There Are No Mistakes, Only Gifts.

I am an improvisor. My day job is teaching improvisational theater to adults and children at The Second City in Chicago, Il. But at night, I perform improv and sketch comedy wherever I can. That's pertinent to this essay because in improv, we have a saying; "There are no mistakes. There are only gifts and opportunities.” I like to shorten it to “there are no mistakes, only gifts.” And recently I had that tattooed on my back. Seriously. Why? Am I hard core? Yes. But also because it has ceased to be simply a phrase and has transformed into what only can be described as a lifestyle choice. “How so?”, you ask. Good question. Let me explain.

In improvisational theater, oftentimes abbreviated improv, we have some guidelines that help us create theater on the spot without using a script or anything preplanned. One of those guidelines is reckless agreement, encapsulated in the phrase “yes, and”. (Yeah, we have a lot of phrases.) Yes, and means I'm agreeing with you and I'm building off your statement with some more information of my own. That sounds simple enough, but what if you feel your scene partner has made a mistake and isn't really correct in what they've just said or done? Then it would be hard to agree with them, wouldn't it? Well, not so fast there. What happens if you decide that there are no mistakes? What if you decide that anything and everything your scene partner says is purposeful? Even further, not just purposeful, but wonderful and correct and absolutely perfect for this moment? Then you can “yes and” whatever!

It's through this interpretation of “there are no mistakes, only gifts” that improvisors can create a myriad of scenes and scenarios from seemingly nowhere. Instead of that mispronounced word being a mistake, it's how that word is pronounced in this world. Instead of that fact being wrong, it's a fact in this world. Instead of that stutter being a mistake, it's how we all talk in this world. I could go on, but you get it. We often feel the need to correct each other while we're traipsing around our day to day lives in the “real world”, but on an improv stage, correcting each other can lead to lots missed opportunities. I've seen and been apart of countless shows where the mistake that is embraced as a gift turns into the central, most important element of a show or scene. And often times, the most hilarious aspect as well. And the culmination of those choices creates an energy and feeling that I can only describe as bad ass. (Sure, there may be other ways of describing it, but that's my way.)

But how does this become a lifestyle choice, you ask. Thanks for keeping me on track. I only have 1000 words here after all. As I alluded to in the last paragraph, we all live in a world where mistakes are something looked down upon. Where the pressure to be right all the time can be overwhelming at times. Think of your job. If you're lucky, you have a job where your employer or client or cubicle buddy allows you to take risks and to learn from your failures. Far too many of us are unlucky though and have an employment situation where we have to be right all the time. Any errors on our part are met with judgment and punishment. (Of course, there are professions where mistakes cost people their lives and I'm not necessarily speaking about those professions here. Not necessarily...) I'm sure we've all seen the posters or crocheted pillows that espouse the benefit of failure as a learning technique. But how many of us really embrace that idea and not just the pillow? Besides, what is failure but a mistake? And if you look at your failures as learning experiences, indeed the gift of experience, than there can truly be no mistakes. It's when we look at failures, and therefore mistakes, as a bad thing, with no value at all, as something to be avoided at all costs, that we close ourselves off to innovation and evolution. Silly puddy was a mistake! Penicillin was a mistake! I mean, think about it! The first upright walking hominids were a mistake to the rest of the hominids! And where would human kind be if we didn't learn from that “mistake”?

Now, I know what you're saying. “Micah, I can't see every mistake as a gift. It just wouldn't work.” But, I counter, why not? If we can accept the inspirational pillows that tell us failure is the best teacher, then we can embrace all those mistakes as the gifts they are, and we can begin to learn from our experiences. There are so many cliché phrases that tell us this simple truth already. “A door closes and another opens.” “You miss 100% of the swings you don't take.” And so on. It's something people have been trying to get us all to believe for sometime. I discovered this truth through improvisational theatre, and perhaps you'll discover it through this essay (I'm that pretentious...). Simply put, if we don't learn from our experiences, from our mistakes, we are destined to repeat them. And why do we want to repeat mistakes? Weren't they hard enough the first time around?

TL;DR: there are no mistakes. only gifts.

Micah Philbrook

Faculty, The Second City Training Center, Chicago

micahphilbrook.com

Originally submitted to extra-mural Nov 2014

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