You Must Say "Yes!"

A little while ago, I was ushering for an Improv show at a local theatre and—per my instructions—stood in front of a door curtained off where the audience was not supposed to go.  The purpose of my standing there, as I understood it from my previous time ushering, was to keep the audience members from wandering backstage.

So as I stood there trying not to look completely stupid, the owner of the theatre happened to come along and mention that I did not really need to stand there, as the door really went nowhere.  It turns out, there was a bunch of junk behind the curtain now, so no audience members would go through it.

As I stood there, watching her walk away and feeling superfluous, my thoughts took a strange turn.  Rather than feel stupid, I decided to say yes to superfluity.  I would stand there in all my superfluousness and be the best superfluous-usher-standing-in-front-of-an-unusable-exit that I could be.  So I owned my superfluity.

That is what Improv teaches.  "Say, 'Yes!'" you are told.  Actually to say, "Yes, and...." but that is a topic for another day.

What a perspective it is to say yes to the most foolish things, eh?  Instead of feeling like a failure, or feeling guilty, or feeling like one ought not to belong to society or existence of any of those ridiculous negatives, one can own even the ridiculousness and superfluity.

I guess this is what people mean when they say snidely, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

In conclusion: say "Yes!"  And be superfluous if you cannot be useful.  A toast to superfluity!