YES, AND: THE POWER OF IMPROV IN EVERYDAY LIFE | REBECCA WAHLS | TEDxCMU
Summary
TLDRThe speaker explores the concept of improvisation, or 'improv', and its application beyond comedy to everyday life. They discuss the 'yes, and' rule, emphasizing its importance in fostering collaboration and mindfulness. Through examples and interactive scenarios, the talk illustrates how embracing this principle can enhance communication and contribute to a more compassionate society. The speaker also addresses the challenges of implementing 'yes, and' in stressful situations and suggests practicing it through written communication and improv games to develop better listening and cooperative skills.
Takeaways
- 😄 Improv is often associated with comedy shows like 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' and 'Saturday Night Live', but it's more than just humor; it's about creating scenarios on the spot.
- 📚 The 1952 manual for improvisation defines improv as 'making it up as you go along', highlighting the spontaneous nature of the art form.
- 🌟 Improv can be applied to everyday life to foster compassion and mindfulness, suggesting that life itself is an improv performance.
- 🗣️ The core rule of improv, 'Yes, and...', encourages active listening and building upon others' ideas to create a collaborative dialogue.
- 🤔 Other rules like 'Don't think twice' and 'Never say no' are discussed, but the speaker suggests focusing on the positive and thoughtful aspects of 'Yes, and...'.
- 🔄 The concept of 'Yes, and...' is not just about agreeing; it's about adding value and detail to the conversation, enhancing the interaction.
- 📧 The speaker proposes using 'Yes, and...' in written communication like emails to promote a more thoughtful and collaborative approach.
- 🙅♀️ The script contrasts 'Yes, and...' with 'No, but...', illustrating how the latter can hinder collaboration and requires repair to continue the conversation.
- 🎭 The speaker invites the audience to participate in an improv game to practice 'Yes, and...', emphasizing the importance of listening and cooperation.
- 🏃♀️ Improv skills, like 'Yes, and...', require practice and can be developed over time to become a natural part of one's communication style.
Q & A
What is the main concept of improv discussed in the script?
-The main concept of improv discussed in the script is the principle of 'Yes, and...' which is about building upon what others have said in a conversation or scenario, fostering cooperation and creativity.
How does the speaker relate improv to everyday life?
-The speaker suggests that by applying the improv principle of 'Yes, and...' to everyday life, one can become a more compassionate and mindful member of society, enhancing communication and collaboration.
What are some alternative interpretations of the number one rule of improv mentioned in the script?
-Alternative interpretations of the number one rule of improv include 'Don't think twice' and 'Never say no,' which emphasize the importance of quick reactions and maintaining the flow of a scene without negation.
Why does the speaker propose to focus on 'Yes, and...' rather than 'Don't think twice' or 'Never say no'?
-The speaker proposes to focus on 'Yes, and...' because it encourages a positive and constructive approach to communication, whereas 'Don't think twice' and 'Never say no' might be seen as inherently negative or limiting, and not always applicable in real-life situations.
What is the significance of the 'Yes, and...' rule in building a conversation or scenario?
-The 'Yes, and...' rule is significant because it allows participants to listen, accept, and add to the ideas presented by others, thereby creating a collaborative and dynamic conversation or scenario.
How does the speaker demonstrate the use of 'Yes, and...' in a group project scenario?
-The speaker demonstrates the use of 'Yes, and...' by showing how one can agree with a group project proposal to focus on Shakespeare but also suggest expanding the focus to include female playwrights of the era, thus contributing to the group's idea positively.
What is the opposite of 'Yes, and...' as portrayed in the script?
-The opposite of 'Yes, and...' is portrayed as a 'No, but...' attitude, which negates the ideas of others and hinders collaboration and cooperation.
Why is it important to not immediately react with a 'No, but...' in a conversation according to the script?
-Reacting immediately with a 'No, but...' can halt the flow of conversation and collaboration. It's important to listen and build upon what others have said to foster a positive and productive dialogue.
How does the speaker suggest practicing the 'Yes, and...' principle in daily life?
-The speaker suggests practicing the 'Yes, and...' principle by consciously choosing to respond with it in written communication such as emails or text messages, and by playing improv games that encourage this way of thinking.
What improv game does the speaker invite the audience to play, and how does it illustrate the 'Yes, and...' principle?
-The speaker invites the audience to play a game called 'Yes, and...' where participants build upon a simple statement by adding details, illustrating the principle of cooperation and building upon others' ideas.
What is the final advice given by the speaker regarding the use of 'Yes, and...' in stressful situations?
-The final advice given by the speaker is to pause, listen to what is offered, identify the useful part of it, and add to it, making 'Yes, and...' a part of one's daily vocabulary to handle stressful situations effectively.
Outlines
🎭 Introduction to Improv and Its Principles
The speaker begins by addressing the common misconceptions about improv, often associated with comedy shows like 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' or 'Saturday Night Live.' They clarify that while these shows are not pure improv, they are related. The speaker then delves into the debate among improv practitioners about whether short-form games or long-form scenarios are preferable. They reference the 1952 manual 'Trinity of Improvisation' by Del Close, which defines improv as making things up as you go along. The speaker suggests that applying improv principles like 'Yes, and' can enhance daily life, fostering compassion and mindfulness. They propose redefining the first rule of improv from 'Don't think twice' and 'Never say no' to a more positive and constructive approach, emphasizing the importance of listening and building upon others' ideas.
🤝 The Power of 'Yes, and' in Improv and Life
The speaker illustrates the concept of 'Yes, and' through hypothetical scenarios, demonstrating how it can be used to build upon statements and create a collaborative dialogue. They contrast this with the 'No, but' approach, which negates the other person's statement and hinders collaboration. The speaker emphasizes the importance of not reacting impulsively ('don't think twice') but instead training oneself to respond with 'Yes, and.' They suggest practicing this in written communication, such as emails or online comments, where one can take time to formulate a thoughtful response. The speaker invites the audience to participate in an improv game that embodies the 'Yes, and' principle, where participants build a collective narrative by adding details to a scenario.
🌟 Applying 'Yes, and' to Enhance Cooperation and Compassion
The speaker concludes by reiterating the importance of using 'Yes, and' as a tool for fostering cooperation, compassion, and active listening. They liken the practice to training for a marathon, acknowledging that it requires consistent effort to integrate 'Yes, and' into one's daily interactions. The speaker encourages the audience to practice this approach, especially in stressful situations, to enhance communication and collaboration. They thank the audience and participants for their engagement and conclude the session on a positive note.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Improv
💡Yes, and
💡Short-form theater
💡Long-form improv
💡Comedy club
💡Del Close
💡Don't think twice
💡Never say no
💡Ferrous mulitude
💡Group project
Highlights
Improv is often associated with comedy but can also be a tool for communication and collaboration.
Improv can be defined as 'making it up as you go along', akin to how we navigate life.
The 'yes, and' rule in improv encourages building on others' ideas to foster cooperation.
Improv techniques can enhance everyday interactions by promoting active listening and positive responses.
The 'yes, and' approach can be applied to real-life scenarios like group projects to encourage teamwork.
Contrasting 'yes, and' with 'no, but' illustrates the importance of collaboration over negation.
The concept of 'ferrocene multitude' in improv refers to the strive for realistic and diverse reactions.
Improv games like 'yes, and' can be played to practice the art of building on others' ideas.
The 'yes, and' technique can be practiced in written communication to improve online interactions.
In improv, the focus is on cooperation and adding to the scenario rather than negating it.
The 'yes, and' method can be challenging to implement naturally, requiring practice and mindfulness.
Improv exercises can help train the brain to default to positive and cooperative responses.
The 'yes, and' approach can lead to more creative and inclusive outcomes in group settings.
The speaker invites audience participation to demonstrate the 'yes, and' game in action.
A live demonstration of the 'yes, and' game shows how a scenario can be built collaboratively.
The 'yes, and' technique can be used to create a more compassionate and mindful society.
The speaker concludes by encouraging the audience to incorporate 'yes, and' into their daily vocabulary.
Transcripts
hello everybody
hello when we hear the word improv we
often think funny wacky scenarios stuff
like whose line is it anyway perhaps
your mind jumps to something that isn't
actually improv but is improv adjacent
something like saturday night live maybe
or the comedy club that almost certainly
is in your city called simply the improv
where improv performance doesn't
actually happen it's really more of a
place for stand-up comedy
people who practice improv have a lot of
feelings about the form a lot of
feelings for example do we like it
better if it's the short form theater of
games the kind of thing that you see on
who's line or more complex long-form
scenarios that might last up to an hour
or even longer
is it better if it's from new york or
chicago kind of like pizza
in truth and comedy the 1952 manual for
improvisation by del close trona
hackburn and kim howard johnson improv
is defined as
making it up as you go along
another definition that i really like is
a play without a script you know what
else is a play without a script that
we're making up as we go along
life
wow so how do we do that like on a day
to day basis how do we make it up as we
go along i mean technically we're always
doing it but i believe that by employing
some basic components of improv we can
do it in a way that makes us more
compassionate mindful members of society
i'm thinking specifically of the number
one rule of improv which is
yes
and
yes and is a bridge between points in a
conversation
so if someone said to you let's go to
the movies
you might respond yes and let's buy
popcorn
or if you're feeling a little chaotic
that day and someone says let's go to
the movies maybe you say yes and let's
sneak in all of our snacks
as with all things improv there's debate
about this this number one rule there's
other things that people like to say is
the number one rule of improv things
like don't think twice
and
never say no
don't think twice and never say no and i
do like both of these rules when it
comes to actual improv because what
they're getting at is the idea that
acting is reacting right and actors and
improvisational performers are forever
striving for the appearance of real life
ferrous mulitude is a fancy vocab word
for that
but we aren't acting right we're
actually trying to live our lives
so in order to uh use these rules of
improv in our everyday life i propose
that we eliminate these inherently
negative and limiting versions of the
rule
don't think twice
actually we do want to stop and consider
our words before we say them out loud
and never say no i mean there's plenty
of times when we should say no in life
and instead focus on the positive
thoughtful power of
yes and
so let's run through some scenarios how
this might work this first one i'm going
to do is we're going to simulate an
improv scenario so i'm going to be
playing both characters uh the first
person is going to offer a simple
statement right so they might say
something like oops yes and means that
we listen to what was offered and add
something to it that's important all
right here come our scenarios
so the first person might say something
like
i had a bagel for breakfast this morning
that's actually true yum doesn't have to
be true but it happens to be the second
person is going to again listen to what
was offered and add something to it so
they might say something like
yes and the bagel had cream cheese on it
that's nice because we're adding detail
to the situation right our picture of
the bagel is becoming clearer it's
zooming into high definition
okay that's super fun but how about a
real life scenario what about like a
group project
so you get your group project assignment
and the first person emails the group
and maybe they say something like dear
group project members i propose that we
focus on the plays of william
shakespeare for our theater history
assignment
and let's say in this scenario i'm not
so interested in focusing exclusively on
william shakespeare i mean dude gets a
lot of attention right but i want to
prove that i'm a team player and make
sure that my ideas are heard as well i
could respond with something like
dear group project members
yes
i think that the idea of focusing on
theater of the 1500s is a great idea and
i propose expanding our presentation
beyond just shakespeare and including
female playwrights of the era such as
afrobane
so we've listened to what was offered
we've identified the part that's useful
to us
and we've added our own flair to it
right
there's no rule that says that we have
to accept a hundred percent of what the
person speaking before us has offered
but at the same time we want to get
along with this group project group that
we might be working with for quite some
time
so we find what we love about what they
said and add our own thing to it
let's illustrate the opposite of yes and
because i think that's helpful too so
what's the opposite of
yes
and
it's
no but exactly
nailed it no but
so let's see how a no but type of
attitude would roll with our examples
from from today
uh person a i had a bagel for breakfast
this morning
actually it was cereal
dear group project members i propose
that we focus on the plays of william
shakespeare for our theater history
assignment
dear group project members i think your
idea is bad i want to do chekhov
no but it's the antithesis of
collaboration and cooperation we can't
simply negate what others have to say
even though as it did here we do get a
funny quick sort of laugh from it right
like those were funny little jokes but
they don't engender collaboration and
cooperation we actually can't continue
building our scenario from there without
doing repair first so we have to listen
to what we like and go from there
now
these are written examples right this is
an email we have lots of time to process
there and real life doesn't work like
that oftentimes we're having
face-to-face conversations and that's
where the whole don't think twice thing
comes from
but in order to not think twice we
really have to train ourselves to make
yes and a part of our daily vocabulary
and i will tell you i have taught enough
students literally from ages 5 to 85
about improv to tell you that most of us
don't default to yes and when we're in
stressful situations we tend to do the
opposite in fact
we close in we retreat inside ourselves
we make an easy joke it's a defense
mechanism it's totally normal and we all
do it but we can overcome it with work
and a great way to practice this is with
the written word right things like
emails or think about the internet
the internet would certainly love for
you to believe that you have to have a
response ready to go at any second right
think about any comment that you've ever
seen on the internet it's probably like
a gut reaction takedown but we don't
have to do that so my invitation to you
is that the next time you are faced with
the written word in a way that
challenges you whether it's a comment on
the internet an email or perhaps even a
text message don't go with that gut
reaction find what you like about it and
build from there
but
the best way to practice using yes and
is by playing improv games which is
exactly what we're going to do right now
we are going to play a game together and
it's actually the game that i've been
demonstrating all along today and it is
called simply yes and so here's how the
game works now that we're going to be
playing it
the first person this will be me will
offer a simple statement the bagel thing
is true it doesn't have to be a true
statement so maybe the statement i
choose this time is
uh oops and of course we want to use
cooperation compassion and listening as
we're doing this
listening all right so here we go with
our examples uh simple statement example
i'm a cat i'm not a cat but for the
purposes of this scenario now i'm a cat
and everyone who's playing with me is
going to be a cat and we're all going to
build the qualities of this cat together
okay so first person says i am a cat the
next person is going to use the bridge
statement of yes and and add a detail to
that cat i'm a cat yes and i have a pink
nose and we could go on forever yes and
i need to get my nails trimmed yes and i
tried to steal my owner's food last
night etc etc right we're building a
scenario together we are all the cat
we're not creating a conversation i'm a
cat yes and i'm a dog no we are all the
cat okay make sense
i would love to get four brave
volunteers from the audience to come up
and play this game with me can i see
some hands
yes
one i need three more
two
two more
three oh no that was just the person
already stood up
two more people
it's gonna be so fun i promise i'm very
nice
we can also play it with just the three
of us that sounds fun to me if that
sounds okay to you too okay great so
let's line up let's form a line this is
a very improv thing to do we're in our
lovely little line we call this a back
line but that's a different talk um okay
great any questions before we start
yeah i'll offer a simple statement and
you say yes and and build on it and you
say yes and and build on it remember it
doesn't have to be true
it just can't contradict something
that's already been said
okay great so simple statement let's go
um
yesterday
it snowed
yes and the sun shine
but also it hailed
good yes good so we had yesterday it
snowed let's move down this way we've
got two more volunteers amazing so
yesterday it snowed yes and the sun
shines
what else yes and the snowman i built
melted
amazing
yes and i was so sad because i worked so
hard on that snowman
yes and my mom made me chicken noodle
soup so then i was happy again oh my
gosh what a wholesome scenario we've
created together let's get a round of
applause for our fabulous volunteers
thank you everybody you may go back to
your seats
amazing textbook so there we have it yes
and
in life we want to make sure that we are
leading with cooperation compassion and
listening
it's like running a marathon in a way
you're not just going to wake up one day
and automatically know how to do this we
have to really work at making yes and a
part of our daily vocabulary
so
the next time that you find yourself in
a stressful situation where you feel a
gut reaction being triggered i invite
you to pause
listen to what was offered
identify the useful proce part of it
and
add something to it
thank you everybody
[Applause]
you
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