The magic of creative improvisation in 4 videos

I’ve recently been playing around on Clubhouse. If you’re unfamiliar, Clubhouse is a buzzy new audio-based app where you move through virtual rooms and listen to/participate in discussions.

You can hear The Game and 21 Savage debate rap beefs from the 90s. Or Sriram Krishnan and Marc Andreessen talk trends in tech. But the best rooms feature experts debating/teaching/exploring their craft, live. This is the value proposition of Clubhouse over other audio platforms: its liveness. It’s raw. Unedited. This has pros and cons. You can’t escape the umms and aahs. And every other filler removed in post-production before your favourite podcast hits your ears. But the upside is wonderful. The danger of where a conversation might lead is exciting. The spontaneity is compelling. And listening to someone who is an expert in their field, which you are interested in, follow a train of thought live is really something.

The appeal of this liveness got me thinking about how captivating it is to watch creative improvisation. In all fields.

Creative improvisation: the live and spontaneous execution of a skill, by a master of that skill.

Observing someone at the top of their craft live-creating is spellbinding. Let me show you with four videos from four different arenas.

First. Backstage camera direction from the 1996 Oscars.

Second. Master-improviser the late Robin Williams’ unscripted monologue on the idiosyncrasies of love in Good Will Hunting.

Third. Ella Fitzgerald’s 1960 live cover of “Mack the Knife” in Berlin. Ella improvises with a mix of words and scatting, after forgetting most of the song’s lyrics. It won her two Grammys.

And lastly, this. As it was written on Twitter:

“You’re about to spend the next 25 minutes watching a guy solve a Sudoku. Not only that, but it’s going to be the highlight of your day.”

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