Masking and Improv: Being the voice of reason
Have you had an issue being the voice of reason in scenes? Grounding a scene? This written version of podcast episode 9 discusses what's "normal", weird, and how it can mess with our heads and scenes.
Neurodivergent masking and its affect on being the voice of reason in scenes is one of the first things I learnt would be difficult for me in improv. After I learnt what it was, and was beginning to be coached on the idea, it messed with my head. I started to read stuff about voice of reason, being grounded, the unusual.
I was doing a lot of between-class reading and thinking and analyzing - or overthinking depending on your school of thought (any school that isn’t neurodivergent, perhaps) - and then started asking myself questions.
What is "normal" and can I be a good judge of what that is?
Will I continue to analyze (or overanalyze) these things?
And what IS socially acceptable in a scene anyway?
Is what I'm saying or doing deemed "normal" - and to who? WHO IS THAT PERSON LISTENING?
What is normal... to them?
To ALL OF THEM.
The unusual thing too. What's unusual? What's my weird? What's your weird? What does my scene partner think? Do they think the thing I'm doing is normal or weird? Are they neurodivergent too?
_weeps_ AM I EVEN FUNNY ANYMORE? WAS I EVER? _end weeps_
Because there seemed to be a commonly accepted answer, a correct one, and I only knew what that answer was some of the time. So it drove me wild, of course, as that scenario generally does and perhaps should.
Note: This is a written version based on the notes I made for this podcast episode: Episode 9: Masking and Improv - Being the voice of reason. This article is a bit different than the podcast.
A loaded concept
It all seems pretty simple, and can be simple - but in practice, and especially starting out, this whole idea can be pretty loaded.
Some of us have decades of masking our natural reactions and thoughts because a greater percentage of human beings on this planet might find those reactions and/or thoughts kinda weird.
Because we think kinda different (and thorough).
We think a LOT about this kinda thing, because we have had to.
If we don't do this masking, we can inject the unusual into a conversation even if it's our honest, normal (to us) reaction.
If you're supposed to be grounded, your honest first reaction can end up positioning you as the weird one.
And we're the weird ones in life... but today we want to be the not-weird one in this scene... but we're supposed to react as ourselves to be grounded... so NOW WHAT?
Good question, you! 10/10. I'll do my best to answer some of it in this article.
For quite awhile, after being introduced to this concept, I was pretty in my head about how to be "grounded" and "voice of reason" because it can be a little challenging when you're mixing in characters, masking, your neurodivergent wiring, and all the other improv techniques we learn.... which you're doing in addition to positioning yourself in a scene when you want or need to. Being in your head makes everything a helluva lot harder, too.
But let's review what neurodivergent masking is first.
What is Masking
In episode 6 I talked about what masking is. You can refer back to the beginning of that episode for an explanation, or deal with the following nutshell of one here.
Masking is a common behaviour amongst people who are ADHD and/or autistic. People also refer to masking as camouflaging, being a social chameleon, or mimicking. It's conscious or unconscious reaction for many of us — for me it’s mostly unconscious but sometimes noticed after the fact.
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