How many times would you suspect I've rewritten this intro?
Place your bets!
I don't really have any prize to award, but imagine that satisfaction if you guess right?!
Ok.....final call. One time? Two times? Three times?
Close! Five times. I've actually rewritten this intro five times....and that doesn't even take into consideration how many times I've reimagined things in my mind.
A little ironic considering this is an improv blog that talks about things like, "living in the moment," "being present," and trusting your choices.
I'm not exactly leading by example....but....honestly....I am leading by cautionary tale 😂
Any of the five previous intros could have worked, but I kept doubting myself and erasing them. Keyboards are great, but they're also a little dangerous. Changes are so quick. I don't have to flip around a pencil and erase everything, or use white-out on a typewriter, or cross something out with a pen. I just hit backspace, and all my work disappears, and no one ever knows it existed. It’s all gone. In seconds, everything you wrote and shared could disappear. I don’t have to build a firepit, gather would, crumple paper, grab a lighter, build a fire and burn the pages.
I can just hit backspace. Keyboards are not great for the anxious at heart. That hits strangely. There must be a lot of keyboards that have destroyed a lot of ideas.
Sure. Sure. I 100% understand some things aren't worth printing, and should be deleted, but how many ideas got deleted before being explored? I know this morning 4 of mine did.
But, being aware of my previous intros also lead to know…and this meta analysis on improv starts. Welcome to the self-referential blog post on improv idea beginnings. Originally, this blog post was going to be about the improv game Freeze, and how to give yourself more options when jumping into a scene.
But, after deleting so many intro paragraphs I thought, "That's strange. Improv is all about yes, and, and I'm saying, no to everything I'm creating."
If this post feels fractured, it's because I'm a little excited (and on my sixth cup of coffee. I know. Maybe to much). As improvisers, we're actors.... but we're also writers and directors. We're writing the script and immediately handing it to our actor self, while our director self also blocks the scene. It's a lot.
And, on top of that, we're going to be critical of our scene starts and all our other ideas? Sorry. No. That’s too much. Those are far to many things happening at once. We need to clean house. One of those four hast to go. The actor, the writer, the director or the in-the-moment critiques have to go. Maybe I suggest….. we kick out the critiques.
That in-the-moment critque, that judgement, changes everything. It makes you doubt your script, your delivery, and your position onstage. Is anything good enough? Well, it could be, if you give it a few seconds.
On the fifth intro, I decided to write ABOUT the intro. I wrote about writing, and how quickly we can now make things disappear. And, improv isn't about leaving something out, or erasing something or pretending something didn't happen. It's about respecting the script I'm writing, and you're writing, and merging those two into something new. It's not about a perfect intro or conclusion. It's about discovering a conclusion that NEVER existed without the two of us working together. Or, I guess I should say the six of us working together: my actor/writer/director teaming up with your actor/writer/director.
If you've gotten down to this point...thanks for reading! I appreciate you taking the time, and I hope it makes sense and helps you improvise. Does it make sense? Do you have any questions? Please let me know in the comments!
I hope you improvise with people who listen to your ideas onstage and want to build with you. And, I hope you listen to your own ideas, and see where they go too.
If you ever want to join a great community of improvisers from all skill levels, join me at an Improv Playground session.