Play with friends? Play with strangers?

I had this conversation with another improviser recently. He said how he preferred to perform win people they didn't play with regularly .
Whereas I enjoy this every so often , l get much more of a kick playing with people I know well.
I know what I can get way with .
l know who I can play with , and by that I mean play with emotionally and physically .
l know how far to push things .

l always feel a bit of a dick doing things like that to someone l don't know that well.

Who would you rather play with?

Failing to Fail

I took part in a clowning workshop last weekend.

I've touched on clowning a little over the years but not really gone into it too far.

I learned a lot, I got a lot out of it.  The main thing I learned is that I really, really, struggle to fail.

That actually sounds like a really bold statement ;)  But really... I don't let myself fail.

I've been 'in charge' of many things since a young age (I directed my first show at age 12 (it wasn't very good)).  I've always been the person who organises and runs things.  I've always seen being unsure or unable to answer to anything as a weakness and as such it's stopped me learning.  I don't challenge myself because I a) don't want to be wrong and b) if I do something and it ends up being wrong it feels like a huge waste of time.
I've always struggled with this.

No one LIKES to fail though really, do they?

Well a clown is fine with it... and works through it optimistically (another trait I don't really have).

So.  We were given a task, one of many on the day, which was going to be hard if not impossible to achieve.  It was a clapping game, hitting beats at a certain time, with a partner.
The exercise isn't important really... what I did with it was.
I figured out how to win.
I completed it.
We got to the end of it, and the teacher had nothing to say to us.  No one laughed.  We were done.  We sat down.
I leant over to my partner and apologied - "We didn't get any feedback because we failed to fail, my fault, sorry".

After being an improviser for nearly 13 years you'd think I'd be all over this... I was kicking myself.  Within my troupe nowadays I'm a little better at making myself this vulnerable, but MORE EFFORT NEEDED.

If you see me, make sure I'm failing at something... it will cheer me up.

To snog or not to snog?

Where do you stand on this improv peeps.

I am very happy to let anyone in my troupe maul me or kiss me... does that make me an improv slut?

In my mind it's more along the lines of I'm just happy to go wherever the scene takes me.  In fact the only time I've ever frozen in a scene was when my character was endowed as being pregnant... that's been the only thing I've struggled with (because it's something I would never want to happen in real life).

I feel lucky to be in a troupe where I can trust everyone enough to feel like I can do whatever I want, and let them do whatever they want too.

Yeah.  It does sound a bit slutty.

New Challenges

This weekend one of my players, who has been improvising for nearly 13 years now, took part in a singing workshop.
This was a huge deal for him.
He's convinced himself he can't sing, and therefore can't improvise songs.  He has avoided it as best he could his entire Improv career.

Over time I think it gets harder for us to push ourselves out there again.  We get used to working one way or another.
Which is not to say you grow stagnant (although some people do) but you get comfortable.
Comfortable and safe.
Two words that could damage your improv.
Try something new, try something dangerous, try something that scares you.

I hope he got a lot out of the workshop, he was awesome, did some great stuff and pushed through his worries.
I am hoping he will do it again.
We all need those pushes from time to time... because risking failure means you're learning.

(as an aside I don't really think you can fail in improv as long as you're doing something... hopefully that comment won't come back to bite me when I'm grading my improv students ;) )