How Improv Can Empower You In All Your Magnificent Womanness

Harness the pink power of "yes, and."

Improv shows you how to make your scene partner look good.

Okay, doing Fireball shots at the bar with a high school friend you haven't seen in ten years isn't the *greatest* idea you've ever had. But! Her two-year-old daughter's Instagram account is your jam, and the only way you won't feel weird about liking every adorable post is to get together with your mom-friend. She has a little too much to drink, because she's living her best life and deserves a break. She excuses herself to go to the bathroom and returns with toilet paper on her red pumps. You have flashbacks to watching “Billy Madison” and you wonder if you should put toilet paper on your shoe and tell everyone in your best Adam Sandler voice, “toilet paper on your shoe is the COOLEST.” You know that won't work, though, because you're the only one who cares about that movie and his dying career.

Plan B! (The affordable one.) You run to go hug her, step on the toilet paper to get it off her foot, signal the bartender to raise the volume of the music and you chant her name! Everyone else is buzzed, and no one can resist chanting in a bar. She dances around in all her glory. An empowered woman lifts you up instead of dragging you down.

It teaches you that mistakes are gifts.

Say you're at Hair Cuttery on a blustery February morning. You've just been shampooed, and you're looking at yourself in the mirror. Your hair is wet, so you look vaguely like the girl from “The Ring.” Your hairdresser asks what you want, and you say “something different.” Wow, taking risks! You're crushing the game. She takes out the buzzer and shaves your head. This is not what you intended.

You remember your friends are throwing a pre-Valentine's Day costume party tonight, because your friends are almost thirty and their lives are pathetic. N A couples' costume party. You throw on dirty clothes and run some makeup on your forehead. You get on the 36 bus, notice a sad looking man who looks likes someone from post-apocalyptic times and invite him to be the “Max” to your Imperator Furiosa. You win best costume and take home $200. Your confidence level sky rockets...AND you can eat for a week! Plus, you have a boyfriend now.

Also, it lets you be yourself...

An empowered woman knows who she is. She knows her strengths and weaknesses. Don't be embarrassed by how much you know about the evolution stages of Pokémon or how tall Muggsy Bogues is. If you need chocolate after every meal, we don't judge. Stay who you are; apologize for nothing. Unless you're Canadian. Then you can apologize for whatever you want, because that is who you are.

And forces you to make statements.

Stop, Asking. Questions. If you ask how you look in every single dress in your closet, you'll never leave your house. Besides, I am sure this is how fashion trends begin. Someone tries a bunch of weird shit on, never asks for feedback, goes out into public with confidence and then suddenly, everyone wants to wear it. Next time, put on the first thing that smells clean. Then look in that full length mirror and say something positive, like, “Damn girl, you're looking fine” or, “I'd hug you so hard.”

Improv tells you to always say “yes!”

Go sip wine and paint weird things. Go jump out of a plane (if you're securely attached to a trained professional). Go salsa dancing, even if you know you have no rhythm. Life is an adventure, baby! Have no regrets, just lessons learned.

Wanna try it for yourself? Sign up for a one-time Improv Test Drive and give our classes a no-risk whirl.

Wanna leave the laughter to the pros? See the fearlessly funny women of The Second City roast the patriarchy in  She the People: Girlfriends' Guide to Sisters Doing it for Themselves, now playing at UP Comedy Club.

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Stacey Smith is an improviser, actress and Comedy School Manager for ImprovBoston.