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Many people struggle with fear and worry about being embarrassed in social situations.

Improv can be a fun and low-risk way to address social anxiety.

Improv can help people practice key skills like listening to others and staying present in the moment.

Out of curiosity, I recently went to a comedy improv session, held at a community centre near me. It was led by Liv Long, who runs Improv-on-Sea (in coastal Hastings, where she lives), as well as occasional London events.1

I was quite nervous about what we might be expected to do and how embarrassing it would be—“improv” being short for improvisation, which means acting spontaneously without any preparation whatsoever. It is something that slick, sharp comedians do, taking a subject or a word thrown out by the audience and on the spot creating some really clever scenario around it.2

I need not have worried. In fact, I came away convinced that improv could be just the thing for people who overthink or suffer from social anxiety.

As Liv Long said, in an interview with the Hastings Independent, “Comedy improvisation forces you to stop judging yourself. It’s about leaning into making mistakes.” 3

In good improv, nothing is wrong. In one warm-up exercise, where we took it in turns to stand in the middle and shout out eight items in a particular category (e.g., clothes, trees, film genres), the rest of us shouted approvingly “One more thing!” after each, even if the person had “dried” and called out something completely random.

Improv teaches us to stay in the moment and not look ahead, because it doesn’t work. For instance, when asked to air-sketch a type of vehicle for someone else to start a story about, we might be sketching a lorry, but they think it is supposed to be a car. So they say, “As I got into my car this morning, I saw something I didn’t expect.” To carry on the story, we have to abandon our idea of the lorry and go with the car. We have to leave our own expectations behind and go with whatever is presented to us. As Liv said, “It makes you a better listener, and therefore a better conversationalist.”

This resonated with me. As a human givens therapist, I may advise people who struggle with social situations to imagine themselves as a journalist or researcher whose task is to gather information. Instead of casting around for a topic to talk about to the stranger sitting or standing next to them, their mind a terrifying blank, they can focus on finding out about that person.

As we know, most people will happily talk about themselves. So a simple question, such as “How do you know the host?” or “What’s your interest in this event?” is likely to elicit a helpful answer: “I went to university with the bridegroom,” or “I really like hearing new authors speak about their books.”

Learning good listening

And this is where the listening comes in. To carry on the conversation with another question, we need to have been concentrating on what has been said, not disappearing into a cloud of self-judgement: “Did my voice shake? Am I blushing? Do they think I am stupid?” Improv makes us pay attention and listen, or else we can’t carry on the story that is being created.

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Improv, taught by a talented, empathetic leader, strikes me as a wonderfully safe—and fun—setting in which to learn these things. It can be challenging to put skills learned in therapy into practice in a situation that matters. Experimenting in an improv class coats the learning in laughter.

“Improv is about having fun, trying things out, and being silly,” says Liv. “It’s about being yourself. I’m a total ‘corpser’—I laugh during shows, and loudly. I’ll crack up mid-scene at what I’m doing, and that’s what makes it fun for the audience.” 3

Not trying to hide what we are feeling is another thing I very often encourage clients to do. So, if someone is anxious about their hands shaking when they give a presentation at a conference, I suggest that they tell the audience, with a smile, “I am really nervous!” We have probably all had the experience of listening to someone who is nervous and feeling embarrassed for them, which is uncomfortable for us, too. But if someone owns their nerves, then we can relax and even put them at ease by nodding or smiling, so that the presenter can relax, too.

Some decades ago, I was to teach an in-company one-day course on written communications at a time when I was sporting a very ugly, bright red, weepy-looking rash on one side of my jaw. I realized that I couldn’t spend all day pretending it wasn’t there and struggling with embarrassment, so I decided to be upfront.

After our introductions, I quickly informed them that the rash, which was impossible to miss, was an allergic reaction and not contagious. That made them smile, and I could forget about it, indifferent to its visibility and no longer trying to do neck contortions to hide it from view. Being open can, on the right occasions, be refreshingly freeing.

So, bottom line, if you are socially anxious, consider giving a beginner’s improv class a go. You can develop confidence, connect honestly with others, and have a really good laugh all at once.

1 See https://www.instagram.com/improvonsea/

2 For instance, the Channel 4 TV show Whose Line is it Anyway?, which aired from 1988 to 1999, and the Comedy Store Players’ shows, featuring Paul Merton and others, at the Comedy Store in London.

3 Foulds, H (2025). Unscripted: Liv Long on teaching locals the art of improv comedy. Hastings Independent, 26 March.

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