Bobbi Block

“Improvisers are innovators. To innovate means to embrace uncertainty and the possibility of failure.  Improvisers don’t strive for perfect choices; we hone our ability to recover quickly from our mistakes!  We are skilled practitioners of letting go and moving on.”

Bobbi Block loves helping people connect.  As a Facilitator/Coach for leaders and teams in the business world, she develops communication and relationship-building skills using acting and improvisation exercises.  As a Professor at Temple and Drexel universities, she helps students express their emotions through her signature approach, “Actors’ Improv.”  As a Theater Artist, she collaborates with the audience to create communal art; the work of her improvisational theater company, Tongue & Groove, is uniquely inspired by each audience’s answers to thought-provoking questions.  Bobbi’s improv work has connected Philadelphia audiences for almost 30 years:  in addition to creating T&G, she co-founded ComedySportz Philly, the longest running show in the city, and also LunchLady Doris, which premiered at the first Philly Fringe and ran for over a decade. Bobbi loves to connect through parties and by dancing to world rhythms:  she co-founded the body-percussion company P3: People Percussion Project, and plays in the samba band Unidos da Filadelfia, plus she spearheads regular get-togethers in her neighborhood…that is to say, Block parties. 

How does innovation influence your work?

“I would say innovation IS my work! As an improvisational theater artist, our very art form is moment to moment innovation. Our performances are created on the spot, so the audience is literally watching us innovate in real time. This is accomplished through the philosophy of ‘yes, and…’, which is a foundational tenet of improvisors around the world. It means ‘accept and build.’ An improviser accepts all offers (an offer is anything their fellow actor says or does) and then builds upon that offer. Even if the offer isn’t something the actor ever imagined or wanted to explore, the rule is we must accept and build upon it. This leads to unexpected outcomes that would have never been discovered if the improvisers did not agree to leap into the unknown together and trust the innovation process. To innovate means to embrace uncertainty and the possibility of failure. Improvisers do not practice perfectionism, we practice recovery from --- or even integration of our mistakes. We are great at letting go and moving on. These are the skills of innovation. So… how does innovation influence my work? Without it, there is no work.”

What big ideas have propelled your career?

“I suppose one big idea is: if there is no path, make a path. There was no ‘how to’ for my career. I am a freelancer. There is no set ‘ladder’ I’m climbing. I began as a Teaching Artist, then 10 years later I decided I wanted to teach adults instead of kids. From that point on, I would target a company that was doing what I wanted to do and knocked on their door until they hired me. Time after time, job after job I did that. Until eventually I was doing it on my own. When asked by theater artists ‘what steps should I take to get into corporate training or applied improv?’ I can’t fully answer ‘A, B, C.’ All I can say is, picture what you want to do, and keep knocking until someone lets you do it. Learn all you can there, then go knocking somewhere else. It’s not easy to make your own path, and freelancing/self-employment has a ton of challenges, but it has provided me the freedom to do a buncha interesting things… like take off 3 months to go teach at a University in New Zealand. Make your own path.
The other big idea is one that I have hung over my desk for decades: success is a journey, not a destination. That is a guiding light when I am frustrated by closed doors (despite all my knocking). I try to keep journeying. My Dad is my model for that. He was a Renaissance man – a doctor, author, painter, educator, playwright – always on a journey trying something new. When I feel low, I realize it’s because I haven’t tried anything new in a long time, and I need to go on a journey (emotional, intellectual, physical or spiritual). Success is a journey.”

Biography:

Bobbi Block is a Facilitator/Coach, University Professor, and Theater Artist. The thread between these roles is her desire to help others connect. She is a Certified Applied Improvisation Practitioner, utilizing her training in acting and improvisation to develop communication and listening skills in leaders and teams, from Fortune 500 execs to school teachers. In her classrooms at Temple and Drexel universities, she teaches improvisational theater and her signature approach, ‘Actors’ Improv,’ which fosters the actor’s ability to use personal truths to emotionally connect. In 2006, Bobbi founded Tongue & Groove Spontaneous Theater, whose mission is to create communal connection through collective theater-making (the name Tongue & Groove means ‘seamlessly connected’). With T&G, she devised a unique theater style in which the audience submits their true feelings on a topic which inspires the actors’ instant creation. Bobbi has traveled the world teaching her signature style and T&G’s formats to countless theater artists and students, with several return visits to New Zealand and Australia. In addition, Bobbi co-founded CSZ Philadelphia, home of Barrymore recipient ComedySportz, the longest running show in Philly (28 years). She also co-founded P3: People Percussion Project, a body percussion company that ran in Philly for 4 years, and co-founded LunchLady Doris, Philly’s first longform improv company – a Philly Fringe Festival Favorite – that ran for 12 years. Bobbi has produced, performed or directed one (or more) shows for every Philly Fringe Festival since its start! Currently Bobbi plays drums in the Brazilian samba band, Unidos da Filadelfia. For more information, go to bobbiblock.com and tongue-groove.com.