Improv Ideas:

Why trust is so important; the Chaos School of Improv

“Perfect is the Enemy of Good” Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons

Why Trust Is Important

Improv is based on trust in the team members, the group, the troupe. It becomes a form of communal confidence: we don’t know where this is going, we don’t know what audience shenanigans might ensue, but we are confident we will find the thread of the story, and we will tell a good story and entertain the audience and put on a good show. We, we, we. Groups are, however, made up of individuals. The same thing that makes ‘hiveminds’ and telepathy so exciting threatens group cohesion and trust.

Yesterday, during a workship, Creative Comedic Genius and I clashed over the execution of a new exercise (see below), to which I was grumpy about. That, I’m afraid and ashamed to admit, slightly hurt the grouptrust and feeling.

Trust was lacking in two instances; possibly because of previous scars. He tried to do the exercise his way, and I was unhappy —perhaps I expected him to do things his way, denying the point of the exercise. In doing things his way, perhaps he didn’t trust my set-up or the point of the exercise. Regardless, a lack of trust is not conducive to the rehearsal. We’re all creative people, we need to feel safe to creatively express and ideate. And what better way to feel safe than trust?

The Chaos School of Improv

1. The best coach can get 10% more out of any attribute or metric out of anybody. Why would you try to coach people something that they’re bad it, to go from 4/10 to 4.4/10, still terrible, instead of going 8/10 to almost-9/10?
2. Improv is about solving problems rapidly and dealing with the unexpected, unknown, uncomfortable. Honing a skill you’re good at is admirable — but that’s practice. Rehearsals should involve difficulty, the struggle, something new.
3. On occasion, there is wastage and failure. Some people cannot do some things. But uncovering hidden talents — or developing a new skill from scratch — comes from chaos, difficulty, and challenge.
4. Create chaos, break patterns, encourage struggle — and maybe discover new skills.