It’s a Monster Baby birthday: time to consider some improv wisdom! On the 4thanniversary of Monster Baby’s first episode, Lisa and Ted celebrate by going through a recent blog post from their mentor, Patricia Ryan Madson. They start with the obligatory COVID check-in—we are going through a world-changing pandemic after all (2:10). Lisa makes reference [more…]
Monster Baby #72 Waking Up to the Gifts
What gifts do mindfulness and improv bring to your season of light? It’s the season of giving and Ted and Lisa are musing on the life-shifting gifts of their shared practice. They start the episode with an invitation for responses and then take a few moments for a warm-up game of “Three Things.” (4:11) The pair introduces [more…]
Monster Baby #25 Be Average
In Episode #25, Ted and Lisa dive into the paradoxical wisdom in the Improv maxim “Be Average.” They start with a chat about the San Francisco production of Hamilton and time they each spent with Moms (1:53) before introducing the subject of the day (6:48). They explore the value of just mucking about and the need [more…]
Monster Baby #16: A Conversation with Patricia Ryan Madson (Part 2)
Lisa and Ted continue their conversation with teacher and mentor, Patricia Ryan Madson, drama teacher and author of the acclaimed Improv Wisdom. In this segment, Patricia explained how she first learned to say “Yes, and” from impro master Ketih Johnstone (1:09) and how one can approach improv games from multiple angles (5:06). The three [more…]
Monster Baby #15: A Conversation with Patricia Ryan Madson (Part 1)
Lisa and Ted welcome their teacher and mentor, Patricia Ryan Madson, drama teacher and author of the acclaimed Improv Wisdom, for a two-part Monster Baby conversation. They explore how mindfulness and improv first joined together in Patricia’s work (3:21) and how the Stanford Improvisors first came into being, both as a learning/performance group and [more…]
Improv Wisdom Musings, Vol. 1: Let Yourself Be Changed
This post marks the first in a series of three-person explorations into the life wisdom found through improvisational theatre. Three experienced teachers–Patricia Ryan Madson, founder of the Stanford Improvisors (SImps) and author of Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up; Lisa Rowland, improvisor extraordinaire and San Francisco 2012 Actor of the Year; and Ted DesMaisons, learning consultant and curator of this [more…]
