Steve Yastrow

Hi Steve
Sorry I’ve been away for a while – sometimes you just can’t keep up with things! But a posting about improv sure got my attention – it’s one of my favourite subjects. I’m a big fan of Whose Line (both the US and UK version) and last year I took an improv class with a view to maybe using it in some of the training/speaking work I do. For a start, it’s great for developing listening skills, keeping you fully engaged and discouraging the preparation of a response. Improv is not about trying to be funny, it’s about spontaneity and responding honestly and instinctively to what you hear/see/feel. It’s great for sales for in improv you’re always looking for ‘offers’, threads you can pick up on and develop. Again, rolls-royce standard listening skills required. And it kills negativity because of the ‘yes and’ principle. You always take a thread that’s given to you and ADD to it. You don’t cut it off. There’s very little in the way of judgment in improv, although you will get pulled up if you try to be funny or forget the ‘yes and’ rule. Apart from all that it’s terrific fun, taking you out of your comfort zone and exploring your capabilities.

Thank you Steve, great article!

I taught improvisation to high students and in workshops for many years. My work with students was heavily influenced by Keith Johnstone’s 1979 book ‘Impro’ and the Theatresports movement that arose out of it (and is the roots of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”).

I always told my students that the skills they learned in improvisational theatre (listening, teamwork, confidence, speaking skills, etc.) they would not learn in any other class in school. I found that many of the values and approaches that Theatresports use were also useful in working with groups of managers and professionals (the one you site: ‘Yes, and…’ is a particularly powerful example).

Your summary is excellent and you broaden and deepen it by connecting it to the ideas of presence, responsiveness, etc. I will be sharing this article as widely as I can.

By the way, my ’4 Rules of Improv’ in the classroom?
1. Always say Yes
2. Always make your partner look good
3. Keep it simple
4. Keep things active

Keep on writing!

Thanks Andy and Clemens … I appreciate the comments! I love what you both said … let’s keep trading ideas on creating fun, fluid, fresh encounters in our business lives!

Hi Steve,
Terrific article. My own improv training comes via the general Chicago/Del Close/Compass school of free-flowing long-form that explores themes along with the laughs. I really connected with the evolutionary dots you connected in the post.
My long-time NYC group, Centralia, named itself after a town of the same name in Pennsylvania that has had a coal fire burning under it for the past half-century. They can’t extinguish it! As strange and awful as this is, the story also fascinated us on a deep level. It felt like a legend or an archetype from the collective unconscious. In our shows, we draw on lots of shared references and a “inner framework” such as the one you describe.
I know this may sound grim and heavy. We actually do love to make people laugh in our shows! But beneath the surface, my 14-year co-players and I have discovered that our best shows happen when we draw on those “caveman” or even “bonobo” parts of our brains and memories. The scenes are really about something, have deep drives and stakes, and the characters draw on the collective unconscious to generate laughs at the sweet, foolish, or selfish Everyman onstage who’s inside us all.
When I work with corporate clients, they sometimes worry at first that I will make them roll around on the floor, but as you say, the most powerful exploration they can do is to relax, open up, listen to each other and trust that we as humans, are wired to improvise! Then we begin working on relationships and business issues while sharing our deep references and instincts as members of the same primate species!
Thanks for your words!
Any thoughts on mine?

Jay, great thoughts. Laughter isn’t the only response you want to get from your audience, clearly … your improv can connect with them on so many levels, which is probably how you can connect it to other business issues so easily. Keep us posted!

I have been taking class at Second City for three years and find it applies to business in so many useful ways. Improv is really just a better way to work!

Hi Steve,

I don’t like pitches much, it does bother me when I hear someone that sounds like they are a machine because it is like you are dealing with a robot with no feelings on the subject at all.

I always have something on paper just while I am getting the hang of things because I don’t want to get lost but I do try to improvise because not everyone is the same. Like with this project, some people want straight to the point, some people want a lot of information. Also,some people like small talk and for it not only to be about business, some people like to see that you enjoy your job and that you are happy to discuss different concerns that may come up. People like it when you remember them and they also ejoy being able to place you even if you don’t remember them, they are happy to know that they have met you before.

I guess in some way I have always known this but not always known exactly how to do it, after reading this it is fresher in my mind and I will focus more on “improving my improve”.

Thanks