We're all just winging it: improvisation in jazz, comedy and life
Improv can show up where you least expect it
Improvisation — whether in jazz or comedy — may seem like a modern invention. But we also rely on the skill in our daily lives, from our commute to our relationships: it's been there for us.
Improv is also a thread that connects ancient bards to Beethoven and Mozart, and to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Which is to say it can show up when you least expect it.
As it did in August 1963, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered what is now known as his "I Have a Dream" speech.
It turns out, the speech didn't have the word 'dream' when King originally wrote it.
"The first seven paragraphs of the speech, the way it got finally transcribed and spoken were in the written speech," said Stephen Nachmanovitch, author of two books about the creative process, Free Play and The Art of Is.
"His very dear friend, the great Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, was sitting close by him. She had just sung and she said: 'Tell them about the dream, Martin. Tell them about the dream."
She just interrupted him, shouting out 'tell them about the dream," Nachmanovitch told IDEAS.
"You can see behind the podium where he picks up the pieces of paper that he was speaking from and he shifts them over to the left . And he starts speaking at the audience and he says: " I have a dream."
"He improvised the rest of that speech," said Nachmanovitch.
The author explains that improv relies on our personal connections to what we consume on a daily basis, whether it be reading, film or other influences.
"There are echoes in King's voice of Lincoln, of the Declaration of Independence, of authors that he read," Nachmanovitch said.
"These influences were so absorbed and taken into his personality that what comes out is a complete utterance by a complete human being who is depending upon his forbears and the past and the literature and everything that he's ever read and experienced."
Improv enters stage left
Nachmanovitch has devoted much of his career to answering a question posed by the legendary violinist, Yehudi Menuhin.
"He asked me: 'well, how do you play from nothing?'"
His answer starts in 8th Century BCE, with one of the most influential authors in history: Homer.
The ancient Greek poet lived in an era of illiteracy, but managed to memorize and recite epic poems that lasted for days on end.
Nachmanovitch says that this skill was shared by his counterparts in India, Tibet and West Africa.
"Griots in West Africa were skilled people at using rhythm, to line up syllables and to help propel the story, which is the story that the ancestors told," he said.
Homer used several different epithets for Hector in the Iliad, such as "man-slaying Hector" and "Hector of the flashing helmet." When the orators reached the end of a line, they'd drop in the epithet that had the exact number of syllables the line required.
In the world of classical music, Nachmanovitch says Beethoven, Bach and Mozart "were all extraordinary improvisers." For them, he continues, there was a "fluid hybridity" between improvising and composing.
That fluid hybridity is the creative lifeblood of The Second City, one of the best-known comedy improv theatres in the world. They develop their material by improvising, and then solidify those improvised ideas into scripted shows.
The success of Second City in the early 1960s launched an explosion of comic improvisation. Soon there were star improvisers — Mike Nichols and Elaine May to name two — and also star teachers, like Viola Spolin, Del Close and Charna Halpern.
Don't try to be funny
Canada also had its own star teacher: Keith Johnstone, renowned for being a pioneer in improvisation.
He fled England's constraining theatrical regulations in 1972 and brought his improvisational project to the University of Calgary, where he created Loose Moose Theatre and launched Theatresports, a comedy format that would become an international phenomenon.
Johnstone emphasized a few fundamental principles: listening, acceptance, presence, generosity and collaboration.
His advice to students may seem counter-intuitive: he told them to not do their best, but instead to be obvious.
"An artist who is inspired is being obvious. He's not making any decisions. He's not weighing one idea against another. He's accepting his first thoughts."
Following Johnstone's improv rules, many actors he directed also found guidelines for life — Veena Sood, for example, declares plainly that "he changed my life. If you're present in your world, you are absolutely listening. You're not involved in yourself anymore. And don't we all want to feel seen and heard?"
Making a point through improv
Well beyond the world of stage performance, improvisers now coach a range of clients on leadership and team-building based on the improv principles of listening, agreement and collaboration.
And in the broader public sphere, Ajay Heble who launched the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation at the University of Guelph believes that "improvisation has functioned as a powerful tool for social change."
He offers the example of Paul Robeson's 1952 concert at the Peace Arch in Blaine, Washington.
Robeson had been forbidden from entering Canada, so he stood on a flatbed truck one foot from the Canadian border and performed for 40,000 Canadians. He also changed the lyrics of Ol' Man River: instead of singing "git a little drunk, an' you land in jail," Robeson sang: "show a little grit, and you land in jail."
Heble calls this improvised change a moment of "resistant creative practice."
Whether they agree that improvisation can be a catalyst for social change, many improvisers believe it does offer a kind of model for action on a global scale.
"Our behaviour has gone wrong in things like climate change because many of us have not seen what's in front of us," said Nachmanovitch.
He explains that distractions like entertainment and tribalism can stop someone from being attentive to theirsurroundings, noticing a tree or fire hydrant in a city as props in our improvised life can be rewarding.
"Begin to see that you are part of a world, and that world is interconnected."
Download the IDEAS podcast to listen to this episode.
*This episode was produced by Peter Brown.
Guests in this episode:
Ajay Heble is director of the International Institute for Critical Studies and Improvisation at the University of Guelph. He's also co-author of several books on improvisation, including The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Cocreation, co-authored with Daniel Fischlin and George Lipsitz (Duke University Press).
Stephen Nachmanovitch is a musician and the author of Free Play and The Art of Is. His newest album is called Eclipse.
Dr. Selina Stewart is director of classics at the University of Alberta's Department of History, Classics and Religion. Her many publications include Argonauts in the Mist, Apollonius of Rhodes: A Discussion of a New Emendation, and Book 13 of Homer's Odyssey.
Jacob Banigan is a Canadian improviser currently performing with Teater im Bahnhof in Graz, Austria.
Neil Grahn is an improviser, playwright and television director. His recent plays The Comedy Company and The Two Battles of Francis Pegahmagabow were staged at Edmonton's Shadow Theater. His most recent TV series was Horse Warriors on APTN.
Keith Johnstone was a playwright, teacher, and the founder of Calgary's Loose Moose Theatre. He wrote two influential books about improvisation: 1979's Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, and 1998's Impro For Storytellers. After his death in March 2023, improvisers around the globe joined Loose Moose alumni online for a Festive Wake.
Oliver Jones is a Juno-award winning jazz pianist, inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2023.
Marjorie Malpass is founder and CEO of Nerve Strategic.
Mark Meer is an improviser and voice actor — he played Commander Shepard in Bioware's Mass Effect Trilogy among other video game roles.
Adam Meggido and the cast of Showstopper: The Improvised Musical perform regularly in the West End and throughout the UK.
Showstopper scenes in this documentary performed by Sean McCann, Ruth Bratt, Justin Brett, Pippa Evans, Susan Harrison, Ali James, Andrew Pugsley, Joy Tan, and Adam Meggido, with musicians Duncan Walsh Atkins, Craig Apps, Craig Ash, Jordan Clarke, Holly Mallett and Chloe Potter.
Patti Stiles is an improviser and teacher based in Melbourne, and the author of Improvise Freely: Throw Away the Rulebook and Unleash Your Creativity. https://www.pattistiles.com
Veena Sood is an improviser and actor, most recently seen in the CTV comedy Children Ruin Everything.
T.J. Jagodowski and David Pasquesi perform their acclaimed duo show TJ and Dave in Chicago and New York. They also wrote the book Improvisation at the Speed of Life and are the subjects of the documentary Trust Us, This is All Made Up.
