So what's the point of all the exercises?

A student of improv may well ask, what is the point of all the exercises that we do in class? People sometimes assume that the point is to develop certain skills. Develop presence or quickness, for instance.

The truth is that learning improv is really not a matter of learning skills and then honing them. Philosophically, it is not an additive process. It is not as if you come in with skills A and B and then in class you learn skills C and D. If that were the case you could read a book on improv and learn all there is to it.

Learning improv is actually a subtractive art. You are put thorough a carefully, even cunningly, modulated set of exercises that subtract, one step at a time, things that interfere with your perfect and continuous connection with the pulse. One set of execises may work on removing your inhibitions, the next on your resistance, the third on freeing your body to express itself more freely, the fourth on liberating your voice.

You were all born perfect improvisers. We are simply attempting to return to that perfect state.

May the pulse be with you,

Abhay

Image: Radica 20Q Artificial Intelligence Toy