If you make a mistake, do it twice.

Jazz Saying

This is one of those truths that finds it’s way into every art form. It’s true for Jazz and it’s true for improvisation.

Nothing we say to each other is innocent of emotional manipulation. Everything that we do on stage, is to effect each other, in some way and if we notice, very carefully, how those swine we are working with are trying to get to us and get at us — Sometimes I suggest we perform on stage as though we are a whole bunch or raving paranoids, that these paranoids adjust nothing I hear is going to be simple. Nothing you say to me is going to be accepted at face value. Ohh? It always means something else.
–Del Close

Found this today and have to say, It’s pretty brilliant. Sorry was not the most fun game because it relied too heavily on that big plastic half dome thing. The game itself was boring as shit.

Monopoly is a game.

We use the pattern of moving pieces around the board to play that game.

That pattern in and of itself is not very interesting.

But the pattern serves the game. It moves it forward. It lets us find more fun.

The fun is in what we DO in that game. It’s WHY we’re playing it.

You can play it fast. Or slow. You can spend time in jail. Or you can work as hard as you can to buy up all the railroads.

That’s your choice.

Because monopoly is a game.

Game is what we play.

If something is funny, it has a game.

Pattern is how we play it.

We use patterns to explore and heighten the game.

Choice is up to the individual player.

At UCBT we teach people to make strong choices at the top of their intelligence and then to commit to those choices.

Strong, committed choices show off your sense of play and sense of humor. They bring your ideas to the group mind.

Then everyone gets to play and enjoy and support each others ideas.

You can make a pattern out of anything. But if it’s not a pattern serving a strong game - it’ll be boring.

Just like Sorry.

That’s a terrible game.

– Anthony King

Simple, I do something to you which makes you do something to me, etc. that’s it.

Peter Gwinn on “what is the game of the scene?”

Treat your audience like poets and geniuses and they’ll have the chance to become them.

Del Close

Rob Riggle (during a Del Close Marathon Workshop)

This is something I’ve been focusing on for the last year. Although there is sometimes a feeling of competition in improv between groups and performers, it eventually comes down to the connections you make in the community. Life is all about who you know and improv is no different. Being a person that people respect and want to work with, will help you in your success as an improviser. Being too competitive, backstabbing, scene stealing, selfish, or unsupportive will only push people away.

Improv, for myself, is a lot about comfort. It takes me about 3 classes to really begin to trust my teammates in my classes. This is greatly expedited by occasional drinks after class, or even a social group event like karaoke or game night. All of this allows you to socialize in the community to build strong connections to other performers and groups. The more people you know, the more doors will be available to you to walk through.

Of course being insanely talented will also bring you success, but will happen a lot faster if people want to work with you.

When you start a scene, bring a brick not a cathedral.
Possibly Del Close? 

This quote has followed me around thought my improv career. I read somewhere and now can’t find the attribution to it. I always ascribe it to Del Close, but as I can’t find it’s source, I’m really not sure any more. There is a very similar quote in the Second City Almanac of Improvisation on page 103. If anyone knows where this quote comes from, please let me know.

Intuition is the key to everything, in painting, filmmaking, business—everything. I think you could have an intellectual ability, but if you can sharpen your intuition, which they say is emotion and intellect joining together, then a knowingness occurs. Feeling correct is a feeling I think everyone knows.
-David Lynch (AV Club)