"'What kind of man are you?' he asked. 'I am a clown,' I said, 'and I collect moments.'"
—from The Clown by Heinrich Böll
What's really happening?
When I played with the "fools notice what others overlook" game from the previous entries on "Inventing Theatre Games and Exercises" (read parts one and two before you read this post), I ran through the activity of entering, juggling plungers, and exiting. The next time, when I paused after juggling the plungers with plastic handles, I noticed my hands hurt. I had not noticed this stinging sensation the first time, although I'm sure it was there.
It's a little detail, not really important if my goal was to show off my meager juggling skills. But that's not my goal. I love these little moments, because they are true and human and unexpected. Most of the time we gloss over them. Instead of moving on to the next trick, I could stop and react to the pain. I could try to solve the problem and make my hands feel better. I could struggle with another trick because of the pain. To me, this is much more interesting than just juggling.
Like a fool, notice what really happens between the lines of your routine, script, improv, painting, process, or even life event. What can you do with that information instead of ignoring it?
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