Hello.

In a break from our regular programming, this week I’m going to talk about getting locked out of our Airbnb.

So last night, Katy Schutte and I arrived home from a lovely trip to The Forks in Winnipeg ready to have a well-earned early night to prepare for the start of the Winnipeg Improv Festival today.

And then our key lock box wouldn’t open.

It wouldn’t open for AN HOUR AND A HALF.

Actually technically it still isn’t open - it resisted everything we threw at it - we used our finger nails to force the latch open, we hit it with a stick, we jiggled it, we hurled abuse at its uncaring facade, we kneeled before it - trying evermore subtle graduations of the combination lock, moving the dials in infinitesimal progressions to coax it into openness.

Nothing.

Eventually, we had to get the host out with a spare set of keys.

At the time of writing, the lock box remains … well, locked.

It makes me think of being in an improv scene which just isn’t working.

Is this improv scene working?

Here’s a tip - if you’re in your head enough to be considering that question during a show - bad news for you - the answer is almost certainly no!

And so you try and fix it. You bust out that character that got a laugh last week. You step out of the scene and comment on it. You create conflict and make pop culture references and try a bit of fun word play.

Nothing fixes the problem. It gets worse. And you’re still stood out in the cold.

Only when you let go of the problem as you perceive it can the scene move on.

Don’t open the lock box. Find another key instead.

And for me that means letting another improviser come in and give you a new direction, or even edit the scene completely. It means giving up control that you have to be the person to save it. That’s the secret that unlocks a stuck scene - once you’re standing there metaphorically hitting it with a tree branch, it’s too late.

Someone with an outside perspective is going to find it much easier to know what a scene needs.

That’s why improv is a collaborative art form.

Don’t wait on the porch all night, let someone else open the door and then your job is to walk through it and find out what’s next.