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Assessing your character or improv solo practice sessions
Getting your reps and also tracking how you progress over time
Jen deHaan
February 18, 2025
Hi improv friends,
Many improvisers would love to be able to increase their practice time with a team, or stage time, or afford some additional classes and jams. But reality often gets in the way: time and money is limited, distance or other access issues can get in the way.
Or maybe you are working on a solo show or projects, because you live way out on an island somewhere like me, and this is most or all of what you do!
Between practices we can practice on our own to develop our skills and confidence so time is better utilized when you can get together (or do that solo show).
But how do we assess our progress?
Table of Contents
A few ways to assess your solo practice sessions
If you are practicing then you are progressing in the right direction and improving your skills and confidence even if you feel like you are moving backwards or getting into a dip in your progress. You’re doing the work. Nice! Every rep helps, even if you are “moving backwards” - it’s temporary.
But before we go too far, remembering that our own evaluation of ourselves is quite likely to be skewed from reality. It’s really hard to evaluate ourselves, outside of our own heads. We’re tough on ourselves! We often, or usually, can’t take the perspective of an audience. So remember this, and be easy on yourself. Focus most on what you think you want to learn or further develop, your comedic “voice”, and what you like doing - not on what you think went “wrong”.
Even if you really do think you feel like you “failed” an exercise or are “bad” at something, you can learn from that perceived failure. You learn what doesn’t work for you, or you learn that you need to try that exercise a few more times to get comfortable at a new skill.
You’re putting in reps, which will help you out. You don’t need to overthink or overanalyze anything - see how much “thinking” works for you when you are assessing your work. The right amount is different for everyone.
Here are a few suggestions for ways to track or assess your independent practice between a coached session, class, or show.
1. Take video or audio recordings
Does this give you a bit of dread? Yeah, me too when I started out making improv videos. Okay, it still does sometimes! Some things stay kind of hard (but it can simply mean that you care!).
You can take video or audio recrodings to see, and assess, what your character’s expression or body language looks like. Or, you might pick up something new about your vocal work.
Watching video or listening to audio of yourself can be difficult initially - we’re simply not used to seeing or hearing ourselves this way. For many (perhaps most?), watching videos of yourself gets easier over time. Especially if you start editing them as a project and allow your brain to normalize it all!
But either way, using video is a great way to assess your progress with a character, a voice, acting, or more.
You don’t need to improvise either. If you want to work on a character’s voice, grab a monologue online and read it to practice the voice. If you want to work on physicality, find a video with a transcript and see if you can match the performance.
This way you don’t need to think about doing solo improv, and can just focus on what skill you want to work on specifically.
When you watch your video or listen to the recording, you could assess your consistency across the recording, how well you conveyed an emotion, if the expression matched what you wanted to say. If you’re bold, share the video for feedback (someone you know, or throw them on social media because why not).
2. Do a character, document it
Monologue, annoy your partner/kids, or just do your chores around the house as a character as detailed in a previous newsletter. Then record some notes about what you developed after the session is done. Write down what you learned about that character’s voice, what they sounded like, what physical attributes you took on.
Later on (days, weeks, whatever), read your notes, and try iterating on your character.
Now, assess the differences between those two sessions and see what you like about that character, and what you might want to keep. What did you drop from the character, and why?
3. Character monologues
Time your character monologue. Start a timer on your phone and see how long you can go until you run out of steam. Make a note of how long the monologue was. If you learnt something during a monologue that made it easier, make a note of that discovery so you can try it again.
When you repeat this practice, see how you progress over the months - both time, and ease.
For example you might assess, “I developed a bit of a character backstory near the beginning, and when I stopped after 4 minutes it would have been easy to keep going.”
Or, “I envisioned where I was and who was watching me, and I could always go back to the environment for a bit of a break before continuing.”
One of my coaches used to note how long our monologues were, and I would mentally note if I was nearly out of steam, or not, and what my timestamp was. Making notes would have been helpful to assess and maybe even speed up this progress!
Wait awhile, and do them again
For exercises 1 and 2, wait a few months, and repeat the process from the very beginning.
For exercise 1, try the same thing you practiced (such as a voice reading a monologue you found online), but start with a new style of voice and monologue.
For exercise 2, start with a new character!
Was the exercise easier?
Was anything harder?
Did you notice any change in your habits?
What do you want to work on next?
PDF Guides - Masking and Characters
If you are a neurodivergent performer, or teach/coach improv or acting classes, this PDF guide will help you understand how neurodivergent masking can affect character acting.
For monthly newsletter articles about improv, comedy, and acting through the neurodivergent lens, subscribe to my other newsletter here.
Discuss this topic with improvisers
This link will take you directly to the forum for this newsletter on the Improv Update Discord. The discord also contains a bunch of channels for improv nerds. Nice.
Other Improv Resources
An interview about improv, and another scripted/improv episode from Unfuck Your Life.
Art Against Mental Illness interview
I was honoured to be interviewed by Alex Loveless on the Art Against Mental Illness podcast. “Alex talks to comedy improv artist Jen DeHaan about the transformative power of improvisational comedy.“ Those are wigs on my mantle… what else would you have on a mantle? Watch it below:
The Hecklers of Crow & Cackle
Episode 6 of Unfuck Your Life: An Audio Drama is out. Episode 7 will be out on Thursday. In this episode, Tog tries their hand at stand-up comedy after being told they’re “good at storytelling” at clown school for dogs. Will this new venture help Tog pick themselves up after hitting rock bottom?
Online Improv Jams
Check out these great online improv jams from the community! These jams are organized by their respective hosts, so please contact them with any questions. Click the links provided to find out more information about each jam and sign up!
Audio Online Improv Jams: Mondays 4-6pm PT and Saturdays 2pm-4pm PT on oozebear.com . Open to all!
Improv & Comedy Livestreams
Comedy Livestreams that I think look pretty cool that happen to be coming up soon or available right now (no affiliation):
Feb 21: Drunk Black History (Brandon Collins, Rell Battle) [Livestream]
Until Feb 24: EconLOL (Johnathan Appel) [Livestream]
Feb 25: The Afterlife (Rekha Shankar, Brennan Lee Mulligan) [Livestream]
Fact or Word of the Week
As per usual, here's yet another fact or word of the week…. this week we have a fact. Heck yeah, FACTS RULE!
Why is this section here? Use these words or facts in scenes. Read into them more and use what you learn in a scene or initiation. These are things you can do on your own between sessions. All of this helps your improv.
Fact: Cats can taste the air thanks to an organ on the roof of their mouth called the vomero-nasal organ.
Do you have a stage show that’s livestreamed and want it added? Or a FREE jam or workshop I should add? Or a fact or word for next week? Reply to this message and let me know!
Enjoy some improv, improvise with me some day?
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Focus of StereoForest original shows is alt comedy + scripted + improv.
Warmest regards from an island up north in Canada,
*snacks on maple syrup whilst wearing a toque*
Jen
StereoForest.com - improvised comedy podcasts, audio dramas, and more.
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