2. When you are listening to someone speak, play the game of repeating in your head what the other person is saying as they are saying it, word for word (you can do this out loud, but you might come across as slightly insane).
3. Doing this forced me to stay focused on what exactly was being said and would stop my mind, at least for a little while, from wandering to other topics.
4. Another technique is to make and hold eye contact with the speaker. Eye contact is probably one of the most, if not the most, powerful ways that humans can communicate with each other.
5. By focusing on other people when they speak and actively listening to what it is they're saying, our minds are freed from thinking, which allows us the ability to respond. “Thinking fast” is more a function of being able to respond to what you hear than of thinking of something to say. This in turn allows us to understand and process more information, which invariably leads us to make often‐unexpected connections. And making unexpected connections is just another way of saying “making shit up.”
6. An improv actor knows that the other actors are going to do the same thing, so each has the confidence to add on and build off of the initial concept. The goal is to take the thinking out of it and focus on listening, making a connection, and responding.
7. In the initial ideation phase, as long as you're responding to what was said by the other actor, it doesn't really matter what you say. As long as your response is inspired in some way by what your scene partner just said, then there is no wrong answer.
8. Let's take a look at a basic Word Association exercise. I'll start with a word, any word; for example:
Pineapple
Chunk
Goonies
Movies
Popcorn
Butter
Ball
Masquerade
Intrigue
Assassination
9. All I did in this exercise is to associate directly from one idea to get to another. The initial concept is “pineapple.” By associating from one word to the next, I quickly build to the end concept, which is “assassination.” While this is a very basic ideation exercise, it essentially illustrates the fundamentals of improv: listening and building off of other ideas.
10. For one thing, we are generally not raised to make other people's ideas better. Pretty much our entire lives we are taught that there is great value in being an original thinker.
11. Curiosity has been one of the main reasons that I have been fortunate enough to live such an interesting and creative life.
12. I have always found that by doing the things that I am curious about, I have been able to get a deeper understanding of whatever subject I am exploring.
13. The ability to jump on the spark is the single most important thing for making shit up, in my not‐so‐humble opinion. Look, every asshole has ideas, it's the assholes who do anything with the ideas who can make a difference in their lives.
14. For me the key to identifying a spark is when I get unabashedly excited about something. When I have a positive emotional reaction to an idea, that usually means there is something there to take a look at.
15. One hundred sparks will die out for every one that flickers to life. That is perfectly okay and acceptable. I'm sure there are more talented people than I who have a higher spark‐into‐flame rate. For me it is all about volume. I firmly believe that if I allow enough sparks to start, eventually one will catch.
16. The fear of looking stupid is often one of the biggest reasons we don't go after the things we really want.
17. Maybe you don't immediately hit the open mic stage, but rather you sign up for an improv class. That's all, just sign up. You don't even have to commit in your mind to go, just execute the simplest first step, which is signing up. You don't even need to tell anyone! Then once you do that, force yourself to go to the first class, no commitments after that.
18. What is even stupider than the fear of looking stupid is not pursuing those things in life that you want to try just because you are worried about what other people might think.
19. If we accept that each person thinks mostly about his or her own self then we can infer that everyone else is thinking very little about us. And that is a liberating thing.
20. The reason that public speaking is consistently in the top three of the list of fears of human beings is because the fear of being humiliated in front of groups is a deep‐seated primal emotion.
21. What I have found helpful is to be declarative in anything that I'm doing. In improv we are trained to make declarative statements wherever possible. This helps drive the action in the scene and also to make very clear to our scene partner as well as the audience what we are trying to achieve.
22. Strong declarative statements help narrow and control the narrative.
23. This is what a declarative statement would look like: “Let's grab a coffee at Dunk's.” This is a strong statement that gives the other actor and the audience clear understanding of the first actor's intent.
24. I have often found that making a strong declarative statement along the lines of “So, I'm doing X now,” tends to stop other people from offering overly negative judgments about what it is I'm doing.
25. It is easy for people to point out why you shouldn't begin something, but it is much more difficult for people to tell you why you should stop doing something, especially if you follow up with the reason why you like doing it. Even the biggest blowhard tends to not want to crush someone else's good vibes.
26. The declarative statement takes the power of judgment away from the responder.
27. From a functional standpoint, declarative statements shut down negative statements and send the message that you are not overly interested about how the other person feels about what you are doing. By practicing this technique you start to develop somewhere in your brain the ability to care less and less about what people think. This in turn removes one of the biggest obstacles to creating or being original thinker.
28. Another fun little technique that you can practice is responding to negative thoughts or opinions with two simple words, “Thank you.”
29. “Heightening” is a technique where a concept is built upon in such a way that it grows from a seemingly normal, practical idea into a crazy, outlandish end product that makes people lose their minds.
30. In an improv scene heightening is what builds the stakes and tension and generally leads to humor.
31. The same original premise was still there – customer walks into a coffee shop to buy a cup of coffee – but by making exaggerated choices at different parts in the scene, it became far more compelling to watch.
32. Here is an example of a general idea, heightened: I'm interested in rescue dogs.
What if I rescue stray dogs?
What if I create a home for them?
What if that home was a farm?
How about a ranch?
10 acres.
50 acres.
100 acres.
1,000 acres.
A ranch where hundreds of dogs could live.
Thousands of dogs.
And I call it Dogland Ranch.
33. I am of the belief that it takes just about the same amount of effort to think big as it does to think small. If I am going to exert my admittedly limited mental energy, I might as well have fun and think big.
34. All communication can be broken down into three avenues of approach; yes, no, or maybe. Do you love me? Yes, no, maybe. You want to grab a beer? Yes, no, maybe.
35. No. Say it out loud. No! You can feel the power in this simplest of words. No is authority. No is discipline, the parent, the teacher. No by its nature is negative. No is often fearful, afraid of change. No is risk‐averse, happy to maintain the status quo. No is safe.
36. Used correctly, no can help shape the creative process. Wielded in a haphazard way, no can stop the creative process before it ever gets a chance to begin.
37. The idea of “No” has great influence on the creative process, especially at the beginning. In improv we are taught to avoid saying “No,” especially at the very beginning of the scene. If an improv actor offers an idea and their scene partner immediately says “No” to it, then that scene is effectively over.
38. Here is an example of a “No” scene: Gabby: Hey, you want to grab a cup of coffee? Lucy: No, I don't like coffee.
39. Saying “No” at the very beginning of the scene also tends to leads directly to an argument or one‐on‐one conflict. While this can get laughs at first, they will quickly die out as the audience becomes frustrated that no new information is being added and that the story isn't going anywhere.
40. Here is another way this scene typically goes:
Gabby: Want to grab a cup of coffee?
Lucy: No, I don't drink coffee. Let's go get some tea.
Gabby: Tea is gross. I hate tea.
41. Saying “No” leads to uninteresting and uncomfortable scenes.
42. When we say “No” to one idea we are typically saying no to three, four, or five ideas.
43. If, though, you are going to have repeated interactions with a person, constantly saying “no” tends to push people away.
44. From a team creation standpoint what can be at least as bad as “No,” and is oftentimes even more problematic, is the “Maybe.”
45. YES, AND. So if “No” stops ideas from moving ahead and “Maybe” slows them down, how exactly do we move ideas along to bigger and better concepts? In modern improvisational theater the actors are trained to use the concept of “Yes, and” to quickly move ideas forward and build to completely new and unexpected concepts that each member of the scene can feel ownership of.
46. If all we ever do is say “Yes,” then we are ceding any control completely to other people. By only saying “Yes” while not offering any of our own ideas, we are taking a very passive approach to the creative process.
47. It is the “and” that kicks the idea in the ass and moves it forward. The “and” leads us to the next action or possibility.
48. Does that mean that we go around on stage constantly saying “Yes, and, Yes, and”? Of course not. That would be terrible and artificial and unbearable to watch. Hell, I will even say something that is practically blasphemous in the improv world: “Yes, and” can sometimes be overblown as a concept. If we never explore conflict or disagreement onstage, then we will miss the opportunity to explore opposing points of view or authentic representations of human interaction.
49. Do we actually say “Yes, and” onstage? Rarely. What we do is try to find ways to agree with our scene partners, and then introduce our own perspective on what is happening. “Yes, and” can be said a hundred different ways: Cool, let's… Awesome, we should… Great, now we can… Sweet, let's go… Nice, now I'm going to…
50. “Yes, and” concept is far more collaborative and leads to a multitude of different possibilities, whereas the “Yes, but” conversation will be far more antagonistic and argumentative and lead to fewer new ideas.
51. Oddly enough, the concept of “No, but” is an effective way of saying no while still keeping somebody on your side and exploring other opportunities.
52. Improv actors are trained to limit their questions onstage and instead make declarative statements.
53. Am I saying we should never ask questions? Of course not. Open‐ended questions, questions of possibility, the “What if” or “How might we” or “Why does” type of question helps us discover new information. Open‐ended questions are excellent tools in the ideation phase of the creative process.
54. Once you get to the “making shit happen” phase, though, they can slow the decision‐making process down to a crawl.
55. The actors are never worried about what the final outcome of the scene would be because they are focused on being in the moment, listening to what is being said, and then continuing to make a series of small decisions.
56. And that is a key component of making shit up. Make a decision and get on with it.
57. In general, people follow passion and energy, not ideas.
58. Humans are drawn to other humans who create energy and stimulate emotions.
59. A simple way of increasing this energy is by consciously moving just a bit faster than we normally do.
60. The first and easiest exercise is to speak louder. I know this must seem like an incredibly trite insight, but I can assure you this, if you consider yourself quiet or shy or an introvert, just increasing your volume a small amount will return great dividends in terms of the energy you exude.
61. If I could give one piece of advice that will immediately make any speech better, it is to inflect different words when you talk. I don't care which ones you pick to INFLECT. They can be NOUNS or they can BE verbs or any other DAMN word you choose. But by simply inflecting different words when you talk you will automatically be better than 90 percent of the speakers who drone on and on, never once altering how they emphasize words.
62. I decided it was a good opportunity to demonstrate this technique, not only for him but the rest of the group.
63. It read something like this:
In case of an emergency please exit through the fire doors that can be found at either end of the room. Fire extinguishers are placed in the front and back of the auditorium. Please exit in an orderly fashion and assembled in the designated team area.
64. First I read the instructions in your typical corporate/10th‐grade oral report monotone. Then I read it again like this (caps indicate inflection):
In case of an EMERGENCY please exit through the FIRE Doors that can be FOUND at EITHER end of the room. Fire EXTINGUISHERS are placed in the front AND back of the auditorium. PLEASE exit in an ORDERLY fashion and ASSEMBLE in the DESIGNATED team area.
65. Through the simple act of inflecting, adding emphasis to various words to break up the monotonous pattern, I took a simple instructional sign and gave it some life and passion.
66. I have found that being impatient in regards to taking action is extremely powerful. Relentlessly push along the things that you tangibly can.
67. Not even near perfection, but tangible results that I can evaluate and then build on. The imperfect results are always better then the near‐perfect idea that never gets implemented.
68. I've always found that when I do something immediately, it begins to create momentum that helps propel me toward my goal. Being impatient helps create the motivation I need to do shit.
69. Patience is about showing up and being there in the moment again and again without any major expectations of results.
70. The single most important thing we ever did at Improv Asylum was to decide to open the doors, turn on the lights, and do shows. Night after night.**
71. I believe that pain tolerance or lack thereof directly correlates to success or failure in the long run in any endeavor we decide to embark upon.
72. You need to go out and put yourself in a position to be lucky. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever been hit by a train without being in front of it. It is the same thing with the luck. You need to get out and put yourself in situations or environments where experiences and opportunities can happen.
73. If you manage any kind of team, group, reading circle, whatever, my recommendation to you is to “fire the assholes.” They may be high‐performing, they may generate sales, they may be extremely talented, but over the long haul the assholes will always bring a team's performance down. Assholes are demotivational to those around them.
74. Whenever I am facilitating a meeting or directing a group, a technique I use to disarm “the devil's advocate” or anyone else being overly critical during the ideation or initial creation phase is to make sure that no one can offer negative comments without having some intellectual skin in the game. What I mean by “intellectual skin in the game” is that if someone offers a negative comment or observation, I as the person in charge of the group immediately ask that person to offer an idea or potential solution on his or her own.
75. I will not allow someone to sit back and sharp shoot ideas without offering some of their own.
76. When I want to know how our culture is doing, I just take a look the performance of the ushers. If they are happy and having fun and not quitting in droves, then I know that the culture is strong and that managers above them are setting the right tone and leading by example.
77. If you want your team to reach new heights, take a good look at your culture. Because it is your culture that will propel you to the next level, no matter what level you are currently at.
78. As soon as you identify that there are more important tasks or ideas that you need to/want to work on in your business, hire somebody to do the things that are keeping you from doing them.
79. And the best way to learn about anything is by doing it. You can study comedy all you want but until you actually get on stage and do it, it is nothing but high theory.
80. So here is a list of some positive words and phrases that you can start to use in your everyday dialogue:
Yes and
We should
Cool, let's
What if
We can
Agreed,
You are right
Fantastic idea
I love that
So awesome
Pretty damn good
Outstanding
81. In a completely contradictory statement, making shit up has also meant not listening to other people when I felt that their views and opinions were not being offered to help me find a way forward, but rather to stop me from pursuing something far greater for myself.
82. Celebrate your wins. Get ice cream and laugh and rehash the awesome plays that everybody made to help win the game. It makes life more enjoyable.