Our Dave – improvisor, photographer and Bourbon biscuit eater – explains how improv helps him live with autism.
After listening to a recent Liverpool Comedy Improvcast Podcast, Iain was talking to one his fellow Glossip improvisers, James Fennell, and going into depth about his autism. James talked about how that has influenced his improv, and how he has dealt with life in lockdown as someone who is autistic.
This got me thinking and I decided to open up a bit more about myself to reveal that I too am on the autism spectrum.
So this is where I plan to go a little bit more ‘off script’ and to ‘tell my true story’ of living with autism, to help to further ‘get the message out there’ of what life is like living with autism, as well as being a part of an improv community.
Autism in the Improv Comedy World
For most of my life, as well as for most of my time in the LCI community, I was blissfully unaware of my Autism diagnosis until about a year before lockdown. For those who are diagnosed as being autistic, a common trait is wanting structure to their lives, which James does discuss in his podcast.
I have found that the way classes are structured, both in-person and online, show improv to be a medium which helps me to channel my overly thinking brain into one that is both structured and orderly.
Also, having previously only done stage shows with amateur dramatic theatre companies, making the leap from the more traditional ‘auditioning for a part, learning your lines, then putting on a show’ that is amateur dramatics, to something like improv, the ‘more in the moment’ style of performing, can be somewhat of a daunting prospect. This is especially if you have had little or no experience doing improv, coupled with the insecurities that are associated with autism, such as simply trying something new and meeting new people.
Adapting my Improv Game
At the beginning of my improv journey, I was fortunate to witness improv being performed live and in the flesh. There was an advertisement for LCI drop-in classes every Monday night at the Pilgrim pub in Liverpool and I made the decision to join.
As I mentioned earlier, at this stage I wasn’t aware of my autism diagnosis and I felt an ever so familiar feeling when attending my first drop-in class, with the addition of meeting new people in an unfamiliar setting. The ever so familiar questions circled in my brain: “What would people think of me?”, “Would I be funny?”, “Could I hold my own with the seasoned veterans of Monday night drop-in classes?”, etc.
I would feel that I wasn’t going to be quick enough, let alone up to the task of being able to cope with the demands of what is known as ‘short form improv’. As time progressed however, I began to slowly find my way through the wonderful world that is comedy improv. The unpredictability that improv can provide, as well as the quick pace nature of short form, I saw as just another challenge for me to overcome.
Long form improv, that was introduced in some of the drop-in classes, again provided a completely new challenge for my over thinking and stimulated brain, which I also found interesting and intriguing. I found the idea of drawing out a character’s persona, as well as the unique world that these characters live in, over the space of 20 minutes rather than the standard 2-3 minutes that you get in short form, reminiscent of my amateur dramatics days, when the world that the characters inhabited had been already set in stone.
A Year to Forget
Now fast forward to March 2020. The world has now entered into lockdown because of an invisible enemy, bringing the whole world to a standstill. It was not long since we had done a live show, and this played more havoc with me on a mental as well as social level, being confined to my home and not being able to interact with the people who were not just fellow improvisers, but also my friends.
The prospect of not being able to do something that has become a staple in my life had started to affect me negatively. Thankfully LCI had moved online to help in reaching out to regulars of the LCI community. Initially, I didn’t join immediately with Improv Online as I was a bit unsure of how it would work in an online format, given how accustomed I was to in- person improv.
Despite the trepidation of the new format that improv had taken, I took that all important first step into the online world that improv was going down. Just like when I first joined the improv community, and what can be oh so common with someone who is autistic, I asked myself new and ever so similar questions. ‘Would I still be able to adapt to the online format?’, ‘Would we be involved with shows?’.
The Future
In a nutshell, improv both in person and online has been the mainstay in my life. It has given me a sense of purpose and meaning, which has been so important for someone who only discovered that he was on the autism spectrum 2 years ago.
Amateur Dramatics did also play its part, but I will always feel more at home with improv, because it has helped with training my brain to think on its feet and embrace ‘yes anding’ – this being what my fellow performer has offered, even though I still have a lot to learn. Liverpool Comedy Improv has helped me massively as an autistic improviser, as I am sure it has helped, and continues to help, others up and down the UK and around the world.
I would like to end on extending my gratitude to Liverpool Comedy Improvcast to giving James the chance to talk about his autism, as, without it, I feel that I wouldn’t have had the confidence to be able talk about my experiences with autism and how improv has, despite its challenges for me, given so much to me in terms of bringing order to chaos.
The Oickers 