Improv Your Social Skills - Overcoming Self Consciousness

Improv comedy uses several techniques to create laughter. These include, creating an atmosphere free of judgement, active listening, being positive, putting your focus on others, and the importance of play and laughter.

In this class, we'll explore these techniques not with the goal of being funny, but with a focus on mental health.

How will it work?

Much of what we've been taught, or believe, about human interactions aren't just wrong, they're exactly wrong. The ultimate outcome of 'doing good for others' isn't reciprocation it's expectation. That is, if you 'do good' for others all the time without thinking about your own boundaries you'll very likely wind up miserable.

This class is a combination of improv. mindfulness, psychology and philosophy. The goal is to let us think more about, and experience, different forms of human communication. All in a fun, low stakes, judgement free way.

We'll take part in various exercises together, talk about their effect on us, and perhaps do them again. We'll look at such topics as projection, gaslighting, eye contact, reframing, the power of presence, the power of play, serving relationships, why we do things, getting out of our own heads, win/win vs zero sum game interactions, unknown unknowns, and many more...

The teacher, Ralph MacLeod, is a co-founder of two independent improv clubs in Toronto - Bad Dog Theatre and Social Capital Theatre. He's been teaching improv for over 20 years. He also teaches these same techniques to several organizations including UofT, Google, Kraft, Shopify and many, many more. He has a very strong background in person to person interactions and transactions.

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have!

Although we no longer require proof of vaccination nor do we insist on mask use or social distancing, we enthusiastically encourage everyone to do what's right for them.