03. OPEN BOOK 🎨
how do you respond to making mistakes?
hey stranger,
in the summer of 2017, i volunteered at BATS improv in the city. i observed their classes for free in exchange for my help as a TA. It took almost two hours to get there — car → BART → bus → long walk, but it was so incredibly fun that i didn’t mind.
i learned so much in those classes — amazing games and exercises i still remember and use. but my biggest takeaway was the circus bow.
in one workshop, the instructor taught us a difficult partner game. whenever a partner messed up, which was constantly, they were told to perform a “circus bow”: raise your arms high in the air, smile, and say, “WOOHOO!”
feel free to try it right now — raise your hands in the air, put on a nutty smile, and shout “WOOHOO!”
(i hope you really did it! i wonder how it made you feel.)
the idea of the circus bow is that if you fall while doing your acrobatic circus routine, you want to fail with confidence rather than leave the stage sniffling and defeated. leaving the stage this way feels better for the audience, AND it feels better for you.
raising your arms and saying “WOOHOO” really loud reminds you that the stakes are low, that it’s not really that serious at all, and not that personal either.
the room was full of smiles and laughter that day in the improv workshop — people messing up and cackling. when you’re not afraid to mess up, maybe even excited for the experience of it, you can have so much more fun, and feel so much more free.
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i tell you this story today because i am not going to feel bad about not posting for two weeks! i get to go slow and mess up. i don’t want to be so regimented that i’m not feeling free and having fun. it’s really not that serious. 🎪
i barely drew this week besides some PROFESSIONAL drawing i’m doing lately! will send pictures of that when it’s all done. in the meantime, here are sketchbook pics from a recently archived watercolor journal:
talk soon,
laurel <3