Keith Johnstone
British-Canadian educator and theatre directorWikipedia
11
MENTIONS
10
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10
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Search complete. 11 mentions across 10 episodes found for "Keith Johnstone".
Oct 1, 2026
Gillian McNallyGUEST
There was an interesting...
Gillian McNallyGUEST
New York Times article last week about how in Silicon Valley, the book that is most frequently recommended for people in the AI community and in technology is Keith Johnstone's book called Impro.
Gillian McNallyGUEST
And it was written in the 70s.
Gillian McNallyGUEST
And I think the title of the article is like, how did a 70s improv book become the inspiration for Silicon Valley? And Keith Johnstone, a quote I use of his all the time is, I'm loosely phrasing.
Gillian McNallyGUEST
When we go to school, imagination and creativity, it's the process of taking the imagination, stripping away the imagination and creativity from ourselves.
Gillian McNallyGUEST
And that the process of improv is what he's talking about, but you could argue in many, many different places, the process of improv is unschooling your mind.
Riley SilvermanHOST
Bonus material: I also asked game designer and podcaster James Wallis about the history of improv in gaming.
Riley SilvermanHOST
He said the British scene, himself especially, was impacted by the ideas of the late Keith Johnstone and his book Impro, and that improv techniq- techniques were in the mix in the early 1990s.
Riley SilvermanHOST
My contextual note: The improv theater rose in popularity after the stand-up comedy boom of the 1980s in the US.
Riley SilvermanHOST
The establishment of many fun, punky, or strange improv theaters, most famously Upright Citizens Brigade in New York, gave spaces for game geeks and freaks to perform outside of their kitchen.
Brian McDonaldHOST
It reminds me of another thing I probably talked about on the show.
Brian McDonaldHOST
before, but there's a, in the book Improv, about improv comedy by Keith Johnstone.
Brian McDonaldHOST
It's been years since I read it, but he talks about, I think it's an Inuit tribe that is, they're really good carvers in this one tribe.
Brian McDonaldHOST
Everybody can carve.
James WallisHOST
But the other one I want to do, I want to do a double header.
James WallisHOST
I want to do Impro by Keith Johnstone, which is one of the foundational texts of improvisational theatre and was the urtext for the British... avant-garde role-playing scene in the 80s and 90s, and an awful lot of people took inspiration from it, including me.
James WallisHOST
And my Baron Munchausen game is essentially, is very, very John Stoney and impro.
James WallisHOST
This is not yes and impro.
Aaron MillerGUEST
And that comes from being a writer where I would see the scene and know it's got to navigate.
Aaron MillerGUEST
I don't do that as often anymore because improv... is that it's it's here's the things that are happening right now use that you don't have to do anything improv literally if everyone comes in with the same mindset you don't have to do anything but use what's there in front of you there's a ton of training you can go through i lots of things i could recommend to people viola spolin um great she started improv it exists because of her keith johnstone his work in pro for the theater in pro for storytellers read those books they're beautiful they're fabulous But improv for me, I get in trouble because especially my son, he's just turned 23.
Aaron MillerGUEST
He and I are he's mini me.
Aaron MillerGUEST
You know, we're not allowed sometimes to be out in public because we can go riff off of that stuff because we're not worried about the thing being plotted.
James WallisPANELIST
But the other one I want to do, I want to do a double header.
James WallisPANELIST
I want to do Impro by Keith Johnstone, which is one of the foundational texts of improvisational theatre and was the urtext for the British... avant-garde role-playing scene in the 80s and 90s, and an awful lot of people took inspiration from it, including me.
James WallisPANELIST
And my Baron Munchausen game is essentially, is very, very John Stoney and impro.
James WallisPANELIST
This is not yes and impro.
Aaron MerkeGUEST
I was like 20, 21 when I first got onto the tour co and there was no one else that knew that language.
Aaron MerkeGUEST
Eventually a guy named David Shore came and he knew it, but it was still like, It was very it was it was a hard it was a hard angle to get up because everyone knew was a guy named Keith Johnstone.
Aaron MerkeGUEST
So in the improv world, I don't know if you know much about it, but there's this there's two factions at the time.
Aaron MerkeGUEST
It was short form and long form.
Ben JohnsonHOST
in coming in and putting aside your feelings that oh man i don't want to suck in front of a bunch of people right that learn right you only get good by sucking
Rich RossHOST
yeah keith johnstone would say to us in improv he goes have you done this before no why do you think you should be any good at it
Ben JohnsonHOST
How the fuck would you know you'd be any good at it? No, I'm scared of being shitty.
Ben JohnsonHOST
We're all shitty.
Sarah FilmanGUEST
I will look around the room.
Sarah FilmanGUEST
This is, I think, a Keith Johnstone activity, like look around the room, point at something and call it anything other than what it is.
Sarah FilmanGUEST
So I'm actually pointing at a plant, but I pointed it and say microwave, trash compactor, toothpick, and just like making your brain question the status quo a little bit.
Sarah FilmanGUEST
can be helpful.
Jonathan PittsGUEST
So there's those.
Jonathan PittsGUEST
And I want to quote Keith Johnstone, who said in his book, Impro, that there are far more people that say no than say yes.
Jonathan PittsGUEST
Because no gives you a sense of safety.
Jonathan PittsGUEST
But yes, gives you an adventure.