Stand up in front of a group. No script. No prep. No rules. This is improv... in a way. It's not quite as scary as that, even though that set-up is likely to send many an introvert running in the opposite direction. And in fact, what looks like a completely spontaneous improv situation actually DOES have rules, and there are ways to prepare yourself. Sure, there's no script, but life doesn't have … [Read more...]
Why Improv is Scarier than Death
When I took a speech class in college, I learned a new word that I loved to say: extemporaneous. I loved to say it, and what it meant scared me to death. To be extemporaneous means to ad lib - to speak (and presumably, to speak intelligently) without a chance to prepare, at the drop of a hat. Another Merriam-Webster definition says "happening suddenly and often unexpectedly and usually without … [Read more...]