Yes, and is the primary rule of improv acting?

When you're doing improvisational comedy, there's no script, you're just on a stage with

other crazy people, and you are making up a plot and hopefully something funny as you

go along.

And any improv actor can tell you, one of the biggest rule is yes and meaning.

If one of your fellow actors up on stage says to you into the audience that some fictional

situation is going on, you agree that that is what is going on and you build on it.

So for example, if your fellow actor walks on stage and says, it's so crazy that we are

out here climbing a mountain, how boring and unfunny would it be if you say, no, we're

boating down a river and then you guys just get it in an argument about what you're doing.

That doesn't make for a very good play.

In order to have a really funny improv skit, all of the actors have to be building on the

fictional premise that the other actors are throwing out.

If there is a better metaphor for dealing with the craziness of life, I have not found

one.

I was thinking about this the other day that essentially the yes and mentality is responding

to curiosity, responding with curiosity when something comes up that you didn't expect,

whether it's good or whether it's bad.

If something arises that you didn't expect, rather than rejecting it, you accept that

it's there and then you do your best to build on it.

So you're on an improv stage, you say, ah, here we are.

And your fellow actor says, I just love it that we own a Haberdashary.

...