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Friday, August 17, 2018

Rebels Onstage

I've been trying to make more time for podcasts lately (mostly to distract myself from the tedium of going to the gym) and I find myself drawn to the thinky ones, like Shankar Vendantam's Hidden Brain. (#radiocrush!) -- shows that dig into bits and pieces of our lives that we mostly don't think about.

The problem with listening while plodding away on the treadmill is not having pen and paper to write down cool things I hear -- so I'll be listening and think "Hey, that's cool! And it totally applies to improv!" And then later, I can't remember what the cool thing was, because my brain is turning into cheese.

Finally, though, I've kept a piece of information in my brain long enough to write about it! In the Rebel with a Cause episode, Hidden Brain looks at breaking the rules constructively, and how it can create positive change.

Hidden Brain: Rebel with a Cause

There's a lot of great stuff in this podcast about taking chances and making mistakes (which is definitely applicable to the world of improv!) but the bit I keep coming back to is about authenticity and vulnerability. The reporter says that rebels earn respect by showing their vulnerabilities -- and isn't that just what we do onstage as improvisors?

Take a listen to the podcast and tell me what you think. Any other improv lessons you take from the episode?