I wrote the last entry before lunch. After lunch I came back to find that Johnnie Moore’s blog had been picked up by Wayne, writing the ideafestival blog. He comments on John’s comments on my comments (does this make you feel there is a bit of accepting going on?). My comment (on his comment on John’s comment on my comment) is that joy is indeed a part of strategy. What I mean is that if you can create the conditions where people are experiencing joy in their relationships with each other, i.e. enJOYing themselves, the chances that they will be much more effective. Or as I put it in the book (page 230):

Uncertainty, not control, opens the door to surprise, discovery and delight. The fresh thought, the new insight, the unlooked-for ca-
ress—all require some measure of doubt, ambiguity or unpredictability.

It is fantastic to see the response to the book spiral out of control. Yesterday I got an e mail from a friend of an ex-girlfriend who I only met once, about twenty five years ago who said:  ”I’ve become an actor since we met, and having had years off for raising kids, am now working again and remembering what it is to have theatre in ones life. And I wanted to say that I find EXACTLY that my life as a mother, publicist, wife, everything, is immeasurably enhanced by the everyday practice of impro techniques.”  

I got a request from someone I have never met asking for more podcasts (an offer I will try and accept this afternoon) and both Johnnie Moore and Mark Earls have started blogging about it. The fact that I can’t determine any of this is exactly the point. I wonder what might come next?

I would love to claim that the four different covers of the book were a great idea that we hatched through our own brilliance. In fact, they came about in a typical ‘Everything’s an Offer’ kind of way. Gary had produced four different color designs and we were having trouble choosing. A decision had to be made and in frustration I blurted out “why do we have to choose just one?”. Gary mentioned my response to Brad, who asked, “has anyone asked the printer if we have to choose only one?”. We hadn’t, so Gary called him and discovered that it cost very little more to have extra colors, so we didn’t have to choose at all. The nice thing about this is that as well as looking cool, they generate conversation - we can offer people the color they like, or play games in workshops with them and so on, and all because we asked an obvious question.

A friend of mine recently lost four front teeth.   Two came out, two broke in half.   She ran up a rock by a stream and slipped, landing on her face.   I heard about it from her partner and when I saw her next, rather than dwell on how gruesome it had been she had an interesting response. 

“It took me a little while to get beyond the vanity thing, and then I started to wonder what it meant for me as the mother of a toddler, that I could be so impetuous.  I remember, even as I was running, thinking that maybe I should have checked to see if the rock was wet first.   I am a little wiser as a result perhaps, so I got something from it after all, and indirectly, my daughter will too, though she will never know.”

I thought this was a wonderful example of seeing ‘everything as an offer’.  She was able to laugh at her own vanity (and she is a very beautiful woman) and get beyond it to something more interesting and useful.   I am sure she would rather not have broken four teeth but given that she did, she found a way to use the fact.   And it is noteworthy that in this case, the result of the practise is to make someone more prudent, not more spontaneous.   

Dr. Robertson

Michelle

Amy Veltman

Julie Huffaker

Rebecca Armstrong

Sarah Seeland

Sheila or beloved indexer!

He can Write AND read

Here are a few of the lovely people that joined us for the world wide launch of Everything’s An Offer @ McMenamin’s Kennedy School in Portland Oregon.

To celebrate the launch of the book, we had dinner at Beast, a cool Portland restaurant where Naomi Pomeroy does a lot of improvisation in the preparation of her exquisite food, to make the most of what is fresh and available.  We gave her a book.  It seemed appropriate.

On a rainy Halloween day in Portland Oregon, a large truck, that started it’s journey in Mattoon Illinois, unloads four pallets of books.

The thing about practice is that you have to keep doing it.  You can’t just try something once and put your feet up.  I am constantly grappling with how to apply the ideas explained in the book in my own life and work and I will use this space to share stories of how that has worked well, or not so well, for me.  I will also explore share stories or examples of how the ideas discussed in the book might play out in the wider world.