Keith Johnstone Quotes & Sayings

Every time you go the way the audience expects, they'll think you're original. People laugh with pleasure at the obvious. — Keith Johnstone

Suppose Mozart had tried to be original? It would have been like a man at the North Pole trying to walk north, and this is true of all of the rest of us. Striving after originality takes you far away from your true self, and makes your work mediocre. — Keith Johnstone

Don't come on to be funny - come on to solve problems. — Keith Johnstone

Laughter is a whip that keeps us in line. It's horrible to be laughed at against your will. Either you suppress unwelcome laughter or you start controlling it. — Keith Johnstone

Enjoy things even when you're screwing up. — Keith Johnstone

...the teacher picked a flower and said: 'Look at the pretty flower, Betty.'

Betty, filled with spiritual radiance, said, 'All the flowers are beautiful.'

'Ah,' said the teacher, blocking her, 'but this flower is especially beautiful.'

Betty rolled on the ground screaming, and it took a while to calm her. Nobody seemed to notice that she was screaming 'Can't you see? Can't you see!'

In the gentlest possible way, this teacher had been very violent. She was insisting on categorising, and on selecting. — Keith Johnstone

The best laughs are on the recognition of truth. — Keith Johnstone

The improviser has to understand that his first skill lies in releasing his partner's imagination. — Keith Johnstone

Most people I meet are secretly convinced that they're a little crazier than the average person. People understand the energy necessary to maintain their own shields, but not the energy expended by other people. They understand that their own sanity is a performance, but when confronted by other people they confuse the person with the role. — Keith Johnstone

If you have a good idea, open your mouth and say something else. — Keith Johnstone

What a person is afraid to do, he does while possessed. — Keith Johnstone

I don't even think you should tell the audience you're improvising. It's like an apology in case it's bad : 'we're just making it up' If the improv isn't better than the rehearsed stuff, then you should just rehearse it. — Keith Johnstone

Good impro can make you laugh, we love it, but soon the content is forgotten. Good scenes from The Life Game stay with you always. They haunt you. — Keith Johnstone

Those who say yes are rewarded by the adventures they have. — Keith Johnstone

In a normal education everything is designed to suppress spontaneity, but I wanted to develop it. — Keith Johnstone

My feeling is that a good teacher can get results using any method, and that a bad teacher can wreck any method. — Keith Johnstone

The mime must first of all be aware of this boundless contact with things. There is no insulating layer of air between the man and the outside world. Any man who moves causes ripples in the ambient word in the same way a fish does when it moves in the water. — Keith Johnstone

Sanity is actually a pretence, a way we learn to behave. We keep this pretence up because we don't want to be rejected by other people - and being classified insane is to be shut out of the group in a very complete way.
Most people I meet are secretly convinced that they're a little crazier than the average person. People understand the energy necessary to maintain their own shields, but not the energy expended by other people. They understand that their own sanity is a performance, but when confronted by other people they confuse the person with the role.
Sanity has nothing directly to do with the way you think. Its a matter of presenting yourself as safe. — Keith Johnstone

As I grew up, everything started getting grey and dull. I could still remember the amazing intensity of the world I'd lived in as a child, but I thought the dulling of perception was an inevitable consequence of age - just as a lens of the eye is bound gradually to dim. I didn't understand that clarity is in the mind. — Keith Johnstone

If you believe you're good already, you don't need to do extra stuff to impress us. Your best work comes when you're absorbed; because then your ego is away. — Keith Johnstone

There are people who prefer to say 'yes' and there are people who prefer to say 'no'. Those who say 'yes' are rewarded by the adventures they have. Those who say 'no' are rewarded by the safety they attain. — Keith Johnstone

I think my brain is much more intelligent than I am ... so I tend to trust it. — Keith Johnstone

In a scene [where the improvisers must interact] without the letter S, the audience is waiting for you to lose - so they can laugh at you. Don't try to win. — Keith Johnstone

An artist who is inspired is being obvious. He's not making any decisions, he's not weighing one idea against another. He's accepting his first thoughts. — Keith Johnstone

If it weren't for fear, I wouldn't have to teach you a damn thing — Keith Johnstone

Many teachers think of children as immature adults. It might lead to better and more 'respectful' teaching, if we thought of adults as atrophied children. — Keith Johnstone

My feeling is that sanity is actually a pretence, a way we learn to behave. We keep this pretence up because we don't want to be rejected by other people - and being classified insane is to be shut out of the group in a very complete way. — Keith Johnstone

None of us really grow up. All we ever do is learn how to behave in public. — Keith Johnstone

Good improvisers seem telepathic; everything looks pre-arranged, This is because they accept all offers made - which is something no 'normal' person would do. — Keith Johnstone