The first time I saw the program Whose Line is it Anyway?
I was immediately hooked on improv. What I liked most about it was that it was
funny, spontaneous and free. So when I had the opportunity to join an impromptu
improv group at my university residence, I did not hesitate. In a blink, I found
myself suddenly on stage doing my own shows of improv (to be honest, we only
did a couple of them, but the lessons learned from them would last me a lifetime
and we even received a T-shirt for one of our performances!).
In fact, I was not entirely new to the world of performance.
In my youth, I had been involved with singing and theater, and I had already had
a handful of performances under my belt; I had performed in front of sizable
crowds as a member of school as well as youth groups. But when I compare those
experiences with doing improv, they somewhat pale in comparison.
In improv, you were not only in the spotlight, but you were literally
on the spot. You had to come up with your own lines quick, and they
better be funny and make sense and tie in with that the person right before you
has just said. Thinking in the moment and trusting that thought and feeling of
the moment gave me a new-found confidence in my own comedic abilities. So much
so that when I was teaching a few years later and was standing in front of two
dozen eyes staring at me, I would profit from those lessons learned within and
during my brief stint of improv.
Fast-forward to more than twenty years later. When I was
perusing what book to review next, it was a literal no-brainer that I would
choose the book that dealt with not only improv, but how it could make you
stand out and become no less than a powerhouse. And I eagerly awaited Norm
Laviolette’s book The Art of Making Sh!t up: Using the Principles of Improv
to Become an Unstoppable Powerhouse in the mail and pounced upon the book
whenever I had a moment to spare.
An unstoppable powerhouse, eh? And using a barely concealed
expletive right there in the goddamn title? Since I already believed in the
power of improv to move mountains and get things done, this was not a hard sell
for me from the get-go. But would my prudish ear salvage the onslaught of many
other curse words and many examples of cussing? I braced myself and my ears and
eyes for what was to come.
If swearing really jolts you, then this book may not be
exactly for you. According to its author – and I did not bother to verify it
myself but believe it to be true (maybe give or take a word or two) – the word
shit is used 108 times in the book. And this does not include a few other
choice words, which I shall not reproduce here. But all this actually pales in
comparison to certain rap songs or old-school Tarantino movies. In fact, Norm
compares swearing to cymbals: They can get your attention if used wisely and
sparingly, but if it is constant it would hurt and jar your ears. And, at least
for the most part, he does abide by these rules himself.
But is the book any good? I would have to say yes,
definitely. Before we get to the practical and useful lessons offered in the
book, let us look at its author first. Norm Laviolette has been involved with
and has been building upon his brain-child Improv Asylum for many years, a company he
co-founded and created out of scratch, and with dedication and constant effort he has turned it into a successful enterprise.
The main thing is that he started his own business at a time
where improv was still relatively unknown and rarely performed; it was not the
norm (!) like it is today but Norm managed to use his skills both as a comedian
as well as a business-man to not only thrive in this business but to also give
talks and lectures about how to thrive in the world of business in
general. Considering how philosophically and psychologically ripe and saturated
the practice of improv is, this does not come as a big surprise or revelation.
For improv to succeed on-stage, there are many factors that
need to be kept in mind. Improv is different from plays where you are
interpreting a given character and are given pre-written lines to perform; it
is also different from stand-up where you can outline and prepare your routine
before you go on stage.
Improv will put you on the spot with very little to
work with and you would need to improvise your way through. Put
differently, you are left to your own devices and would have to create not only
scenes out of thin air but also make the audience have a good time and
preferably make them giggle and laugh in the process.
Yet the good news is unlike stand-up comedy for instance,
you are not alone. You will have your team mates to bail you out when things
are not going so well, when you have temporarily gotten stuck in a somewhat
unfunny mode or have hit a sudden comedian’s block and have run out of funny
ideas in the worst possible moment. Improv is unique in that regard because your
creation will be one of and for the team. Your partners in crime can help you,
but for that to work, you would have to cue in and listen to them.
Now most of us, to be honest, are rather bad at that skill:
We rarely listen to others. When somebody tells us something, we often finish
their sentences either out loud or in our head, and most of the times we tend
to get it wrong. The information they give us is given a personal spin in our
head or we may distort it to our liking, and in either case, we think we heard
them say or mean something that was never really uttered in the first place!
But as Norm puts it, the ability to listen is the most
important skill for an improv actor. This does not only include actively listening
to one’s colleagues on stage, but it also involves listening to the audience’s
suggestions and interests. If you do not listen to either one of them, you will not
be on the same page with your fellow actors and that would leave the audience
confused.
When we have pre-conceived notions and do not actively listen to
others, we will miss out on vital information that the other person is
trying to give and communicate to us. In fact, it is often the lack of
listening that leads to the famous and dreaded line in relationships: We
need to talk! In most cases when that is said, it might already be too late
to make amends anymore.
By actively listening to others, we can also respond to them
not only more adequately but also much faster. That is an essential skill
needed in improv where you need to think and act fast. This also presupposes
not listening to or being sidetracked by your own stream of negative self-talk,
whether it comes in the form of criticism, judgments or hesitations. Yes,
standing in front of a crowd with nothing in hand will help you gain more
confidence. It will also make you realize that you can be funny on the spot and
that was one of the most important lessons I gleaned from my brief but very
fruitful improv experience.
But in order to get on that stage, there are some other
important psychological factors to be considered, such as being ready to and moreover
being OK with making a fool of yourself in front of a crowd. This is another
gem when it comes to the practice of teaching. We are inherently afraid to appear
silly or stupid in front of others, and it is a common and widely accepted fear
that many of us share and have in common in addition to the fear of failure.
First off, more often than not, we get it wrong. We think or
expect the worst to happen ranging from humiliation to failure, but it is not
the case and it was all just in our head. From personal experience, as a
student, I would think that I did not do well on a test and would get an
excellent grade on it; as a job seeker, I would come home defeated and say they
will never offer me the job after that supposedly disastrous interview of mine
and I would receive a call the following day; as a teacher, I would think a
particular class or semester did not go too well and I would receive very
positive and enthusiastic student comments and evaluations, or I would assume
that a performance, talk or even article I wrote did not go down well when
others would congratulate me for a job well done. And let us not go into
details about my past love life where I got things even more consistently
wrong.
Add to that the realization that people do not care about it
as much as you do. When you do a talk, show or performance, that event is what
is most on your mind and you become rather obsessive and neurotic about
it. In fact, you fill in, over-exaggerate or superimpose the audience’s
thoughts and reactions about yourself.
In reality, the audience does not care about
it as much as you do or as Norm would say, they do not give a shit; in addition,
the consequences are rarely as dire and lethal as you imagine them or make them
out to be.
Either way, as Norm puts it succinctly, regardless if you
had a magnificent or disastrous performance, in the end, the audience would
simply go out for beers after the show. But when you manage to control and
limit this nagging obsession about what others think or may think about you, then
it is the most liberating experience.
It frees you up to do what you really want
to do. All this energy that you wasted on worrying, all these blocks and
hindrances that you created out of thin air will be lifted from your
psychological shoulders and, lo and behold, you will get so much better at whatever
your task is; the more this continues, the more confidence you will gain, so
this is the very opposite of a vicious cycle.
Of course, it may seem easier said that done, but there is
something precise you can do about it: simply go out and do stuff (Norm uses a
synonym for the word “stuff”). For instance, by signing up for an improv class,
you are taking the first step towards facing your fear and becoming more
independent and liberated from its stranglehold. And as they say, it is easier
than it seems, but you would have to start to take a risk and then little by
little and gradually increase the stakes.
If you are of the indecisive type – like most people out
there – then you can actually practice being decisive. Norm gives an excellent
suggestion here. Next time you go to a restaurant, glance at the menu, turn it
over and choose something quickly. Do not hesitate, do not worry, do not
consider and reconsider or change your mind in the process, but choose one
single item that stands out for you.
If you are stuck with something that you do not like, it
will not be the end of the world. But it is an opportunity for flexing your
decision muscles and for becoming better at making decisions on the spot. And
in that sense, you will be not only training to become a better improv
comedian, but also a better teacher, business person, or what have you.
However, this may not be the best advice for surgeons, pilots or politicians, I
am afraid.
Failure is indeed an inevitable part of life, but according
to Norm, you need to be wrong to be right. You can increase your tolerance to
failure by facing it and becoming immune to it. But it is also essential to
accept as a leader or as a creator whenever you are wrong.
In fact, accepting
that you were wrong will open you up to even more opportunities to be right.
Instead of repeating the same old mistakes over and over again, you will have
the chance to fix the problem once and for all and get it right thereafter. Often
the simple admission of being wrong will help you see the solution to the
problem that always seemed elusive and slightly out of reach.
Every endeavor no matter how big or small carries with it a
risk of failure, but by not shunning these opportunities for growth and by
being honest with oneself and realistic about one’s goals and expectations, a
lot can be achieved from this process.
Since the fear of failure and being
wrong are two obstacles we put on our own path, they can also be removed by us
as well. Ironically, by giving ourselves leeway and allowing ourselves to fail
and make potential mistakes, we end up being more relaxed and focused and then
tend to get it right in the first place.
A final point about sense of humor needs to be made here. Norm
and I have been blessed with it since childhood, or so I believe. Both of us
were the proverbial classroom clowns. We would make jokes simply to be funny
and never at the expense of others, or so I hope.
While as a child growing up
in a strict and disciplined school system in Bavaria, I had to temper my funny
bone so that I did not get into trouble and still succeeded in my academic
endeavors. For me, academia was intrinsically motivating and rewarding, so
there was no specific or painful sacrifice for me. Nonetheless, I was able to keep
my sense of humor intact; it comes out very once in a while in my
conversations and writings, and hence this blog has been given the absurd
twist.
In Norm’s case, they led him away from academia, which was
not his thing to begin with. He says that he has applied “life hacks” to make
it through school, which is essentially a euphemism for lying and cheating. He
did not finish his university, and he blames his French course for the missing
credit. Ironically, this reviewer is a French instructor, so I feel slightly (but
not overly) guilty for his academic demise.
But in Norm’s case, being funny was the thing, and he was
able to turn it into a blossoming career. Now he has written a book about it,
and he has also traveled around the world, everywhere from China to the United
Emirates to teach the principles of improv to diverse people across the globe.
It certainly took guts, effort and persistence to turn his dream and passion
into reality, but he has done it, and he is here to tell us how and why.
It may seem ironic that business leaders also flock to his
lessons, but then again, it makes perfect sense. It is my impression that a
sense of humor is often frowned upon by employers. This stems from the
mistaken notion that if you are funny, you may get involved in funny
business. But a sense of humor is not mutually exclusive here. You can indeed
be funny but take your jobs and responsibilities seriously.
In fact, having a
sense of humor will make you even better at whatever it is you are doing,
whether it is teaching, acting in improv or being a business leader. This could
be even applied and extended to surgeons, pilots and politicians as long as
they keep it measured and do not go overboard.
So think about adding a bit of
humor here and there to your daily life and whatever profession you are practicing;
eventually you might be even motivated to sign up for that improv class in your
community.