Listen, observe, pay attention, work with a partner.
Acting is reacting.
That's what my teacher told me when I first came to her Improv class. Jeanmarie Collins has been teaching most of her life and I am super glad I took her class.
Me and other actors got to do some fun exercises during few classes. Not only was it challenging in a good way, but I got to meet wonderful actors, have many laughs and share ideas during the class.
Improv is fun and you get to know a fellow actor much faster that way. You can say something so extraordinary, that other actors would say "That's what she's into? Okay!"
Improvising whatever comes to your mind is a fun concept. You might make a fool out of yourself once or twice, but who cares? You are constantly learning and having fun. That's what matters.
Even during every day life we get to improvise, tell jokes, be ourselves. Say if you got in trouble, you got to improvise an excuse. You call it lying, I call it improv.
Did I say "improv"a LOT during this blog? Yeah, I think so too.
If you want to be a stand-up comedian, you definitely need to take improv class.
You want to be witty, sassy and think on your feet really fast- that's when improv comes into place.
If you can't find improv class in your city, gather some friends, tape your sessions and learn. On my second year of being an actor I organized a group of local actors and we did Improv nights every Thursday. Every actor was different, there was a lot of diversity which was amazing. More and more people started joining our group. We taped our scenes at my friend's apartment and went to hang out in the city afterwards, thus forming friendships along the way.
Even though most of our group moved few months after, we still have those memories to share, and I have lots of funny videos to watch when I feel sad or uninspired :)