 Hello everybody, I'm really excited to be here today as this is not only my first Congress as a speaker But also as a visitor, so I'm really stunned by what I've seen in the last couple of days So I will talk about the art of failure taught by improv theater and Before do that. I will talk about theater in general First we heard a bit about my profession. I work as a youth theater leader So every day I have I meet young people from the age of five to 20 young adults and together we create a piece of theater and When you work with young people in the field of youth theater you borrow loads of methods of the improv theater and Improv theater gives you a very special mindset About how to view certain things in life and about how to handle mistakes But as I said first, what is theater? So theater is of course like this So it's loads of impressions loads of expressions loads of emotion. It's very dramatic This is also where the word dramatic come from drama theater But when you look behind the curtain theater is sometimes like this so you Come to rehearsal best prepared and you're full of energy and you want to give your best and Then are all the others in the rehearsal and you think like Why are they not here 100%? Where's their energy? Why didn't they learn the text and I'm not the only one here who wants to work seriously? What I can tell you is that the others in your theater group think the same and also about you So this is something in theater that Sometimes or most of the times is because of this so theater is loads about text and memorizing lines and I can talk about myself when I have acting jobs So it's quite easy to remember the lines at home when you're on your own and all alone and You know when to stop and then you know that another person will say something But you don't remember what the person would say so you don't know where to start again and then your partner thinks like he's not prepared like I'm waiting for you Where's your line? So? you're gonna have a bad time and Theater is about collaboration about cooperation about doing something together and this is very important and We will come back to that in a few minutes again But first the last picture because this is like the most important rule in theater Don't ever argue with the director directors are let's say very special kind of of people they have a certain idea of what it should look like on stage in their head and They want you to put that on the stage and of course you're not inside the head of the director So you cannot ever succeed So if the director says you have to stand there just stand there and don't say but here I think it will be better. Just don't do it, but This is a very strict image of theater and this is of course traditional theater. So and 20th century people came up with the idea of Improv theater and this cannot happen to you when you do improv theater So you cannot forget your lines because Improv theater is about doing something spontaneously create something great out of something that hasn't been there a few seconds ago and Improv theater is trained and not rehearsed So you call it an improv training and not an improv rehearsal Because you have some games that you get to know and then you train them with your partners and later You will present them on the stage and to give you a short example of Improv theater. I will play a video of an improv group and they will play a game called I am a tree and The game is called I am a tree because at the start a person enters the stage and says I am a tree and becomes the tree with the whole body and Then a second person enters the stage immediately after that So with the first thought here she has and says for example I am an apple becomes the apple and then a third person enters the stage with like I'm a warm So we have three apple warm and then the the tree person Chooses one other person and says I take it So for example says I take the warm and then the tree and the warm leave the stage And the apple is all alone on the stage and again repeat it I'm an apple and then some people in the improv group when they think of apple They don't think of the fruit but of the computer company So they say like I'm an iPhone and make them very thin and then a third person comes and says I'm a bad battery life And it's dying Thank you for that Okay, but now let's have a look on to the video For you it's completely unscripted theater created on the spot never to be seen again never seen before I Am a tree I'm a tree I'm a tire swing I'm a butterfly. I'm a branch. I'm a falling leaf. I'll take the falling leaf. I'm a branch I'm a banker I take the banker I'm an awkward silence I'm an awkward I'm a boyfriend I'm a raccoon I'll take the raccoon I'm a boyfriend I'm a girlfriend I'm an engagement ring on the floor I take the engagement ring I'm a girlfriend I'm a little extra poundage I'll take the tote bag I'm a little extra poundage I'm a NASCAR fan Threatist I take the NASCAR fan Threatist I'm a person with a mouth I take the aspirin I'm a person with a mouth I'm a person with an ear I'm a person with neither of those things I take the person with the ear I'm a person with neither of those things I have a giant bag of money I'm a burglar I take the bag of money I'm a burglar I'm an open window I'm a priceless antiquity I take the priceless entity. I'm an open window. I'm an escaping teen. I'm a curtain blowing in the wind. I take the curtain. I'm an escaping teen. I'm a tree. So we see the game ends when there's the tree again. So it shouldn't last for more than three minutes, as we've seen here. But why this all is a good example is because we've seen at some points that two or even more people wanted to enter the stage at the same time. But they managed that just one person did. And this is very important, as I said. The idea is about collaboration, about teamwork. So this is what you train in improv training. At this point of the talk, there will be a quote, so there it is. It's a quote from Keith Johnston. Keith Johnston is like the godfather of improv theater. He created the format of theater sports, which is when two improv theater groups come together and play some special kinds of games against each other, and then the audience decides which group did a better job, and then they win a very small prize. And he also invented most of the games that are played in today's improv scene. For example, this I'm a tree game. And he says, good improvisers seem telepathic. Everything looks prearranged. This is because they accept all offers made, which is something no normal person would do. So, and this is like the basic idea of improv theater. Take every chance you get. Take all offers made. And now we see another short video. This is a Google tech talk where Tina Fey was invited by Eric Schmidt, who was at that time the CEO of Google, now is the CEO of Alphabet. You know the stories. And he talks with Tina Fey. She's a very famous American actress, writer, director and comedian, I'm sure most of you know her. And she explains in a very good way the basic rules of improv. So, let's have a look. It has a lot of lessons in it. So, for example, stop. I've got a gun. The gun? The gun I gave you for our wedding anniversary, Eric. How could you? We're not married. Aha. We're not married. We're just in denial. We've learned our first improv lesson. Very hard. It takes a long time to learn. This is the problem with an engineer trying to learn. It takes a long time to learn those basic rules of improv. So, why don't you take us through them and they're in the book? Sure. They're in the book because I was an improviser at Second City and it's a place called the Improv Olympic in Chicago. And I talk in the book about improv having really kind of changed my professional life and even sort of my world view a little bit. There are some basic rules of improvisation. When you're creating something out of nothing, the first rule is to agree, which is to say yes, which we did do that successfully. You said, freeze, I have a gun. And I didn't say, that's not a gun, that's your finger. Which is what a Google person would say. Yeah. No, I don't know. And so, we agreed. And the next rule is yes and, which is to add on to what you've already agreed upon. So, the gun I gave you for our wedding anniversary. How could you? And then we hit a brick wall. But it's very, you know, it's funny because it's very, some very famous comedians have, there's an old story about Joan Rivers was at the Second City briefly in 1959, 1960. And they use this in class at Second City all the time that there was someone came in, you know, said, I want to divorce was the beginning of the scene. She said, I want to divorce. And whoever was with her on stage said, but what about the children? And she said, we don't have any children. Which in the moment got a big laugh. But stops. But it's killed the scene. And so that's, it's a very. So my response would be. Human instinct. Yes, we have children. I just didn't tell you. That's why we're getting divorced. Yes. I have some other children. Yes. This is exactly what, yeah. So at least Eric Schmidt learns very fast. Okay. Let's have a look onto the four rules. She said, so the first one is to agree to say yes. So when I say, for example, look what I've got here. It's the brand new iPhone seven. It has an astonishing battery life. It finally lasts for a whole day. Then please don't say that's never possible. That must be a Samsung Galaxy. So don't say that. Just say. Oh, cool. And then add something. So this is the second rule. Not only say yes, say yes and so for example. Oh, cool. But I see you had to buy now this fancy Apple leather backpack to carry it with you because now it's four times thicker than before. And it just costs. What did you say? A thousand euros? Yes. Now I can spend 2000 euros from a phone. Isn't this amazing? So something like this. So the third rule is make statements. So give something to play with. Don't say, look what I've got here. Then this person can just say, wow. What is it? Make statements. And number four is there are no mistakes on the opportunities, which brings us back to the topic of this talk. So when I say, look what I've got here, brand new iPhone seven, astonishing battery life. Don't say, no, that must be a Samsung Galaxy, as I just said, but the person did. So what to do now? Then you can help. Like you see there was a mistake. Take it as an opportunity and say, oh, you're really good now in copying Apple's design. They even put an Apple in the backside. Something like this. So these are the four rules of improv by Tina Fey. And the last one, there are no mistakes on the opportunities. So what does that say to us? Has it something to do with this very infamous quote? It's not a back. It's a feature. Well, let's see. Important thing is to take every chance you get. This is important. So when you play improv theater with another person, then really take every chance you get. So I give the person loads of stuff like the iPhone seven. It's brand new, astonishing battery life and so on. So this person has many choices to play with now. Second, if something goes wrong, try to make the best out of it without pretend that it didn't happen at all. So everybody would figure out that he did a mistake when he said, no, this must be a Samsung Galaxy. I mean, yeah, nice iPhone. So this is, yeah, it's bad. He wanted to pretend that it didn't happen. So when we look onto it's not a back, it's a feature. We could rather say like, yeah, it's a back and we even implemented 10 bucks and the person who finds all 10 of them gets a very fancy price. So something like this would be out of the mindset of improv theater. And the last one, most of the times there's somebody to support you. I say most of the times in improv theater, always there's somebody to support you in life. Yeah, we know there's a situation where there isn't somebody to support you, but when you have a closer look in many situations, there would be somebody. So in improv theater, that means like when I say no, this is a Samsung Galaxy and then this person stays like, what to do now? Then a third person could enter the stage of the improv group and says like, I'm a very fancy patent lawyer. I know all the stuff about Samsung and Apple, so let me have a look. So then it would be three people and at that time the other two could think about it. Now we have a look onto Del Close's 11 Commandments. So he has not four rows, but 11. Del Close was a very famous and very popular coach on improv for actors and for for comedians. And he had this 11 Commandments. So let us have a look onto number one. You are all supporting actors. Again, theater is about collaboration. It's teamwork based. So when you work in a team, don't try to be the best in the team because then you're not a team. Then you're against each other. So when you work in a team, do it as a team. You're all supporting actors. This is number one. Number two, always check your impulses. So when you want to take every chance you get, you have to look out for them. So where could be a chance to get? Be aware all the time. Number three, never enter a scene unless you need it. This is very important, especially for example for me when I work with young people every day. So, of course there will be some situations where we think, yeah, the young people won't manage to do it. I have to step in now and help them. But most of the times that's not necessary. And as we heard at Jugendhack today, like of course they do mistakes, but they learn something off their mistakes. So really just enter the scene when you're needed. And not a few seconds before. And this is very hard to manage and you have to train that also because when you are doing improv theater you always want to be on the stage, of course. So be sure just enter the stage when you're needed. Number four, save your fellow actors. Don't worry about the piece. This is also important. When you work in a team and somebody needs help or struggles a bit around like this, no, this must be Samsung Galaxy, then don't think like, oh, you have ruined the scene. What can we do now? Just do something to help your partner and then the piece will be good again. Number five, your prime responsibility is to support. As we just heard, so you work in a team. So don't play against each other, play together, support each other and then the outcome will be much more nicer. Number six, work at the top of your brains at all times. This is the important thing. Act out your first thought. So when we look back on to this I am a tree thing, like the person, the first end of the stage, I am a tree and then the other things like, okay, tree, this could be in a forest, this could be in a garden. Oh, it's Christmas at the moment so I could do something about Christmas trees. The audience don't get your thoughts, they just see what you do. So in real, nothing would happen in these 10 seconds where the person thinks. So when your first thought is tree, forest and do something in the forest and don't think too much about it. Number seven, never underestimate or condense to your audience. So when you have an idea, just do it. You can think later when the piece is over, did the audience get what I wanted to tell them? Of course, at least one person will get what you want to show and most of the times everybody got it. Number eight, no jokes, unless it's tipped in front that it is a joke. So if you want to be funny, it's always good not to try to be funny. So the most funniest situations on the stage come out when you don't prepare a joke and want to do something, just act in the moment and then the most funniest situations will come up and of course when you enter the stage, do you want to hear a joke and the person says, yes, then don't say, no, I'm not allowed to tell you a damn joke but then continue the scene. Number nine, trust is very important. Trust your fellow actress to support you. Trust them to come through if you lay something heavy on them and trust yourself is also important. To be able to trust my partners, I have to trust myself at the very beginning. Then we can trust each other as a group and we can rely on each other. Teamwork, when we do something as a team, everybody in the team has to be sure that what will come out will come out in a very good way because we are a very good team and this is why we are a team. Because we help each other, we support each other. Number 10, avoid judging what is going down. This is very important. Don't be on the stage and think all the time, no, he broke one of these rules. This is very bad. Just do something because when you start looking for mistakes, you will find them. And this is something I'm sure everybody of you have seen that in your own life. When you start to look for mistakes, you will find them. So an improv theater, this is the rule. Don't look for mistakes, then you won't find any because every mistake is an opportunity. Don't look for mistakes, look for opportunities. And the last commandment is listen. So again, when you work in a team, you have to listen to each other. It's like spot every chance you get. Listen to each other. When I do something, the other have to know about that. Which brings us to a second quote. Again, one of Keith Johnston's quotes. There are people who prefer to say yes. And there are people who prefer to say no. Those who say yes are rewarded by the adventures they have. Those who say no are rewarded by the safety they attain. And this brings us to the motto of this congress, gated communities. You can stay in your community. And maybe, or for sure, this is very comfortable and nothing will happen to you and you're protected in your community. But you will miss so many things that are out there when you step out of your community. So say yes. And then you get new adventures. So this is what I want to end with because this is also the motto of this congress. Break the borders, break the rules. Stay hungry. Thank you very much. Okay. Thanks very much for the talk. So if you have any questions, please line up at the microphones and we will get your answers to that. No questions from the internet. Oh, there's a question over there at mic number seven. Do you practice your talk or do you improvise? Very good question. I'm sure you heard it. I'm not a native English speaker. So I said at the beginning when we had a quick chat before like when I would have done the talk in German I would have improvised. As it is in English, I improvised it once. Tried to remember it. This was three days ago at home and then yesterday and today I repeated it again. So like again, another rehearsal. I didn't have notes or anything. I just tried to repeat it and to train it. Yeah, kind of. Okay, mic number two. I once had an improv course and I definitely want to do it again especially after seeing your talk. So thanks for the opportunity. What I wondered about, I had another friend at another conference or so and he also did improv theater and then during the conference we actually just played with each other a bit. Do you know about these real life, you know there's the improv theater thing where you just are in some room and you meet for the games and all the stuff but the interaction like in reality like even up to a game where you go like okay let's go to the hotel and try to get a booked room or something, you know. Yeah, this is more like a training for improv. It's like not a show. So this is a very good training of course. Let's try something out in the real world. So this is called the hidden theater. And this could be improvised because you don't know what will happen when you be in a public space what will the other people say when you don't tell them that it's theater. So of course you have to train improv for that but this genre is called hidden theater. But it's also part of the improv theme basically. Yeah, you can train improv by doing it. Okay, thanks. Okay, next question from mic number one please. I don't know anything about improv until now but I'm very excited about that I am a tree game and we're going to play it later. Can you also recommend maybe another improv game for noobs? Yeah, I can definitely send you some written down so we can meet afterwards. I also wrote into the talk description that there will be a workshop. This was very optimistic because I wanted to do the talk first and then want to know who would be interested in a workshop. So if you find me after this talk and we're more than three people to say we can do something together tomorrow. More than three but not more than 20 please. Okay, so thanks very much for attending the talk. Thanks very much for giving the talk. If you have any more questions to Gregor, please find him in the foyer in front of the halls too. Thanks.