I teach people how to improvise: making up characters, stories and scenes on the spot.
14/10/2015
"Storytelling came before the spoken word..."
Great post from my friend Shawn Callahan on the evolution of storytelling.
The evolution of storytelling Shawn Callahan discusses the evolution of storytelling - what triggered it and why was it such an important element in the survival of our species?
24/09/2015
Love and fear in the lab: how a scientist used principles from improvisation to get unstuck
Why truly innovative science demands a leap into the unknown While studying for his PhD in physics, Uri Alon thought he was a failure because all his research paths led to dead ends. But, with the help of improv theater, he came to realize that there could be joy...
21/07/2015
I like this improv tip - endows a scene with instant meaning.
16/07/2015
Last few days to book your place at my mask workshop in Cambridge!
Trestle mask workshop This workshop explores the ways in which wearing masks can liberate parts of your character that don't normally come out to play, and free you up to be creative and to be yourself. The workshop is run...
05/06/2015
Nice post from Clare Kerrison on the power of accepting what is, rather than how things should be
Should we just stop saying ‘should’? | Clare Kerrison I’ve been thinking a lot about the words should and shouldn’t. There is quite a bit of possible should-ing in my environment at the moment. I shouldn’t have had to move to Swindon. I should...
02/06/2015
Announcing two summer workshops - come and join me!
If you're in London on the evening of Monday 15 June, come and join Helen Keegan and me for an improv taster.
Explore in a safe and friendly environment how improvisation can be used in a business and real life context - to improve communication and public speaking skills, to better understand relationships, to gain leadership skills, to be more creative and spontaneous, and have fun at the same time.
Book your ticket here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/i-was-not-expecting-that-tickets-16897421643
I Was Not Expecting That! Explore in a safe and friendly environment how improvisation can be used in a business and real life context - to improve communication and public speaking skills, to better understand relationships, to gain leadership skills, to be more creative and spontaneous, and have fun at the same time. We cr…
30/04/2015
An old favourite of mine - hilarious. Worth watching to the Q&A at the end :) Chicken chicken chicken -
Chicken chicken chicken - YouTube Doug Zongker's "Chicken chicken chicken". Presented at the AAAS humor session, February 16, 2007. Seehttp://isotropic.org/papers/chicken.pdf for a PDF
27/04/2015
Excellent! "Ramsay’s Kitchen Comedy"
Ramsay's Kitchen Comedy Normally we're suspicious of anything titled "Spoof! Funny!" It's a bit like the greasy spoon with the "Best Coffee In Town" sign. But with Chef Gordon Ramsay as clickbait, how could we resist? We'...
17/04/2015
"[P]lay isn’t a human luxury. We know that goats play and dogs play and monkeys play and humans play—you don’t have to be taught it, and there must be an evolutionary reason for that. By abandoning play, we’re abandoning an important part of ourselves."
A nice interview on the importance of play. Hat tip to Anne Augustine for finding it.
The Psychological Case for Adult Play Time Coloring books and ball pits are much-needed therapy for the inner child in all of us.
12/04/2015
One of the principles of improvisation is to make your partner look good if you want the scene to be good. It's a principle that stops you worrying about yourself and helps you relate to the person you are on stage with.
Pam Victor shows how we can use this principle to reflect on a scene that didn't go well:
"Rather than blame [ourselves] after the scene, perhaps these questions might be more helpful: How could we have better taken care of each other in that scene? How could we have made each other look more brilliant?"
And these are also good questions to ask at work, at home, after an argument...
My Nephew is a Poodle: The Zen of Improv: The Shoulda Coulda Woulda Game
A blog by Pam Victor -
Improviser. Comedian. Author. Journalist. Nice person.
Improv 'rules' are made to be broken
Improv Killed Santa Do you remember the day you found out about Santa? For me it’s the same as the day I found out that improv isn’t maths. I had a teacher who totally contradicted what another teacher said. I...