Improviser Quotes

I've always been an improviser. I was one before I knew even what the word was ... And acting, that I've been doing since I was 5. ~ Alan Arkin

Vince Vaughn is a master improviser. ~ Alan Tudyk

It started off for me as just wanting to be an actor and sort of resenting in a weird way being expected to write as well as be a comedian and an improviser. And then you think about it for a minute, and I smartened up and realized that the only way to sustain a career is to generate your own material. Or to be in control of your career as best you can. And in allowing yourself to do that it opens up a whole new world of possibilities. And then you're like "Oh, producing is a thing." ~ Rob Corddry

Baseball players practice, runners practice, so how can you practice being funny? You get up onstage. You train as an improviser, playing make-believe, using the vernacular of improvisation, saying 'yes and' to other people's ideas, making statements. ~ Ali Farahnakian

Is he always like this?" she said irritably. "Flying by the seat of his pants?"
"Pretty much, yeah." Oliver grinned. "He's not a planner. But he happens to be the best improviser I've ever known. ~ Elle Kennedy

I'm an improviser at heart, when I'm writing, I'm improvising in my head. When you're an improviser on stage, you can never be precious about anything, you can't control what anyone else is going to do. The best stuff comes out of moments of inspiration that spontaneously happen. ~ Scot Armstrong

I have been writing my whole life: stories and plays and sketches and scripts and poems and jokes. Most feel alive. And fluid. Breathing organisms made better by the people who come into contact with them. But this book has nearly killed me. Because, you see, a book? A book has a cover. They call it a jacket and that jacket keeps the inside warm so that the words stay permanent and everyone can read your genius thoughts over and over again for years to come. Once a book is published it can't be changed, which is a stressful proposition for this improviser who relies on her charm. I've been told that I am "better in the room" and "prettier in person." Both these things are not helpful when writing a book. I am looking forward to a lively book-on-tape session with the hope that Kathleen Turner agrees to play me when I talk about some of my darker periods. One can dream. ~ Amy Poehler

As an improviser you need to experience the moment- and that includes everything in the moment. Observe the people around you-the bandleader, the bartender-what they wear, how they deal with people, the simple continuity of their presence. As you do that you'll see how you affect them , and you'll play and act accordingly. You need to study the reality of the moment, and that is very rarely about studying modes and intervals. ~ Pat Martino

Jesus was a brilliant Jewish stand-up comedian, a phenomenal improviser. His parables are great one-liners. ~ Camille Paglia

I am an improviser, ... I improvise music. Whatever you want to call it all, it is all improvised music. I may capture it and go back and write it down for others, but it was originally improvised. ~ Joe Zawinul

To respond to a question or start improvised scenes, begin immediately using the first words that come to you. Trust your mind. Your first thought is a reasonable starting place; it is good enough. Don't hesitate. Once you begin speaking, you have something to work with and build on. With the first-thought method it is as if the idea selects you rather than the other way around. The improviser focuses on making that idea into a good one, rather than searching for a good idea. ~ Patricia Ryan Madson

Anytime I audition for something, it's always a question of whether or not the people I'm auditioning for understand I'm an improviser and I like to do that, and if they like that or if they just want someone who's going to do what's written. ~ Adam Pally

The lifelong goal of an improviser is to listen to what the other person is saying, taking it in, and responding. ~ Ali Farahnakian

I think for anyone - male or female - in improv, the biggest thing to get over is the fear. I think every improviser has that. ~ Rachel Dratch

I think not every improviser is a good stage actor. Certainly not every stage actor is a good improviser. ~ Rich Sommer

I've always wanted to be an actor. I didn't get into this game to be the best improviser in the world. I didn't choose improv as a stepping stone, it just happened to become one. ~ Rob Corddry

People know my background and for people who need an improviser, I'm one of the people they think to use if I'm appropriate for the part. ~ Jason Mantzoukas

I consider myself a good improviser but Will and Kevin showed me I have a lot to learn. ~ Erick Chavarria

As an improviser, I always find it jarring when I meet someone in real life whose first answer is no. "No, we can't do that." "No, that's not in the budget." "No, I will not hold your hand for a dollar." What kind of way is that to live? ~ Tina Fey

I want to be an improviser, and I've worked very hard at that. It's an art. You don't just play whatever comes into your head; you have to be very deliberate about what you do. ~ Neil Peart

The day of the great jazz improviser who doesn't know how to read music is over. ~ Maynard Ferguson

I'm more of a writer than an actor, and I used to say that I'm mostly an improviser, though I haven't improvised in awhile. ~ Tina Fey

An improv team would have eight guys and one woman; that was still pretty standard. If you were a woman improviser, it was actually kind of an advantage because, if you were halfway decent, you'd get a lot more stage time. ~ Rachel Dratch

You have to know composition to be a good improviser. ~ Roscoe Mitchell

An improviser does not operate from a formless vacuum, but from three billion years of organic evolution ~ Stephen Nachmanovitch

Steve Carell is the most spectacular ad-lib improviser ever. And just doing a scene with him, it's just one incredible topping himself on every take. ~ Lucy Punch

Overshadowing all Roosevelt's decisions, Perkins wrote, "was his feeling that nothing in human judgment is final. One may courageously take the step that seems right today because it can be modified tomorrow if it does not work well." He was an improviser, not a planner. He took a step and adjusted, a step and adjusted. Gradually a big change would emerge. ~ David Brooks