Random Acts of Kindness Introductions
The Improv Game created by Nat
Tsolak
August, 2015
“Random act of kindness
A random act of kindness is a selfless act
performed by a person or people wishing either to assist or to cheer up an
individual person or people. The phrase may have been coined by Anne Herbert,
who says that she wrote "Practice random kindness and senseless acts of
beauty" on a place mat at a Sausalito restaurant in
1982 or 1983.[1][2] Either
spontaneous or planned, random acts of kindness are encouraged by various
communities.”
One of the perks of being a member
of the AIN (Applied Improv Network)
is meeting others around the world involved in using improvisation tools to
help people. Nat Tsolak from the UK
(London) has a background in both Psychology and business as well as comedy
improv. We have never met, but reading
his posts on Facebook I’m sure that we’d be great friends if our paths do
breach the big pond someday.
A few weeks ago I was intrigued by
an announcement that he had created a new game that he calls: “Random Acts of
Kindness.” His purpose, he states, in
coming up with the game was to find a way to build trust between strangers that
didn’t rely on true personal revelations.
And also to give new players a chance to practice making up improvised
stories.
So, the basic game, as I
understand it, is for a member of the group to introduce another member by
telling an improvised story which features their subject having done a “random
act of kindness.” The real value, as I
see it, is to speak about someone in a wholly positive light, raising his status
by sharing the little known fact. E.
g. “I’d like to introduce Jason. Very few people know that he always pays for
the guy behind him when he crosses a toll bridge or paid freeway.” “Meet Selena.
She collects water in a watering can in her shower and everyday waters
her neighbor’s flower garden. With the
California drought it has made a difference.”
The idea is to simply endow
someone as having done a kind and thoughtful deed that benefits others. There is no need for the story to be wildly
creative or fantastical. (Although it
can be.) The key thing is for us all to see that person (that character) in a
positive light. I think an added benefit
is that these ideas fill the room with warm pictures of human actions that help
others.
A development of the game is to
have the recipient agree to the story and add a detail from their perspective. To illustrate this (Jason above) might
add: “Yes, and one day a lady was so
charmed by my paying her toll that she rushed to catch up with me, jumped out
of the car at a stoplight where we were both stopped and gave me a rose!”
Clearly, this game (as is true for
most games) can be used for other purposes.
A lot depends upon what the early examples are. It’s certainly possible to use the prompt as
a way of coming up with the most elaborate and hysterical “act”, and thereby
turn the game into a comedy creation session.
For my money, striving to make the endowments into wildly silly actions
subverts the game. Then, participants
get the idea that we are trying to create “crazy stuff ” and may miss the point
of making their partner look good. When
I teach this I always remind them that simple, ordinary examples of a “random
act” are terrific. We aren’t trying to
outdo each other with cleverness. Our
purpose is to make up a story that tells of a positive action someone did. The person receiving the story about them should
feel great! Maybe that’s the measure of
the game.
I proposed that we could all play
this on Facebook. I can name a friend
and tell an imaginary story about them.
If they want to continue the game, the person storied can name someone
else and make up a new story.
What do you think?
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