okay I’m on my way to get my ears
pierced this is gonna be great I’ve been
waiting this for this day since I was
ten years old okay let’s hear we got
some star-shaped ones we got some dangly
ones I don’t like those as much but here
ooh these purple ones that’s the ones
I’m gonna get okay
okay I got my ears pierced now you’re
probably wondering what I was just doing
that’s called improv it’s a type of
theater in which the actors have to work
together to act out a scene or solve a
problem with little to no preparation
seems weird right I mean who would want
to get up onstage in front of a crowd
with no idea of what they would be doing
I’ll admit I’ve had those thoughts but
that all changed a few summers ago when
I went to a summer camp for academically
talented youth called young students
summer program in this program students
get to choose a subject that isn’t
normally taught in school and spend a
week learning about it with like-minded
peers at a local campus I had gone twice
before but both times I found I wasn’t
doing something I was passionate about
that summer however I scoured the
classlist determined to find something
that I would continue to be interested
in once I left camp I stumbled across a
class called
improv and creative problem solving this
intrigued me improv was something
completely and totally foreign to my
tiny introverted twelve-year-old self
who didn’t necessarily enjoy being in
the spotlight so as I walked into her
wide-open classroom
almost like a stage really on the first
day I was nervous but what I saw pushed
away any negative feeling I had I saw a
group of kids just like me kids who were
shy around new people kids who hadn’t
quite yet found their voice or their
passion kids who were determined
intelligent hilarious and yet no one
knew it because they were too shy to let
it out
improv changed them improv changed me
throughout that week we spent our time
debating who should be president of the
butter Club interviewing an expert on
giraffes who insisted that they were
short squat and blue with purple spots
as well as watching a rowdy young boy
demand a coupon from a police officer we
would play games where we would have 60
seconds to figure out how a soup can
could destroy the galaxy or to explain
to our manager what our job was without
saying it outright throughout that week
I knowingly learned several crucially
important life skills all by playing a
few games since all the games required
us to improvise the first thing I
learned was how to think on my feet
no matter your walk of life you will at
some point be caught unprepared I might
learn last minute that there’s an
assignment due the next day a male man’s
truck might break down a CEO might learn
that her company is nearing bankruptcy a
teacher might have to rewrite his lesson
plan after his class consistently scores
low on tests or a chef might have to
make you with the ingredient she has
after a shipment has been delayed
whatever the case all of us will have to
think on our feet to make something up
on the spot to improvise however there
is a difference between just making
something up on the spot and actually
producing a spur-of-the-moment solution
you need to be able to take all existing
factors and make a solution that fits
those constraints the principle that
allows improv artists to do this is
called yes and yes and is one of the
first and few rules that all improv
artists must learn it teaches them to
build on the ideas of others for example
my improv troupe and I were doing a skit
one time when we had to plan a birthday
party and one person decided we would
have a squirrel themed party another
person said yes and our cake will taste
like acorns which built on the original
idea and kept the story moving but then
other person said I thought we were
having a cat themed party which
detracted from the original idea and
made the story less focused this is just
one example of how yes and allows
creativity to flourish which leads me to
my next point
improv teaches people how to be creative
especially in situations that call for
thinking outside the box in my
experience with comedic improv it is the
lines that surprised the audience the
most otherworldly outrageous
unimaginable ideas that leave the
greatest impression by using yes and to
brainstorm you get a broader spectrum of
ideas to begin with making it easier to
create artwork problem-solve and leave a
positive impression on others another
lesson that we improv artists must learn
is that it is not our jobs to make
ourselves look good but to make others
look good this is the mantra of any
improv troupe and it is another reason
why yes and is so important by using yes
and to add on to others ideas you
accentuate their ideas while still
adapting and changing them this type of
creation where everyone adds to an
adapts a central idea is termed
co-creation and it is another
fundamental idea of improv imagine every
school project you’ve ever done where
you’ve had to research a topic of your
choice
every meeting you’ve ever been to where
you and your colleagues have thrown
around ideas for a new financial tactic
or every time you and your peers have
gone together for an hour or two and
just thought of all the what-ifs that
could apply to a situation all of these
are examples of co-creation co-creation
is so important in fact that companies
like Google and Apple use it to solve
most of their problems and brainstorm
their products so not only co-creation
but improvisation and making others look
good rely on the concept of yes and I’ve
shown you how yes ant has changed my
life but how do we know that will
improve everyone’s life after all
everyone is different so your experience
with improv will likely be very
different from mine
funny thing is improv relies on people
being different as it allows each member
of the group to bring something new to
the table also by doing improv you begin
to understand all these new benefits
that people bring this gives you new
ways to approach tasks as you begin to
understand the different ways that
people think this lets you learn new
ways to problem-solve so even people who
aren’t necessarily interested in a
creative field benefit from doing improv
thus many different types of people
experience similar if not the same
benefits that I did after doing improv
the second city guides improv in the
classroom by catherine s McKnight and
Mary Scruggs is a guide for elementary
and middle school teachers that provides
improv activities that can actually be
used in the classroom McKnight and
Scruggs argue that when you use improv
to teach elementary and middle school
students the result is that they learn
how to better function as part of a
group and how to be more abstractly
creative teaching kids improv at a young
age gives the shy quiet ones a chance to
speak while teaching the more assertive
ones to take turns in the spotlight this
leads to more co-creation an added bonus
is that the students get a better feel
for the material that they are learning
will still take in control of how they
learn it for example if a group of
eighth graders are studying marketing
techniques they can do an improv
activity in which they have two minutes
to pitch a made-up product to the
audience a paper by a group of
pharmacists from the University of
Arizona shows that when pharmaceutical
students practice improv together the
result is that they learn how to better
communicate with patients the study
focused on two groups of pharmaceutical
students in the same program studying
the same material the only difference
between the two groups
was that one practice improv alongside
their normal studies while the other
didn’t the group that practice improv
learned how to communicate with patients
better in fact their standardized test
scores centered around communication
rose by about 20 percent the reason the
communication is so important not just a
pharmacist but to medical professionals
in general is that they need to be able
to effectively communicate with their
patients by having strong communication
skills they are able to stay calm during
an unexpected or stressful counter with
their patients and effectively convey
their message other studies show that
people who have an autism spectrum
disorder or a form of Alzheimer’s also
benefit from practicing improv these
studies center around the idea that when
you expose these people to the
randomness of everyday life in a closed
environment they are better able to
handle these situations in the real
world the common theme in all of these
stories including mine is that improv
teaches people how to be confident by
practicing improv the shy elementary
school kids like me finally got enough
courage to share during show-and-tell
the pharmaceutical students learned not
to be caught off guard by questions they
hadn’t heard from patients before and
the people with autism are Alzheimer’s
finally learned how to communicate with
the rest of us even if it might be more
difficult every single one of us already
has amazingly creative ideas it’s just
that they usually go unspoken oftentimes
because we are afraid of what other
people will think out of all of its
benefits improv teaches you how to be
confident which allows you to push aside
the fears that were once holding you
back then you can go on and share your
ideas with the world so next time
someone asks you if you would like to go
see an improv troupe simply respond yes
and it might lead to something greater
thank you [Applause]
pierced this is gonna be great I’ve been
waiting this for this day since I was
ten years old okay let’s hear we got
some star-shaped ones we got some dangly
ones I don’t like those as much but here
ooh these purple ones that’s the ones
I’m gonna get okay
okay I got my ears pierced now you’re
probably wondering what I was just doing
that’s called improv it’s a type of
theater in which the actors have to work
together to act out a scene or solve a
problem with little to no preparation
seems weird right I mean who would want
to get up onstage in front of a crowd
with no idea of what they would be doing
I’ll admit I’ve had those thoughts but
that all changed a few summers ago when
I went to a summer camp for academically
talented youth called young students
summer program in this program students
get to choose a subject that isn’t
normally taught in school and spend a
week learning about it with like-minded
peers at a local campus I had gone twice
before but both times I found I wasn’t
doing something I was passionate about
that summer however I scoured the
classlist determined to find something
that I would continue to be interested
in once I left camp I stumbled across a
class called
improv and creative problem solving this
intrigued me improv was something
completely and totally foreign to my
tiny introverted twelve-year-old self
who didn’t necessarily enjoy being in
the spotlight so as I walked into her
wide-open classroom
almost like a stage really on the first
day I was nervous but what I saw pushed
away any negative feeling I had I saw a
group of kids just like me kids who were
shy around new people kids who hadn’t
quite yet found their voice or their
passion kids who were determined
intelligent hilarious and yet no one
knew it because they were too shy to let
it out
improv changed them improv changed me
throughout that week we spent our time
debating who should be president of the
butter Club interviewing an expert on
giraffes who insisted that they were
short squat and blue with purple spots
as well as watching a rowdy young boy
demand a coupon from a police officer we
would play games where we would have 60
seconds to figure out how a soup can
could destroy the galaxy or to explain
to our manager what our job was without
saying it outright throughout that week
I knowingly learned several crucially
important life skills all by playing a
few games since all the games required
us to improvise the first thing I
learned was how to think on my feet
no matter your walk of life you will at
some point be caught unprepared I might
learn last minute that there’s an
assignment due the next day a male man’s
truck might break down a CEO might learn
that her company is nearing bankruptcy a
teacher might have to rewrite his lesson
plan after his class consistently scores
low on tests or a chef might have to
make you with the ingredient she has
after a shipment has been delayed
whatever the case all of us will have to
think on our feet to make something up
on the spot to improvise however there
is a difference between just making
something up on the spot and actually
producing a spur-of-the-moment solution
you need to be able to take all existing
factors and make a solution that fits
those constraints the principle that
allows improv artists to do this is
called yes and yes and is one of the
first and few rules that all improv
artists must learn it teaches them to
build on the ideas of others for example
my improv troupe and I were doing a skit
one time when we had to plan a birthday
party and one person decided we would
have a squirrel themed party another
person said yes and our cake will taste
like acorns which built on the original
idea and kept the story moving but then
other person said I thought we were
having a cat themed party which
detracted from the original idea and
made the story less focused this is just
one example of how yes and allows
creativity to flourish which leads me to
my next point
improv teaches people how to be creative
especially in situations that call for
thinking outside the box in my
experience with comedic improv it is the
lines that surprised the audience the
most otherworldly outrageous
unimaginable ideas that leave the
greatest impression by using yes and to
brainstorm you get a broader spectrum of
ideas to begin with making it easier to
create artwork problem-solve and leave a
positive impression on others another
lesson that we improv artists must learn
is that it is not our jobs to make
ourselves look good but to make others
look good this is the mantra of any
improv troupe and it is another reason
why yes and is so important by using yes
and to add on to others ideas you
accentuate their ideas while still
adapting and changing them this type of
creation where everyone adds to an
adapts a central idea is termed
co-creation and it is another
fundamental idea of improv imagine every
school project you’ve ever done where
you’ve had to research a topic of your
choice
every meeting you’ve ever been to where
you and your colleagues have thrown
around ideas for a new financial tactic
or every time you and your peers have
gone together for an hour or two and
just thought of all the what-ifs that
could apply to a situation all of these
are examples of co-creation co-creation
is so important in fact that companies
like Google and Apple use it to solve
most of their problems and brainstorm
their products so not only co-creation
but improvisation and making others look
good rely on the concept of yes and I’ve
shown you how yes ant has changed my
life but how do we know that will
improve everyone’s life after all
everyone is different so your experience
with improv will likely be very
different from mine
funny thing is improv relies on people
being different as it allows each member
of the group to bring something new to
the table also by doing improv you begin
to understand all these new benefits
that people bring this gives you new
ways to approach tasks as you begin to
understand the different ways that
people think this lets you learn new
ways to problem-solve so even people who
aren’t necessarily interested in a
creative field benefit from doing improv
thus many different types of people
experience similar if not the same
benefits that I did after doing improv
the second city guides improv in the
classroom by catherine s McKnight and
Mary Scruggs is a guide for elementary
and middle school teachers that provides
improv activities that can actually be
used in the classroom McKnight and
Scruggs argue that when you use improv
to teach elementary and middle school
students the result is that they learn
how to better function as part of a
group and how to be more abstractly
creative teaching kids improv at a young
age gives the shy quiet ones a chance to
speak while teaching the more assertive
ones to take turns in the spotlight this
leads to more co-creation an added bonus
is that the students get a better feel
for the material that they are learning
will still take in control of how they
learn it for example if a group of
eighth graders are studying marketing
techniques they can do an improv
activity in which they have two minutes
to pitch a made-up product to the
audience a paper by a group of
pharmacists from the University of
Arizona shows that when pharmaceutical
students practice improv together the
result is that they learn how to better
communicate with patients the study
focused on two groups of pharmaceutical
students in the same program studying
the same material the only difference
between the two groups
was that one practice improv alongside
their normal studies while the other
didn’t the group that practice improv
learned how to communicate with patients
better in fact their standardized test
scores centered around communication
rose by about 20 percent the reason the
communication is so important not just a
pharmacist but to medical professionals
in general is that they need to be able
to effectively communicate with their
patients by having strong communication
skills they are able to stay calm during
an unexpected or stressful counter with
their patients and effectively convey
their message other studies show that
people who have an autism spectrum
disorder or a form of Alzheimer’s also
benefit from practicing improv these
studies center around the idea that when
you expose these people to the
randomness of everyday life in a closed
environment they are better able to
handle these situations in the real
world the common theme in all of these
stories including mine is that improv
teaches people how to be confident by
practicing improv the shy elementary
school kids like me finally got enough
courage to share during show-and-tell
the pharmaceutical students learned not
to be caught off guard by questions they
hadn’t heard from patients before and
the people with autism are Alzheimer’s
finally learned how to communicate with
the rest of us even if it might be more
difficult every single one of us already
has amazingly creative ideas it’s just
that they usually go unspoken oftentimes
because we are afraid of what other
people will think out of all of its
benefits improv teaches you how to be
confident which allows you to push aside
the fears that were once holding you
back then you can go on and share your
ideas with the world so next time
someone asks you if you would like to go
see an improv troupe simply respond yes
and it might lead to something greater
thank you [Applause]
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