Anyone who knows me knows I am infatuated with Jimmy Carrane. I ardently recommend his podcast to anyone who will listen and just about lost it when I learned he was visiting us here. I can say with only mild shame that I was starstruck when I met him. Fortunately, that was quick to pass when the workshops began as there was notime to reflect, we had improv to get to

Now that a few weeks have passed since the workshops completed, I wanted to relate my thoughts on his visit and some of the discoveries I’ve made with his help. Jimmy’s teaching focuses heavily on being real. We’ve all heard and repeated “Get out of your head!” ad nausem but Jimmy actively forces improvisers to escape the confines of their mind and to be in the scenes. This left virtually no time for notes, so to help reflect, I’ve selected some quotes from my latest reading of his excellent book Improvising Better: A Guide for the Working Improviser and used those as jumping off points.

To begin, we must escape the explicit thought process and stop trying to control. [Read more…]