Bucket List Wed Mar 14 2012

My Chicago Bucket List: Embrace "Yes And"

By Niki Fritz

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Number 30: Be Silly and Embrace the 2nd City Art Form aka One Night of Improv

I'm your typical improv hater-ator. After moving to Chicago, I overloaded on the second city's best-known theatrical art form. From iO and Comedy Sports to my friends' free student shows and weird troupe performances in dive bars, I personally experienced every single improv show in the city.

And I hated it; I truly, to my blackened, humorless soul, hated it.

I hated the intensely awkward energy, the languishing moments of silence and the hint of edgy competitiveness. I hated the forced laughter, the moment you knew you should laugh and felt the pressure to chuckle at a cheap joke, the laugh "should." So one day I decided to just quit and never again make myself sit through another improv show. It was nothing but rehearsed Second City shows and Judd Apatow movies for me. And then last week, I went beyond going to an improv show; I was the improv show. And I was converted.

As part of a three-month long social adventure called Fear Experiment, I have intensely immersed myself into all things DANCE (capitalization absolutely necessary.) But the more I heard about the "other side" of Fear Experiment, the improv side, the more intrigued I was.

Luckily TeamPete, as in Coach Pete of Improv Experiment, offered a one-night-only chance for dancers to experience improv. After six weeks of planks, crunchies and dance routines that left me with story-worthy bruises, I was ready to explore the sillier side of fear.

After a healthy glass of wine, I launched myself heart first into improv, leaving my "rational" brain a few steps behind me. I was not always, or usually, hilarious and there were more than a few moments of silence, but oddly enough, when you are up on stage those moments don't feel that awkward. They feel scary and a little uncomfortable, but they also feel natural, like you need those moments along with the moments of hilarity.
By the end of the night I didn't feel like I had taken an improv workshop; I felt as if I had just taken a workshop on how to do life better, how to be sillier, lighter and freer. It's a lesson a lot of us haterators could use.

For those of you intrigued, here is what improv 101 taught me:

1. You've got to let the judgment go! You can't be silly "right." You can't improv perfectly. If your brain is saying someone is stupid, turn off your brain. The best part of this key ingredient of improv is when you stop judging others, it becomes pointless to judge yourself. And that makes silly a whole lot easier.

2. As Tina Fey would say, "Yes And." So much of our lives are now spent defining ourselves by what we are not: the right, the 1%, the man. We are yelling "no" so loud and hard that we don't even know what we are saying no to. In improv, you say "Yes." When your partner creates a story line, a character or a background, you say YES. You accept what they are offering the scene. Then you add your AND. AND you won tickets to the RuPaul show, AND this is a swinger's party, AND Jesus came to my window last night. You add something to the scene. What would this world be like if everywhere we went we screamed yes, brilliant, awesome, terrific to others' ideas and had that same enthusiasm reciprocated?

3. Enjoy the blasted moment. When you think too far ahead, you miss the brilliance of the present. Be silly and don't worry if it is not rationale.

Improv workshops are not just for the dance-weary and wine-soaked among us; TeamPete provides classes and workshops for all your improv needs. Check out the website for more information.

If you want to see a great show, get tickets now for the 2nd Fear Experiment show at Park West on April 28! Tickets sold out fast last year so get 'em while they're hot! (And if you want to help me win the ticket contest, put down my name for who do you know blank!)