Don't Bait Them, Connect With Them, A Better Way to Introduce Improv

An improv teacher and student on a simple stage, mid-scene, leaning in with genuine curiosity and connection, warm stage lighting, painterly oil style

The intentionality-as-bait concept makes sense on paper, especially for stand-ups, but it's only one door in.

There's a concept floating around in improv teaching right now that I've been thinking about. The idea that intentionality, having a clear point of view, a want, a direction in your scene, is the hook that draws new people into improv. It makes sense on paper. Stand-up comedians, for example, already understand this because creating a set is inherently intentional. You walk on stage with material, with a plan, with something to say. That intentionality translates directly into strong improv scenes. The idea is that if you frame improv as an intentional craft rather than a free-for-all, more people will feel like it's something they can learn.

That approach works for plenty of people and great teachers use it, but it's not the best or only way.

I know excellent teachers who use it as their primary entry point, and their students build sharp, confident scenes from day one. Finding the game, identifying the unusual thing, heightening it, that's a completely valid way to build a scene. But I don't believe it's the best approach, and I definitely don't believe it's the only one.

The real best approach is the one that fits the individual standing in front of you, whether that's game, Chicago style, or Meisner-level listening.

For some people, that's game. For others, it's Chicago style, character first, emotion first, let the scene breathe and see where it goes. For others still, it could be the Meisner-influenced approach where you focus entirely on your scene partner and let the scene emerge from pure listening and reaction. None of these are wrong. They're different doors into the same building.

So my pivot is simple, instead of baiting with a concept, start with connection.

Instead of trying to find ways to hook people into improv with a concept or a framework, what if we started with connection first?

Ask what they actually care about, then build the scene around that answer.

Ask what music they've been into, what movie made them laugh last week, what their day job is, what they're passionate about outside of this room. Then take that answer and build the first scene around it. They mentioned they love baking? Great, you're opening a bakery together and the health inspector just walked in. They're a nurse? Wonderful, you're both nurses on the craziest shift of your lives and the vending machine just ate your last dollar.

This sounds like baiting-plus, but it does two things frameworks can't, it teaches them to pull from their own life and to be original from day one.

There's a two-fold purpose here that fundamentally changes how that new student experiences improv for the first time. First, you're teaching them to pull creativity from within themselves, not from a prompt on a card or a suggestion from the audience, but from their own life, their own interests, their own imagination. Second, you're teaching them, from their very first scene, to be original. Not to copy what they saw on a Netflix special, not to do the move they think the teacher wants to see, but to bring what only they can bring into that room.

Connection in everyday life, the same skill that makes great improv scenes

Frameworks matter, but connection to who that person actually is, that's where improv starts.

That's a gift you can't give someone by leading with a framework. Frameworks are important. Frameworks are powerful. But connection, genuine, curious, yes-and connection to who that person actually is, that's where improv starts.

The best hook isn't a trick. It's paying attention.