Beyond the script: Improv for advisory confidence

Before people panic and just evacuate out of this podcast, improv is not about acting or being funny, even though, uh, you know, seems like at some point that is a goal.

But Diamond, can you help us understand what improv is and what it isn't in this accountant world that we're talking about?

It's an interesting question because when I first discovered improv, I thought it was as far removed from my tax profession as I could possibly get.

I found out later, of course, that there is quite a bit of overlap.

So what improv is essentially is unscripted storytelling with a group of people, usually in front of a very large group of strangers in a live format.

It can be as terrifying as that just sounded.

Absolutely.

And the...

And I remember my very first time going out on stage as an improviser.

I was certain I was going to have a heart attack on stage.

I was certain that the microphones could pick up the pounding in my chest.

But I lived through it, and it's been a fun and challenging practice for the last 15 years.

I love it.

Thinking about improv, it's not really about the performance, even though for you it was about the performance in that moment, but it's really more about awareness and response.

Yes.

For professional improvisers, it is very much about performance, but the practice of improv is not at all about performance.

It's about staying present and focused.

So for me, improv practice is a form of meditation because I'm staying present in those moments and staying attuned to my scene partners and to other folks I'm in communication with.

So listening rather than you have your points in your head that you're gonna go through, being ready to pivot if you need to.

Yeah.

Exactly.

So imagine that you and I walk out on the stage together in front of a live audience, and we are intending to create a whole scene from a play together without having discussed it first, without any script, without any rehearsal.

If I go out with a fully scripted scene in my head and I try to set that up for you, there's no way that you'll be able to read my mind and read that script from me.

So whatever I might choose to say to start that conversation, to start that scene, you will respond to it in some completely unexpected, unpredictable way.

If I then redirect and stick with the script I went on the stage with in my head, you will be lost at my response, the audience will be lost at my response because it no longer fits our conversation.