Improv: Fabulous to the Nth Degree

I met some new people at a shindig the other night and, as often happens with new people, the conversation eventually turned towards improv. And by "eventually" I mean something like this:

"Hi, my name is Frank."
"Nice to meet you, Frank. I'm Sonnjea. Let's talk about improv, shall we?"

What? There's no subtlety in improv, peeps.

Anyway, these new people were very nice and quite interested in the concept of improv as a confidence-boosting, self-esteem-building activity for at-risk youth. They got so excited and started telling me how building trust and overcoming fears and learning to be in the moment and respond would help people feel more confident in relying on themselves and be more willing to put themselves out there for others.

I guess I don't really have a point to this post, except to say that I love it when people get that improv is so much more than just entertainment. If it was just entertainment, it would still be fabulous - never underestimate the power of the arts. But in improv's case, it's fabulous to the nth degree.

Just sayin'.

By Sonnjea Blackwell