Making It Up As We Go Along

Making It Up As We Go Along: Our Seven Principles and the Art of Improvisation

Today I am going to talk about improvisational comedy or “improv” for short and its relationship to Unitarian Universalist principles. Now, I know that this doesn’t seem much like a time for laughing with all that is going on or… maybe it’s exactly the right time. Maybe we need a little comedy to get our minds off of things. Sometimes it's good to take a step back and find a little humor in it all if you can. I invite each of you to take these next few moments to take a break from the craziness, take a deep breath, and have a chance at a little chuckle or two.

Let me begin by saying that I am not a professional improv comedian. For most of my adult life, I was a professor of music but I have always been fascinated with all the arts and was even a full-time Director of Music and Arts at a large UU church in North Carolina. While I was there I took classes in improv comedy during the summers at a UU camp in Virginia. After three years, the teacher of the class decided not to return and asked me to lead the class–which I did. When I came to Massachusetts to teach again I taught improv comedy through a local adult education program. As I studied, practiced, and taught improv, I began to see that its basic guidelines are similar in nature to the principles of Unitarian Universalism and are also essential ideas that are useful in negotiating the challenges of life itself. I became fascinated with the lessons that improv comedy had for living a good and, I would even say, a sacred life.

Right about now you might be saying: “Hey wait! Hold the phone! Classes in improvisation? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Don’t you just make it all up as you go along?” And the answer is yes. Improvisation is all about being creative in the moment but there are concepts and methods for learning how to become better at making it up as you go along. For one thing, there are some basic guidelines that comedy improv participants learn to help guide them. [cards] I have taught three such guidelines and they are based on the words “Yes,” “And,” and “We.” When you put those together you get the primary guideline of improv comedy which is “Yes and we.”

The guideline of “Yes” means to accept whatever is happening and whatever is given to you. In the improv world, when someone gives you a line to work from it is called an offer. For example, if you were to say to me, “Hey, Ken! I noticed you have a chicken on your head!” I couldn’t then say, “No I don’t” or “Don’t be ridiculous, who would put a chicken on their head?” Instead, I would say “Why YES! Yes, I DO have a chicken on my head!” In other words, I would accept the offer no matter what it was and I would then work with it. By saying “Yes” we learn to accept and build upon what comes our way. Acceptance is also the essence of our first UU principle: belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person, while acceptance of one another and the encouragement of spiritual growth is our third principle. This is how UUs say YES.

I’d like to demonstrate how this might work with a little game I call “Saying Yes” but I will need three volunteers. If you would like to join in, please raise your hand and I will randomly pick three people. [choose three people and put names in order]. I have put you three in this order: [names] The first person will say to the second person “I heard that you..” or “I see that you..” Just like in the example I used where someone might say to me “I see that you have a chicken on your head.” As I jabber away here you should each be thinking of something to say to the next person. Since this is a church gathering please keep out politics and sex. After Player 1 says “I see you…” then Player 2 should respond: “Yes I do” and then give a brief justification. Player 2 would then do the same thing to Player 3. For example, If someone might say to me “I see you have a chicken on your head” I would respond, “Yes I do” and then I might say “I like to make sure I get fresh eggs.” Let’s begin. [Do first activity]

We may have to initially accept life as it is by saying Yes so that we do not deny the truth of reality but we do not need to accept and perpetuate injustice. We are all agents of choice and can choose to work to improve the current condition and move it toward a greater future. As UUs, we know we need to commit to change for the betterment of our world and all beings within it. In improv, the guideline of “Yes And” means the same thing. An offer is accepted and then it is used as the basis to move a story forward. With YES AND we grasp the need for action. Comedy works best when it moves down a trajectory toward an expectation and life works best when we take action to work together towards a better future. To work together we also need to respect each other and the world in which we live which is what our 7th Principle is all about: respect for the interdependent web of all existence.

To demonstrate this second improv guideline I have another game called appropriately “Yes And.” For this game, I will need another three volunteers. Please raise your hand if you would like to help out. [choose three names and put in order] In this game, Player 1 will announce that they like to do something with one hand like waving and that person would say “I like to wave my hand” and then do that action. All of you out there in Zoom land are welcome to join in by copying that motion. Again, when choosing an action, please be cognizant of our audience. Next, Player 2 will do Player 1’s action with one hand and then announce another action to do with the other hand. So, for example, Player 2 would wave their hand and then say “YES I like to wave my hand AND I like to pat my head.” At which time Player 2 would begin patting their head. That new motion is then passed on to Player 3 who would say “YES I like to pat my head AND…” and then would do a new motion. Players are you ready to begin? [Do Activity 2]

The last Improv guideline puts everything together by adding the word WE. The guideline of YES AND WE means that we need to work together. This is true whether you’re an improv group trying to make something funny or if you are a UU church trying to save the world. Improv comedy is not a solo act like stand-up and neither is life. We all need each other–especially in the tough times. In UU churches we have committed ourselves–through the 5th principle–to act in conscience and within a democratic process and–through the 6th principle–to do so within a world community striving toward justice. That is the WE that YES AND WE is talking about. It is you and me saying YES we want a world of peace and justice AND we are willing to work for it and WE will do it together through love and hope. Similarly, an improv comedy group has to work together as a team of equals. They must help each other out to create a funny story. There is no leading role or superstar to support; the whole team either succeeds or fails together. It is a lesson the world has yet to learn.

Well, we can learn it right now by playing a little game called… you guessed it… YES AND WE. In this game, Player 1 is given a setting and then makes a statement about why all three of the players are in that setting. For example, after the players are told they are in a bowling alley, Player 1 might say “Here WE are in the bowling alley for the annual giant bowling ball world championship.” Notice the word WE in there? Next Player 2 would begin by saying “Yes and we…” and then that player would continue the story then pass it on to Player 3 who would then also say, “Yes and we…” and continue the story. I will need another three volunteers to raise their hands. [collect names and put them in order] I will also need a place or setting for them. Please raise your hand if you have a suggestion for a setting. [Take suggestion] OK, let’s begin. [Do activity 3]

If you have been counting, you may notice that I have not yet mentioned the 4th UU Principle which is: a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. That is because I think that a search for truth and meaning is the ultimate purpose of comedy. The difficult truths we encounter in life can often be difficult to see and accept. They can be surrounded by deceit or hidden by misdirection. Comedy has the ability to pull away the shiny veneer of falsehood to reveal the naked truth and it does it in a way that is entertaining. Some people, for example, have turned away from traditional news channels to find out what has been going on in the world and, instead, have turned to late-night comedians to point out the absurdity of the world. Many ancient cultures employed a jokester character among their heroes and gods, and courts often hired their own jesters. The role of all those people was the same: to strip away deceit and keep people honest. Those comedians then, as did the comedians of today, know that when people are laughing they are not fighting.

Improv is not just an interesting form of theater, improvisation is a necessary part of survival. By a show of hands, how many of you out there have had your life unfold exactly the way you expected it to. Very few have experienced this and when life throws something at you, it is better to learn to accept the offer and then make something useful out of it. To live life fully we need to say YES. To move forward in life we need to say YES AND and to move forward together in beloved community we need to say YES AND WE.

As you can see, I think learning the guidelines of improv comedy can teach us a lot about living in a community of people who seek truth and meaning together. Right now everything feels out of control and disjointed. There’s too much NO NOT ME. Instead, we need more YES AND WE. We need to be open to new possibilities, new stories, and new ways of being together. Through the guidelines of improv, we can learn to be more flexible and accepting of life. We can learn to work together for a greater future by recognizing the unique and individual strengths and gifts of each and every person and then bring them together and, finally, we can learn to do it all with a sense of joy and hope.

Through that which you hold to be sacred, may it be so.