Improv Your Day
“In the improv world, if I jump on stage and I say, "Oh no, our hot air balloon is falling out of the sky, what are we going to do?" The minute somebody denies that premise and says, "No, we're not in a hot air balloon. We're swimming in the ocean," the scene dies. It's over.”
That quote comes from Mandy Kaplan. Mandy is an actress, singer, writer, and so many more things, and she was also a recent guest on Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast alongside her lifelong friend and podcast co-host, Mandy Fabian. We invited them on the show to share some of their life experiences and teach us a little more about the improv technique, "yes, and...".
What does improv have to do with ADHD?
It turns out, improv has a lot to teach us, whether we're aspiring to be actors or not. Trust me, I was skeptical at first, too, but after I had the chance to learn from these great women, it all started to make a lot more sense.
Improvisational acting, or improv, is all about creating a scene or story without the help of a script. In a sense, you are creating the script in the moment as you act out what is happening with those around you.
To go back to the original quote from Mandy Kaplan, if you disagree with everything that is offered to you from the other actors, there is nowhere for the action to go—it just stops.
It was so interesting to me to be able to easily relate that to life. Each day we are moving our stories forward by living our lives. But, sometimes there are roadblocks or curveballs that get thrown at us that we weren't expecting. In those moments, we have a choice: are we going to acknowledge and accept this new circumstance, say "yes, and...", and decide how we will move on from this, or are we going to deny what's happening right in front of us, dig our heels in, and refuse to do anything until our circumstances change?
When you look at it that way, it seems like a simple answer, right?
But, how many times do we avoid speaking to someone, refuse to make a change because it's out of our comfort zone, or even hold off on making a difficult decision because we’re afraid we’ll choose wrong? Our need to control every situation is holding us back from growing and continuing our story.
So, the next time you're faced with an unforeseen plot twist in your life, instead of saying "no", why not try "yes, and..." and see where the story takes you next.
Thank you for your time and attention,
Nikki
