the rules of improv #31days

Coffee house diva Tripp Crosby.

It was mortifying.  And glorious.  And I wanna do it again.  I think. 

Comedian and YouTuber Tripp Crosby led a crash course on improv in the same place we had the blogger breakfast.  We learned three rules of improv.  There are more but we only had three hours.  We practiced these:

1. listen -- hear what the other person is saying and respond to that instead of trying to think ahead to something funny you want to do or say.  Don't go for the punch line.  It'll never work.  Be in the moment. 
   
2. yes, and -- agree with wherever the scene goes, then add something to it.  If someone says, "Look, we're in a spaceship," and you say, "No we're at Walmart," you might get a laugh but then the scene dies.  Instead add something like "YES, we're in a spaceship, AND I just saw your ex on the bridge."
3. make a choice and commit to it -- there is no judgment in improv.  You're not allowed to judge someone else's choices.  And especially don't judge your own.  Just say whatever pops in your head and sell it.  Make it work. 
   

The beautiful part was how Tripp explained that these had helped him outside of improv.  Read those rules again and think of them in the context of having a conversation.  What if we all listened to one another without preparing what we were going to say next?  And what if we looked for areas of agreement?  And decided not to judge each other?  Then we might all be as calm as Tripp.  Until our ex shows up in space.   

Which of these rules would you most like to start using in conversation?               
 

---