To Advance, Go Slow

“There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.” Mohandas Gandhi

“Slow down, you move too fast.” "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)," Simon & Garfunkel

Many improv performers (and many writers, for that matter) have a tendency to want to “cut to the chase” in creating stories. That is, in their rush to tell “just the facts” of the story, they barrel past the details of characterization, description, and emotion that can give color and life to a story. Color-Advance is a workshop activity that can remind improv performers that creating a scene involves more than just “What happened?” and “Whodunit?”

In Color-Advance, a team member begins telling an impromptu story – e.g., “My brother and I heard a loud noise in the basement and went down the stairs to investigate.” At that point, another team member might call out “Color the stairs!” – at which point the teller must stop the narrative and begin describing details about the stairs (“they felt solid under my feet but for some reason they seemed to creak more than usual”). After a while, another team member might call out “Advance!”, a directive to the teller to resume describing the events of the story. Team members continue to alternate the “Color!” and “Advance!” commands until the teller completes the story.

I was reminded of Color-Advance while watching a tv news report on a project called Slow Down London, intended to “inspire Londoners to improve their lives by slowing down to do things well, rather than as fast as possible.” The report focused on the Big Slow Walk, in which scores of Londoners ambled at a snail’s pace across Waterloo Bridge at rush hour. As the project’s website described it, the walkers “enjoyed some of London’s loveliest river views in a relaxed and leisurely manner as stressed and anxious commuters rushed past oblivious to the joys to be had of slowing down.”

I can’t think of a better real-life application of an improv exercise than this. All that was missing was someone hanging from Big Ben with a super-megaphone calling out "Color London!"

How about your own approach to your daily routine – and to your entire life? Do you equate “advancing” only with going faster and farther? Or do you also view it as going deeper?