Gifts

Left Handed

Right handed

As I have mentioned many times before, through improv I have learned many valuable lessons.  If I had to choose the one that made the most impact on me as an improviser, artist and human being its that a mistake is a gift.  If you respect mistakes they will give back to you perspectives and ideas you would have never thought of on your own.  When starting out in improv it is easy to feel self consious, and you have an overwhelming desire not to embarass yourself.  When inevitably you do say something completly silly that has nothing to do with anything by accident (only pickles can stop that meteor!)  there are two ways in which to react.  1) Pretend it never happened and try to get on with the scene in the direction is was going before your mistake, or 2) Justify the heck out of it and act like you knew all along where this was leading you.  The latter will endear you to audiences and build credibility and respect, while the former will seem like a cop out and produce an unmemorable perormance.  Mistakes are gifts.  They make our lives more interesting and more rich.  If I am drawing and I accidently draw a leg shorter than the other, than why not use that and exaggerate it so it becomes a memorable drawing and not just the same old stuff?  

Not only are mistakes gifts, but allowing yourself to make a mistake is another gift in itself.  It is the shortest route to discovery.

On another note, a super talented illustrator names Isaac Orloff is giving away free art from his website. Colour me excited!!

Right handed