Canceling is removing, ignoring, putting away, or otherwise not doing anything with something that's been put into a scene. Also known as Blocking.

Example

I'm in a scene at the zoo. We've just gotten to the gorilla exhibit. We're having some fun imitating the gorillas. My scene partner whips out a jar of Kalamata olives. Except he says, "Calamari olives". I think this makes no sense, and I don't want to draw attention to his mistake, so I hand the jar of olives to someone else at the zoo and continue imitating the gorillas.

A great move is often just a tiny mental hop away from a lousy move

Where might the scene go if I incorporated the Calamari olives into what I'm doing? It would go somewhere that I don't understand right now. That's what's scary about it, you don't want to do something you may fail at. If I Yes And something so far from my current expectations about the scene, those expectations will dissolve. I will have no sense of where "safe ground" is.

And that is precisely why this offer must be accepted. Whenever the temptation to cancel comes, that is the time to jump on the offer and allow it to derail the scene. Exult in the derailment! Enter that dark door, and you're in the zone of happy accidents.

You could open the jar, eat an olive, and turn into a giant squid. Your friend runs for help. When the zookeeper arrives, he thinks you're an escaped squid and you get locked up in an aquarium.

Or who knows where the scene would go? Every "mistake" is an opening that leads to the really juicy stuff--that stuff that ends up making sense in ways that are too deep and too amazing to plan. Of course, the audience doesn't know it was a mistake. They think you knew what you were doing from start to finish.

Common forms of canceling

Rejecting something you don't like

Offer: "Whiskey and rhubarb pie! I made it for your birthday."

Canceling: "Yecch, take it back."

Using the idea: "You made your own whiskey? With that recipe your great grandfather made up during the Civil War?"

Or: "Now that I'm 21, I finally get to taste rhubarb pie!"

Or even: "Now that I'm 21, I finally get to know Jack Daniels personally!" (Going with the most obvious outside the box move is almost always satisfying.)

Backing up when a scene threatens to go someplace

"Wait, no, let's not go skydiving after all, it's dangerous. Pilot, take us back to the base!"

Gagging by killing something

Offer: "Meet Abner. He's the longest-jumping frog the great state of Mississippi has ever seen."

Canceling: "Nice frog." <squish>

Using the idea: "Meet Elmer. He's the most accurate-jumping frog the great state of Mississippi has ever seen."

Or: "And look at the flies you feed him. Imagine how far Abner could go if he ate Appomattox™ Brand green bottle flies (scene turns into a Mississippi TV commercial)."

I don't like your idea

Offer: "Here in the Soviet Union our artistic skills will finally get the appreciation they deserve."

Canceling: "Oops, the Berlin wall has fallen. Now we'll have to get appreciated the capitalist way."

Using the idea: "The KGB will pay big rubles for posters to indoctrinate prisoners in the Gulag." (Now the characters strike poses of happy peasants doing farm work, turning the scene into a Soviet propaganda version of Vacation Photos.)

Correcting a mistake

Offer: "Here in the Soviet Union our artistic skills will finally get the appreciation they deserve."

Canceling: "You idiot, the Soviet Union fell more than 10 years ago."

Using the idea: "Yes Comrade, that is right. Ever since Yuri Graganov started teaching art in the KGB funded school-system, the quality of our children's refrigerator art has soared."