Jamming

My Parkinson’s exercise routine goes way beyond retraining my wayward arms and legs. Here’s how improvisation helps me to keep my brain sharp.

Last September, I started getting up at two o’clock in the morning on Wednesdays to take part in a Zoom call with a difference. We’re encouraged to say the first thing that comes into our heads. We’re allowed to be silly, pull funny faces and make mistakes. There’s no such thing as failure or a wrong answer. It’s called Jam for Joy, and it’s an improvisation session mostly, but not exclusively, for people with Parkinson’s.

Improvisation? Isn’t that for confident professional comedians? Not necessarily. It isn’t always about cracking jokes and trying to be funnier than everyone else in the room. It’s about listening to others and responding to the unexpected, based on the simple principle of ‘Yes! And…’.

In Yes! And… one person floats an idea. Others follow in turn.

“It’s windy today.”

“Yes! And, ooops, there goes my hat!”

“Yes! And it’s heading for the pond!”

“Yes! And there’s a small dog chasing it!”

We don’t judge the first idea or contradict it. We simply accept it, process it, and hand the next person a juicy nugget to work with.

In another exercise, we go round the Zoom room telling stories one word at a time. After ‘once upon a time’, the story could go anywhere (the beach is a favourite destination). At first I slowed things down by trying to think up smart-ass answers, but there is no shame (and more fun) in presenting rapid-fire dumb ones. One time it was my turn to complete the phrase “The best kind of brain surgery is…” I struggled because I didn’t want to say the obvious (deep brain stimulation) but I couldn’t find the words for the one I was looking for (prefrontal lobotomy), so I just said “trache-OT-o-mee!”

Well, the applause was rapturous. It wasn’t the right answer, but in this game it wasn’t wrong. And if you think about it, a brain that is starved of oxygen isn’t going to respond well to other surgeries.

Workout for the brain

Regular readers will know I’m near-evangelical about the role of exercise in neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to heal itself and make new connections. My physical exercise is built around big, powerful moves, but my routine goes way beyond retraining my wayward arms and legs. First I threw in cognitive tasks like reciting the stations on the Piccadilly Line or the Shipping Forecast. And now I’ve discovered the marvellous brain exercise that is improv.

For me the main benefit is feeling sharper and more organised, which is funny given the chaos into which the sessions often descend. I’m less embarrassed when Mrs Malaprop or the Reverend Spooner hijack my tongue. The other day someone asked me what breed of puppy my friend had. I said it was a black Land Rover. We all knew what I meant.

And there are benefits in my music lessons, too. Instead of stopping and swearing on a bum note, I’ll just count into the next bar and pick the tune up again. So I’m not practising the bum notes all the time. It’s given me so much more confidence.

Magician

The magician leading the Jam for Joy sessions is Robert Cochrane, a screenwriter, film-maker, comedian and baseball nut from California (hence my early alarm call). Robert studied improv throughout his education – often as a soft option so that he could spend more time on the sports field. He didn’t really think it would be practical in later life, until he studied with The Second City®, an improvisation troupe that has been making up stuff in Chicago for more than 60 years – and more recently in Los Angeles and Toronto.

Robert says:

“It wasn’t until I studied with The Second City® that I began to think about improvisation as a life skill. From there, I included improv games and philosophies in the classrooms where I taught film and media studies – my students loved it. I was impressed by the diverse, positive effects improv had as a way of promoting teamwork and communication, often beyond my expectations.” 

​Robert’s father Dan was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2001, when he was just 57. Robert turned their adventures together, visiting all 30 major league baseball grounds in the USA, into an award-winning documentary series, Boys of Summer. Along the way they raised funds and awareness.

He says:

“It dawned on me that if I introduced my dad to improvisation, he might benefit from it as a life philosophy and it might help to improve the quality of his life. He found it both interesting and helpful.” 

Sure that there would already be many research papers about improv’s effect on Parkinson’s, Robert started looking. It didn’t take him long – there was only one paper! Danny Bega and team at Northwestern University in Chicago conducted a small-scale study and concluded that:

“A novel improvisation program can be well-attended, enjoyable, and improve ADL [activities of daily living] measures among patients with PD of varying ages and disease severity.”

Robert decided that he would add to this small body of knowledge by enrolling as a PhD student at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. COVID hit just as he was getting groups together for in-person pilot studies, but Zoom has allowed him to pioneer online improv and extend his cohort to me, 8000+ miles and eight time zones away. I can’t give away too much about the research just yet – it’s a proper clinical trial – but I will say I’ve met some fabulous people in these sessions. The veterans are supportive and funny, while the newbies, who start off quite cynical, are transformed into confident people unafraid of failure. Jam for Joy is a less formal version of the research sessions, open to all.

Robert concludes:

“Improv can help increase socialization in the Parkinson’s disease (PD) community, decrease depression and reshape the thought process of those affected by PD. It helps us remember and understand that though we may have or be affected by PD, we need not be defined nor unnecessarily limited by it. In short, by participating and communicating, the players will be transformed.”

A sensible time of day

For a whole hour, I forget I have Parkinson’s. I’m sad when it’s time to stop. I feel as if I’ve had a full-body workout. While my arms and legs are ready to go back to bed, my brain is buzzing. Which is a bit of a problem at three o’clock in the morning – it plays havoc with my circadian rhythms and the rest of Wednesday.

So I was delighted when Robert suggested moving the time to a more sensible time of day. This means I can encourage more people from this side of the pond to take part. Not just PwPs, but carers, health professionals, thespians – anyone with an interest in helping us to communicate, build confidence and have fun. Let me know if you’d like to join the party.

Play>>Jamming>>Bob Marley and the Wailers