Improv for Perfectionism

Hate playfulness? Embrace perfectionism

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life” — Anne Lamott

Perfectionism will ruin your creativity. Given even the slightest amount of air to breathe, perfectionism will whip in and screw everything up. The only way to evade this poison is to develop a method to keep it at bay. Even better, concoct a potion to detox from perfectionism altogether.

Improv is the elixir, a tool to combat perfectionism. It cannot be perfect and does not care to be. If we wanted this improv show to be spotless, we would have written all of this down. We would have been meeting for hours a day for weeks and weeks, polishing and editing and agonizing. Rehearsing it to death.

If you despise an open mind on an open road then I encourage you to adopt a perfectionist mindset. Hopefully you don’t encounter a single traffic jam, pothole, or distracted driver.

There’s no room (or time!) for perfectionism in my improv classes. I don’t care to hold my students to impossible standards. My preference is to let moments unfold organically, with all parties involved keeping an open mind. Staying in the moment. Not clutching on to “what they thought was going to happen.”

This strategy serves us well in improv class because it locks in kind, open hearted communication that, with some practice, becomes funny. This strategy can serve you well on a sales call, first date, or any difficult conversation for the same reason.

Are you ready to detox from your own perfectionism? Take a (virtual!) improv comedy class with me.