Jump in feet first / Photo: JoshuaDavisPhotography.COM
Getting the most out of your journey is like going on stage without a script. Here’s how to do it.
Many of my articles revolve around the same idea: activity isn’t the same as experience. Travel is more about how, not where you go – it’s the technique and the attitude you cultivate which makes all the difference.
Improvisational theater (improv for short) relies on the same approach. Though on the surface they seem unrelated, improv and inner travel are fundamentally the same.
Most of us can accept that going to a party is no promise of having a good time. Yet, not so obvious to many, is that simply going somewhere exotic is no guarantee of enjoyment. Likewise, most people don’t realize improv isn’t about going out on stage without a script and “being funny.”
In each case, it’s not just a matter of showing up. How you go about the activity is key to the experience. Improv, in particular, offers a remarkable insight into developing your how.
Something Wonderful, Right Away
A word of preparation: literalists will hate this.
Stepping into the world of improv philosophy will make you feel like Alice taking a tumble into Wonderland. Much of it seems counter-intuitive, even nonsensical. But paradoxically, there’s no faster way to arrive at Experience than by abandoning Destination.
Photo: HamburgerJung
Improv is generally associated with comedy, though it doesn’t have to be – which often leads to comedy. In fact, one of the guiding principles is “don’t go for the joke.” Instead, you let the humor – the discovery – rise from the situation of being human, allowing ideas to play off one another.
Going for the joke dehumanizes your fellow actors, turning them into objects. Real wit is about taking the moment as a gift, to find the “pop” of a wall breaking down.
Similarly, travel is also about breaking down barriers, internally as well as externally. By learning how to work with the moment to make greater discoveries, travel takes on a greater depth than simply being somewhere far from home.
Improv isn’t just an art – it’s the art of making art. There are no “rules” to it; if a label is needed, “strategies” is perhaps a better fit. The following strategies, or ideas, are adapted from Jonathan Pitts’ list, Improv Wisdom:
No saying no. Don’t deny. Saying “Yes, and…” is always better than saying “No” or “Yes, but…”
Improv is about building a mutual reality together. Imagine someone tosses out an idea: “Look! A stampede of cattle!” Replying “no, it’s not” collapses the moment into conflict, letting the gift thrown to you sail over your shoulder. Saying “yes, but I’d rather watch TV” is like catching the ball and dropping it.
But responding with “Yes, and they’re coming this way!” accepts the other’s reality and allows you to expand on it, rather than blocking it.
Show, don’t tell.
Participate – don’t be a “talking head.” Act, and don’t focus the dialogue on your actions. Take an active choice rather than a passive one.
Photo: HamburgerJung
The past is gone and the future can’t be demanded: the present moment is what we have, all we ever will have. Use it. Step out of meek compliance – make the moment bigger and brighter. Get off your ass and DO.
The other actor is the most important person on stage.
Imagine the world if everyone else thought this way. We wouldn’t dwell on the absent, but on the person we were with. We’d listen to them more closely. Give-and-take would be easier, dropping our insistence on “what we have to say” as if it were just another seashell on a beach full of them.
Give information to your partner, then listen to them, then respond to them.
A space can be anything you want it to be.
Make it yours – but once it’s there, it’s there. Take responsibility for your actions, and own the space (share it, of course).
Take responsibility for your actions, and own the space.
If you make a mistake, make it work for you. Adapt and improve it. Provide more detail, and avoid pre-conceived ideas. Be comfortable that you can create something good and spontaneous without approval from your inner judge.
It’s disposable.
If it doesn’t work, so what? Start something else. If you want serious, focus on characters, relationships, and feelings. If you want comedy, focus on objects and actions, or take something to the Nth degree.
Surprise yourself by making unexpected choices. A scene is a comment and a response. Find the game in the scene and play it, or start a new scene.
The Finger Pointing to the Moon
If any of this sounds familiar to you, from the times when you went outside your zone of comfort and learned about new possibilities, then you’ve experienced inner travel. Everybody has, and yet we also avoid it, because we fear what’s unknown.
Photo: House Of Sims
The art of improv may sound mystical, if not completely flaky – and it should. Creativity is not about following rules, it’s about challenging them, playing with them, to find something undiscovered.
Is this not the same as the art of travel? If we’re always led by the hand to the next stage, how do we ever grow? If we don’t question the truth of our lives, how do we ever understand them?
The strategies described above are only a few of hundreds that compose the art of improv, whether in music, theater or other realms. When applied to the art of travel – and personal relationship – they take on a greater meaning. They become a method for adaptation and exploration, for meeting what’s outside what we know. They become part of a logic that cannot be taught or explained fully, but only lived.
How have you experienced the art of improv, inner or outer, travel? Share your thoughts below.
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It’s right in line with your comprison, Carlo. One warning about saying YES too much, though – you can get into some pretty tight spots if you don’t say NO once in a while! Stages are safe: real life, you gotta take responsibility.
In improv, you’re taught that you can say YES or NO to life. If you say NO, you are rewarded with security and stability. If you say YES, you get adventure and change. Neither is inherently good or bad – but it matters how often you say the one or the other, and how well they help you get what you’re looking for.
Always a pleasure to hear from you, Carlo. I’ve never been gone, but keeping those other plates spinning is a full-time job.
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“In improv, you’re taught that you can say YES or NO to life. If you say NO, you are rewarded with security and stability. If you say YES, you get adventure and change. Neither is inherently good or bad – but it matters how often you say the one or the other, and how well they help you get what you’re looking for.” What a great addition to your article…I hope everyone reads your comment, too.
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It’s inevitable this convo will turn to Danny Wallace’s “Yes Man” (now a movie with Jim Carrey), so I’ll just go ahead and do that for a sec. That book (movie) makes a great point to how saying Yes more can really open up new experiences and adventure. However, I wouldn’t take it so far as to saying Yes to SPAM email asking “would you like to add four inches to your penis?”.
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This past fall my sister and I went with the moment when we arrived in Fuzhou China at 6am after a long overnight train ride. We never intended to stay and had another 12 hour overnight to Shenzhen at 9:30pm. What to do with all that time? Well since we had been “whiteboarding” asia for a month we just sat down and started drawing outside of the train station. After only a few short minutes we had a crowd of 50+ Chinese people that didn’t speak a lick of English and must have gathered to witness two tall blond Americans that looked to be out of their element.
A girl came up who spoke a little english and offered to take us all around the city to practice her language skills…we had nothing to do and found out that it was Nations Day and the nearby park was on steroids for the festival. That is where we did “Water Happy Balls” (huge inflatable balls that make you feel like a hamster in a wheel). We soaked up the city, the food, and had one of the most memorable days just because we were willing to take a chance when it came our way. If you want to check out this or any of our 3 month Asian adventure go to whiteboardasia.blogspot.com and look for the title “Water Happy Balls – Nuff Said”
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Great story Justin…we also had Chinese girls we met on the public bus helping us in Leshan. They really love to practice their English and help foreigners! China is a great place to travel! Looking forward to going back one day.
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Very helpful article! I enjoy it so much. Thanks, author!
No saying no. Don’t deny. Saying “Yes, and…” is always better than saying “No” or “Yes, but…”
Some kind of life art!
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Love it Daniel! It’s so much better to allow unexpected into one’s life! All of my best experiences (especially while travelling) were related to ‘unprogrammed’ moments and schedules.
I remember how once my cousin and I ended up in a ‘five-star’ hotel in Crimea (Ukraine), to discover that both lifts didn’t work and our room was on eleventh floor, and in order to have breakfast we had to have it with our backs facing each other.
Actually, we had a choice: either backs facing each other, or eating in turns, – one at 8 in the morning, another at nine.
The hotel was totally full as it appeared.
But funny enough, it was perhaps the best holiday ever, so hilarious it was. We couldn’t stop from laughing the wole way through.↵ -
Wow, this article really spoke to me. I had a similar experience to Justin at a bus station in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. I arrived at 7am and didn’t leave again until 5pm. A young guy offered to show me around the city. I saw the city, made a great new friend, and I didn’t have to sit in the bus station all day!
Thanks Daniel!
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Now that this article has had its run, I can tell you the source of my inspiration.
While in my twenties, I studied for a little over a year at Chicago’s Second City theater. My instructors included Nia Vardalos (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”), her huband Ian Gomez (a recurring character on The Drew Carey Show), Steve Carell (yes, THAT Steve Carell), Jim Zulevik (from “Second City Radio” in Chicago) and Steven Colbert (yes, THAT Steven Colbert). They are truly brilliant people and I’m thankful for the opportunity – how much I learned from them is incalculable.
I realized back then that the same things I was learning for improv theater could (and should) be easliy applied to daily life. These ideas and dozens of others have helped me see a great deal more to things than I ever would have. I have a friend who recently started the same training, and going over the material showed me how much I owe to improv technique.
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Dear F. Daniel Harbecke,
Thanks for this interesting piece, which being able to link to makes ours more valuable to our readers.
I won’t insult the comment box with a web address – we’re talking about The Blog of Kevin Dolgin, October 2.
Best of all possible regards,
Pat Hartman↵
