He Who Gives Information Is A Gift-Giver, He Who Ask Questions Is A Thief

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3 years ago

He who gives information is a gift-giver; he who asks questions is a thief.

Questions — asking other players for information — are an unnecessary evil for improvisers.

Instead of providing fellow actors with facts, questions place the burden of invention upon the other players. It's much better for an improviser to assume he knows the same information as the other actors, and use the opportunity to contribute his own share of information to the scene.

When a player asks a question, he usually has an answer in mind.

So, why ask the question in the first place? If he wants to bring a particular idea into the scene, phrasing it as a question is usually a bad move. After all, his fellow player may not have the same idea that he does, and he may get a completely different answer than he had hoped for.

When two actors in a workshop were portraying a homeless couple, the wife had the idea

to find a lottery ticket in the street. Unfortunately, her husband didn't know this, so when she pointed to the ground and said, "Look, what's that?", the husband replied, "Uh ... it's just a pile of shit." The woman was flustered. "No," she said, completely denying his on-the-spot assumption.

"It's a lottery ticket." Wrong! It was a pile of shit. It would have been a lottery ticket, if only she had said so in the first place!

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This make sense to me, that's how being 'straight forward' or being 'straight to point' must comes in. I've noticed a lot of people are like that, they're pretending not to know and ask about something, then if the one they've questioned answered wrongly they'll be mad and will tell what's on their mind. In the first place, they can address the main subject directly, without deviation.

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