Confidence and Trust

There's a lot to be said for trust as a performer. Getting to know your fellow players, feeling comfortable around them, trusting them to take care of you and support your ideas and vice versa. But it's not a necessity and at times can be a crutch. At a certain point, after a couple years of performing, you should have the confidence and skill to perform with anyone at anytime regardless of what they are doing.

Trusting a fellow improviser on a team or in a scene means you believe that they have ideas and they are making deliberate moves and that they are trying to do something fun. It does not mean that you will like those moves, it does not mean you will understand those moves, and it does not mean those moves will be made with utmost consideration to your feelings or what you want to do. At The Hague show yesterday some of the people were feeling bad after the show and the word trust was thrown around. I know everyone on the team, I like everyone on the team, and I trust everyone on the team. Trust everyone to show up and make moves and go with the flow. I don't expect people to know what I want to do or follow me in every move that I make, what I do expect is collaboration. I don't care if someone tags me out from a scene I just tagged into, I don't care if someone comes in shortly after I make a really thick initiation and diverts a scene someplace other than what I intended. Ultimately improv is a collaborative artform and were all here to impose our perspective on this nebulous thing that we are creating, most of the time its going to be chaotic, periodically it will be streamlined, but as long as we are equally taking part it's a success.

It's a matter of confidence both in oneself and in ones teammates. I've been performing for a while now and I'm comfortable enough to go in to most any situation and do what I do. I'm confident in my teammates to do the same. I'm not interested or concerned with being polite or worrying about how things are viewed or second guessing anything or judging anyone. What I am interested in is unconstricted collaboration.

It all boils down to fear. "I didn't do this" "I wanted to do this" "I'm not comfortable" "I was lost" what have you. There's a simple solution: make a move.