A lot of great information was provided by a lot of people. Enough info, in fact, that it will be broken up into three parts to make it digestible. I want to thank everyone who submitted, but since I have the opportunity, here are some folks who did not submit anonymously. Anonymous or not, all the comments were valuable.

-          Nate Smith

-          Katie

-          Zach Moore

-          Nick McEnery

-          Donny

-          John Langen

-          Dustin Reppell

-          Zach Lorton

-          Brad Maune

-          Kristen Pechacek

-          Cale Branson

-          Jennifer Hunt

-          Sean Chambers


Years as an improviser:

1 year = 14%
2-4 years = 7%
5-8 years = 22%
9+ years = 57%

Commentary: While you read the rest of this, keep in mind that the comments here are written mostly by experienced improvisers. These are people who found a love for improve and kept at it. More than double the number of people who commented visited the survey site, which means there are folks out there who considered, but for whatever reason decided not to comment. What does that mean?

 

What was the hardest part when you started?

  • Befriending the other players = 7%
  • Learning the other players' styles and tendencies = 7 %
  • Anxiety about being in front of audience = 0%
  • Anxiety about being in front of my peers  = 14%
  • Learning fundamentals of improve = 15%
  • Doing the fundamentals of improv = 43%
  • Trusting yourself = 14%

 

There were some “Something else” comments, but I took the liberty of fitting them into the “Doing the fundamentals” category. Here are the comments, as I think they have great merit.

- I could "Yes" the hell out of anything, but the "AND" really came hard to me at first. I guess another way to say that is I struggled with heightening my scene partners' offers.

- Mine was taking control of the scene, and or, making my own character.

- Understanding that yes and, didn't mean I literally had to say "yes"to everything.

Commentary: I’m amazed that fear of audiences is so low. It’s the number one fear in society, yet the survey indicates that learning the craft is a greater concern. What does this say about the makeup of the improviser?  Someone needs to do more studies on the brains of improvisers. Seriously.

 

Okay, that's all for now. Future posts will contain the following topics:

What advice do you want to share about joining a new team?

What advice do you want to share about getting comfortable and "up to speed" with performing?