How Improv Comedy Improves Mental Health | Nick Morgan | TEDxToledo

How Improv Comedy Improves Mental Health | Nick Morgan | TEDxToledo

[Music] on April 1st 2014 my wife and I were engaged in the Oval Office now as a speaker at today’s event we are given some guidelines for our talk and item number 5 is don’t boast so I know I am directly flirting with violating the spirits of guideline number 5 right out of the gate now the details of this evening are better told over a drink it was through a series of incredibly thoughtful gestures from both close friends and new acquaintances that we felt completely backwards into this unique opportunity what makes that night relevant to our discussion today is when I asked the question how did that even enter the realm of possibility well I can trace that night back to a single decision I made 12 years earlier when I did the most terrifying thing I have ever done I signed up for an improv class the friend who gave us the White House tour I met on a job that I got when I was referred by another friend with whom I was on an improv troupe which I had an audition for garnering the requisite experience when a year earlier I had signed up for my first improv class the woman I was proposing to I was introduced to by her cousin with whom I was in a community theater production which I had the confidence to audition for having done improv for years leading up to that and that all started with that first class that class culminated in meeting the most important person in my life and it gave us the greatest memory of our life now I didn’t sign up for that class thinking it was going to open the doors to this type of experience I signed up for that class because I thought it would teach me how to be funny now unfortunately for everybody in this room it didn’t now I held this same narrow viewpoint of improv spur pused the first 13 years I practiced and performed it to get and have some laughs I don’t want to discount the importance of laughter its health benefits are well documented it increases our oxygen intake it stimulates the heart lungs and muscles and it increases the endorphins released by your brains on laughter alone I may be able to convince you that improv is something we should all try the benefits of laughter have been so widely accepted and for so long that it has been reduced to an old familiar cliche laughter is the best medicine it is undeniable that we feel better after a good laugh but for how long how long can a few laughs sustain us before what is truly a leonis resurfaces now it was not until I started teaching improv about two years ago when I first recognized that improv offered something far more profound than just laughter when asked our current students describe their experience with phrases like this truly has been one of the best experiences of my life and this is now my favorite effing thing to do and this has changed my life they are speaking to something far more impactful than just kidding and having some laughs if laughter is the best medicine then improv the act of creating laughter with others can be a cure over the past two years I have witnessed firsthand just how powerfully affecting and transformative the Improv experience can be the fear that would use from a students body the second they walked through that door would slowly melt into a puddle of mild nervousness and then ultimately evaporate into a cloud of genuine uninhibited joy the connections people made with people who were strangers merely minutes before was almost tangible after a few weeks people’s demeanors began to change and they started started to sharted put that one in the TEDx Toledo blooper reel that’s the beauty of improv mistakes are gifts right students may have been scared enough they may have charted on their way in the class I don’t know and if I riff too long on shardene I’m gonna go way over my time limit so after a few weeks students would start to share stories of their newfound ability to be bold and take risks outside of the classroom it was evidence that this discipline served as something far greater than solely as a comedic performance medium but why why was improv having this effect in an effort to understand it I began chatting down some of improv score principles patience kindness and humility it asks that we risk looking silly and leave our pride at the door improv requires that we honor what our scene partner has established an improv there are no mistakes only Discovery’s improv rewards being truthful and forthright improv demands trust perseverance and hope now these principles began echoing in my head until they turned into something very familiar there is something else that requires its practitioners be patient and kind to not envy or boast to not be proud to keep no records of wrongs to not delight and deceit but rejoice in the truth to protect trust hope and persevere love this is where improv takes us a step beyond laughter this is what was having such a lasting effect on our students in and out of the classroom this is improv overcurrent it is also its foundation and is scaffolding improv I’ve come to realize is routed in love now I reached out to some of the students we’ve had the last two years and asked if they would share with me how their decision to sign up for an improv class has impacted their life their answers were overwhelming both in their volume and their contents they were beautiful funny deeply personal and inspiring one student wrote until recently most of the decisions in my 45 years have been made as an avoidance of fear and failure I was in the throes of a divorce and I had isolated myself for such a long time that I didn’t really know how to communicate effectively anymore though I attempted to portray perfection I craved the ability to make mistakes without hating myself for them I knew I had to start facing some fears and getting my old self back i sat in the parking lot in the first day of improv class feeling my fear of walking in I had to walk in the door knowing I was ten minutes early I thought maybe I would be one of the first in the room I walked in and realized I was 20 minutes late I wanted to turn around and walk out but my teacher immediately welcomed me and told me to jump in and join the warm-up game with everyone my fear was immediately diffused I left my first day of improv class and I cried in my car I cried due to my pride of facing a fear and I had actual fun doing it now there’s nothing more powerful than fear and nothing more empowering than overcoming it’s the act of engaging in improv is itself an exercise in overcoming fear and as an art form it rewards those that follow that fear now the lessons continue well beyond those first few minutes another student wrote I love that improv gives you a place where your weirdness is fully accepted it’s honestly one of the coolest things about taking improv I can be as weird as I truly am and no one judges you if anything it’s celebrated and that feeling of acceptance sort of transfers to the rest of your life another cool thing is the relationships you build with your groups in some ways these people know me better than my lifelong friends and family my improv friends have quickly become some of my best friends you learn to trust these people quickly another testimonial succinctly hits on similar themes as our first two the student writes driving to class that first night I was super nervous and felt so inadequate I figured everyone else would be so much better than me well that first night was incredible our class connected so fast and I think it was because of the common love for laughing and shared experience I couldn’t have guessed how much these people and the art of improv would become such a huge part of my life well it’s empowering to overcome an individual fear it is monumental when a group of people come together and conquer a shared fear you still get that same sense of personal accomplishment but it’s built on a foundation of connecting with other human beings it is built on love now this person also touches on a very common obstacle people face when they’re contemplating whether or not to give improv shots that only certain people are preordained or good enough to do it another student writes I have learned a lot about myself and have learned to live in the moment a lot more people who I’ve been close with for years are surprised that this is something I’m even involved with it feels good to break that mold challenge myself and have fun doing it telling an adult they shouldn’t engage in improv is like telling a child that they should not play make-believe I had forgotten that’s really what it is it’s just adults playing make-believe well improv impact can be simply profound improv can be profoundly simple as I reflect on my own experience and that of our students my perspective on improv has completely evolved it has evolved from once thinking I couldn’t do that to thinking anybody could do this to now knowing but everybody should do this now I understand that this is a lofty assessment of improv based at this point on anecdotal and observational evidence but in this assessment I’m not alone improv is already being used as a therapeutic tool for those suffering from Alzheimer’s and it is being studied by mental health professionals to identify and confirm its full range of mental health benefits as I was preparing for today’s talk this came across my facebook feed this conference took place two weekends ago in Chicago so stay tuned as our hypothesis continues to undergo the rigors of scientific examination as improv mental health benefits continue to be studied its practical purposes continue to expand Google McKenzie consulting and Pepsi are just a few examples of companies that now use improv as a part of their corporate training if you are getting an MBA at Duke Stanford MIT or Notre Dame you will have the option of taking a semester long improv elective improv applications are broad because its principles are universal now we’ve touched on a few of them today but I would be remiss in speaking about improv at this length if I didn’t introduce you to its most basic concepts and your slide had to be here two simple words yes and say it with me yessss and one more time yes and this is the notion that when an idea is introduced we say yes to it and then we add something to it if you approach creative problem-solving with a yes and mindset there is no limit to how far an idea can be explored and if you approach life with this mindset there is no limit to the experiences you may encounter it has been 15 years since I took my first improv class it is a decision that has led me to this very spot in this very moment in time and for that I am incredibly grateful I look at the students that I’ve met here in Toledo who are just a year or two and to their improv experience and I wonder 15 years from now what are they going to be able to look at in their life and trace back to their decision to face their fear to call to sign up to get in the car drive to class and walk in the door 20 minutes late thank you [Applause]

The interesting thing about working with adults is that as we get older we get very serious about ourselves, but once you strip that away, gather a group of strangers in a room, and insert laughter, people can connect easier and more quickly. “The thing I’m most surprised by is that at the end of a class, people are saying how much they love each other, and not in a creepy way, but coming from a very genuine and honest place. When you collectively face a fear and overcome it together, it is easy to quickly establish a connection,” inserts Nick. Nick Morgan essentially has spent the last 15 years as a Laughter Coach; he helps groups to use improv, comedy, and laughter to overcome barriers, improve their communication skills, learn how to land a sale, and face their fears. “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people, it instantly connects people, and is the most important thing in our world today,” says Nick, “I would love to get people from opposing sides in a room and take them through some improv exercises because laughter and perspective is just that powerful.” This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx