I’ll admit it, I need to read more. I’m no slouch when it comes to book-learnin’ but I’ve been feeling pretty intellectually stunted these days. With everything that’s going on in my life recently, I haven’t taken enough time to really sit down and enjoy a good book.
Improvisors need to get out there and find new sources of inspiration beyond what they’ve seen on the stage. If everyone just copies what they’ve seen before then an improv community can become pretty stale. We need to keep going out and finding new topics to interest us. These subjects can be found on the internet (wikipedia!!) or in the news, but its good to go back to the source sometimes and explore a few great pieces of literature.
Audience members that recognize the source material will feel smarter for doing so and will love the performers for making them feel so brainy. Even this post was inspired by some improv book, although for the life of me I can’t remember which one it was. I need to get into bed and enjoy a nice read.
-mr