When you’re in tune with your emotions, you’re better able to understand those of others.

You Will Learn How To Read Others

Doing improv has many side benefits. Knowing how to read someone is the biggest that comes to mind.

When you’re in a scene with someone, you got to read everything—their face, physicality, the vibe their putting out.

You need to read everything in order to know the emotional state of your partner, and from there, you can have a scene.

This ability to correctly sum up the emotional state of your partner and act appropriately is called emotional intelligence (EQ).

You’ve probably heard about it a dozen times by now in blog posts.

If you’re an improviser, you’ve been practicing emotional intelligence this whole time and probably didn’t even know it.



What’s cool about EQ is that it spills over into your everyday life at work, with friends and family, the non-improv folk who make up the other part of your life.

You learn to read the people in your life and you figure out how to act around them depending on their moods.

You figure out that:

Sometimes you need to listen (mom is stressed out about something and she needs you to have coffee with her).

Sometimes you need to crack a joke (well timed humor diffuses tension after a long or busy day).

Sometimes you need to empathize (your bud just went through some shit, and he needs to be listened to and have his emotions reflected back at him to help him reach a conclusion of some kind).

Overall, EQ is listening with your heart and being compassionate for your fellow human being.

Whether it’s on stage or at the office, during practice or a family dinner, Emotional Intelligence will make you a better person who can help those around you by reading their emotions and acting appropriately.

And that’s probably the best we can do at times — reading others and seeing how we can help.

#improv #ocimprov #eq