“Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater and learn to become stageworthy.”
Source: Improvisation for the Theater
“The greatest thing I learned while taking classes at Second City was the very first thing they taught: 'Yes, and...'. In improv, you keep scenes alive but accepting whatever you are given and then adding to it or amplifying it. There is no space on stage for 'No,' 'I'm sorry, you're mistaken,' or 'Yes, but...'. Those transitions kill energy, set up interpersonal conflict, engage the ego in a defensive posture, and stymie the flow of conversation onstage.”
Source: How to Self-Destruct: Making the Least of What's Left of Your Career
“Time flies fast when time is important, and even faster when it is not.”
“Somewhere in the back of my head must have been the thought that No leads to dead ends, and Yes leads to possibilities. Again, hearkening back to my improv days, this was the ultimate "Yes And.”
Source: Girl Walks into a Bar . . .: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle
“I’ve embarked on personal adventures with each of these quilts. I want to teach you how to do the same.”
Source: East-Meets-West Quilts: Explore Improv with Japanese-Inspired Designs
“The world of improv is a portal into mindfulness and magic.”
Source: Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up
“Improvisors connect for the same basic reason you and your friends connect. Say you meet someone. You like something about them and they like something about you. Your mutual interest begets mutual play. Play begets cooperation and mutual understanding, which, trampolined by fun, becomes love. Love is the highest form of play.”
Source: Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art
“The practice of improvisation (in contrast, say, to that of writing or painting) teaches something that we are hungry to understand: how to be in harmony with one another and how to have fun. We practice improvisation not only to “express ourselves” but to connect with others in a more immediate way.”
“Improvising is playing a game with no plot rules which middles you as fuck.”
“I can barely forgive myself for the time when I negged Billy from my improv troupe onstage. He said, “I have a gift for you,” and my first instinct was to say, “No you don’t.” The scene died right then and there. See what happens when I try to nurture something? I know it seems dramatic to relate destroying an improv scene to possibly destroying a child’s life, but improv and child rearing are not so different. Both are jobs that people volunteer for and complain about endlessly, and they bore everyone around them as they talk about the process.”
Source: I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids