Improv and ADHD w/ Kate Hammer
“It’s okay to have the massive emotional arcs and quick mood changes that, offstage, make us think we need to see a hormone specialist”
Kate is a Canadian writer and performer based in Glasgow. She studied improv with Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Montreal Improv, and runs INFEMOUS, a show for fem and NB performers.
It was six months ago that my therapist started off a session with, “Have you ever considered that you have ADHD?” Six months of research, discovery, and beginning the process of an official diagnosis (which may never come – shout out to non-masculine ADHD traits which fly under the radar!!) later, and I have become ENLIGHTENED.
No, not the cool kind – otherwise my Special Talent Visa would already be in the mail.
I have discovered why I’ve had such a lifelong love affair with improv: aspects of my personality that I’d learned to mask in everyday life were instead celebrated in small, blackbox theatres.
In my opinion, there are three very good reasons improv is great for people with ADHD, and three excellent reasons people with ADHD are amazing for improv.* So whether you have ADHD, think you might, or just want to be aware of performers who do, read on dear friend, read on.
From games to stage time, the golden rule of improv is (say it with me): don’t talk about fight club (IMAGINE if it was). The beauty of “yes, and…” lies in the absence of rejection. If you say ‘no’ to someone, you’re breaking the rules and go to made-up jail. Neurodivergent people commonly struggle with something called Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria, meaning that we think everyone hates us all of the time. This may seem like a universal feeling, but double it for ADHD. Heck, triple it! It’s on the house.
We are more prone to the anxiety of being turned down, and because we also carry traits like impulsivity and problems focusing, more negative things tend to be said to us. In improv, however, you KNOW everyone has your back, and that if someone messes up, it’s on everyone else to make a parachute. It’s the only place our rejection-primed brains can relax and start to worry about literally everything else.
Reason number two of why improv is good for ADHD is that it creates a safe space. It’s okay to have the massive emotional arcs and quick mood changes that, offstage, make us think we need to see a hormone specialist. The mask of regulating emotions to a ‘normal’ level can come off, and the 3D rainbow of emotional depth that we feel is let out – which is great, because it’s usually only used to make The Office impossible to watch without pausing ten times to breathe deeply.
Finally, the ADHD bargain solution to feeling constant rejection is to become a people pleaser. This can become crippling in daily life with obsessive overthinking, or losing all sense of what is important to oneself, since the only thing that matters is everyone else having a nice time with some lemonade, do they like the lemonade? If they don’t like the lemonade, will they stop liking me? And so on… Improv is a space where you get instant feedback (hopefully approval), and even without an audience you’re working as a team to make the best thing possible. It doesn’t fix needing the world to love you, but it’s good to have a space to take risks, have fun, and let go of needing approval 24/7.
So, improv is good for ADHD, it’s proven!** But, as aforementioned, ADHD brains are just as great for the sport of gods.
Firstly, neurodivergent people naturally follow lateral and concurrent thinking patterns: “If this is true, what else is true?” We are able to play in a scene, watch the scene, remember the offers that were given before, know who is standing behind us, and also think about what can happen next. Yeah. But we’re definitely not thinking about fight club!
Improv Brain is pretty much like having ADHD Brain, but when it’s not contained to a stage, it looks like trying to start a load of laundry fifteen times before realizing it’s midnight and you’ll have to wait until tomorrow. Making connections and escalating scenes is exactly what neurodivergent brains do naturally. So having a space where that’s celebrated is just…chef’s kiss. Because you can still have an amazingly successful performance while wearing dirty clothes...or so I hear.
Secondly, having ADHD is linked to experiencing extreme emotions. This is why I talked about 3D rainbows before, but also because I think multidimensional colour arcs would be cool, and probably taste good? Anyway, these big feelings can make people think that we’re really good at getting into character (...right, “character”), but it’s also intensely cathartic: to be able to show people how we feel, from intensely agitated to so small we are but a particle of a chihuahua, improv is the only place we can ask people to see us as we are, and for the audience to say, “YEAH!”. These big emotions can bring hyper-empathy: feeling what someone else is feeling so intuitively that ‘peas in a pod’ scenes become as easy as...can I get a suggestion for some sort of baked good? Again, in daily life it’s hard to take on the feelings of everyone around you, but in improv this is the goal: to be present, listen, and bounce off of your scene partner.
The last thing I’ll mention that makes ADHD improvisers gifts from heaven, is our naturally hyper-fixated brains. It makes picking out the little details incredibly easy, because actually, that’s all we can see! And what’s that famous rule of comedy? Say it with me: Edward Norton and Brad Pitt should’ve kissed in Fight Club –sorry, no it’s specificity. I get those mixed up. Noticing things others don’t is why a lot of people are seen as being funny in the first place, and improv allows it to be embraced instead of feeling awkward.
I don’t want to make it seem as though ADHD is easy to live with. It’s different for everyone, and it changes day by day. Sometimes these same strengths can play against us even on stage, making us hyperfixate so much that it blocks anything else from happening and we end up in a scene solely about your fingertips. Other times, we can get lost in coming up with connections and stop listening (improv sin of the highest order), or want to please the audience/our scene partner so much that we become a burden, offering nothing but desperation.
Basically, ADHD brains can be wonderful things when in an improv space that feels supportive, and understanding. Don’t be afraid to be open about how you see the world, or how you feel emotions, so that everyone on stage is on the same page. Trust me when I say, there are a lot of neurodivergent minds out there, just waiting for you to make a troupe.
The pandemic has made a lot of people realize how much they do to be as organized, regulated, and focused as others, meaning more people are finding out they have ADHD. And as much as podcasts, books, and chatting can help, it’s important to know there are spaces where your differences are rewarded, your honesty appreciated, and your fast-moving brain allowed to race along: for me, that’s improv.
I truly cannot recommend it enough.
P.S. Check out Additude or CHADD for some great ADHD resources!
(*)Everyone has different experiences, and expressions of ADHD, so this is based off of my personal experiences.
(**) Proven only by Kate standards, which are quirky and loose
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