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|  | Author: Patricia Ryan Madson
Publisher: Harmony/Bell Tower
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $6.91
as of 3/16/2010 11:17 CDT details
You Save: $10.04 (59%)
New (33) Used (19) Collectible (1) from $5.93
Seller: cherrybooks
Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 24498
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 160
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 1400081882
Dewey Decimal Number: 158
EAN: 9781400081882
ASIN: 1400081882
Publication Date: May 3, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Ships same day
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 34
 Ready to read it again August 1, 2007
Steve Cohen (Elk Grove, CA USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I just finished reading Improv Wisdom this morning and was ready to start again. Patricia's ideas are immediately useful and applicable to everyday life. Writing this review is proof, as I'm not typically prone to do so.
Make up your part as you go along July 5, 2007
Karen Chung (Taipei, Taiwan)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book reminds me of another one I read and reviewed recently, Walter Mosley's This Year You Write Your Novel. Both emphasize the importance of just getting down to business, and relying on your subconscious to take over when you need it to.
Like the author, I am a big fan of Keith Johnstone's Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, and very much agree with his idea of not trying too hard to say something witty, funny or off the wall (which makes "Friends" such a silly and implausible program) - that only leads you away from the seemingly trivial routines, exchanges and dilemmas that are the stuff of our life, and that are therefore what we are most able to identify with and most interested in exploring.
I like how the author is careful to qualify her advice, e.g. when *not* to improvise, and how she keeps everything solidly grounded in reality without over-idealizing. Although you can't put into practice everything she suggests all the time, and you'll sometimes forget some of the principles and lose focus, you can use the chapter titles as handy reminders. "Paying attention" is a chapter I especially took to heart, since it is so easy to lose oneself in one's work and use it as an excuse for not attending to other important things, like remembering people's names. Madson's thoughts on "making mistakes" were refreshing and insightful - mistakes are our most persistent and individualized teachers, and we should treat them with due respect rather than just knee-jerk embarrassment or shame. "Saying yes" is a basic starting point with much life-improving potential; it's so easy to be safe and conventional - and never get anywhere interesting. This book contains grains of gold collected over decades of trial and error, careful thought, and successes, in both improvisational theater and everyday life. It is our own loss if we do not avail ourselves of the long years of prospecting and panning others have already done for us.
a teriffic little book, with applications to life July 3, 2007
Matthew Cornell (Amherst, MA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I love this book. There are so many great ideas that apply quite nicely to life. She's done a lot of thinking about being happy, and it shows. Highly recommended.
More at: Great time management ideas from the world of improv wisdom
http://ideamatt.blogspot.com/2006/07/great-time-management-ideas-from-world.html
A Remarkable Book! July 2, 2007
P. M. Bradshaw (Columbus, OH, USA)
Improv Wisdom is a remarkable book. Part self-help, part Zen guide book, Madson has come up with a theory and system to living life that is contrary to everything you might think is true, and dead on to everything you know is true.
Instead of utilizing the accepted techniques of planning and preparation, Madson tells readers to jump head first into situations. Using skills of improvisational theater that she's honed over the years teaching drama, she takes us down a path of living: living each moment, seeing every bit of it as it happens. Instead of fixating on flaws, we learn to delight in every tiny piece of every situation, both good and bad. Instead of obsessing over what might happen, she tells us to jump in and deal with things as they do happen.
Like a Zen master, she tells us to be completely present in life, each and every moment. She tells us that it's okay to feel insecure and overwhelmed. And that maybe trying to think out every possible scenario that can happen is the root and cause of our anxiety. Spontaneity does away with our feelings of beleaguerment and lets the goodness of each moment show itself. It allows us to live the meaningful lives we always thought we would live, before we allowed ourselves to be burdened by reality. She believes we should not plan every step to the future, but should live in and enjoy the "now."
Ms. Madson doesn't purport to have all the answers, just offers one alternative. She doesn't say it will solve all your problems or instantly make you happy, but at the very least, it may make the journey a little more interesting.
 A great idea with a trite implementation May 19, 2007
RL (Philly)
22 out of 28 found this review helpful
I love improv, and my short time learning and performing it has taught me much about how to live life adventurously.
I was expecting this book to have the following promising premise:
1) Here is a concept from improv.
2) Here is how this concept applies to creating great improv.
3) Here is how to apply this concept to your everyday life to make it more exciting/rewarding/entertaining/fulfilling.
Unfortunately, this book didn't have this premise. At least most of the book didn't. A couple chapters almost followed this format, and half of these chapters half worked.
Many of the chapters had no discernible or explained connection with improv at all. For example, one chapter covered saying "thank you" to people, but never explained what this has to do with improv. Many other chapters make long nonsensical segues into topics like meditation or Japanese tea parties.
My favorite lesson from the book is this: Saying yes is an act of courage and optimism. That is where the book started and, unfortunatly, it rapidly went downhill after that.
My advice:
1) Be suspicious of the abundance of five-star reviews. A number of them feel like 'astroturfing' to me.
2) Find a (free) local improv group/workshop that practices together every week. This is the best way to gain improv's wisdom.
Showing reviews 11-15 of 34
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