Improvisation at Church

[Briana Hansen]

Last Sunday at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, I had the pleasure of leading the morning service. The service was entitled "Today is the day... Life Lessons from Comedy" and it turned out to be an absolute blast.

The creation of the service was a little shaky at first. I've bee a part of the First Church community for a few years down, mostly working in different, unseen capacities like babysitting, youth coordinator, their Girl Friday...really whatever they needed. Many of them knew that I was a comedian, but didn't really know what that meant. Every time I had mentioned that I was having a comedy show and sent out announcements, members of the community came out to see all these local shows. It really meant a lot to me.

But, as we began planning this particular Sunday service, it occurred to me that many of them had no idea what improvisation was or the amazing effects it could have on your life. And, the absolute best way to teach about improvisation is just to do it, rather than to talk about what it is and try to explain it. So, I had to toe the line somehow between putting on an improv comedy show during church, and still having a meaningful, serious discussion about the lessons this art has for the every day person.

I ended up giving a short talk about many basic pillars of improv, focusing on the idea that today is the day to live the life you've always wanted for yourself, accept your given circumstances and join in on the fun that life has to offer rather than standing on the sidelines judging. These three ideas lead to the lesson of always living in the moment. If you do these things, you will inherently live in the moment.

To incorporate the "show" element, I asked for four brave volunteers from the congregation. When I got "deer-in-the-headlights" looks, I assured them another tenet of improv was to always make the other person look good, so they had nothing to worry about. I wanted to get volunteers on the spot that day so that it didn't look like it was inaccessible, but rather anyone can do anytime, anywhere. So, I had them come up one by one and we acted out each of these tenets in two scenes. The first scene, I would be the opposite of a good improviser, and the second scene I would follow a tenet. Inevitably, both scenes were hilarious, but the second one was always clearly stronger, more interesting, and more fun. Each volunteer said that the second scene was more fun for them to do, too, because they had someone to work with.

Though I could have had 50 volunteers come up and act out all the amazing things improvisation has to offer, I didn't want to over saturate them with that I call "improv nerdiness," which I am full of. Overall, the service was a fantastic one, we had a great time laughing, and many of the congregants afterwords told me it was "just what they needed this week" and that they were going to try to apply elements of it to their life.

Talk about a rewarding application of improvisation!

I'll try to get a hold of and upload some pictures from the service so you all can join in on the fun, too!

-Briana

[Jerry Kail]

Briana, I really enjoyed reading your account - very inspirational! It sounds like you did a great job of seamlessly weaving the connections between improv and life. (And thanks for the friends invite.) - Jerry