within a certain pattern, category, etc. The more recognizable the pattern and elements, the better it is received.

Being process oriented, or systems based, allows one to make modifications if their goals aren't being realized. Conversely, relying on magical thinking to achieve a desired outcome can leave one at the mercy of a stochastic, unfeeling universe.