Improv Comedy Workshop by Autistic Assemble!!!

 I hosted a mixmatched workshop for autistics assemble, the improv group that mixmatched has at its performance night. The aim of the workshop was not to create an award winning improv troupe but to perhaps boost the confidence and skill sets of people who either wanted to try improv but weren’t sure how it worked or people who were nervous to get on stage. Anyone was welcome of any ability and anyone could give it a go

 

I first properly tried improv at a jammies event hosted by Dr Nathan Keates, who I’d met at mixmatched in 2022. I had been interested in doing improv comedy since I’d studied drama at gcse and later a level at university level, and I’d just done my first stand up comedy gigs at mixmatched, so when he told me he was setting up an improv event and doing PHD research in improv and autism I was very intrigued and agreed to go to his jammies when he’d hold them. I’d later go on to co found autistics assemble with some of the other attendees under Nathan’s guidance and we’ve been a staple at mixmatched ever since.

 

Emma and Alice had wanted to put on different workshops for neurodivergent people to build the mixmatched community and to encourage people to perform who perhaps weren’t comfortable doing so. When Emma asked me to put on this workshop I felt privileged to do so.

 

The job was to build a confident team within 3 hours worth of a session. I opened with icebreakers, and got everyone to tell a funny story about themselves. The purpose of the exercise was to lower everyone’s guard in a relaxed manner and make everyone feel clear that there was no risk of embarrassment for anyone, especially newer people in improv. Improv is very prone to mistakes due to the random, unscripted nature of it so in order to make people feel safe to make those mistakes I thought removing the embarrassment threshold would be a group bonding activity

 

We then moved on to play several games. I directed most of them by demonstrating with another person how the game works and then allowing people to have a go. The purpose of this was to get people to watch, figure out if they could understand the game and if they liked it. I wanted to make sure the improv space stayed as safe for everyone and I think that was key to its success.

 

The main takeaway from the workshop was that fear should not be the metric of if you can do improv or not. Ultimately the goal of the workshop was to let people think for themselves. Not everyone who did the workshop will perform improv again. But they can earnestly say they were pushed out of their comfort zone in a safe environment- this will help people in many ways.