Last night I went to an improv show and was asked to write down a suggestion of a New Year’s resolution. I racked my brains. After ten minutes of sitting painfully trying to think of something, a question occurred to me: are New Year’s Resolutions supposed to be fun? I wrote down: to wear moreContinue reading “New Year, Same You, Different Improv”
Tag Archives: creativity
Energy Saving on the Run Up to an Intensive Improv Experience
Today I am pottering about. I’ve done some easy admin; I’ve sorted through a box; I’ve had a good breakfast. I’m hydrating. I’m half way through my rest time – a space I’ve set aside to stop, to get cosy and to nourish myself. It’s easy to assume because improv is so fun it isContinue reading “Energy Saving on the Run Up to an Intensive Improv Experience”
Bring a Brick
In an improv exercise last week, I talked for a minute about Lego Masters. It wasn’t long enough! I hadn’t mentioned technic bricks. Nor had I referred to unique-parts-usage? And I was only part way through fumbling an explanation of SNOT when the timer rudely interrupted me. Studs Not On Top, in case you wereContinue reading “Bring a Brick”
Getting Lost
Have you been feeling weird recently? Like the world doesn’t seem to fit anymore? Is it you? Is it the world? And what is up with everyone else? I’ve been looking around at the chaos, confusion, conflict and sporadic commitment and wondering: are our hearts really in this anymore? In what? In anything? Or isContinue reading “Getting Lost”
Don’t Let Anyone Steal Your Crown: Self-deprecation and Comedy
Last night I witnessed a performer utterly annihilate themselves on stage. They talked so much trash about their dear sweet self it was upsetting. It looked painful. And it was all in the name of comedy. I was relieved I was hiding at the back, low down on a sofa, staring at the back ofContinue reading “Don’t Let Anyone Steal Your Crown: Self-deprecation and Comedy”
How Improv Can Help the Very Helpful
Are you a clown, a caretaker or a ninja? This was the question posed. I pondered it as I put down the pumpkin cheesecake I’d baked for rehearsal in case anyone got hungry. If I could just have a sign… I already knew I wanted to be a ninja; it sounded the coolest. But theContinue reading “How Improv Can Help the Very Helpful”
Critics and How to Face Them: Part 2 – Outer
Have you ever let a critic stop you in your tracks? Have you held a criticism close to your heart? Have you soaked up that critique, ruminated, let it speak to you in ways you wish it hadn’t? Well, allow me to let you in on a secret… You are not alone. In Part OneContinue reading “Critics and How to Face Them: Part 2 – Outer”
Critics and How to Face Them: Part 1 – Inner
‘Tis the season for trying new things! But how often do we start something with the gusto of New Year energy, only to be swiftly met with a barrage of discouraging voices? The mere whiff of New Year enthusiasm brings my inner critics to the yard like it’s two-for-one on stop-me smoothies. “What’s going onContinue reading “Critics and How to Face Them: Part 1 – Inner”
The Attention Game
The art form of improvised performance can sometimes feel like walking a tightrope between seeing and being seen, hearing and being heard, getting attention and giving attention. When I get out of balance I start to wobble. I start to shake. Sometimes I fall. I get this wobble sometimes when I’ve done a well-received thing.Continue reading “The Attention Game”
The Real World Return
I look around Beaconsfield Services – a sprawling hexagon like building crammed with fast food outlets and bright moving screens. Outside it’s pissing it down with rain. The pitch-black void of the world is butting up against the tear-smeared windows. This is purgatory, the no-man’s-land between the improv mothership and that dirty rascal reality. OnContinue reading “The Real World Return”
Spontaneous Tortoise 