When’s the last time you saw something and thought, “That looks like fun!” What did you do next? If you’re like me (actually, the old me), probably nothing. You likely just moved along with your life. But what if you did something? Leaned into that inkling? Sought out that fun thing and joined in?

I recently did that with improv. I loved watching “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” in the early 2000s. Anyone remember it? Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, and Ryan Stiles were my people. I thought to myself, “That looks fun! I think I would be good at that! Those guys would love me!” And (you guessed it) I moved along with my life.

But then I got the memo that life is short, and one of the first things I crossed off my WOW! List was to take an online improv class with Second City. And my inkling was right. Improv is fun. In addition to adding much-needed levity to my life, the class was surprisingly healing. I wrote about my experience for Business Insider, and I got an unexpected WOW! when Second City shared the story on their Instagram page and followed me. 

I’ll admit, though, improv is harder than it looks, and I wasn’t a natural like I had imagined. I decided to take it one step further by trying it live and in person. It took a while, but I built up the nerve and signed up at Third Coast Comedy, a Nashville comedy club dedicated to improv.  

Being nervous and doing it anyway creates intentional WOW! Moments!

Here’s what the class taught me about life and WOW! Moments. 

• Play can be serious. Our instructor, Isaac, started the class by telling us he was going to be tough on us. In other words, “Buckle up, buttercup. We’re here to learn.” Wait, what? I thought this was going to be fun. He made good on his promise, stopping scenes to encourage us to dig deeper. And guess what? That’s where the really good stuff was.
• Honor your truth. It’s tempting to want to be clever and funny. Improv is supposed to be funny, right? But real funny comes from unscripted honesty. When you react in the moment to what’s before you. In class, I could never predict what my scene partner was going to do or say. Like pretending to be doing arm curls with imaginary weights while we were riding on a train. All I could control was how I responded. 
• Don’t assume. A lot of improv is object work, telling a story with your body instead of words or props. You may think your actions are obvious, but this isn’t always true. Like when I thought my motions clearly conveyed that I was driving a car, but my scene partner interpreted it as an obscene gesture. The best part is that he had to honor his truth. And it’s what I became known for in class.
• Take up space. Whenever I was in a scene, I felt an urge to move quickly through it. Isaac told me to slow down, commenting, “It’s almost like you don’t want to be seen.” That observation made me think about how I show up in life. Do I want to be seen? Are there times when I’m more comfortable in the wings? I’m still pondering this reflection and the discomfort it caused inside of me.
• Failure is a gift. It may not feel like it in the moment, but failure is good. It means you were brave enough to try something. And you have more information for the next time. You learn more from failure than successes. And boy, did I fail. And fail again. 
• Affirmations are an even better gift. At the end of class, we would tell one fellow classmate what we enjoyed most about their performance that day. After the final class, we gave and received affirmations from everyone. I left feeling so good about myself. Someone told me I was effortlessly funny and it surprised him. WOW! The greater feeling, though, was telling my classmates how awesome they were. I told someone that I loved being partnered with her because I knew the scene would be good. That hanging her butt out of the window of an imaginary train was brilliant object work!  

A few people have told me that they would never be brave enough to do improv. That it would be terrifying. That surprises me. With improv, you’re figuring things out with each other. And isn’t that what life is all about?