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Improv theaters (or theatres if you're nasty) have teams, and teams have teammates. Like any team, success does not come down to any one person, but rather every person working together. If you are on an improv team and want to know how your team can be successful then you should know that being a good teammate on and off stage is arguably more impactful than how funny you are on stage. 5 Things That Will Make You a Better Teammate: Be Trustworthy Teams are built on trust. If you are the teammate who never shows up to practice or skips out on shows without telling anyone then people won't be able to trust you or rely on you when needed. The great teams of all-time were able to trust that their teammates were there and accountable. Those are fruitful teams. Respect Others Be respectful of other people in every way you can. Respect their boundaries. Don't belittle them. Listening to them without prejudice. Basically, treating your teammates like they are an equal. Their views are just as valid to express as yours. Their approach to improv is just as valid as yours. They are a whole person and they have all the feelings you have. Respect them as a fellow human being. Be Considerate I once heard that Jack Nicholson would brush his teeth before going to set to be polite to his fellow actors. He said it was considerate to his costars. Fresh breath and eliminating body odor, those are good characteristics for being in the close quarters you're in on stage. Actually, that's just a good tip in general. This means taking showers, brushing teeth, washing your dirty old clothes. You don't have to smell as wonderful as we all suspect Beyonce' does, but let's just make it easier to be near. Every theater has the stinky guy and everyone is too nice to say anything about it. Even the Peanuts gang didn't tell Pigpen to take a bath, those little passive-aggressive punks just named the poor kid Pigpen. Considering how you might affect others is incredibly considerate and goes beyond fresh breath. Think about how you interact with others, too. Do you cut people off? do you shout a lot? Do you take advantage of their generosity? There are many ways to be more considerate of your teammates. Work Hard I know, that sounds like work. It sounds like hard work and improv is supposed to be fun. Listen, I get it. Some people who do improv push themselves as hard as Kobe Bryant does because it's what they are passionate about while others are only doing improv to have a little fun in their life. Both are totally fine levels of interest! Both require some level of being responsible. You can only get out of any activity what you put into it. It's like going to the gym to have a bodybuilder's physique versus going to lose a few pounds. One is way more intense than the other, but the other still requires you to sweat it out. To be a better improv teammate you gotta work up a sweat...and then take a shower. (#3 double bounce!) Your team can get stronger when you work hard in practice to get better. In the end you all will have more fun when you're taking it to the limit. Be Kind Be nice to people. It's that simple. Be friendly, show some love, show some understanding, be a helping hand. These are all things you can do to be kind. Some improv schools push the importance of supporting your fellow players. We're encouraged to support each other in every way. We shouldn't leave a fellow player hanging out in the middle of the stage doing something silly all alone. We should make their suggestions and ideas seem like the best ideas ever made. We should cherish them and their heart. All of those sound like incredibly nice thing to do. And it's helpful in other ways, too, like when you need to have a tough conversation with your team, which happens on occasion. Being kind keeps problems from happening that become issues that have to be addressed, and if we do have to address an issue, being kind helps us do it in a way that's helpful. All of us who do improv do it to have fun and being difficult to work with takes the fun out of the activity. It will also take the fun out of it for you. When people on a team can trust each other, rely on each other, and find it easy to open up around each other then they have the potential to accomplish great things together and get more out of improv. That kind of openness and togetherness are crucial aspects of art. When you're open, art can affect you enough to stimulate change and personal growth. Let's make personal growth fun! #yesand #JackNichalson #improvteams #Beyonce #art #artisticintegrity

We get inspired to create! Hopefully the energy we get from that inspiration carries over into actually creating something. Isn't that the kicker? We have to have enough inspirational juice in order for it to carry over into productivity. Not working on our ideas seems to be the biggest killer of creative productivity, right? For sake of discussion, let's say you do get through the hump and start to create the work. What effort do you put into it? How do you put in a level of effort that is true to the level of inspiration you felt? Do you plod along and paint by numbers, or does the effort that goes into the creation match the power the inspiration had on you? What I'm asking is, by the time you're working on something has the inspiration stayed as strong or was it a fleeting feeling? These are people who helped me know my identity. People who did work that made me want to do work. Work that taught me how to do what I love.These artists and pieces of work don't merely keep my occupied. They fuel my desires. Inspiration psyches me up! Like Rick James said about cocaine, "inspiration is a hell of a drug." When I think of the people and things that have inspired me I get pretty passionate. I get very drawn in and focused. I feel like I'm invincible! I believe that when I get to work on my things the effort I put in should live up to the power of my inspiration. It should honor what inspired me. But what do I do when the inspiration fire dies down? How do I stoke the flames of inspiration so I can keep working hard? 3 Things You Need to Harness Inspiration: Quickness The more time that passes between inspiration and when I start working the easier it is for the inspiration to leave me. It's easier for the well to dry up, too. I have to get to it quickly to keep all the inspiration I was given. Focus Once you get to work you have to concentrate on it. Being distracted can also make you lose the inspiration. Put the phone on silent and in another room, turn off the TV, and you might even need to be alone. Distractions kill focus and you need focus. Intent concentration helps you see what your inspiration is so that you can hash it out fully. Hard Work If I want to live up to inspiration then I can't put in the bare minimum. I have to push myself. I believe the work that inspires me had a lot of effort put into it. Something that was half-assed probably didn't make it very far for me to see, let alone be moved by. Ya can't half-ass passion. As one of my heroes, Conan O'Brien, said, "If you work really hard and you're kind amazing things will happen." And that's what inspiration is, isn't it? It's amazing. It's magic! It touches your heart and your mind and years later can find deeper layers of your heart and mind to seep into and move you in a bigger way. Inspiration is great! It's the best feeling! It gives us hope, it makes us feel like we can do something special, it makes us see who we can be! Now let's go be that person! #Inspiration #creativity #ConanOBrien

I've been listening to nothing but Prince music lately, for obvious reasons, and listening to one of his jams today gave me an improv epiphany! If you don't know, Prince music is amazing. One song of his that is a killer track is "Shockadelica." It showcases a lot of what made him iconic. It's funky, has a tasty groove, and it includes his alter ego, Camille. I'd heard the song years ago, but just yesterday I read about the story behind the song. Listening to it today made me realize that it's a great example of "yes anding." For the non-improv nerds reading this, "yes and" is the bedrock principle of improvisation. It means to accept what you were given for a scene and doing something with it. For instance, if you started a scene with me by saying, "Let's go on a picnic," then I would "yes and" your opening statement by saying, "Yes, and I'll bring carrot cake because I know it's your favorite." The idea of "yes, anding" is quite often used to encourage people to support their scene partner, but it also starts the creative process. You are creating something with what is given to you. Here's how "yes and" comes into play with this song. "Shockadelica" is a song Prince whipped up because The Time's guitarist, Jesse Johnson, was about to put out a solo album titled Shockadelica. However, he didn't have a song named after the album. Prince heard about how the album lacked a title track. He believed any great album title needs a title track on the album. So, he wrote a song based on the title. He recorded it in 2 days and sent it to a Minneapolis radio station for release when he was finished. Now first, let's just point out that he recorded and released a bad ass song in 2 days. Creating a finished product quickly was not uncommon for Prince. The level of creativity that beamed from him was unreal. Secondly, talk about taking something and running with it! This is taking what you were given and doing something with it. Prince took a one word suggestion from the audience and wrote a classic track. Now, I didn't know the backstory when I heard the song years ago. Until yesterday I assumed he wrote a song then gave it a title. But the reverse happened. He had a title then he made a song that embodied that title. Very similar to what us improvisers do whenever we do improv. We're given a suggestion and we have to create something that embodies it. So how do we do that to the degree of excellence Prince did with "Shockadelica?" Unfortunately, I am not able to pick Prince's brain on how he taps into creativity and artistry and how that relates to this song, but let me try to observe what happened. Prince heard the word "Shockadelica." The song, as I said early, is funky and has a tasty groove. It's silky, it's sweet, it's sexy. Everything I've used to describe it, as well as the lyrics and musical tone and vibe of the song, suits the word "Shockadelica" perfectly. It's like he defined this made up word based solely on hearing the word itself. This tells me that Prince made a song based on what the word felt like to him. He had to breakdown what the word meant to him. He had to process all of that to come up with this song. This is the process improvisers go through when they do their best work. That's why it takes focused, intent listening to accomplish our best work in improv. We have to be able to really let the suggestion fully sink to know it at it's core so we can express it. My Takeaway How to Create Something from What We're Given: What is the Meaning What does the suggestion mean? Get downright existential about it. What does it stand for to you? What Do You Sense Does it bring up certain sights, sounds, tastes, etc? How could you embody these attributes to express them? What Vibe Do You Get How does it make you feel emotionally? What can you do to present that feeling to the audience? How can you set that tone? You may have to create it. I've been listening to Prince since I was 5 years old. It's pretty cool that all these years later he can still inspire me with songs I've heard so many times. It's great to learn new depths on how one can make something real out of a simple suggestion. Or is it just a mirage/or is it just a mirage/or is it just a mirage? #Prince #creativity #yesand #creating

Ah, the host of a comedy show. The unsung hero of the show, or the reason the show wasn't so great. Hosting a show well can be a fine balance between being peppy enough to energize the crowd yet not being too noticeable. Everyone other than the host is the star of a comedy show and it's the host's job to make them look good. I've seen a good bit of stand up and improv comedy shows. I've seen the hosts do some things that worked and some things that did not. Allow me to share some of these things that I picked up and fill free to add some points of your own! Stand Up Show Host DO Make eye contact with the audience (or at least pretend to) Many people don't like to look at people in the face, but it's a great tool to getting the audience to connect with you. It's actually taught in speech and debate classes. If that's still too scary for you then fake it! Yep, looking right in between two people will make them feel like you're connecting, but it won't be as significant as the real thing. DO Be specific with your words Don't use 5 sentences when you can say the same in 2. Brevity always helps make points stick. Comedy is all about communication so clarity is important. Cutting the fat when you're hosting can also keep the show moving and that sweet live energy up! DO Be positive Positivity is infectious. It keeps your time up there light. I'm not saying you can't do your Steven Wright-like character when you host. I just mean don't be a drag. The hosts who spend time making self-deprecating jokes every time they get on stage to bring up the next comic are making the show about them. Again, the show is not about you. Improv Show Host DO Everything mentioned above. DO Stand Up Stand up helps you get used to speaking directly to an audience. Usually in improv you're not up there alone, but in the case of hosting you are briefly. Don't freak out. Just get used to that feeling. Stand up really helps with this. DO Know where to stand (and stay there) I've seen hosts run around the stage, hop off the stage into the dark, stand in the dark corners of the room while addressing the audience. This helps no one. We can't see you, it's a distraction, and you're creating a frenetic vibe to the show which may not be the best tone to set if the duo about to come up does really grounded scene work. Take it easy. Know where to stand, stay there. Hosting For Both DO Pay attention to the show Whether it's improv or stand up you'll do yourself a favor by paying attention to the show. In stand up, referencing the elephant in the room is crucial. A buddy who gave me my start, Atlanta's Nick Shaheen, was the best host I've seen do this. He always had hysterical, fully-formed thoughts when he'd riff while hosting. It also was nice to know he was paying attention. When hosting improv, you're likely the person who will be calling scenes. Being attentive helps the show flow well, but it also can save some players when they are out of ideas. DO Your best Again, the show is not about you. The show is bigger than you. Make the audience have a good time whether the show was free or the crowd is small. Respect the time you get to spend on that stage by trying hard and always improving. All in all, I think we're lucky whenever we get some stage time. We got into comedy because it was something we cared about and were inspired by. We can't expect pursuing comedy to go better for us if we get lazier or fall into easy habits. Our passions deserve more than that. We have to improve to honor it. What the stage deserves is that everyone who steps on it cares that they get to. We get out of it only what we put into it. You get to do comedy, and the best thing you could do is get the most out of it. #Hosting #Improv #StandUp

You've always been told you were funny! All of your friends think you are the funniest person they know. You grew up being excused by family as thinking you're, "some kind of comedian." And you've always known you wanted to be a comedian. There's just one problem. How do you do that!? Here's what I can tell you, you have to go at it! There's no sense in waiting to do something you think you'd love to do. I don't know this because I went for it and had this illustrious career in comedy. I know this because I didn't do it. As soon as I got out of college I went the safe, Plan B route. I was 30 when I started doing comedy. Which is fine! When I was around 33 Comedian Sara Schaefer told me once that it doesn't matter and not to worry about the age I was when I got into comedy. Age doesn't matter, experience does. And wanting to live a life full of what you love and are passionate about really matters. Experience what you love sooner than later! If I had gone up to NYC when I graduated college I would have learned from the UCB greats in the early days of their school along with some wonderful comedians you and I watch and admire. I don't regret my life, I just wish I pursued my dreams sooner than I did because the experience has been so great and life-affirming! I don't know a lot out of all the things I could know about pursuing comedy, but here's a start! 3 Things You Must Do to Pursue a Comedy Career: Get at It! You have to get involved...somehow. I've heard Conan O'Brien say several times that whenever someone asks him for advice about breaking into the industry he answers, "Go to the places making the kind of work you want to make and get a job there. Any kind of job." This is good advice for someone seeking work in any field. It's good advice for the entertainment industry because the most common thing people say is, "Go to Hollywood," which is horrible advice for someone starting out. What you need first is some experience and you can get that working somewhere that is doing what you love. You will learn so much! Keep at It! You really can't allow yourself to give up easily. It's not only the most successful people who work hard and stick to it, but also people who are advancing. You can't advance if you don't continually focus on your pursuit and at practice. This is meant to be encouraging. You can do it, just keep doing the next little thing you can do. Get Some Satisfaction. Because I'm a nerd I once watched a clinic that John Mayer did at Berklee School of Music. Something he said in it is something that any creative person can learn from. To paraphrase the statement it was that you have to define what you consider, "making it." What he encouraged in his talk was defining for yourself how to be fulfilled. This is good advice because far too many people look at fame as "making it," but that animal is far too illusive (and dangerous) for you to chase. Mayer also talked about people he knew who had big time, bonafide success but because they didn't every consider what would satisfy them or process their goals that tremendous success they had was unfulfilling. So what do you really want out of this comedy thing anyway? That's a good question to process over. Any answer that doesn't hurt anyone else is okay. I'll help you start. What would satisfy you? What type of work do you want to do? How do you want to do it? Do you want to do it professionally or as a hobby? Where do you want to do it? What would it take for you to do it? Answer these and you've started realizing the path to your goals! I once read the co-founder of Charleston, SC's Theatre 99, Greg Tavares, say that he is "doing what he wants to do, where and how he wants to do it. That's a big deal." Yes, indeed, it is. Get at it, friends! #ComedyCareer #StandUp #Improv #Pursuit #ConanOBrien #GregTavares #SaraSchaefer