Learning to think differently
Thoughts of waiting a year to get started disappeared faster than my friend Joanne's famous seven-layer dip. This was my chance to see if I had what it took to put my sense of humour to work for me. There was so much to learn, and I felt ready for it.
So there I was, in a class filled with 24 other undiscovered funny people, learning that comedy is a serious business, completing homework assignments (write 10 jokes about Enron), performing my first stand-up gig and discovering that dying on stage isn't fatal. It was just like being in high school again, but with adult-onset self-doubt and a new brand of peer pressure. Forget about wearing the right jeans; here I had to come up with wittier, more topical punch lines at the drop of a hat. It was like a constant, cerebral version of rock, paper, scissors.
"They don't like me."
That was one of 10 statements I had to choose from just before opening the door to the classroom where my audience awaited me. One by one, I'd select a phrase, try it on and then open the door. Did the audience's reaction change? Yes, because I had unwittingly told them how to react. In this case, I had betrayed my thoughts by shrinking back and avoiding eye contact. That's when it hit me: I could use this lesson to talk myself "up" rather than "down" before entering a boardroom, a subway car or even a party -- to create a better impression in any situation. I could apply the skills I was learning not just to delivering snappy lines into a microphone, but to being more successful and effective throughout my life.
For example:
Think outside the cage
Think of a grey animal. Is it an elephant? That's what pops to mind for most people. In comedy school, we were taught to dig deeper for a second idea -- or a 33rd.
We experimented with different techniques used by "idea generators" in the fields of entertainment, executive coaching, advertising and new business development. Visualization and exploring with all of our senses helped us get away from two-dimensional thinking and sometimes into the absurd.
Deanna Abbott-McNeil, a physiotherapist who left her post at a teaching hospital to attend the Humber College program, points out that even smells can yield material. "We all associate scents with memories and emotions, so playing around with them becomes inherently funny."
Many of my instructors claimed that there are no new ideas out there, only new ways of putting them together. Like balloons and bad habits, or tired complaints and helium gas. My girlfriends and I had been stuck in a negative rut where whining had become the norm. While some of them were hesitant when they first saw the balloons, all of us seemed to end up with a more forgiving attitude toward ourselves.
Click to continue...
Page 2 of 4
So there I was, in a class filled with 24 other undiscovered funny people, learning that comedy is a serious business, completing homework assignments (write 10 jokes about Enron), performing my first stand-up gig and discovering that dying on stage isn't fatal. It was just like being in high school again, but with adult-onset self-doubt and a new brand of peer pressure. Forget about wearing the right jeans; here I had to come up with wittier, more topical punch lines at the drop of a hat. It was like a constant, cerebral version of rock, paper, scissors.
"They don't like me."
That was one of 10 statements I had to choose from just before opening the door to the classroom where my audience awaited me. One by one, I'd select a phrase, try it on and then open the door. Did the audience's reaction change? Yes, because I had unwittingly told them how to react. In this case, I had betrayed my thoughts by shrinking back and avoiding eye contact. That's when it hit me: I could use this lesson to talk myself "up" rather than "down" before entering a boardroom, a subway car or even a party -- to create a better impression in any situation. I could apply the skills I was learning not just to delivering snappy lines into a microphone, but to being more successful and effective throughout my life.
For example:
Think outside the cage
Think of a grey animal. Is it an elephant? That's what pops to mind for most people. In comedy school, we were taught to dig deeper for a second idea -- or a 33rd.
We experimented with different techniques used by "idea generators" in the fields of entertainment, executive coaching, advertising and new business development. Visualization and exploring with all of our senses helped us get away from two-dimensional thinking and sometimes into the absurd.
Deanna Abbott-McNeil, a physiotherapist who left her post at a teaching hospital to attend the Humber College program, points out that even smells can yield material. "We all associate scents with memories and emotions, so playing around with them becomes inherently funny."
Many of my instructors claimed that there are no new ideas out there, only new ways of putting them together. Like balloons and bad habits, or tired complaints and helium gas. My girlfriends and I had been stuck in a negative rut where whining had become the norm. While some of them were hesitant when they first saw the balloons, all of us seemed to end up with a more forgiving attitude toward ourselves.
Click to continue...
Page 2 of 4
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