"Being able to improvise is the basis for creating all characters and situations, for everything to do with performing, really. And it's good therapy as well"
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Improv isn’t just a comedy skill here; it’s Kattan’s quiet argument for survival in public. Coming out of the SNL pipeline, where sketches get rewritten five minutes before airtime and a single missed cue can tank a live show, “being able to improvise” reads less like an artistic preference and more like occupational self-defense. The line has a performer’s pragmatism: characters aren’t born fully formed, they’re stitched together in real time from audience energy, fellow actors’ rhythms, and whatever chaos the room throws back.
The subtext is what makes it land. Kattan frames improvisation as “the basis” for “everything to do with performing,” a totalizing claim that conveniently sidelines the myth of the solitary genius. Improv is communal authorship. You’re only as good as your listening, your willingness to cede control, your readiness to look foolish for a beat so the scene can live. That’s also why it feels like “good therapy.” Not therapy in the clinical sense, but in the way it forces presence: stop curating, stop bracing, respond honestly to the moment you’re in.
There’s an additional cultural context underneath the breeziness: comedy as a socially acceptable way to process anxiety, instability, even pain. By calling improv therapeutic, Kattan gives the punchline a softer aftertaste. The joke isn’t that performers are fearless. It’s that they’re trained to turn panic into play, and to make uncertainty look like a choice.
The subtext is what makes it land. Kattan frames improvisation as “the basis” for “everything to do with performing,” a totalizing claim that conveniently sidelines the myth of the solitary genius. Improv is communal authorship. You’re only as good as your listening, your willingness to cede control, your readiness to look foolish for a beat so the scene can live. That’s also why it feels like “good therapy.” Not therapy in the clinical sense, but in the way it forces presence: stop curating, stop bracing, respond honestly to the moment you’re in.
There’s an additional cultural context underneath the breeziness: comedy as a socially acceptable way to process anxiety, instability, even pain. By calling improv therapeutic, Kattan gives the punchline a softer aftertaste. The joke isn’t that performers are fearless. It’s that they’re trained to turn panic into play, and to make uncertainty look like a choice.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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