Marvin Fan

Blue 3

21 November 2018

Word Count: 824

Comedy Sportz

The Importance of Improv

Every week, senior Piper Dafforn and other Comedy Sportz members can be found

practicing improvisation in preparation for competitions. In these competitions, the team

members compete with other high schools using audience suggestions and improvisation

techniques to see which team can create the most laughs.

But, according to Dafforn, who is this year’s team captain, laughs aren’t the only benefit

to learning improvisation techniques.

Dafforn said, “It’s made me better with, like, not having to plan out things. I feel as if I’m

more comfortable talking to people if I’m not prepared to. I’m just more comfortable doing

things in the spur of the moment than I used to be.”

Jim Peterson, sponsor of Comedy Sportz, said learning improvisation can help with

public speaking, creative thinking and quick thinking.

Peterson said, “I think (improv) really helps with development: speaking-wise,

thinking-wise and being confident in front of people.”

Over the 17 years as the Comedy Sportz sponsor, Peterson said he’s had students go on to

be salespeople, musicians and professional actors and improvisation performers.

 Dafforn joined the Comedy Sportz team in her sophomore year, and through

performances and practices, she said she’s made a lot of progress in her improvisation ability and

has more confidence in her speaking ability and herself.

Austin Roberts, member of Comedy Sportz and senior, has been on the team for two

years and said he has seen the effects he didn’t expect to see in his everyday life.

Roberts said, “It’s been really helpful and I’ve just found myself being more confident in

public speaking and other ways because learning about improv is learning how to adapt in

different circumstances and learn to do stuff on the fly, which is really helpful because in a lot of

situations I find myself in something that doesn’t exactly go to plan and so I know I just have to

adapt to it.”

But Comedy Sportz isn’t exclusive to a certain type of student. Comedy Sportz members

and Peterson said improvisation is something anybody can do.

Peterson said, “Personally, I believe anybody can learn improvisation; it just might take

some people longer to feel comfortable with it and let themselves go and overcome what’s going

on internally for them.”

Dafforn said she believes ambition is all it takes to be good at improvisation.

“Some people are naturally inclined to do it, but I think everyone can if they really want

to do it and they can work hard to gain some skills,” Dafforn said.

Roberts is a testament to that hard work. Roberts said he was unable to make the team his

freshman and sophomore years, but made the team as a junior and is currently on the team as a

senior.
 “I think that anyone can benefit from (improv) and see the benefits of it. It takes a little

learning how to do it and some of the basic rules, but I think that it’s something anyone can do

because the whole thing is just making it up and I think that anyone can do that,” Roberts said.

Roberts said he was unable to make the team earlier partly because of the short

preparation period preceding the Comedy Sportz season. According to Peterson, the short season

each year makes the team much more inclined to accept participants with more natural talent.

As for training, Peterson describes different activities and practices that stretch the team

into people who can become any type of character in any situation. Roberts also emphasized the

importance of team training, as it builds chemistry between team members which can help in the

competitions.

When coaching, Peterson said he’s usually telling kids to follow the tenets of improv—

just let go and always say yes.

“Students will often times go up and have a set mindset of how they want the scene to go

so they want to control it, which never works in improvisation,” Peterson said. “It’s always just

easier to let the scene develop and always agree and say yes to what the offers are that’s coming

in as far as who the other character wants you to be,”

Roberts said having fun is also an important aspect of learning improvisation.

“If you’re having fun, it’s more fun for the people performing and watching”

According to Peterson, learning improvisation in general can be extremely beneficial in

and outside of school.

Roberts said, “Obviously, there’s some stuff in classes like a speech class that I’m in, I’ve

found that Comedy Sportz has led me to be able to formulate a coherent thought more solidly on
the fly. Outside of school, I’d say it just goes a lot with confidence because a big part of Comedy

Sportz is you have to be confident in the scenes you create, choices that you make, and the

characters that you develop. As long as you’re confident then they’ll be good, so I’ve seen

myself take that confidence a lot into the world.”