From NPR, this is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

Morgan Smolly has been performing with an improv comedy troupe

since she was in college.

Look at me on page four.

I somehow have my time left by now.

After dozens of performances, she's

learned that you need more than a creative mind

to get the audience laughing.

You also need to be a good listener.

That means not just hearing what people say.

You have to pick up on everything that surrounds the words.

Like, let's say I came out and instead of saying,

happy birthday, like with a happy face,

I could be like, happy birthday, and clearly,

that means that I'm upset.

And then we go from there, like, why am I mad at them?

Is it that when it was my birthday last time,

they treated me like garbage, things like that?

Morgan prides herself on being able to pick up on subtext,

on being able to read between the lines, behind the lines.

When she does that well, she can hear

the results immediately.

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