​The classes are going great.   Even though improvisation is all about interaction, which is difficult to emulate in the ZOOM room, we’re discovering the stuff that works online.
 
The kids had so much fun last week, I even heard some parents laughing in the background.  Especially when they were expressing themselves in gibberish. Gibberish is improvisers made up language.  Gibberish can sound like a fake foreign language or a pixie like language and for some its bits of half English and sound effects that will with more practice guide them to the land of nonsense speak. 
 
Last week they had to talk about their frustrations of lockdown in gibberish, it was hilarious!  Very expressive arms going, faces animated as they jumped up and down and threw themselves into speaking gobbledygook.  This is what gibberish is about, using our whole body and letting the nonsense words pour out in a free flow of sounds.  This release of vocal expression with emotion feeds back to the fluency of language, unlocking our voices and giving us permission to express ourselves.  Gibberish is great because we don’t have to bother with getting tangled up in thoughts.  We can take the brain out of the picture and let our mouth and our words make friends as we become fluent in the free flow of language.   
 
We don’t have to think everything through first and make sure it’s perfect but instead jump in and trust ourselves to come up with something, anything!  That’s when we laugh the hardest, we’ve just totally surprised ourselves, we’re genius creators! 

​Not being able to hold classes in my beautiful studio is frustrating, but this has spurred the future into the present.  I’m teaching on Zoom and fibre is moments away from being installed in my home, I will be supersonic soon.  I can teach all day long if I wish, and from the comfort of my own lounge.   I wonder will this stick after #stayhome is over?  I guess many people will prefer not to travel if possible and fewer will want to be in a class with others, until a vaccine is found.  Perhaps this style of teaching is here to stay at least for the next while! 
 
I’m loving teaching the kids and adults improvisation on Zoom.  In the most recent class they were hilarious as they had to get themselves out of a trap (a bear trap no less).  They were asked to focus on making the imaginary real as they struggled to free themselves.  
 
It’s fascinating that the more they pretend to get themselves out of a trap the less interesting it is, and when they really see and feel with their own bodies the elements of the trap – the hard metal and sharp teeth - then the rest of their environment comes to life too - the forest, the gash in their leg.  And their escape from a bear trap becomes sheer brilliance as I even see their muddy wet bottoms!   It becomes that real because they stop relying on their imaginations and instead respond to a real moment.  Wow!  
 
In improvisation we are invited to get out of our over planning minds and trust the focus of the game to deliver truth.  That’s the magic folks!  Being in the living moment. 

​Saying yes!  
The first rule of improvisation is: say YES!  Can you believe this is a rule?  It’s all that’s asked of us when we step into an improvisation scene.  Saying a loud resounding YES to yourself as you trust your idea, jump in and play.  Saying YES to your scene partner who might be inviting you to bake pancakes, fly to the moon, or spy on the neighbours.   It’s funny how hard it is initially, how often the NO pops out without us even realizing.  No! We can’t spy on the neighbours, that would be wrong.  Fly to the moon in this contraption? Are you nuts??  Pancakes? But I’ve just fried you eggs!   If you’re a new improviser those scene killer NO’s are just living to murder your scene.
 
If I don’t play for a while I discover the NO bobbing under the surface of every interaction.  I have to call up the YES from deep within and give myself permission to jump in with all four feet and surf that YES through all I do.  Then the class is over all too soon and I have to wait a whole week before playing again.  Oh YES, where have you gone?  
 
Say it wholeheartedly in improv and discover that’s where the magic begins.  YES is the launchpad to brilliance and then let those tasty reverberations flood into ours real life as we get into the rhythm of YES, let’s do this!  YES, let’s play improv!