How to Prepare for an Improv Audition

I’ve coached actors for the better part of two decades and cast them for most of that time, so I get the same questions on both sides of the table. The first one is always where to find auditions. The one that comes a few months later, once somebody has been out there, is this: how do you prepare for an improv audition, when the whole point of improv is that you’re making it up?

I understand the confusion. It sounds like preparing to be spontaneous. But actors who get flustered without a script are rarely flustered because they lack talent. They’re flustered because nobody told them what an improv audition actually asks for. Here’s what it asks for.

How do you prepare for an improv audition?

You prepare the skills, not the scene. An improv audition asks for one of two things: space work, where you do a real task with imaginary objects and make it look natural, or an unscripted scene with a partner. You train both in a class until they’re reflexes. Then in the room you do four things: stay grounded, take the note, play to the story, and have fun. There is no line to memorize. There is a lot to practice.

The two things you’ll actually be asked to do

Space work

Change an imaginary load of laundry. Drink an imaginary soda. Drive an imaginary car. It sounds easy, and the room is full of actors who forget the turn signal, skip the rearview mirror, and pick up a laundry basket that weighs nothing. The ones who remember the weight of the objects look grounded and natural, and it’s the difference the casting director notices first. Plan to forget things. Then train until you don’t.

Improv dialogue

At some point you’ll be in an unscripted scene with a partner. Stay calm and stay connected to that partner. Support their choices. Try to make them look good, because the casting director will notice and appreciate it. Attacking your partner, negating what they just said, or steering the scene where you decided it should go will not work in your favor. Listen. Be affected. That’s the whole technique.

Four things to do in the room

1. Be grounded

Feet under you, objects with weight, a real person on the other side of the scene. Grounded reads as natural on camera. Nervous reads as nervous.

2. Take direction

As a general rule, if a casting director is coaching you, they like you. They’ve seen something and they want to know if you can take a note. Be open. Even if they ask for something very different from your first choice, try it, fully. This is the single most common place an audition is won or lost, and it’s the easiest to prepare for: get notes every week in a class until taking one feels like nothing.

3. Play to the story

Television, theater, film or a national commercial, it doesn’t matter: a story needs characters, and casting directors are looking for actors who can play a realistic one. Yes, some projects call for an over-the-top character, and the actors who get those jobs are the ones who can get big and still keep it grounded. Know the role your character plays. If you’re the straight man in the commercial, don’t go for the joke. This audition is about the product, not about you, and if your performance distracts from the product, you made the wrong choice.

4. Have fun

If you’re having fun, the room is having fun. Know that you are interesting and compelling when you’re just being yourself, natural and grounded. Everything else is icing.

A five-minute exercise before you walk in

Here’s one we use in class, called five things. It gets you out of your head and into the room in the time it takes to park the car.

How do you get into improv in the first place?

You take a class, and you keep taking it. Improv is one of the hardest subjects for actors, because there’s nowhere to hide and no script to blame. It is also the fastest way to get better at every other kind of acting, because it trains the listening that scripted work only pretends to require. Our adult improv class meets Wednesday and Thursday evenings in Phoenix. By the time an improv audition comes around, you’ll have made a few hundred choices in front of people already, and the room will feel like a room.

The truth about the person behind the table

Casting directors gather actors and direct them through the process. The producer or director makes the final call. So the person you’re auditioning for is not the one deciding, and they are not out to get you; a good one is trying to bring out your best. Don’t be afraid. Don’t suck up. Do your job, and move on to the next audition.