‘Yes And’ Does NOT Make Great Scenes! What does?

‘Yes And’ Does NOT Make Great Improv Scenes

What?! Is this improv blasphemy? Everyone says ‘Yes and’ is so important to improv.

Spoiler alert, it is. But here’s the key: ‘yes and’ by itself does NOT make great scenes.

‘Yes and’ puts you in a place where can make great scenes. But the yes and is only the basic and first tool to get you there.

(If you’re new to ‘Yes And’ check out our course “Yes And Yourself” which will teach you everything you need to know, and give you 3 hours of Play-Along video support to practice it with others OR by yourself!)

“Yes And” is Like Grammar

Look at it this way. ‘Yes and’ is like learning grammar when learning a language. Grammar and ‘yes and’ are the basics of how to create bigger and better things. Grammar gives us the basics of how to put words together so we can communicate.

‘Yes and’ gives us the basics of how to create improvised scenes and stories together.

‘Yes And’ is like Grammar, necessary, but boring. It’s what you do with the grammar that can elevate communication and can really put some zing into your scenes.

‘Yes and’ is like Grammar, necessary, but boring. It’s what you do with the grammar that can elevate communication and can really put some zing into your scenes.

Shakespeare used Grammar to write his plays, but the grammar was not what made his plays great. Think of your favorite song. The lyrics are full of grammar, but the grammar is not what connects to you emotionally.

There are a lot of things that can help us get to great scenes… and they’re all made possible by ‘yes and’. ‘Yes and’ gives us the basics. It’s up to us to take our scenes beyond the basics.

What DOES make great scenes?

Great storytelling makes great scenes

In a book or a screenplay, a writer can stack all the elements to tell a good story. But in improv, we don’t have a single writer… and we don’t even have a plan. “Yes and’ solves that problem for us. It puts us all on the same page, but that doesn’t make it great.

But HOW do you tell great stories in improv scenes?

Here are a few of the things we teach in “Become an Improv Wizard” to make your scenes great:

• Use Emotions
• Advance and Expand
• Spacework
• Suspense
• Characters
• Strong Character wants
• Strong Character Point of view
• Fan the Flames
• Start your scene on the right foot
• Make Something Important

While we cover several of these in our online improv course Become an Improv Wizard, I’m going to give you one of my favorite ways to elevate your scenes:

Make Things Important

Sounds simple, right? Or does it?

Read about how to Make Things Important in our next article!

"Become an Improv Wizard" is a PROVEN STEP-BY-STEP ONLINE IMPROV COURSE to Build CONFIDENCE, UNLEASH CREATIVITY, and BECOME FEARLESS through Improvisation

Lincoln Hoppe is an actor, writer, director, and father of 5. He is the the Co-Founder of Improv Wizards training school and Online Courses and Co-Director of the Society Comedy Troupe.