<aside> đź’ˇ Please note this post is part of the Seven habits of highly effective improvisers series. Click here for an overview.
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Yes and has a consent problem.
The theory behind it is great. Say YES to your scene partner’s offer AND then add something of your own (I’ve covered some of this in #24 Listen).
BUT by teaching beginner improvisers to say yes to things, we’re sometimes teaching them to put yes before their own safety or comfort. Yes and does not mean necessarily saying yes when another improviser says
You love giving me kisses, don’t you?
The yes in yes and just means accepting the reality of the conversation. So sure, there’s a guy (pretty much always a guy) in front of you who’s asking for a kiss. That’s happening. But what you do about that is up to you. You can say anything you want.
For the last time, Peter, we haven’t kissed since we broke up 6 months ago.
That’s not denying the reality of the situation, that’s adding more detail.
So instead of Yes and - I’ve started teaching Accept & Build. It means the same thing but it takes away the ambiguity.
Listen to your scene partner’s initiation with a gloriously blank mind. Be inspired by what they have said, accept it as the truth and build on it by thinking if this is true, what else is true?
Accept & build challenges us to find the interesting thing in the scene organically. To offer something of ourselves and then wait to see how that inspires our scene partner. It’s anathema to starting a scene with a premise already worked out and leading the other player by the nose to a foregone conclusion.
It’s undoubtedly a scarier prospect, you won’t get as consistently satisfying scenes either, at least in the beginning, but I firmly believe it’s a practice that builds better improvisers in the long run.
Remember - the scene is in your partner, build on their foundation.
It’s all you need.
I know (particularly this one)