Be Playful
In my first blog post I wrote that part of the fabric of my
improv toolbelt was -Be Playful- and I wasn’t joking around. I bet if you asked
hundreds of people what they think being
playful means you’d get hundreds of answers. Well, of course you would. But
I mean hundreds of DIFFERENT answers. What does being playful mean to you? For
me it’s a very serious word, not a synonym to wacky or goofy but instead a word
that encompasses an energy of good-natured mischief, a willingness to be
foolish, and an awareness of the game (even if there is no game). Are you able
to become playful when you want to?
Or is it a state of being that comes upon you occasionally and is otherwise
elusive? When improvisers warm up before a show, they’re warming up their
playfulness. You play improv games to
warm up. Certainly, they also get you connected to your fellow players and can
help you get present, taking the place of whatever it is in your life that
preoccupies your brain, but the most valuable part about getting ready for an
improv show is to get PLAYFUL. Maybe for you that means meditating on the floor
for 5 minutes, to center you chakra’s and shit, and maybe for me it’s dancing
circles around you while you meditate singing an explicative version of Rudolph
the Rednose Reindeer (hopefully we’ll both get playful if I ruin your
meditation this way). All these things are inner-connected; when you get playful you become present in the moment and stop paying attention to your head noise because you are just playing. Combining playfulness and vulnerability creates the ultimate improv energy, heightened by the sincerity you bring to the moment. I’ve heard it said that some people just won’t ever be in the category of a good or great improviser and, although I disagree with that statement wholeheartedly, I believe that the people that get put into that category have trouble getting playful. This can be seen in how someone plays improv warm-ups; too focused that you miss what’s going on? too concerned with how other people might view you’re warming up? Also, don’t confuse playfulness with competitiveness. The competitive person who is not playful takes the game too seriously and is subsequently hard on themselves or mad at themselves when they don’t win or angry at the winner for winning. They should focus on taking the play seriously. Especially in improv warm ups, there is nothing to win or lose, and accepting that fact frees you up to win or lose the best you can (yes, this is even true in the improv games that have a clear winner). Improvisers who warm up aggressively and trying to be the BEST at the warm up game invoke a feeling of mistrust in their fellow improvisers because they are saying, “I will do anything to be the best at this game.” rather than “I will play this game the best I can.” One of those ways of thinking is supportive, the other is not. I am way more interested in improvising with people who are being playful and trying to do their best versus improvisers who are being competitive and trying to be the best.
Be playful, seriously, and be serious, playfully. All else
will be fun.
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