It’s been nearly 20 years since I took the Intro to Improv program at The Second City in Chicago, and nearly three-quarters of that time since I have performed with an improv troupe. Yet not a week goes by where I am recalling or leveraging something I learned or experienced from those days. Where I feel I haven’t done justice to writing about that intensely creative time in my life, allow me to share some advice that has stuck with me from then to today.

One of my instructors was Nick Johne, a veteran of The Second City main stage in Toronto (for those who don’t know the term main stage refers to the top improv troupe that performs on a theater’s main stage). My troupe was thrilled to have someone of his caliber to teach us, despite the fact that he could never remember any of our names. This was a minor detail, as he was a fountain of knowledge.

There were a couple of sayings he used during class. And they were truly expressions, as it was not just his words but his overall physicality that accompanied what he said that guided us. During a class we would do multiple scenes, mixing students throughout the session. After one scene, a fellow student said that something they did was bad. This was immediately dismissed by Nick, when he said (and of course I am paraphrasing but tightly), “there’s no such thing as bad or good in improv, there’s ‘good’ and ‘great.’” He elaborated that when someone performs, there is thought and effort involved and as a result it could not be “bad.” He instead called that “good.” On the flipside of good is “great,” where if what was performed was superior and to the point where Nick could “watch it all day” (another expression of his).

Not bad and good, but good and great.

This mindset has stuck with me over the years, and I think about it often in my personal and work life. We are often our own worst critics and I am no exception to that. Maybe by framing something as good but not great will help us the next time we do whatever it is we are being hard on ourselves over? As a way of motivating others around us, we can “yes, and” and say what they did was “good,” and here’s how we could make it “great.” Advice on making is great was something Nick would follow-up with when saying what we did was good.

In the case of improv, the response of good and great is almost instantaneous. Whether a teacher saying it or an audience audibly reacting to it. However we often don’t get feedback on what we do outside of the improv world that soon – if ever, and if so, sincerely. For ourselves and for others, we may have to be a little intensely retrospective to find what was good and great, as our first inclination may be what was bad and good.

Years later my wife and I went to a show on one of smaller The Second City stages in Chicago and there performing in the ensemble was Nick. She suggested that when I go up to him after the show and congratulate him on it – a common thing to do to actors and improvisors following a performance – I should mention I was one of his students years earlier. Where I did compliment him after the show, I didn’t add the second part of her suggestion, as I am sure he wouldn’t remember me.

Deconstructing Good and Great

So the next time someone asks you how your day was, and if it may not have been up to even your lowest expectations, respond that it was good. But not great, and that you hope tomorrow is a great day. It could be the beginning of an attitude change. I know that is my hope in doing so myself.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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