Book Review: Improve: How I Discovered Improv and Conquered Social Anxiety by Alex Graudins

Improve: How I Discovered Improv and Conquered Social Anxiety
by Alex Graudins (YA PB (Graphic Novel) Graudins)

Disclaimer: I love Comedy Improv — the type of Improv most easily recognized by casual viewers as that done on the TV series Whose Line Is It Anyway? In fact, I’ve loved that art form for nearly 30 years, and even organized shows of it and performed it. So, when I saw this graphic novel on the “new books” display in the Teen room of the downtown library, I was immediately interested.

 

Alex Graudins is a successful young cartoonist. But she has also suffered from crippling social anxiety since she was a child. Placed into situations where she has to interact with others, she constantly found herself questioning and criticizing her own abilities, even when she knew she was fully capable of achieving her own goals. When a therapist encouraged her to join an Improv class as one method of combating her social anxiety, Graudins fondly remembers watching the earliest years of Whose Line is it Anyway? on TV (it first premiered on ABC in 1998, and now after many years airs on the CW network).

 

Graudins explains how Improv works, with detailed descriptions of how specific Improv games play out. She explains how some of these games actually helped her break out of her cycle of self-defeat. Though Graudins continues to fight against the social anxiety issues that have dogged her for so long, she identifies how implementing Improv into her life has broadening her circle of trusted friends and associates.

 

I absolutely loved Improve: How I Discovered Improv and Conquered Social Anxiety. I appreciated this for the personal elements (I could identify with much of the social anxiety the Alex suffers), and the detailed descriptions of Improv games. I strongly recommend this read for anyone suffering from the same type of social anxiety as the author, and for fans of Improv acting and Improv comedy. In fact, reading this book may inspire you to wish to get involved in Improv locally. You may not be aware that Southeast Community College has offered both beginning and intermediate Improv classes in recent years, and several of the graduates of that series of courses have formed a Lincoln-based Improv troupe, Occasionally Hilarious, which offers occasional live performances in the area. Another Lincoln Improv troupe is Lyp Schtick, which has been around for several years and has a presence on both Twitter and Facebook, but hasn’t had any local performances since early 2021.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Improv Comedy by Andy Goldberg, Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up by Patricia Ryan Madson, and many E-books on Improv via Hoopla. And, of course, episodes and videos from Whose Line is it Anyway? on TV and on the internet!)

 

( publisher’s official page for Improve ) | ( official Alex Graudins web site )

( Occasionally Hilarious — Lincoln-based Improv troupe ) | ( Lyp Schtick — Lincoln-based Improv troupe ) | ( Who’s On-Line Anyway? — reviewer Scott C.’s online comedy troupe, with members from New Jersey to California )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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