Improv

I'm surprised by a lot of my coworkers and people I've met that are fairly clueless as to what improv really is so I thought I'd try to condense it down, and explain why it's so much dang fun.  Improvisation basically boils down to a game.  The game is titled "Yes, and..."

One person starts a scene by doing or saying something and it's up to everyone else involved in that scene to play the game of "Yes and..." but adding to it.  So if I start off the scene by miming the lifting of weights, I have established that we're in some sort of gym or at least exercise area.  If the next person comes in miming that they're underwater wearing a scuba tank, they've kind of f'ed me over by denying what I established.  Likewise, if they start a scene by saying, "This is a lovely Thanksgiving dinner you've cooked" I can't switch gears and pretend that we're flight attendants.  I'd have to say something like, "Thanks, Grandma."  I've acknowledged [yes] what they've said and added to the scene by establishing that person as my Grandma.  The scene then goes on and on until it reaches whatever conclusion.

Of course, things can go awry and curveballs can be thrown.  In one of my classes, a woman started a scene by being very somber weeping and miming an outstretched hand touching a coffin.  Her scene partner came in and said, "Mom, I know you're upset that Dad never fixed the heater."  It was a curveball but it added to the scene and took it from something kind of heavy, like a funeral, to something more comical, like family dysfunction.

I'm toying around with the idea of having an improv party for my birthday in June where I get a bunch of people together to take an improv class as a group.  It's really a lot of fun and you get to be pretty damn goofy.  Hopefully I continue to enjoy taking these classes over the coming weeks.