My guest today is Mike Gorgone who helps designers supercharge their listening and collaboration skills via Improv. In this episode, we do a live Improv workshop filled with amazing exercises such as word association, "Yes And" etc. The goal of this workshop is help you improve your listening and collaboration skills. Follow along at your own pace! For show notes, guest bio, and more, please visit: www.designmba.show Level Up Your Design Career (Free Email Course): https://levelup.designmba.show/
Mike discovered Improv when he lived in Chicago and started taking classes at Second City and iO (formerly improvOlympic). Improv taught Mike how to be present and more aware of the moment as well as how to listen and absorb information instead of just listening to respond. He also learned (and frequently witnessed) that a group can create more amazing and incredible work when collaborating together in a non-judgmental and supportive manner than any of those individuals could have created working alone.
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Jayneil Dalal: I’ve got a phenomenal guest today, Mike Gorgone. And let me tell you how awesome Mike is. Mike is someone who loves being part of a creative, supportive and collaborative design team that builds engaging experiences for digital products at a company that fosters a culture that values design thinking and makes it a priority in how the company runs and solves problems. I know that was a lot but guess what? Mike got his wish come true. He's actually doing all of this as part of the Experience Design Group at Ernst & Young. Mike discovered Improv when he lived in Chicago and started taking classes at Second City in iO, formerly Improv Olympic. Improv taught Mike how to be present and be more aware of the moment as well as how to listen and absorb information instead of just listening to respond. Don't we all do that? he also learned and witnessed that a group can create more amazing and incredible work when collaborating together in a nonjudgmental and supportive manner than any of those individuals could have created working alone. You can keep up with Mike at Improv UX on all the social media channels or go to his website which is MikeGorgone.com.
Mike, super excited to be talking with you. Welcome to the show, man.
Mike Gorgone: Thank you for having me, Jayneil. I’m excited for us to kind of jump in and do some of the exercises that I normally do in the workshop that translate a little bit over to this podcast and the audio experience. I've selected a few and actually I think I’ve got one or two others that I have not done in my in-person workshops.
Jayneil: Wow! So, to everybody listening to this episode, this is something very different that I’m trying out for the first time. And thank you, Mike, for being my first guinea pig. Instead of the usual interview type podcast that I have, in this one what we're doing is we're doing like an audio version of a workshop, an Improv workshop that Mike usually conducts at conferences but we are going to do it as part of this podcast episode and you the listener, my amazing listeners, can just follow along. And hopefully these exercises help you become a better collaborator or feel free to use these exercises at work.
All right, I am excited, Mike.
Mike: Cool! So, even though it's a podcast, I know we can see each other but you can't see us audience members but we're going to jump in with a simple exercise. And a lot of the exercises that we lead the workshop off with are to kind of get people's nerves out, get their brains a little bit off kilter, get them having to think and focus because a lot of times everyone comes in and they're super nervous. I’ve had attendees come in that once they got into the workshop, they realized that we were actually doing Improv exercises. They thought I was just going to talk about exercises. And so, I could see you know their bodies tense up and start to get a little bit nervous. So, we've got some exercises that we do at the beginning to just try and get rid of a lot of that stuff and get their minds focused on the moment.
So, one of the first exercises we'll do is simply called 1-2-3. And you and I will run through the exercise and it's got three or four different levels to it that we'll work through. And initially, we'll just start out by saying “1-2-3” going back and forth. So, if I were to say “1”, would say “2” and then I would say “3” and then you would say …
Jayneil: 1.
Mike: 1. 2.
Jayneil: 3.
Mike: 1.
Jayneil: 2.
Mike: 3.
Jayneil: 1.
Mike: 2.
Jayneil: 3.
Mike: Good. And that's all it is. We're just focusing on going back and forth, listening to each other. And because it's an odd number, you kind of have to think about it when you're going onto that “Oh, wait, it's time for me to restart the pattern.” So, the next layer to this, and this is where we have to start to get our brains focusing in, is instead of “1” …
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: I’m going to clap. So, a clap is now replacing “1”.
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: When we start out the pattern, you'll hear me clap.
Jayneil: Okay. Two.
Mike: Three. And now you do exactly.
Jayneil: Two.
Mike:
Jayneil: Three.
Mike:
Jayneil: Two.
Mike:
Jayneil: Three.
Mike:
Jayneil: Two.
Mike:
Jayneil: Three.
Mike:
Jayneil: Two.
Mike: Three.
Jayneil: Two.
Mike:
Jayneil: Three.
Mike: I can see your eyes working. It really does make your brain have to focus in on it because you need to get verbal pattern.
Jayneil: It's like usually when I’m in these kinds of conversations, I’m not going to lie, I’ve got ADHD, so a lot of times my brain is processing something else but when you make me do the exercise like I was channeled in, I was like literally waiting for my cue and I was actually listening to what was going on. I was in the moment with you.
Mike: Very good. So, now, the next level is clap is still one.
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: A finger snap is two and we'll still say three.
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike:Think about that right now. So, it's going to be clap, snap, three.
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: So, I’ll start off with the clap. So, you got to take a quick second to remember that order.
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: Okay. So, here we go, see how we do.
Jayneil: Three.
Mike:
Jayneil: Three.
Mike:
Jayneil: Three.
Mike:
Jayneil: Three.
Mike:
Jayneil: Three.
Mike:
Jayneil: Three.
Mike: Good. Okay, how did that feel?
Jayneil: Oh my God! I think once I got the hang of it, my brain tried to like remember the pattern and put it on autopilot. I think that's what our brains do.
Mike: Right.
Jayneil: But in this one, you can't still put it on autopilot because the pattern changes. So, I still have to be on the lookout and pay attention to what you were doing, think and just be in that moment.
Mike: Yeah that pressure really forces your brain to be in that moment and you kind of have to really pay attention to it. Okay. So, the last the last round of this …
Jayneil: Oh my God! There's another layer.
Mike: So, basically, we're replacing all the numbers with other things. so, we're forming our own accounting system, I guess. So, if we get lost in the wild, we can communicate. And this will be a whistle this time. So, three is now just a whistle, if you can. So, it's like a little … I don't know if I can do it right now.
Jayneil: I don't even think I’m a good whistler.
Mike: Okay. Let's drop the whistle because I just tried it. It was like really bad. I can't even whistle. That's not good. Let's just make it a random noise. You can actually do whatever random sound you want to.
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: Exactly. It could be that. It could be
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: But the clap and the snap are still the same for one and two.
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: All right. So, ready? Here we go. And this one is obviously going to have to take some good focus.
Jayneil:Okay.
Mike:
Good job. All right, give yourself a hand. As I do in all the workshops, we always give ourselves a little bit of applause after we finish up the exercises because every exercise, you are actually putting yourself out there to a little bit of an extent. So, this is a minor risk or it just feels weird that you're kind of replacing these numbers with these different patterns and everything. So, that's part of the thing that the workshop tries to get everyone to do as well is to take a little bit of a risk and hopefully more and more risks as we go throughout the workshop. And you get comfortable being in that uncomfortable place, which I think a lot of times, at least, I know for me when I’m starting out on a new task or whatever, if it's like right now I’ve been asked to kind of look at chatbots and virtual assistants and I know nothing about virtual assistants other than like I see the popup every once in a while and I kind of ignore them. So, I’ve had to kind of look at some tutorials and everything but there's that uncomfortable feeling of like I don't know what any of this is but I feel like Improv for me has gotten me at least better at being used to that uncomfortableness and knowing that if I just chill out, focus in and take my time, eventually the picture will start to get clear, which is kind of the same thing as an improv scene. If you're doing two-person scene and you walk out on stage and you have nothing and you don't know what's going to happen and this picture is just a black picture of you have no idea what's going to happen and someone will give you a line and you give them another line and eventually it becomes more clear as to what's going on stage between these two characters and being more comfortable with that just kind of throwing yourself out there.
Jayneil: And on a side note, after this interview, I just want to let you know that, I don't know if you remember, but I spent a lot of time doing chatbots, you remember from Midwest US and stuff …
Mike: Oh yes, yes.
Jayneil: So, I would be happy to share with you all my research and what I’ve learned and pointing you in the right direction.
Mike: That would be awesome.
Jayneil: Now, with this clap and whistle and then the weird noise at the end, this exercise, do you recommend doing this as like an icebreaker, an opener? How would one use this exercise?
Mike: I would say it's probably more of an icebreaker sense of things just because it's kind of a goofy little silly thing and just kind of get you out of your head of like maybe everything you were like doing in the previous meeting or what you were working on your desk. It kind of like resets you and gets everybody kind of focused in on each other. So, it's just like an easy little icebreaker to kind of break the nerves. And that's why I like to use it at the start of the workshop. So, usually on that and the workshop's broken down into … we're working on specificity, listening and focus, non-judgment and that's a big one. And not only is it just going to try not be judgmental of other people's ideas but a lot of times, obviously, we're judgmental of our own ideas yeah and Improv kind of gets you into that mode of like “I don't know what this is again but I’m going to take your idea and I’m going to run with it and make it even better.” So, one of the other opening exercises that we'll do is just like super simple word association. And that doesn't even necessarily fall into Improv land exclusively. We’ve seen people do word association all the time. So, I thought we could do a little bit of that. And the goal of this is again to be present in the moment, not be thinking of words in your head that you want to say ahead of time, literally listening to the word I say and letting that inspire whatever the word is that you're going to respond to me with. And then I will hear your word and I will do the same thing. And it can be just like a quick 20-second, 30-second exercise. In the workshop, usually it's a circle of people and I’ll have it go around the circle of like seven to 10 people. A lot of times it'll be really interesting to see where the pattern kind of goes as they're doing the word association and a lot of times, once they kind of get into a good flow of it, you'll see it kind of circle back to what the original concept was. So, that's always fun to see.
So, I do have my timer. And if you would like to start, I will say “go” and we'll just do back and forth.
Jayneil: All right.
Mike: So, one word, whatever comes to mind right now. And ready? Go.
Jayneil: Beautiful.
Mike: Sunset.
Jayneil: Sunrise.
Mike: Ocean.
Jayneil: Waves.
Mike: Calm.
Jayneil: Meditation.
Mike: Temple.
Jayneil: Pray.
Mike: Sky.
Jayneil: Birds.
Mike: Flowing.
Jayneil: Surfing.
Mike: Sharks.
Jayneil: Fear.
Mike: Loneliness.
Jayneil: Friends.
Mike: Dinners.
Jayneil: Cheese.
Mike: Wine.
Jayneil: Vodka.
Mike: Hangover.
Jayneil: Sleeping.
Mike: Scene.
Cool. So, we actually did a whole minute. I mean, that actually went by pretty quick, didn't it?
Jayneil: Yeah.
Mike: And how did that feel? Were you able to kind of just focus in and like let something come to you versus were any words popping in your head outside of like … and you had to try to dismiss those and wait for what I was going to say?
Jayneil: I think maybe for the first word I was thinking about what to say but somehow in real time like whenever you said like “Oh sunset. Sunrise.” So, automatically that word is the top of my head. And I just had to trust myself to just go with that instead of thinking too much but I think because we had done the first workshop and we've done like the weird noises and also because we've chatted before, so there's that trust. So, I think there's a filter that always screens what I’m about to say like a fact check but that just turned off and then, yeah, you're right, to your point, it was just like whatever word was coming to my head, I was just saying it.
Mike: Very cool. And that's as fun as you can get into that flow and especially if you're like in sort of brainstorming session and you're collaborating on design or whatever. I try to always point out whenever I’m talking to the VAs or stakeholders and all that stuff, when I bring my design, I’m like “Do not consider this the end-all be-all that I’m bringing to you.” I was like “This is my first line to your scene and I don't consider this complete until I have your feedback on it because you guys may have some really good ideas that even if I don't use them, maybe inspire something else that I then morph it into” which is how a lot of improv scenes go. So, I think that just being ready and willing to listen to someone else, as basic as that is, even with us just exchanging one word at a time, I’m letting myself be inspired by what you're saying and I’m willing to just let that happen. So, we kind of went over like a few things. They're like “calm”, “serenity”, then “death” and then back to “friendship”. So, a lot of those higher themes that a lot of Improv shows will try to aspire to in addition to wacky time.
Cool. So, the next exercise builds on the word association and it's called “Last Word Response”. You may have heard this. I did this one with Per and James on the UX Podcast. So, again, this is focusing and listening and letting yourself be inspired to just say a line of dialogue. And these don't have to necessarily be connected like we sort of did with the word association. Those are a little more connected. I will just give you a line of dialogue and you have to use the last word from my sentence as the opening word to your sentence. And you don't necessarily have to hold on to the tense or anything. So, if it's an odd sounding word that you're like “I wouldn't start a sentence with that” and you need to change the tense on it or something, that's totally fine but you just have to use that word as what the inspiration is for your simple line of dialogue.
Jayneil: Got it.
Mike: Okay. So, let's do that and I will reset my timer, I’ll say 30 seconds but we were having so much fun we went for a full minute last time. So, we'll see you know how long we go here but I just want to make sure I have that on there so we don't end up going forever because you can keep going.
Okay. So, I’ll throw out the first sentence and then whatever that last word is, you get to use for your first sentence.
Okay. Let’s start.
The pool is closed today.
Jayneil: Today, I am actually going to eat some cheese.
Mike: Cheese is one of Wisconsin's biggest products.
Jayneil: Products are something that really inspired me of Design Well.
Mike: Well, is where a lot of people in the frontier used to get their water.
Jayneil: Water reminds me of sharks if I jump into it and I don't know what's inside.
Mike: Inside is where I like to stay in summers in Atlanta because of the humidity.
Jayneil: Humidity is something I love because I grew up in India and you would get a shower by just walking on the streets, which is perspiration.
Mike: Perspiration is what happens when you go to the gym and work out too long.
Jayneil: Too long is something that I wish I could say about my recent workouts.
Mike: Workouts currently for me have been YouTube inspired.
Jayneil: Inspiration is something that I draw from watching YouTube videos with like sad motivational music.
Mike: Music is one of the things I like to have on in the background to help me work faster.
Jayneil: Faster is something I really understood when I saw Usain Bolt run.
Mike: See, we actually went for a minute and 40 seconds.
Jayneil: Damn!
Mike: Now, how did that one feel?
Jayneil: It was amazing. I think just using the last sentence, I think out of all like … So, we did the clap and the noise and then we did just the one or two word back but I felt like this version of it was the most interactive one in terms of just like less pressure, more fun. And at some points, the word ended in a weird way. So, I had to come up with something that … it just came out it's really funny. So, I really love that.
Mike: Yeah, those are little weird and odd moments that'll happen. And, again, we're laughing. That eases tension. So, some of this stuff might, if the team is new or maybe the group's been having problems, like “Hey guys, let's take a step back and let's reset ourselves. Let's do some of these things together.” So, you're listening to each other again, get some laughter going which again eases tension and gets people a little bit more on the same page, gets them all kind of going in the same direction. It never feels like at the beginning of the workshops people will start laughing while we're doing these. And I’ve got more exercises that also tend to focus on physical type things, so people making grand gestures and movements and they'll pass that stuff around the circle and they’ll see how it changes as it goes around the circle even though the focus of the exercise is usually to try … it's either one or two focuses. One, to try and imitate the motion and sound or whatever as best you can and then you try to pass that around the circle so it kind of becomes a little bit of a telephone game thing. And then the other one is to let whatever the other person does with their grand gesture, inspire a different grand gesture that you tried to do and then you pass that all around in the circle. And then people just end up start laughing and you're having a good time in usually like 10 15 minutes and I can feel the pressure in the room kind of decrease and exhale and everyone's like “Okay, this is not going to be so bad. We're actually having fun.” And that's one of the things an improviser I know in Charleston, Greg Tavares, did a TEDx Charleston on “Fun Kills Fear”. When you're having fun, it's kind of hard to be afraid. And so, that's a really good talk that he did a little bit ago that I’ll reference once in a while as well.
Jayneil: And I just wrote down a potential title for this episode. It literally came to my head as you were talking – ‘Designing Zoom Icebreakers’.
Mike: Zoom Icebreakers. I like it.
Okay. So, with those exercises so far, again, I try to have everything kind of build on the previous exercises and expand on them, so the next exercise is called “Empty Your Pockets”. And so, generally, how I would have this work in the workshop is I’ll pair people off into twos, which we already have going for us, and then one person will take an object that they currently have on them or in their wallet, in their purse, if it’s in their backpack, they can go grab it, something that has meaning to them. And then that person then has one minute to tell the story of that object and why it's important to them, what's the history of this thing. And the other person's job is to just listen, listen and absorb the story and connect with them on that story. And so, again, this is where you have to like try and squash those tendencies to want to interrupt and ask a question. If they say something and it causes you to think of something else like “Oh yeah, I love going up,” they say like something from vacation on the beach and you're like “Oh, the beach. It would really be so nice to go to the beach right now, have a beer and …” and now 10 seconds has gone by because your mind's floating away and you missed what they said. So, those are two things you really want to try to fight against so that you're really just listening and absorbing what they're saying and connecting to what it is. So, what I always use is my wedding ring. And so, you have the picture of that. I don't know if that's up yet for you.
Jayneil: It is.
Mike: I want to open up for you. Cool. So, I’ll start off and I will give myself a minute or so. It doesn't have to be completely a minute but if the story takes less than a minute, then it takes less than a minute. It's not a big deal. Okay. So, you can see the wedding. So, that is my wedding ring and to date, I’ve seen only one other person with a ring that looks like this. And ironically enough, this is not even remotely what I had pictured my wedding ring to look like. My wife and I, we were living in Chicago and we went down to The Loop and we started going to all the jewelry stores. I thought I had in my head what I wanted my wedding ring to look like and I was trying them on what I thought I wanted and I didn't like them and just kept going and going. And I think we were in like our third store, we were going down the case and my wife pointed out this one and I was like “I don't know. I don't really like the way those ridges are or anything. Let's keep trying on some other stuff.” So, I tried on a few more, still didn't like them. She said well “Let's go back to the other ring.” I said “Okay, I’ll try it on” and I put it on and like literally the second I put it, I was like “Holy crap! This is my ring. This is perfect. This is awesome. I love this.” I had like no idea how good it was going to look on my hand until I put it on. And like I said, it's totally unique. I’ve never seen anybody else with a ring on their finger with the ridges and that's what it looks like. So, it's always a reminder to me of one, even though you may have a preconceived idea of something, you may want to try some other points of view out because you never know how those are going to affect you because they may actually be something that's better. And then the other one is that it's really unique like my wife who's super special to me and it reminds me of how lucky I am that I met her and that we ended up getting married. So, that's the story of my ring and why it's important to me.
Jayneil: Wow! That was amazing. My brother lives in Chicago. So, I am very much familiar with The Loop.
Mike: Yes. Although there are the jewelers’ row and everything and we really were looking a long time for it. So, now it's your turn and if you have something that you want to pick up there and tell me about. Whenever you're ready, I will hit start. Okay, looks like you got it. And ready? Go.
Jayneil: So, I have this small palm-sized notebook or notepad and this is something I’ve been using for a while. And as soon as you open it, there's a quote on that. It's one of my personal ones that I just made it up. It says “Don't sacrifice who you can be for who you are today.” And then it's got my date, it's got like some potential schedule I’m trying to aspire for but the thing I like about it most is every day I write down like max three tasks and once I’m done with them, I just like use the pen and scratch them out. And I feel that the brain is designed to come up with new ideas not necessarily for storing information and stuff. So, whenever I have ideas or like here's a note like “Make it a habit to screenshot all your podcast meetings for social media content.” So, if I just think about it, I just write it down. If I’m making meetings with people, I will write down like notes and stuff here. And something about writing in an actual notebook connects me to my childhood in India where we grew up writing with like ball pens and roller pens and there was a lot of writing involved. It was not that digital as it is now. So, I’ve stuck to that habit now and it's helped me become more productive and force my brain to focus on what is that one task that's the most important today that I need to write down, not everything, not buying groceries and stuff but just the most important thing that I should be doing. So, that's the story of how I try to manage my ADHD and try to be more productive using the small 5-dollar notebook that's palm size.
Mike: That is very cool. That is awesome. And I love the connection back to when you were little of writing and actually writing it down versus trying to remember it or maybe typing it into something. There's more of that just a physical connection because like … I wonder if it's because you're actually like literally creating it with the pen versus keystrokes and it's just popping up. So, you're more connected to your thoughts.
Jayneil: And it doesn’t feel the same way. If I had to transfer this whole to-do list to a note-taking app or something or to-do-list app, it doesn't feel the same way like just taking the pen and like scratching things out.
Mike: Very cool. I love it. And now I know something more about you. So, this is another good one to use for connecting team members. You may have been working with someone for years and they tell you the story of this and you now “I never knew that about them. Oh my gosh!”
Jayneil: Wow!
Mike: That's fascinating thing or “Oh my gosh! I like that same stuff too” or “I’ve been there” or something along those lines. It helps us just become more connected.
Jayneil: So, if you're in a Zoom call with like a big team and stuff, like 10 people on there, would you recommend … this was like the level four or the fourth exercise that built on top the previous three. Would you recommend jumping to this exercise right away or doing maybe just the first one the first time like one of the other ones that required less compliance?
Mike: You could probably do this one on its own but I think if you do one of the other ones first, I don't know if you have to do all of them but just maybe a short listening exercise to get them a little bit more rolling, momentum going because this one's, I think, at another level of thinking because you're really like … I’m just trying to listen to your story and really trying to take in the details and why that book is important to you yeah along with me not having any questions pop into my head that I want to interrupt you with or like “Oh, why did you choose yellow? Why is that one yellow? Significance to the color,” things like that. And so, I think this one was paired maybe a little bit better than one of the other ones first but you could do this on its own.
Jayneil: I see.
Mike: And probably still have it work. I think you just really need to stress those points to everybody before you do the exercise. Cool.
Jayneil: So, now I’m wondering if there's like … usually on Zoom meetings now, that's the post COVID era, like a lot of Zoom meetings and there's usually five minutes before somebody's coming in, trying to do this exercise with everybody, let's say, there's like five or 10 people. It's going to take like almost I think 15 minutes. So, maybe I guess just do one of the other ones?
Mike: Well, you could. Because we usually pair it off in one, I’m assuming, in the zoom meeting you could split them off into random breakout rooms with two people max and then it's only a two-minute deal and then you can do that across different meetings and hopefully people get paired up with someone else different times. So, that's probably would be my recommendation for that. Have them get randomly assigned into two-person breakout meetings that they can exchange and then it's only two minutes.
Jayneil: And then I really love the word association because that one can be really done in five minutes even if there's like 10 people because one would be the moderator and just like pick random people.
Mike: Yeah. Just have them in a circle and it goes around the circle for like a minute.
Jayneil: Ah, I see.
Mike: With the random part of it, then it's like who's going to jump in with the word. If you just go around in the circle, it's a little bit more structured.
Jayneil: So, the zoom tiles just go one by one like row by row.
Mike: Yeah, you could do that. Cool or if you wanted to, if you know who's going to be in the meeting, you can put up a slide with the order and just share “I’ve got everybody ordered. Here's the list of people. We're going to just go work on the list” and then they have to pay attention to who's talking on the list. So, that's another point of focus that's going to get them engaged and having to pay attention.
Jayneil: I love that.
Mike: Just improvised that thought right off the top of my head.
Jayneil: Improv, baby!
Mike: Because we are in the zone, Jayneil.
Jayneil: Yeah.
Mike: Okay, couple more exercises. And this one they can kind of go in either order. I’m going to stick I guess with this one first and this one tends to kind of be a little bit more on the creativity side. I can't draw to save my life but when people hear obviously creativity, they think the arts and being able to draw, be able to play an instrument and that kind of stuff but I firmly believe that we all have creativity and I’d like to use this exercise to point that out to the participants.
And so, this one's called “Open Your Hands” and this one you can do on Zoom. Normally, I have everybody walking around but that's not necessarily a requirement. What we'll do is I will ask you to just kind of like, I guess, let your thoughts wander, whatever. And when I say “Stop,” you will imagine like opening your hands in front of you, you can see me right now, opening your hands. And then something will magically fall out of the sky and land in your hands. It could be big. It could be small. It could be heavy. It could be light. It could be alive. It could be a box. It could be anything. Whatever it is, something's going to fall out of the sky and materialize in your hands and you're going to catch it.
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: And then it's your job to look at that object in as much detail as you can see, really see details about it. It's not just a brown cardboard box. Is it a FedEx box? Is it an Amazon box? Is there an address on it? Is the tape sealing in perfect condition or has someone maybe tried to open it? That kind of stuff. Are the corners nicked up? Is it really big but also like super light? Is it a small box but it's heavy? Those kinds of details are what I’d like you to come up with when you open yours. And I usually just do it like three or four times and then recap. I have people volunteers. So, you're going to be the lone volunteer. So, we'll be recapping all of your items that fall out of the sky.
So, give your head a little shake, give me a second, and … stop!
Jayneil: Okay
Mike: And then just imagine. You don't have to say anything yet. I just want you to look at it in your mind see all the details because we'll find out what it is later.
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: Keep going and just keep adding details. All right. Shake it off. Again, like I said, let your mind know, whatever, kind of going down, shrug your shoulders, tilt your head around, stretch a little and stop!
And what fell out of the sky this time? What are you seeing? Picture it. Don't tell me anything yet. Just picture it. What's in your hands?
Jayneil: Can it be the same thing as last time or it’s got to be different?
Mike: Try to have something different fall from the sky. It's a different object each time.
All right. Cool. Now, shake yourself out again. This will be the last one. Take some deep breaths, crack your knuckles, whatever feels good and stop! What's falling out into your hands this time or what are you picturing. It doesn't actually even have to be your hands. Just picture something in your head.
All right. And that's the exercise. Okay. Cool. How did that feel?
Jayneil: That felt amazing.
Mike: All right. So, then, what was your first object? What fell into your hands first time?
Jayneil: The first time it was like kilos and kilos of hot Arby's curly fries. The perfect pearls. I was inhaling the smell and then crisp and as soon as one curl like hit another curl of fries, it created this noise. And I could like imagine in my head just eating those fries and hearing that pop inside my mouth. So, I was just lost in that, I’m like “Oh boy!” There goes my exercise …
Mike: I’ve got curly fries in my freezer and now I may have to make them. I mean, that visual, I’m just picturing them golden. Were they various lengths or were they all the same curly length?
Jayneil: Oh, some were wider because there's like two lengths. Some of them are wider but then their height is small but then some of them are like really small in width but they're really long in height. So, it was like the whole nine yards like all different kinds.
Mike: It was the gamut of …
Jayneil: Yeah, the gamut of the curly fries.
Mike: Okay. So, what was the second one?
Jayneil: Second one was … So, I used to be a big card collector back in the day. I used to collect this anime like Yu-Gi-Oh cards. For people that don't know, they're similar to like Pokémon cards but I think Yu-Gi-Oh cards are better. So, I was just imagining in my hand all these valuable cars land in because what happened recently is I went to Walmart and for old time’s sakes bought like a pack of cards for like five bucks and sent a picture to one of my brother's buddies who's a collector. He tells me that that card is worth 400 dollars and I didn’t believe him. So, I sold it and I actually got 350 bucks for that card.
Mike:Wow!
Jayneil: So, I was just imagining all these cards.
Mike: What was on the card or what were some of the characters that you saw in the cards? Do you know any of them?
Jayneil: The card was just like … there's nothing visually appealing about the card. The only thing there is in the card is like the borders are like silver and shiny. So, that makes it like really rare.
Mike: Okay. And this is the card that fell on your hand that you pictured?
Jayneil: Yeah.
Mike: So, it was in perfect shape.
Jayneil: It was in perfect shape. It had this like newly mint smell to it like a fresh car right out of the factory or something.
Mike: Right.
Jayneil: And it was like shiny because it's holographic because it's rare and I was just like looking at it like “Wow!”
Mike: That's very cool. That actually just reminded me I have a shoe box, because I’m old and I saw Star Wars in the theater, the original one, so I was like seven and bought the trading cards. My mom cleared out the attic and gave me a box of trading cards with like the Star Wars ones from the ‘70s and so they're sitting up there. I have no idea if they're worth anything.
Jayneil: You should have that checked out.
Mike: They've been out in the shoe box for like 30 years almost if not more.
Jayneil: Oh my God!
Mike: And I was like “Oh, we still have these.” Okay. So, what was the third?
Jayneil: So, the third thing was not necessarily an object that fell in my hand because you said it doesn't have to fall in your hands. So, I was just visualizing. So, I was just imagining my Apple Podcast page for design MBA with thousands and thousands of reviews and it's become just so popular. So, I was just imagining that page, literally in my head scrolling up the browser and going up.
Mike: Did you actually see any reviews and their titles? Did you see like text or anything uh?
Jayneil: I did not. I was just so enamored and so like on cloud nine seeing like the stars and like thousand plus ratings.
Mike: Well, then you did. You did see some good ratings.
Jayneil: I see a lot of good ratings and I just paused on the scroll right there and I kept staring at it.
Mike: Cool. So, overall, how did the exercise feel to you?
Jayneil: I think it was very … it made me be more imaginative, focusing on the details. And, I think in one of the exercises, I was trying to like switch the exercise because anything can fall out of your hands, it can be personal too but I felt like I could trust you. So, I just kept with the first exercise, not trying to change it to something else.
Mike: Yeah. I’ve had people catch canoes. I mean, there's like “Oh my God,” stuff like when you're walking around, you see them like their hands are up like what are they able to find out. And sticking with your original thought as opposed to letting that doubt creep in. I’m like, “No, this isn't cool enough. This is not going to have a better …”
Jayneil: I thought about that with the Yu-Gi-Oh card like “Oh my God! I don't even know should I just say this. Most people are not going to know what the hell that is.”
Mike: Doesn't matter at all and that's like super cool. You have those details to it, the silver border, you even smelled stuff, new package smell that the cards have and all of that, all the sensory things that can help add to what it is that you're looking at. And, again, my point with this exercise is to point out that you may not think you're creative but look what you just created on the spot in the moment as soon as I said stop out of literally nothing.
Jayneil: Wow!
Mike: And so, I like to use that exercise as well. And so, this will take us to our final and the most standard of all improv exercises.
Jayneil: Nice.
Mike: “Yes And,” obviously, which is the “main tenet” of improv where we're agreeing to everything and, obviously, like I tell in the workshops, in your real life you can't obviously agree to everything but there are moments when you're doing the exploratory type things or brainstorming or someone is showing you designs or whatever, being open to those things and being willing to add and explore them and adding ideas and heightening. And it's so important to improv because, like I said, you have nothing going on stage. So, why not have the two of you build something together and use that momentum versus just fighting with each other. And there's a good video that I send out to everyone that comes to the workshop afterwards, I send out a bunch of links and stuff, but one of them is, and you can find it on YouTube, it's like … and the guy who is giving the talk, it's at like Chicago Ideas Camp, I think, or something like that, which is sort of their TEDTalky kind of thing. His name is Mick Napier and he is a long-time improviser in Chicago. He's directed shows at Second City on their main stage. he directed Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch and Scott Adsen and all of those people. So, he knows what he's doing. And in this talk, he talks about this and the power of “yes and” being open to ideas. And he has a couple of improvisers there and he runs them to a couple of scenes, one where they're just saying no to everything and literally just coming up with random ideas back and forth and some of them get laughs and, as he points out, that's kind of the danger of them is that yes, they get laughs, but in the end, where did this scene go to. Was it really that interesting or is it really just them coming up with witty lines and retorts versus the other scene they do which is like you can feel the energy of it and kind of like how they're listening to and building on each other's ideas and that doesn't necessarily mean that the characters have to like each other. The characters can be at odds with each other because they have the whole thing about tension but it's am I listening to the ideas. Your character doesn't have to like the situation they're in but they're in that situation.
Jayneil: True.
Mike: The example I always use is if it's a parent and their kid and the parent brings out and it's like “Oh, here's your broccoli for dinner” and the person doesn't like this, they go “That's not broccoli. That's a cellphone. That's the iPhone, mom.” Well, you just completely crapped on the idea that they had versus “Oh mom, broccoli. Broccoli gives me nightmares.” So, you know that and the thought there's like okay “Well, if you're doing a show and your improviser teammates are on the side listening to that, I would jump on that opportunity of a scene later where that kid's actually going to bed and monsters actually do come to his room because he had broccoli that night. I would probably be on the side of the stage being like “He's eating broccoli. That means we can have a lot of fun tonight.” So, little things like that that you're picking up on and listening to whereas if you had just done the cellphone thing, that never gets to happen because you're just denying it to come up with some idea that you feel is better or more interesting rather than building on what the other person said. So, that's a long-winded explanation to get to “Yes and.”
We’ll literally just do three lines of “Yes and” because the initial version of this, it's the training wheels. And so, we literally will say “Yes.”
Jayneil: And.
Mike: Repeat the statement “And …” because those are the markers. So, if I were to say let's go down to the beach,” your reply would be “Yes, let's go down to the beach and when we get there, I want to go fishing off the pier.”
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: And then I would say “Yes.” And this is where you can switch it up a little bit because you said “And I want to go fishing off the pier,” I would say “Yes, you do want to go fishing off the pier and I heard last week someone caught a great white shark off the pier.”
Jayneil: Yeah.
Mike: “Yes, you did hear someone caught …” Do you see how that is? And the point of it is to show the yes part shows that because I’m repeating back what you said, I clearly heard and listened to what you said because I am able to repeat it back to you yeah. And the and part is me adding a new piece of information onto the idea that you're giving to me. And by doing that, we're growing this thing together.
Jayneil: Got it.
Mike: And we'll do a couple of three-liners and then we can do one last one where we'll go a little bit longer.
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: And the first are two like we'll do one where I’ll start and then we'll do one where you start.
Jayneil: Okay.
Mike: So, that way we both get a chance to kind of open the opening line and everything. Okay. So, whenever you're ready, I will throw out a random line of dialogue.
The snow on the slopes looks really good today.
Jayneil: Yes, the snow on the slopes looks really good today and that makes me want to go snowboarding on it.
Mike: Yes, it does make you want to go snowboarding on it and this time I think you're going to pull off the 720. There you go.
So, it's literally that simple if you just take your time and listen. So, now we'll do it again but this time you can start.
Jayneil: Trying to think of something.
Mike: Don't worry about thinking. Whatever comes out is fine.
Jayneil: I am thinking of taking a hot shower today.
Mike: Yes, you are thinking of taking a hot shower today and I think you'll like the fact that I put some relaxing scented candles in the bathroom.
Jayneil: Yes, you have put relaxing scented candles in the bathroom and I’m really going to enjoy that gesture.
Mike: Perfect. So, what's going through your head while we're doing those two?
Jayneil: I think when you talked about the 720 and you said yes, you want to go snowboarding on the slopes, it made me somehow feel that you had heard me and you're willing to work with me and it kind of just gave me the feeling that working in large companies where I worked in the past, you don't necessarily have to be buddies with everybody, you don't have to get along with everyone but this exercise helps everybody collaborate in a way. So, something about collaboration just clicked for me as I was doing the exercises with you, just the art of listening and echoing what I was just saying.
Mike: And that's exactly the point. You're literally hearing me repeat back what you said and I’m adding on to your idea. I didn't change it up completely and threw out my own idea of what this whole thing should be about. And so, when you said about the shower, it's like … what I’m trying to think of, can't remember the movie, it was like 3D animation … it's like the road and the bricks on the road are appearing before me as I’m walking and it's completing the road as I’m going. That's what was going through my ahead, as I was saying it. Yes, you will take a shower and I was picturing the shower, also I’m picturing a shower, a bathroom and then like boom! Some candles appeared in the shower in my head and I’m like “Oh, those are like relaxation candles” and that's how that came out because I’m literally just letting my brain kind of construct it and then I’m just like spitting it out as it was going.
So, we're going to do one more. And we'll let this one go for a little bit longer. And if you want to start, whenever you're ready.
Jayneil: I feel like this itch to write more in my journal with my pen.
Mike: You do have an itch to write more in journal with your pen and I was walking by the pen store yesterday and they've got the brand-new Ink 2000 there.
Jayneil: Yes, you did walk by the pen store and noticed the Ink 2000 but I have no freaking clue what the Ink 2000 is.
Mike: You don't have any clue what the Ink 2000 is and that's because it's totally new, it's a free-flowing ink that makes your writing look like calligraphy.
Jayneil: Yes, the free-flowing Ink 2000 makes my writing look calligraphy but I question the authenticity of it given that I’ve not seen anybody else use it before.
Mike: You are questioning the ability of it to having seen anyone use it before and that's because it's actually a million dollars per pen, so very few people have them.
Jayneil: Yes, you're right, that's a million dollar per pen but I think there's a lot more interesting things one can buy for a million dollars instead of a goddamn pen.
Mike: Okay. So how did that feel?
Jayneil: This one was the best exercise because suddenly I could get creative and just bust you up a little bit, just make it like fun like. Before it was like more professional but in this one, we were actually having fun with the pen and I was really laughing. I was trying to control myself.
Mike: Exactly. And I’ll point out one quibble if you didn't because you probably didn't notice and when you listen to this when we go back, you'll hear it. Instead of “and”, you said “but”
Jayneil: Ah yes!
Mike: And when you go into that mode, it turns into “yes but.” If you think about what you said afterwards, it was a little bit of a “Well, I don't think …” instead of “And even though it's a million dollars, I’ve decided that I’m going to go rob the jewelry store next door and then fence the stuff to get the money to do it.” So, it's like when you run into those “but” situations, that's where usually there's some level of “I’m not sure what to do here” or “I’m uncomfortable with the idea, whatever this is.” So, usually a but will get thrown in there due to discomfort and there will be a little bit of a fight against where it's going, if that makes sense.
Jayneil: It does. And now that I think about it, I think I used the “but” twice but every time you kept on yes-anding, somehow you also broke my resolve. Does that make sense? Because you're collaborating with me.
Mike: Because whatever you said, I still repeated it and added on to what you gave. And that's why we were able to keep going. If I said to respond to your stuff that … we would have gotten like locked in a back and forth argument instead of it going anywhere if I just did “No, that's not what happened. People can use this and it does exist.” – “Well, I didn't see it exist.” – “Well, it does exist.” – “Well, it doesn't exist” rather than “Yes, you haven't seen it and that's because it costs a million dollars. And so, very few people have it.” I’m still building on your idea of why you haven't seen the pen all that often. And I think I call it the Ink 2000 because I think a Harry Potter Thing jumped into my mind. I think a Harry Potter thing snuck into my head there.
Jayneil: Oh my God!
Mike: Because I pictured the pen and it had Ink 2000 on it. something I think connected to Harry Potter and the Nimbus 2000. That's why I just called it the Ink 2000.
Jayneil: Wow!
Mike: So, that is a crack in to look into my head, I guess. And that is our exercises. That is our virtual Squad Cast Improv Workshop.
Jayneil: Oh my God! I had a blast. I just want to say thank you so much, Mike, for coming on the show and doing these exercises for me and then teaching those who are listeners who can now use it in person or you can also use it on zoom.
Mike: Absolutely. Perfect.
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