ON EXCUSES:

In improv, one of the things we are constantly coached against is "not letting anything happen." Too often, as improvisers, we focus on the conversation and worry about making clever turns of phrase and bon mots* to have anything, you know, actually HAPPEN in the scene.

In the book "Guru," the story of Del Close, one of long-form improv's champions/founders, the author tells a story about meeting a girl at an improv workshop. The author keeps finding reasons NOT to be interested in the girl until Del applies the "make something happen" rule to real life. It ends with muchas smooches for the author.

Since I am going through a similar/parallel situation, I realized that I need to "Yes and now..." more things in my life. (Our director has been drilling us on this for the past few months.) So I'm going to try and NOT make as many excuses and just get stuff DONE. No more "I needed a wingman." No more "I didn't know what to say." And no more "I was washing stupid zombie makeup off my face."




* - I've been looking for a reason to use bon mots for a few weeks now. However, I am not sure how to pronounce it, so perhaps writing it is the best option.