The Short Answer

You know that TV show 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' where those guys get a suggestion and make up a funny scene? Yeah, it's kind of like that.

The Long Answer

Except it's not like that at all.

Improvisation is what you do every single day. People talk to you and you invent a response. An event happens in your life and you choose how to react. The problem is that if you ask someone to do that in front of other people, then suddenly they forget how to make things up and they start to worry about people judging them.

Improvisation teaches you to ignore that worry and to ignore the worst judge of them all, yourself. It's about learning how to create spontaneously without fear and without censoring yourself. It's about learning how to work cooperatively and sharing your inspiration with someone else. It's about learning how to listen, how to be playful, how to explore, how to laugh at yourself, how to be positive, how to be silly, how to stay calm in a storm.

Improvisation is like making up stories to make people laugh (or cry or shout or think or...). Except it's not like that at all.