Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up

Drama teacher turned self-help advisor Madson learned the hard way that playing by the rules doesn't always mean you win-despite doing all the right things, she was denied tenure in the job of her dreams. The acting teacher learned to jettison the script and improvise her life-and she ended up teaching at a much better university: Stanford. If you improvise, she says, you ""will make more mistakes"" but you'll also ""laugh more often, and have some adventures."" Here she offers 13 maxims to guide the fledgling improviser. ""Say yes"" with the ecstasy of Molly Bloom: it will open up new worlds. ""Don't prepare"": in focusing on the future, you might miss the present. ""Start anywhere"": take any entry into a problem, and once you get inside you'll have a better perspective. Madson offers little exercises drawn from improv acting that are easy and eye-opening, such as look at a familiar environment and notice something new in it. Or make a list of important places in your life, put down the book and just go to one of them. Madson's prose radiates the joy of living, the pleasure she has found in taking things as they come. Most self-help books offer a forced sense of inspiration; Madson is genuinely inspiring. ""Say yes"" to this book.