5 Reasons People Hesitate to Try Improv (And Why None of Them Hold Up)

Every week, someone stands outside our door at 8360 East Raintree Drive, phone in hand, re-reading the class description for the third time before deciding whether to walk in. If that’s you right now, here’s what we’ve learned after years of watching people cross that threshold.

“I’m not funny.”

Neither were most of us, on day one. Funny isn’t a personality trait you either have or don’t … it’s a byproduct of paying close attention to another person and reacting honestly. The games we play in class are built to produce laughs for you, not to test whether you can produce them yourself. Nobody is grading your wit. Nobody is expected to have any.

“I’ll freeze up in front of people.”

This is the single most common fear we hear, and it’s also the one improv is best at solving… not by making you less nervous, but by giving you so little time to think that the nervous voice in your head doesn’t get a turn. Most beginner exercises move fast enough that overthinking simply isn’t an option. You react, the scene moves on, and somewhere around week three, most students realize they haven’t checked their phone or thought about their to-do list in twenty minutes!

“I’m not a performer.”

You don’t have to be. Plenty of our regular students have zero interest in ever stepping on a stage… they’re here because thinking on your feet, listening without planning your next sentence, and staying present in a conversation are skills that show up everywhere: at work, at family dinners, on a first date, in a job interview. Improv is the training ground. What you do with it afterward is up to you.

“Everyone else will already know what they’re doing.”

Almost everyone in a beginner class is a beginner. We say this every single week and people still don’t believe us until they’re standing in the room, and then they’re pleasantly surprised to be surrounded by fellow first-timers, other nervous newcomers, and only a small handful of returning students who remember exactly how nervous they were, too.

“What if I say something wrong?”

You can’t. There’s a founding rule in improv called “Yes, And” … whatever your scene partner offers, you accept it and build on it. There’s no wrong answer, because the only job is to keep the scene moving forward together. It’s less like a test and more like playing catch: you’re not trying to stump the other person, you’re trying to keep something going.

So what’s actually stopping you?

If you’ve read this far, the fear was probably never really about being funny. Come see for yourself — we hold Live Drop-In Classes every Wednesday from 6–8 pm in North Scottsdale, and an Online Zoom Class every Tuesday from 6–7 pm… if you’d rather ease in from home first!

See class details and register now→

No experience required. No auditions. Just show up for the fun!