How to Combine Creativity With Commerce
to Create Harmony in the Workplace
i
The Art of ImproviZEN
PROLOGUE
The excitement and tension in the van was palpable as we shuttled
our way out of Baltimore Airport towards Cambridge, Maryland.
There were seven of us in a van loaded with show equipment,
making our way to a remote hotel in the woods where we would
perform our comedy teambuilding keynote address for the
Democratic Caucus of the United States House of
Representatives… and the President of the United States. Quite
frankly, none of us really knew how we had ended up here. Again,
we silently asked ourselves the question: “How the hell did we get
here?”
Nearly 15 years prior, we had started our “little”
improvisational comedy show, which we titled Four Day Weekend.
Since the show’s inception, we’ve been routinely asked, “How’s
your ‘little’ comedy show going?” The word “little” has always
been the conversational equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard
for us. We have made a living, and a quite a handsome one at that,
for more than a decade doing this show, yet people had no
compunction to try to diminish what we had done by calling our
work “little.”
In almost no other profession would someone be asked how
their “little” career was going. Very rarely do you hear,
“How’s your little doctoring thing working out for you? How’s that
little law thing treating you? Can you make a living at that
or do you have to have another job?” Although this has driven us
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crazy for a long time, the truth of the matter is people don’t even
realize that they are doing this.
Now, when asked how our little show was doing, we finally had
a pretty good answer: Our “little” show was about to deliver our
teambuilding keynote to the legislative body of the most powerful
nation in the world. At this point, it seemed that things were going
pretty well.
A lot had happened in the preceding 14 years, and not all of it can
be considered a traditional success story. Several of the original
cast members had left to pursue other endeavors, we struggled
through a transitional period that nearly ended the troupe, but we
persevered and went on to do more than 4,000 shows. We became
one of the longest-running shows in the Southwest, and eventually
sold a 30-minute sitcom to the Fox network.
The highs and lows of the last 15 years were marked in stark
contrast to one another, and on this late January day, as we headed
towards one of the biggest performances of our 15 years, we
embarked on the newest chapter of the show’s storied existence.
As we hurled towards our destiny, this yet unknown chapter, an
underlying pensive fear permeated the van. You’d think that we
would have had grown used to the uncertainty that accompanied a
life in show business, but judging by the dubitation that was
pervading the space, even our performance experience was
abandoning us right now. A thousand thoughts swirled around the
rented 15-passenger van:
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“How did we get here?”
“Are we good enough to be here?”
“Is failure imminent?”
“What is that horrific smell?”
The dialogs in our heads were similar and nonstop. Everyone felt
it, but no one said anything about it. Our fear was replaced with
false bravado that concealed our truest feelings at this moment. It
was every dreamed anxiety rolled into one, and the theme was
terrifying: “Good God, are we about to be exposed as frauds?”
Everyone knows this feeling. Even the best among us wonder
privately whether they will fail when faced with their biggest
challenge. At this moment, however, each of us also knew that only
the best among us can overcome fear and deliver when the moment
of truth arrives.
Life’s challenges have a way of bringing out fears that one may
not have even known existed, and on that day, our misgivings were
front and center. The two-hour ride seemed to go by too fast,
because as soon as this journey was finished we would be faced
with our expected task: to teach the tenets of improvisation to a
group of our government’s representatives, and to assist them in
working more effectively with each other and their opposing party
counterparts. In other words, our job was to fix America in 90
minutes. Hardly any pressure at all.1
Whenever any of us started to consider how big this might be
for our company and our careers, those thoughts were quickly
replaced by less intimidating concerns like, “Hey, there’s a
Stucky’s! Why don’t we stop for beef jerky?”
As we approached the hotel, our tension grew. The impending
visit from the President of the United States had heightened
security around the hotel to a level none of us had ever before
experienced.
Secret Service agents, replete with high-powered submachine
guns and bomb-sniffing German Shepherds, swarmed the grounds
1. You’re welcome, America.
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of the entrance of the hotel, and it was immediately obvious to all
us that this was the perfect setting for comedy. Who doesn’t love to
laugh with an AR15 pointing at your head?
Of course, our first fear was that they would soon be scouring our
van to see what was inside. We didn’t necessarily have anything
to hide, but the implication of the van’s contents surely could raise
some eyebrows. You see, when a comedy group such as ours
travels, we bring props to do our show. Hey, we’re not Carrot Top
but we do have to wear the occasional wig, beard, moustache,
outfit, costume, prop and…oh, screw it, who are we kidding?
We’re improv’s traveling version of Carrot Top.
Anyway, it always looks suspicious when a large group of men
try to get past the TSA, the local police, the Capitol Police or the
Secret Service with their luggage full of disguises. But we figure
that if we can’t travel with our props, then the terrorists and their
props have won. And we don’t want that. We are Americans, for
God’s sake.
The level of tension that is present right before the arrival of a
sitting president is profound. The weight of the office of the
President of the United States was literally lingering over the
grounds of this rather modest hotel in a small town in Maryland,
and there was no escaping it. The gravity of the responsibility of
those who are tasked with protecting the president was eerily
evident upon our arrival.
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As we made our approach, we were met by not one, not two, but
three secret service officers who took on a level of seriousness that
quickly made everyone feel as if we were about to be grounded
and sent to our rooms. The excitement of our visit prompted us to
film our arrival until we were informed in no uncertain terms that
filming was strictly prohibited.
Secret Service Agent: “State your business at the hotel.”
Us: “We are Four Day Weekend. We are the comedy keynote
address that will be delivered tomorrow.”
Secret Service Agent: “Can I ask you two hardcore questions?”
We get asked this frequently. When people hear we are a comedy
group they are often compelled to offer to tell us a joke. We, being
naïve, assumed this is what the ‘hardcore question’ would be so we
lightheartedly responded: “Sure.”
Secret Service Agent: “Is that guy in the back filming this?”
Us: “Yes.”
Secret Service Agent: (in a most menacing tone) “Well,
knock it off!”
Whatever feelings of tension that were prevalent before we arrived
had now become exasperated exponentially. Needless to say, we
knocked it off. We weren’t so sure we wanted to hear question
number two, but these guys had guns.
Secret Service Agent: “Can I ask you another hardcore
question?”
Us: “Sure.”
Secret Service Agent: “What are all these disguises for?”
Us: (Sigh)1
1.
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We felt out of place. We felt like frauds. It was exhilarating.
Sometimes embracing your fears and stepping outside your
comfort zone can make you feel alive. That’s what the Art of
ImproviZEN is all about. Taking chances and knowing everyone
around you is going to support you without judgment. We liken it
to taking a leap of faith and knowing a metaphorical trapeze bar
will always be here to catch as you fall. It’s exhilarating!
We were scared, but we had that metaphorical flying-throughair feeling - minus the circus tights.1 We sat idly by while
bomb-sniffing dogs inspected our van, and we prepared to enter the
hotel compound. After being cleared, we were told we could
proceed to the hotel where we would be “wanded” by the Secret
Service before being allowed to enter.
It was silent in the van during the short drive to the hotel. We
had come from the most humble performance beginnings:
performing at 11:00 p.m. at night for 12 to 13 people, most of
whom had come in just to get out of the oppressive Texas heat.
We started a 6-week-run with little intention or hope of it lasting
beyond that short time-frame, and now we were about to perform
for the President of the United States.
It was a testament to the power of belief. It was a testament to
1. They were confiscated by the Secret Service.
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the power of saying, “yes, and” to all of our dreams.1 It was a
testament to everything that we had learned and then began
sharing in our keynote address. You can become anything you
want to become. You can accomplish any dream that you have the
imagination to create, if you only have a willingness to say, “yes,
and” to all that life has to offer. If you can see it, you can be it.
Everyone experiences fear. We certainly did. Everyone
experiences doubt. We certainly were as we approached the Hyatt
Hotel in Cambridge, Maryland, but the one thing that was stronger
than either our fear or our doubt was our belief in ourselves and,
most importantly, each other: the belief that if we worked together
as a group, we would succeed as a group. We knew that we were
far stronger as an ensemble than we were as individuals. We would
lean on each other and, together, we would perform for the United
States Congress.
People always ask us, “Do you still get nervous before a show?”
And we will tell them that it’s like putting a kid’s bike together on
Christmas Day - it’s complicated. Over the years we’ve learned to
channel and focus that nervous, excited energy into our
performances. Is the nervousness and excitement still there on
some level? Of course it is. But we’ve since learned to channel it
into something that we can use to our advantage. Now it helps us
to overcome our fears. As our mentor and dear friend, the great
Marty DeMaat of Second City fame, once said, “Nerves are just
your body’s way of telling you that you want to do your best.”
So we banded together to perform for the United States
Congress. We stood looking out at the likes of Vice President Joe
Biden, Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Caucus Chairman
John Larson. The only thing we were armed with was each other.
When the finale of our performance was met by a standing
ovation from Congress, we knew that everything we had learned
and taught were tenets that should be shared, so we offer you with
great humility: The Art of ImproviZEN.
1. “Yes and” is one of the fundamental building blocks of improvisation
and life.
The Art of ImproviZEN
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THE CURTAIN RISES
Introduction (The Improvable Dream)
In the fall of 1996, three friends -- Frank Ford, David Wilk and
Troy Grant -- had a very important decision to make. They needed
to decide whether they wanted to continue their quest to climb the
ladder of the famed comedy theater The Second City in Chicago,
or start from scratch and go out on their own. After being told by a
director of The Second City, “You guys are great, but I have 400
guys who look just like you,” the decision was simple: steal
Second City’s business model and choose a city that has never seen
it.
The three men’s first call was to their longtime friend in
comedy, David Ahearn, whom they asked to join them in a comedy
experiment. They were considering starting their own
improvisational comedy show, but at that moment they felt they
didn’t have enough comedians to look like a “real” show.
Ahearn was initially reluctant. He came from the world of
stand-up and, in his circles, improvisation was looked down upon.
At the time, stand-up comedians saw improvisation as “fluffy”
comedy nonsense. Improvisation was considered by a sizable
portion of stand-up comedians to be butterflies and rainbows, a
comedy nirvana where everyone got along and there was always
peace in the world.1
Improv is a beautiful and rare unicorn. Stand-up is hiding a
grenade in the unicorn’s food, laughing when the grenade explodes
and then pointing out how screwed up the world must be for someone to feed a unicorn a live grenade. Who would do that? What a
jerk.
1. And who wants to live in a world like that?
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In the world of stand-up comedy, comics tear the world apart by
ranting to audiences nightly about what is wrong with the universe.
Ahearn was comfortable in this world. It was cozy, it was home,
and he was hesitant to leave it. Ford, Wilk and Grant persisted.
They understood Ahearn’s reluctance because they too, had
performed stand-up and they knew how different the two worlds
could be.
They fundamentally understood the dynamics between the
negativity that permeated the world of stand-up comedy and the
potential that lie waiting in the world of improvisation. Ford, Wilk,
and Grant made Ahearn a deal -- they asked him to come to
a photo session they were having for a group picture for the new
show. They needed a body to fill out the photo so that it looked
like they were a legitimate show. If he would take a picture with
the group, he could decide later that he didn’t want to do it, and the
group would figure something else out. Without realizing it, Ahearn said his first “yes, and,” and by
doing so he learned the very first and most important rule of
improvisation: Say, “yes, and” to everything. Ahearn said, “yes” to
being in the photo, however, at this point the “and” was a bit
lacking. “‘And’ I’m not combing my hair beforehand.” This was a
stand-up’s first “yes, and.” Baby steps.
The rest was a future that Ahearn could have never anticipated. That one ambivalent “yes, and”
changed the lives of his family and his friends in the most profound
way imaginable.
Four Day Weekend was born on February 28, 1997. What started as a limited 6 week-run at the 99-seat
Casa Theater on the Square in downtown Fort Worth has been going on now for more than
15 years. Four Day Weekend eventually grew into a new 212-seat theater
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named The Four Day Weekend Theater, and has generated its own
corporate communications division, which includes a corporate
training division, a full four-level student training center, touring
company and a film and television production arm.1
The cast has performed more than 4,000 shows around the
world. All of this came from an idea. An idea that started in three
people’s heads and took steam from one reluctant person saying,
“yes, and” to a concept he was reluctant to join. The story of Four
Day Weekend brought additional tales of the phrase “yes, and”
changing people’s lives.
Fellow veteran comedian Oliver Tull said, “yes, and” to
joining the cast a year and a half into the run. Tull had grown
weary of working the road as a stand-up comedian and, in all
honesty, his 1984 Ford Festiva with 211,000 miles on it, made his decision an easy one: 200 shows, one city? “Yes, For Tonight’s Show:
and...do you know anyone 10am - Wake up
who wants to buy a Ford
12 pm - Lunch
Festiva?” He soon found
his footing in the show and
he has since become one of the most accomplished, charismatic performers in
Four Day Weekend.
When the show needed a new musical director, Troy Grant
happened upon Ray Sharp playing piano in a local delicatessen.
Grant looked over at his tip jar and saw eight $1 bills sitting
inside it. He thought to himself, “We can afford that,” and he asked
Sharp if he would be interested in temporarily filling in as musical
director. Sharp, who had never even seen a comedy show, agreed
to come see a live show to explore if this opportunity may interest
him. On the night of the show, the cast asked if he would sit in for
the evening just to see how it felt for him. Sharp said, “yes, and”
and without any rehearsal, was told only one piece of direction:
“When the lights go out, play something.”
1. Sound familiar, Second City?
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Fear could have paralyzed him into walking away from the
challenge, but one look at his deli tip jar made the answer simple:
“Yes, and could I get this pastrami sandwich to go?” Ray said,
“yes, and” and his dream of playing live music was realized.
All this happened from a chance visit to a delicatessen and the
willingness to say, “yes, and” to an opportunity. Ray’s piano tip jar
was officially retired on October 24, 2000. His third music CD was
released in 2010, and he continues to create original music for
radio, television and film.
Josh Roberts changed his life by saying, “yes, and” in a
slightly more conventional way. He brought his now-wife on their
first date to Four Day Weekend. After seeing the show, his date
asked if he enjoyed it and Roberts said, “Yes, and I’m going to be
in it. I just don’t know how yet.” His wife supplied the answer to
that in the form of a gift certificate to the Four Day Weekend
Training Center.
After graduating from the training center, he was asked to fill in
as a weekend replacement when a cast member was unable to
perform. His “yes, and” led him to an ongoing nine-year career
with Four Day Weekend. Josh has performed every Friday and
Saturday night for the past ten years -- and his wife deeply regrets
ever giving him that gift certificate.
Seven stories. Each one different. Each a unique tale of
embracing the idea of “yes, and,” thus inviting dreams to take
shape. Had any of these people said “no” it would have forever
altered the terrain of this amazing success story.
One of the first questions we are asked when we tell people we
are improvisational comedians is always, “Can you make a living
at that?” Our answer is always a resounding, “Yes, and we make a
living doing what we love.” Coincidentally, you can find the secret
to our success not-so-subtly hidden in the answer to the question.
“Yes, and.” By saying, “yes, and” to the unknown field of infinite
possibilities, we have achieved what most people long for: we
make a living doing exactly what we love to do and we are paid
handsomely for it.
We are fortunate to be able to do what we love -- which is
improvising comedy in front of thousands of people every week --
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and in doing so we fulfill our childhood dreams. We live each day
doing what Joseph Campbell called “following your bliss.” It is
improvising meets zen. Welcome to The Art of ImproviZEN.
The follow-up question and/or comment that we are asked
comes very quickly after people hear that indeed we, or anyone for
that matter, can make a living doing what they love. It generally
is a variation of, “How can I do that?” “I wish I could do that,” or,
“As a kid I always wanted to do (insert passion here) ‘BUT’ my
friends and family told me I couldn’t make enough money to make
a living at it.”
This is precisely the reason that we don’t use the word “but.” It
is an acronym that means “Behold the Underlying Truth.” Here is
someone telling us what they had always longed to do but never
tried, because of one person’s opinion about why they couldn’t.
In reality, it is the skeptic’s fear which prompts them to offer the
advice that someone “can’t make a living by working at a job they
love.” The skeptic may have been too afraid to pursue their dreams
so they project their fear onto others to dissuade that person
from pursuing their dreams. We are evidence that you can and
should pursue your greatest dreams, because yours are the
talents that the world so desperately needs. We always
wanted to grow up to be a kid. And we are.
We have always been amazed that one of the most prevalent
reasons why people claim they didn’t “follow their bliss” is
because either they, or someone close to them, felt that they
couldn’t make a living doing what they loved. To us, choosing the
alternative of doing something you don’t love in order to make a
“better” living always seemed to be an unacceptable option. All of
us in Four Day Weekend felt that we would rather make slightly
less money doing what we love to do than to work a job that would
be drudgery to go to everyday just to make more money.
Ironically, we are making a better living than had we gone to
medical school or had we become attorneys, which are amazing
occupations if they also happen to be your passion. Everyone has
this potential to do what they love and to be paid handsomely for
it. Do what you love to do and the money will follow. This is the
reward for living your life for YOU instead of for someone else.
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It’s actually a lot simpler than many people think it is. You
begin by saying, “yes, and” to life in all its forms. We recognize
this is contrary to everything that most people have been taught
their entire life. We have been inadvertently trained to say, “no”
because in the word “no” we maintain the illusion of control. It is
mistaken logic, but most of us have been taught in a very
unconscious way that by saying “no” we are guiding our lives by
what we are bringing into our lives or, accurately, not bringing into
our lives.
We have been inculcated to believe that we have to have all of
the answers to every challenge and that we can’t rely on anyone
to help because if we do we will diminish our value. This is the
genesis of the flawed logic that if someone else has the answer
to a challenging situation, then that gives that person more value
andit devalues the person who didn’t have the answer. Therefore,
in most business settings and even personal situations, it is seen as
a weakness to actually rely on someone else for help. To us, this
is “stand-up” logic. As improvisors, we are here as proof that this
isn’t the case.
Every night we stand in front of 250 to 2,000 people, and we
are armed with nothing but each other in our mission to create a
live comedy show. We don’t have a script or an act. The only thing
we have to guide us through this sometimes treacherous maze are
the words “yes, and.” Through the power of agreement and the
understanding that each of us has our own unique contribution
to our success, we do what many feel is a magic act. But it’s not
magic. The power is within everyone to cultivate the potential of
“yes, and.”
In this book, we are going to teach you how to harness the
potential of saying, “yes, and.” We will guide you step by step
using exercises that will allow you to change those negative
thought patterns that are prohibiting you from reaching your
fullest potential. It is not those around you that are keeping you
from being your brightest self, it is an indoctrinated negative
thought pattern that causes countless opportunities to be missed
due to the reflex of saying “no.”
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“I can’t do that right now, I don’t have time.”
“I don’t like him/her so I don’t want them to get credit for the
idea.”
“My way is better than my co-worker’s way.”
“I’m right and you’re wrong.”
“Nanny nanny boo boo, stick your head in doo-doo.”
These are all negative thought patterns that grind a business or a
personal journey to a halt. How do we know this? We know this
because we have “stuck our head in doo-doo.” (Metaphorically
speaking, that is.) We have discovered that whenever Four Day
Weekend has had a struggle or a challenging period in our journey,
it was because we abandoned our core principles.
This is why we are taking you on this journey. We have both
succeeded and failed in the world of “yes, and.” It takes
constant awareness to identify opportunities and to prevent
negative thought patterns from overtaking a business or a
personal journey. We want to be open with our own
lower-percentage choices to illustrate to each of you how easily a
company can be lulled back to sleep.
So join us on this exploration to the world of “yes, and,” where
all things are possible, “no” doesn’t exist and your dreams await.
- Four Day Weekend
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ACT ONE
YES, AND…The PoZENbilities
Look around you. Everything you see in front of you -- this book,
your computer, your cell phone, the house or the apartment you
are living in or the business where you work -- was at its inception
just a thought in someone’s mind. It was just an idea or dream that
at the moment of conception had yet to exist. It took one inventive
and brave person to think up the idea and to say, “yes” to
exploring the possibility of making it manifest into the
material world.
It’s the power of “yes.” If the idea or invention is the
equivalent of an engine in a car, then the word “yes” is the
sparkplug. It’s the ignition that turns the engine over and gets it
running. Saying, “yes” to ideas is what helped us to found the
greatest democracy in the history of mankind, land on the moon,
and create the internet that allows us to communicate with others
around the world at the touch of a button.
But there is an additional component to “yes” that is
necessary in order to bring ideas to fruition in the world, and it’s
called “and.” For every great idea in the world, whether it was
Alexander Graham Bell with the telephone, Henry Ford with
the automobile, or the Wright Brothers with the airplane, it took
someone to support the idea and to build upon the initial concept to
make it even better.
Someone had to answer Bell’s telephone call, ride passenger
in Ford’s car, or be the navigator in the Wright Brothers’ plane.
That is “and.” (Little known fact: there was actually a third Wright
brother named Lefty, but he said “no” to inventing the airplane, so
you’ve never heard of him.1)
“And” is the fundamental building block in the arena of ideas.
As much bravery as it requires to take a chance and trust your
instincts about bringing one of your ideas to fruition, it takes an
even braver person to be the first one onboard to help make it a
reality. How many times have you been in a group of people where
1. The existence of Lefty Wright could not be verified at the time of
publication.
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someone has been asked to volunteer for a special project only to
see that no one raises a hand to help out? This happens all the time.
Finally, as the tension of the moment builds with no volunteers,
one person will bravely raise their hand and step out on the limb.
At that moment, it’s the second person who can open the flood gate
of volunteers by agreeing to join the first. If a second person raises
their hand, a third, and then fourth will soon follow, until enough
people have joined the journey. That second person was “and”
which created a contagious energy that made everyone want to
help out.
When our democracy was founded it took an army of men with
sometimes contrasting ideas to come together and say, “yes” to the
idea of a self-governing democracy where all men were created
equal. They are called “The Founding Fathers” for a reason. If you
think about it, The Founding Fathers were the original American
improv troupe. They weren’t performing comedy, but they were
definitely improvising.
Much like an improvisational ensemble, they had no script
and they were making it up as they went along. They didn’t know
where they were going; they only knew where they had been. It
was not what one person knew, it was what they knew as a
collective (thus the word “United” States), nobody’s ideas were
any better or worse than anyone else’s, AND they wore silly
costumes and wigs. If that’s not an improv troupe, we don’t know
what is. They were one promo poster away from having their own
show.
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If a monarchy is the equivalent of stand-up comedy with one
person telling everyone the way it’s going to be, democracy is like
an improvisation, a collaboration where the best idea wins. It’s like
our Founding Fathers used to say: United we stand, divided we
stand-up.
It took multiple fathers to give birth to our union and to nurture it
into a realized dream. It took one person to believe that there was a
better form of government available to the people than a monarchy,
but it took an army to bring the idea to fruition. Someone had the
foresight to believe and say, “yes” to the idea that “all men are
created equal”, but it took an equally insightful person to say, “and
all women are created equal, as well.”
And while we’re on the subject, taxation without representation
is the equivalent of enforcing a two-drink minimum.1 It’s really not
fair to your customers. This was the genesis of the American
Revolution and it all started with “yes and.”
1. Four Day Weekend is probably the only comedy club in the nation that
does not enforce a two-drink minimum.
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This democracy has evolved to become a living, breathing
embodiment of “yes, and”. We started with a premise of
creating the world’s greatest democracy and have continued
to improve upon it by utilizing the very tenets of “yes, and...”
We haven’t always been perfect, but by keeping ourselves open
to the possibilities of what might be we continue to improve to
reach our stated goal. Each time we amend our constitution, we
aim to improve upon this brilliant document by stating “AND this
can make it even better.”
No one knows whether it was Wilbur or Orville Wright that came up with the original idea for the airplane, but one thing we know for sure is it definitely wasn’t Lefty. The only thing we know is that the airplane exists
today. One of them came up with the original idea (yes) and the
other agreed to help make the idea come to fruition (and), and because of this attitude, we are able to fly anywhere in the world
1
in less than 30 hours. Had either of the Wright Brothers said,
“no” or “no, but” we would still live in a world where we traveled
for months by ship across oceans to get to distant lands.
Thomas A. Watson had to answer Alexander Graham Bell’s
phone call to make it a reality.2 Sure, Bell “invented” the phone,
but what would have happened had Watson told him that the idea
was ludicrous and it could never be accomplished? Would it have
been enough to have dissuaded Bell from trying? Fortunately, we
will never know because at their core each of these examples were
met with “yes and” and not “no, but.”
The American Revolution thrived because a group of pioneering
men and women said, “yes, and” to the possibilities that awaited
1. Unless you’re in the middle seat. Then it feels like 40.
2. Thank God it wasn’t the iPhone, or the call would have dropped.
The Art of ImproviZEN
15
them. The tenets of “yes, and” have now made these ideas manifest
in our daily lives. Airplanes, cars, indoor plumbing, telephones,
and silly putty were no more than the ideas of a science fiction
writer a little more than a century ago, but now they are so
commonplace we actually take them for granted.
Today, computers allow us to communicate with people around
the world with the touch of a button. Someone in Dallas, Texas,
can play chess with a person in Tokyo, Japan; you can play ‘Words
with Friends’ on a plane or flush away a Congressional career by
tweeting a naked picture of yourself -- and this can all happen in
real time, no less. Things that used to take years can now
happen instantaneously. These are remarkable accomplishments
that have now become second nature to us. This all comes from
saying “yes, and” to the possibilities.
In our corporate culture today, “yes, and” is a tenet that is
seldom embraced. We have been trained instead to say, “no, but…”
We have been misled to believe that by saying, “no,” we maintain
control and we prove our value by claiming to have better answers.
In this book, we aim to show how changing that paradigm and
creating a culture of “yes, and” will allow you to personally and
professionally fly across oceans instead of traveling for months by
sea.
In our world at Four Day Weekend, the world of make believe,
a world where anything can happen and all ideas will be honored
and valued, we have stricken the word “no” from our vocabulary.
Whenever anyone walks into the Four Day Weekend Theater our
mantra is to treat them as an artist and a poet.
Imagine a world where no matter what the idea is it will be
treated as if it is the best idea anyone has ever conceived - a gift
that has been bequeathed upon us to make the world a better place.
We will work with anything and say, “yes, and” to the possibilities
of any concept. This is The Art of ImproviZEN.
The enemy of “yes, and” is judgment. Nothing hinders
progress more than judgment. How many times have you found
that projects in your business or personal life have stalled because
one “buzz kill” had to find something wrong with an idea? You can
The Art of ImproviZEN
16
feel the positive energy leave a room when the toxicity of
judgment enters. Progress is impeded because one person fails to
see the possibilities from an idea.
In the work place you may have heard the phrase “Paralysis by
Analysis.” In our world it is better to be on time than right.
Because in our world, even if we start with a low-percentage
choice, we are going to “yes, and” it into a great choice. We are
here to tell you, there are no bad ideas. To judge an idea as “bad”
or “good” only places a limitation on the idea. Even saying
something is a good idea places a label upon it and with it an
expectation. An idea is just that: an idea. It is no more than a
thought in someone’s head that can and should be explored in order
to see where it might evolve.
We know right now almost all of you are saying, “Well, now,
come on, there are bad ideas. Does anyone remember New
Coke?”1 We’re here to tell you that not even New Coke was a bad
idea. There is no telling where this so-called “bad idea” could lead
you. New Coke reminded the people who made Old Coke what a
great product they had, and it led them back to concentrating on
what made them great to begin with. It guided them back to their
core competency. Often businesses return to former successes after
realizing that it was a mistake to abandon their core principles and
vision.
Look at McDonald’s and the McRib sandwich. It is a huge
success for their business and every time they have discontinued
it, they have found that the demand for the sandwich continues to
grow. They listen to their customers and realize they can
reintroduce the sandwich by having a limited-time offering of
the sandwich and they create a sense of urgency to purchase the
product.3 Was it a bad idea to discontinue it? No, by doing so they
realized they have a product that can be used seasonally and that
they can make it an “event” purchase which only increased the
value of an otherwise stagnant product. This came from being open
to all ideas.
1. Upon further reflection, there’s a 48%2 chance New Coke was a bad idea.
2. 78% of all statistics are made up.
3. The McRib sandwich has been retired more times than Brett Favre.
The Art of ImproviZEN
17
In the arena of ideas, it’s important to remember that there are
always higher- and lower-percentage choices. What does this mean
in more simplistic terms? It means that some ideas start further
down the path to success than others. With some ideas that means
we may have to work harder to reach our intended goal. More
specifically, this means there are higher- and lower-percentage
choices.
Sometimes, however, lower-percentage choices can pay off with
big margins. That’s the reason there is a 00 on a roulette wheel.
It’s not a high-percentage bet, but when it pays off, it pays 37-1.
Sometimes low-percentage choices yield higher gains because
most people aren’t willing to explore these options. So one man’s
low-percentage choice is another man’s 37-1 win and, therefore,
we don’t judge.
In order to change the terms “good” and “bad” and to remove
the tendency of drifting towards judgment, we say there are higherand lower-percentage choices. We can work with anything. We can
take a lower-percentage choice and make it work, but it is just that:
work. That is why we always encourage everyone to bring their
very best every time they walk into the doors of our theater. Bring
your very highest-percentage choices and we will make them even
better. If you bring New Coke, we’ll work with it, but we’d prefer
if you’d bring Classic Coke because we already know it’s a winner.
Many years ago a high-ranking executive at a Fortune 500
company attended one of our regular public performances at our
theater in downtown Fort Worth. After the show he stayed to talk
with the cast. He said he was amazed by what he had just
The Art of ImproviZEN
18
witnessed: a completely improvised comedy show -- no script -and it came off flawlessly. He asked, “How did you do that?” The
answer surprised him. “We listen and we never say ‘no’.”
We hear quite frequently from people after our shows, “You
guys are so quick and you’re so funny.” We gladly take the
compliment, but in reality we know that this isn’t the case. The
truth is we listen well and we have trained our brain to build on the
pertinent information provided by our partners.
In our business, “no” is a killer. Because we work without a
script, we are not afforded the luxury of saying the word “no.” If,
for instance, a scene started in our show where one person said to
another, “I’d really love to go golfing with you next week,” and the
response was, “No,” the scene is over. There is nowhere we can go
now. However, if someone said, “I’d really love to go golfing with
you next week,” and the response was, “My brother is the head
groundskeeper at Pebble Beach and he can get us on for free,”
another person might add, “I have a lot of frequent flyer miles that
I’m willing to give to everyone so we can fly there for free.”1
In three lines of dialog, we went from wanting to go golfing to
flying to Pebble Beach to play for free. This is “yes, and.” This is a
world of all possibilities. Aren’t you glad you didn’t get the chance
to say, “no?” If you did, you’d be sitting at home tonight instead of
playing on one of the best golf courses in the world.
This is exactly the process that was used when we decided to
write this book. For years we had toyed with the idea of putting
these concepts into print because of how well they have worked for
us. We felt we had discovered a gift that we wanted to share with
the world -- a gift we’ve all known for a long time, although
occasionally we have abandoned these principles. The word “yes”
brings synchronicity and the word “no” brings disharmony. This
book was conceptualized by using “yes, and” to make it a reality.
One day we were sitting around our office2 and, as a group, we
decided it was time to proceed with writing the book. As we
discussed the concept, someone (and it doesn’t even matter which
1. And if you use frequent flyer miles to get there, you’re guaranteed to sit
in the middle.
2. P.F. Chang’s. Our office changes with every meal.
The Art of ImproviZEN
19
one of us it was, because we work as a unit)1 said they felt that this
book and the “yes, and” philosophy have always felt like a form of
Zen. Everyone contributes and brings their special talents to give
the book the feel of multiple voices coming together as one. “We’ll
write it together,” someone said. “It’s not what one person knows,
it is what we come up with together. Like an improv scene.” That
led someone to comparing the idea to Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance, which prompted someone else to say The
Art of Improvising. Another cast member added their touch: The
Art of ImproviZEN.
“Yes, and” we had the title of the book. It took less than five
minutes. No one said “no” and each idea was treated as if it were
divine inspiration. Each person added their special take on the
book. Like a fine recipe, everyone added one ingredient to make
our dish better. “Yes, and” is a form of verbal networking -- it
creates instant buy-in from everyone because it takes an idea from
“my idea” to “our idea.” At the risk of repeating an old cliché,
there is no “I” in team.2
We weren’t finished yet. We began discussing what the cover of
the book would look like. Someone said they had always wanted
to paint the cover of the book. They would paint it on canvas and
then transfer it to become the cover. That inspired someone to say,
“What if the cover of the book was an image of a painter’s palette,
because each one of our ideas represents a different color on the
1. It was definitely me.
2. However, there is also no “P” in bed, but sometimes it happens.
The Art of ImproviZEN
20
palette?” The enthusiasm grew as someone “yes, anded” that idea
with, “What if each one of the colors had our faces in it?” Another
person added, “Yes, we are human canvases in our show and this
will illustrate what and who we are.” And finally, “Yes, and on the
easel will be the title of the book, The Art of ImproviZEN.” “Yes,
and” we have our cover art work.1
Voila! In ten minutes we had a concept, a title and the cover all
before our lunch arrived.2 We specifically left out which cast
member added which detail for two reasons: one, we don’t
remember exactly who added what ingredient; and two, it doesn’t
matter. We worked together and we succeed and fail together. Our
triumphs and our losses are painted with the palette of all of our
faces. Each color is blended together to make one painting. Red is
no better than blue and it takes both to make purple.3
There is a larger lesson at stake here. In improvisation, we
value everyone’s ideas and input. No one idea is better or worse
than anyone else’s, and because of this approach, we always come
up with the optimum solution or answer to any challenge or goal.4
In the above example, no one person was tasked with coming up
with all of the components to create this book. Each of us only had
to add 15% to create what you are reading on this page.
No one was forced to make an idea work. If someone had an
answer it was volunteered, and if not, we take comfort in knowing
1. One of us tried to create this art, only to realize he couldn’t paint, so we
hired an artist to do it.
2. That’s not entirely true - the edamame came out before the meal.
3. Thank you to kindergarten teacher Mrs. McMahan for teaching us how
to make purple and how to make a turkey out of our hand.
4. This is important and bears repeating: Nobody’s ideas are any better or
worse than anyone else’s.
The Art of ImproviZEN
21
that someone else in our group would provide the perfect piece of
the puzzle. Each of us is only responsible for our small slice of the
pie, and because of that, it alleviates the pressure of having to cook
the whole pie.
Think about the broader context of this approach. We all come
from distinctly different backgrounds with unique experiences.
Each one of us has a brilliant perspective to add to whatever goal
we are trying to accomplish. If we choose to value this wide
spectrum of diversity, it takes the pressure off of one person
having to come up with all of the answers. Each person’s unique
perspective allows them to have that one perfect component that
makes the whole better. This is “yes, and.” It is building on the
pertinent information or idea and adding to it to make a better end
product.
This is how The Art of ImproviZEN works, and it is what can
make your business and your personal life more successful.
Everyone in your organization is an expert at something you’re
not. From the accountant, to marketing, to sales, administrative, the
janitor, or the guy that steals the sandwiches out of the break room
vending machine1, each person adds their value to complete (y)our
puzzle. Honor their value because it’s one less job that you have to
do.
1. You know who you are.
The Art of ImproviZEN
22
You don’t have to do everything. There are people around you
that are there to help you and to make you better. Your job is to add
your piece to the puzzle thereby creating the landscape of the
whole. You might add the corner piece or one of the myriad of
pieces in the middle to the puzzle, and when it is complete you will
see the totality of your picture but you will not know which piece
you added. You will only know that you were a part in creating the
whole and succeeding as a unit. This is the essence of socializing
an idea.1
This approach brings organizations together because everyone
feels valued. Everyone contributes and everyone becomes
emotionally invested in the outcome. Inclusion makes people work
harder and it fundamentally makes people more dedicated. In The
Art of War, a text written in 6th century B.C., Sun Tzu writes, 1)
“Loyalty is above all based on appreciation.” 2) Would someone
please invent the printing press? It is hell carving into this cave
wall.2 Here is a man who understood the value of “yes, and.”
Inclusion breeds loyalty. Exclusion breeds exclusion.
Now we know that, in the rough and tumble world of corporate
America, this goes against the current paradigm. We live in a world
where it’s dog-eat-dog and everyone does everything they can to
get recognized while simultaneously trying to squash anyone in
their way. Climbing the corporate ladder often means stepping on
someone on the way up.4 This is flawed logic. Ultimately, it is only
hurting you and your company to do this. Yes, you may get to the
top, but at what expense? If rising to the top means putting out an
inferior product to do so, who wins? No one. Not you, not your
company, and certainly not your customers or clients.
1. Our entire act is based on socializing an idea.
2. Nine centuries later his wish was granted when Johannes Guttenberg3
invented the printing press.
3. Not to be confused with Steve Guttenberg who invented Police
Academy 1, 2, 3, 4.
4. Our corporate ladder looks a bit different.
The Art of ImproviZEN
ay Weekend
This is how Four D
te ladder.
climbs the corpora
23
The Art of ImproviZEN
24
Creating the Stage
One of the most important aspects of “yes, and” is creating an
environment in your business (and even in your personal life)
where ideas can be brought up and discussed. This should be a
place where judgment is left at the door and every idea is
welcomed and investigated.
At Four Day Weekend, we have a mantra that we all say before
we enter the hallowed stage of our theater. “Leave your ego at the
door.” Be open to any and all ideas that are presented here because
a gem surely awaits. That is why it is crucial to create an
environment in your business where all ideas can and will be
explored without judgment. Just like in our performance-based life
at Four Day Weekend, those in the world of business are also
walking onto the stage every day.
There is a reason at the end of the fiscal year that every
employee receives a “performance” review. We are all performers,
and in order for a performer to have a place to perform, we need a
stage; a stage where everyone is allowed to showcase their special
talents and abilities to assist the whole. Upon entering this place,
everyone should approach this special sanctuary as if it were holy
ground. All ideas will be honored. This is creating a stage.
The time will come when the practicality of the ideas and
whether or not they can be implemented can be discussed, but if
you allow a space for brilliance to arrive, it surely will. Your sacred
stage will soon become a favorite meeting place for those on your
team, because everyone will know that they will be fully supported
and judgment will be left at the door. Imagine returning to a place
The Art of ImproviZEN
25
you probably remember from when you were five years old, where
all ideas are supported and anything is possible.
We have taught hundreds of workshops and keynotes around the
world teaching this very principle. After one particularly
enthusiastic breakout session, the Chairman of the Board of a
nationally-known jewelry chain approached us and told us a story
about their sacred forum. He told us he cultivated a similar
atmosphere with his management staff that would listen to any and
all ideas.
After a particularly bad quarter in the jewelry business, he asked
for solutions to the lagging sales in the stores. Someone raised their
hand and said, “What if we started a program where any new
customer who buys a ring in any of our stores can bring the ring
back into any store and we can clean the ring for free? This will
allow us to get our customers back into the store to see how they
liked their purchase, and we can find out if they have additional
needs.”
Without missing a beat, another person added, “What if we just
allowed any of our customers, no matter when they bought their
rings, to bring their ring in and have it cleaned for free? They may
not have visited a store in awhile and this will give us a chance to
reintroduce our product lines to these customers.” A third person
added, “Let’s allow our competitor’s customers to bring their rings
in and we’ll clean them for free. We can find out why they chose
our competitors over us, and we can take that time to show
the customer our superior lines of products.”
The Chairman of the Board told us this process took less than
ten minutes and the program was immediately implemented. In 18
months, sales rose nearly 25%. All from creating a forum where all
ideas are valued and everyone works together to make the initial
idea better.
Now what would have happened if after the first idea was
suggested the response would have been, “That’s a stupid idea;
there is no revenue in that. It creates extra work for our employees
and it will never work anyway.” Sluggish sales would have
continued to slide. But because the principles of “yes, and” were
applied, a 25% increase was achieved. The Chairman didn’t know
The Art of ImproviZEN
26
the principle was called “yes, and” but he knew that the process
worked. He realized that by cultivating an atmosphere where all
ideas were welcomed it opened up his organization to endless
opportunities.
Create the stage for inspiration. Allow everyone to have the
luxury to open the floodgates of their creativity. Companies like
Apple thrive on these principles, which helped them to
revolutionize the music and film/television industry by creating the
iPod. Because of being open to all ideas we literally can have our
very own radio and television station with our favorite songs and
shows in our pockets at any time.1
At the touch of a button, we can hear our favorite song or see
our favorite film or television show. Why? Because Steve Jobs
knew that ideas are the most valuable commodity in the work
place. He understood that the first idea may not be the idea that is
finally realized, but it may lead us to a revolutionary change in the
way we do things. Each idea has merit because it may have been
the seed the seed that created the 100-foot oak tree.2
Who knows who might have a better idea for improving online
banking? A better way to track inventory in retail stores? A more
efficient way to move baggage in the airline industry? Ideas don’t
have to come from the top down. They can come from the trenches
if the people doing the work there are allowed a forum to share
their ideas. Business is challenging enough without shooting down
what could be the best idea that no one has ever thought about. The
janitor may just know how to save you a lot of money by changing
the way he cleans the restrooms.
Create the stage. Allow everyone to be treated as an artist and
a poet and the benefit will be yours. No one cares who thought up
the idea for the iPod, we only care that it works and we are willing
to buy it.3
1. The only idea from Apple that was not embraced was an idea for a
youth oriented iPod for kids. The product was tentatively called iTouch Kids.
2. Ironically, that 100-foot oak tree was cut down to print this book.
3. Actually, Johnny Ive was the one who came up with the iPod. His
friends call him J. Ive Turkey. See, we told you you’d never know who it was.
Sorry, Johnny.
The Art of ImproviZEN
27
Say “Yes, And” to the President of the United States
As we mentioned earlier, the Unites States Congress called us
and asked us to do a keynote address for the Democratic Caucus
in Washington, DC. Of course, saying, “yes, and” to the request
seemed on the surface to be quite elementary, although there were
a series of points at which we could have said, “no” that would
have prevented the opportunity from occurring.
About four months prior to getting a call from Congress, we
had received a request to do our keynote address from Southwest
Airlines. They had heard of the work we had been doing and they
wanted to bring us in to work with their training team to make their
training more fun and interactive. We were definitely interested in
performing the keynote, however, there was one small snag in the
proposal: the training department had used all of its allotted budget
dollars for the year and they wouldn’t be able to bring us in until
after the new year. We were okay with waiting, but the fine folks at
Southwest needed us at that moment.
We have a long-standing policy at our show that we no longer
perform “free gigs.” When a performer first starts out in show
business, the “free gig” is very often pitched under the guise of,
“There is no money but this will be great exposure for you.” We
are always quick to point out, “People die from exposure.”
However, we have trained ourselves to avoid saying, “no” and
instead look for “yes, and” solutions.
Southwest proposed offering us a portion of our fee and airline
tickets in exchange for our keynote address.1 On paper this might
sound good, but we travel for a living and hopping on another
plane in lieu of being fully paid didn’t sound completely appealing.
Sure, a couple of extra tickets would be nice, but because we travel
for a living the thought of a free trip to Amarillo wasn’t all that
enticing. No offense -- for the record, Amarillo is a very nice place
to visit.2 But since the word “no” won’t come off of our lips, we
continued to work with the people at Southwest to find a solution.
Southwest pointed out that they also flew to Los Angeles and
we realized that we could use our airline tickets to fly out to
1. Insert your own, “Did you do it for peanuts” joke here.
2. Once.
The Art of ImproviZEN
28
Hollywood when we had meetings with our agents and managers.1
The deal made economic sense to us, and we decided that this was
a valuable quid pro quo.
We have found one of the great benefits to owning our own
business is the ability to trade services in lieu of cash transactions.
We don’t do it often, but sometimes this can prevent an opportunity
from passing. Southwest was amenable to the trade and, because
both Southwest Airlines and Four Day Weekend were willing to
work together, we were able to meet President Barack Obama. If
at any point we decided to say, “no,” we would have never met the
president. Here is how this amazing “synchronicity” took place:
All the cast loaded up and headed down to Love Field in Dallas
to go to the Southwest Airlines headquarters. Generally, when we
keynote we perform for anywhere between 200 to 2,000 people,
but this day was going to be different. We had the 30 people that
ran the training department at Southwest and we decided to gear
our bigger training session to this smaller group.
The first thing we all noticed about Southwest Airlines was their
absolute willingness to dive into our seminar. Often we are initially
met with reluctant faces and folded arms, which is ironically the
main reason we are brought in to keynote. However, Southwest has
a “can-do” attitude that pervades from the top level down in their
organization. We quickly saw that this company took their very
serious business and added a touch of humor to their approach in
how they interacted with their customers.
During our session, we discovered through “yes, and” that it
was a flight attendant who suggested taking the rather dry flight
safety requirement speech and adding their own personal and
funny flare to the announcements. For anyone who has ever flown
on a Southwest flight, I’m sure you can recall the first time you sat
zoning out during the announcement until one funny tidbit of the
flight attendant’s speech caught your ears. “In case of a water
landing, we suggest the breast stroke,” passengers can faintly hear
as Southwest flights soar across America. Southwest takes flying
1. If there are any agents on managers in Hollywood that are willing to
represent us, we can get out there for free. Or split the difference and meet you in
Amarillo.
The Art of ImproviZEN
29
seriously, but they don’t take themselves seriously, and this attitude
was apparent whenever we engaged with the training team.
The Power of a Positive Atmosphere
During this session, unbeknownst to us, Southwest Airlines hired
a freelance writer named Jay Heinrich to write an article featuring
our keynote address and our training session. Jay, by his own
admission, is somewhat of a cynic. He expressed to us privately
after the session that he was dubious about using “yes and” and
even told us he felt it was a little “rah-rah” for his taste.
Whenever we conduct a keynote address, we let our audience
know it is not a lecture. Everyone in attendance will participate in
the exercises, and on this day Jay would be no different than
anyone else. We brought him into the fold during an exercise we
call “Ad Exec.” This is an activity where we have a group of about
10-12 people form a semi-circle and act as the creative team at an
ad agency, whose job it is to create an ad campaign for a product
that has yet to be invented, or a way to improve upon a product
that already exists.
The objective of this exercise is to teach the participants that
there are no mistakes, and all ideas are welcomed and worthy. Four
Day Weekend facilitates the groups as they come up with a
campaign to advertise a product that has its own jingle, slogan, a
produced song, a celebrity spokesperson and a mascot. It sounds
like a daunting task but, as we always tell our group, it will be easy
if we all work at our greatest intellectual capacity, give our very
best, and always rely on our partners to make us look good.
A key component of this exercise is always embracing the very
first idea on the table. There is no room for second guessing and
there are no “no, buts”. We see a lot of pensive faces at the onset,
but we assure everyone that if they have faith in “yes and” and the
people who they are working with, inspiration will be found. Then
we embark on creating this campaign.
We advise them that as their ad exec leaders, we are going to
start mining for ideas by asking a series of questions looking for
inspiration -- if inspiration hits, then they should shout out their
The Art of ImproviZEN
30
idea. If, however, someone doesn’t happen to find inspiration, there
is no need to worry because another individual in the group will
find the nugget of gold. When that person yells out their idea, we
want everyone in the group to high-five, hug and congratulate said
person as if it’s the greatest idea they have ever heard.
No one is allowed to say anything negative about the idea. It
must be embraced fully as if we had just discovered the cure for
cancer. Imagine how creative, confident and productive you would
be if you knew that every idea you offered would be greeted with
enthusiasm and praise. Think of how empowering it would be to
not have to work with the worry of criticism.
We are looking to create an atmosphere of trust that is fertile
ground for inspiration to flourish. We always get a few people who
not only don’t want to participate, but also think it’s just a silly
idea. Our writer Jay confessed he was one of them. Because he felt
this way, when we posed the question asking for a new product or
an everyday household appliance that could be improved upon, he
admitted to trying to sabotage the exercise. He offered up what he
felt would be a very hard concept to work with: “A machine that
can turn gravity on and off.”
We immediately broke into applause and congratulated Jay by
telling him this was the greatest idea we had ever heard. All the
Southwest training team joined in and soon the atmosphere was
like the greatest party ever thrown. Jay smiled, somewhat
embarrassed, but he felt the support of the entire group and his
demeanor lightened.
We continued: We need to come up with a name for this
product. One of the training staff quickly added, “The Flotation
Device.” Everyone high-fived the person who offered the idea. We
had our name for the product. Jay was starting to believe in the
process.
We need a slogan for our product: “Things are looking up…
and down.” The excitement was filling the room. Now people were
literally falling over each other trying to join in to add their gem.
What is our logo? An apple falling UP from a tree. The highfives continued.
The Art of ImproviZEN
31
We need a mascot: A stringless yo-yo. “Yes, and” had
overtaken the room and now we were all working together to
succeed.
Someone added our spokesman will be YoYo Ma.
We then said we had enough money in our budget to get an
already-produced song: Blood, Sweat and Tears’ “What goes up
must come down. Spinning wheels go round and round.”
Everyone joined in and we sang two versus, even Jay joined in on
the chorus.1
Where are we going to advertise? On the bottom of all
Southwest Airlines’ planes so when people look up they will see
our ads.
This amazing ad campaign took place because one reluctant
journalist tried to sabotage a “yes and” exercise, but was then
overwhelmed by the positive energy that pervaded the
atmosphere. Again, we reiterate, even the lowest percentage
choices can be built upon to yield a greater dividend. One man’s
sabotage is another man’s thinking outside of the box. To say that
Jay was a convert would be an understatement.
After the session concluded, Jay sheepishly confessed to us that
the reason he intentionally tried to sabotage the exercise was to see
how we would react when our activity failed. However, when he
was met with a positive reaction, he said he was not only shocked
at the response but he was even more shocked that we were able to
take his negativity and circumvent it with our positive energy and
create success.
The lesson here is that a positive atmosphere starts with a
group’s leaders. We were able to manage the energy of the group
with our own reaction to Jay and the rest of the group followed our
lead. In the process we elucidated to Jay that not only would he
be supported, he would be treated as if he were the most valuable
team member.
People by their very nature look to get along with others and
they will do whatever the majority of the group does in order to fit
in. If people see that negativity is pervasive in a group, they will
adapt a negative attitude in order to blend in with the crowd; if a
1. Albeit off key. He’s a better writer than he is a singer.
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32
group is fundamentally positive, people will do the same with a
positive attitude.
Our writer Jay was a perfect example of this: he traditionally
spent time with negative people so he, too, projected a negative
outlook. However, when he was immersed in the predominately
positive group of people at Southwest Airlines and Four Day
Weekend, he conformed to the positive make-up of the group.
This shows the importance of saying, “yes” but specifically the
addition of “and,” for then a contagious feeling of goodwill
permeates the group. The more people you can convince to change
their outlook to one of agreement and cooperation, the more likely
you are to change the attitude of even the most cynical member of
your group.
It takes positive leadership in the face of adversity to implement
the benefits of “yes, and,” but once everyone sees the potential and,
more importantly, feels proud of their ideas due to constant support
and encouragement, the greatest ideas will flourish.
Saying Yes Opens Doors You May Not Know Are There
We completed our training session with Southwest and Jay went
off to write his article on the power of “yes, and.” We felt pretty
good about the trade for services we had made, and we felt even
better about saying “yes, and” to Southwest Airlines. Surprisingly,
even we had underestimated the power of “yes, and.” We went
back to our business and, to be honest, we kind of forgot about it
until Jay called to inform us that the article was finished and would
be appearing in the November issue of the magazine.
Calls started pouring in regarding the article. A health
executive from Indianapolis called and asked if we could keynote
at their annual sales meeting. Another asked us to go to Florida
for an eyewear company. There was no question that saying, “yes,
and” to the article was a positive thing.
Then, as we mentioned, it came: a call from Chairman John
Larson of the Democratic Caucus. He called to ask if we would
consider flying to Cambridge, Maryland, to deliver a keynote
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33
address to the caucus to start their year off. He went on to say that
after the address they would like to invite us that evening to
dinner where the guest speaker would be none other than President
Barack Obama. Chairman Larson said, “We’ll introduce you guys
to the president!” Of course our first thought was, “The president
of what?”
Now, we have had some successes in our lives, but up until that
point we really hadn’t gotten a lot of calls from Congress. We had
to ask, “How did you find out about an improv comedy group in
Fort Worth, Texas, and what made you call us?” The answer
confirmed why saying, “yes, and” is so important. “One of our
members was on a Southwest flight in California and she read
about you in the inflight magazine. She came to me and
recommended we bring you in.”
Let us reiterate everything that transpired. Four months
earlier, Southwest Airlines asked us to do a keynote address for
their company but they didn’t have all of the money in their budget
to pay our full fee. They asked if we would be willing to trade part
of our fee for a trade of services which, under most circumstances,
we don’t do. Fortunately, we saw the merits to this and said “yes,
and” to Southwest Airlines, “yes, and” to an exchange of services
in lieu of payment, “yes, and” to Chairman John Larson and “yes,
and” to meeting the President of the United States and finally “yes,
and can we take a photo1 with the President?”
1. The President is the dude in the middle.
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34
Saying “yes, and” opens doors that you don’t even know are there.
Read that again. Saying “yes, and” opens doors that you don’t even
know are there. If at any point during the process had we said, “no”
we would have missed the opportunity of a lifetime. There is
energy behind all words and intentions. Saying, “no” sends out a
vibration that tells the universe that you will not accept fortuitous,
serendipitous opportunities and saying, “yes, and” sends out the
vibration that you will. There is no way we could have orchestrated
these events even if we tried.
Setting the Stage, Implementing Greatness
After you’ve created the space the time has come to “set the stage.”
Creating the environment where ideas can flourish takes some
retraining of our outdated “no, but” attitudes. Because we have
become so conditioned to say the word “no” and to let our
“rational” mind try to control situations, we have to recondition
ourselves to be open to any and all ideas. Although this takes some
work at the beginning, once your team has reprogrammed their
approach, the benefits to saying “yes and” will soon manifest.
Upon entering your sacred stage, allow anyone with an idea to
offer it to the group. Remove any tendency to judge and instead
allow the seed of the idea to take root and see how it grows.
Although initially some people in the group may revert to their
habit of judging, it is important that every idea is met with
unlimited enthusiasm. Allow everyone in the group to work to
improve upon the idea.
Gradually, if each person wholly trusts the process and
participates by adding their small important piece of the pie, the
initial concept will be shined and improved upon until it is a
precious gem. It is important that those in the group don’t try to
altogether change the initial concept or idea, but instead help to
improve upon it. It is very easy for this process to devolve into
“no, but” which is simply a covert way for control to enter into the
process, thereby stifling creativity.
In our world we always say, “Control is the enemy of improv.”
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35
Control inherently stops “organic” possibilities from arising.
“Organic” possibilities are those unplanned bits of brilliance that
arise when you least expect, but in order for them to manifest you
must be open, and that means relinquishing control.
When people inherently feel out of control themselves they try
to control other people. This is their own insecurity manifesting
itself to the detriment of the greater good of the whole. In fact,
when someone feels the most out of control, this is when they need
the support of those around them. By relinquishing control they
actually regain their own footing.
Anytime anyone in Four Day Weekend reverts to trying to
control a scene in improv, they are always met with the words,
“Knock, knock.” Here is a peek behind the curtain of what that
means. It’s our favorite “knock knock” joke:
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Control freak.
Control freak who?
Oh, time out. Wait a minute. Slow down, let’s start over.
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Oh, sorry, too fast. Let it breathe for a second. Let’s try it again.
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Oh, you know what… could you speak up a little bit? Let’s go
one more time. Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
You know what, forget it. I’ll do both parts.
This joke pretty much sums up the way the majority of businesses
are run today. It’s basically a few people in an organization telling
everyone else that their own ideas are better than the rest. By doing
this, they are closing themselves off to tremendous possibilities
that could change the way they do business.
C-O-N-T-R-O-L: Causes One Not To Reach Optimum Levels.
Control stops progress. For instance, someone might say, “Maybe
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36
we can cut costs by making the packaging smaller.” If this idea is
met with, “Marketing will hate that idea,” you have just been
introduced to “no, but.” However, if the response is met with, “Yes,
and by making it smaller, we can fit more in the shipping boxes
and that can reduce shipping costs,” we have just shaved money
off our costs by using “yes, and.”1
The key to this exercise is
replacing the words “no, but” with “yes, and,” therein creating “what if” scenarios. By opening
up a forum for “what if”
scenarios, a world of possibilities
awaits. We are planting the seeds
for greatness in the fertile soil of
ideas that could reinvent the way we do things.
We have taught this relatively simple concept in hundreds of
workshops around the world with an exercise called
“yes, and.” The exercise is simple.
We ask people to step forward and
face each other. We then tell one person to say any line of dialog
that comes to their mind, and we
have the other participant listen to
the idea and then build upon it. We ask the second person hearing
the first line of dialog to say the word “yes and,” then repeat the
pertinent information. The word “yes” lets your teammate know,
“I agree with your idea and, in fact, I’m repeating it back to let you
know that I’ve heard what you’ve said, and now I am going to help
you implement your idea and make it even better.” Let us
illustrate using an exercise from an actual training session.
At the beginning of the exercise the person involved claimed
they didn’t know what to say. We told them they could say
anything. Any line of dialog would work. They stood there
1. This book is saving you money already!
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37
stumped until we asked them, “What did you have for breakfast
today?” They responded, “I had wheat toast for breakfast.” We
countered, “Good, there is your first line of dialog. Continue.” This
is what followed:
First person: I had wheat toast for breakfast. (A statement of
fact from this person.)
Second person:
Yes, and (affirming the original idea) because I like wheat toast (repeating the idea that is offered)
I have a lot of energy today (building on the
concept of wheat toast).
First person: Yes, and (affirming the added idea) because I have
more energy (building on the pertinent
information) I am going to go to the gym today.
Second person: Yes, and (affirming the added idea) because I’m
going to the gym now (building on the pertinent
information) I’m going to shed that extra 15
pounds.
First person: Yes, and (affirming the added idea) because I’ve
shed that extra 15 pounds (building on the
pertinent information) I am able to run more.
Second person:
Yes, and (affirming the added idea) because
I’m able to run more (building on the pertinent
information) I can finally run that marathon I’ve
always wanted to run.
First person: Yes, and (affirming the added idea) because I now
am able to run a marathon (building on the
pertinent information) I decided to enter a race to help raise money to cure breast cancer.
Second person:
Yes, and (affirming the added idea) because I
ran a race to benefit breast cancer research
(building on the pertinent information) enough money was raised that we found a cure for breast
cancer (we are solving the world’s problems now).
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38
First person: Yes, and (affirming the added idea) because we
cured breast cancer (building on the pertinent
information) women all over the world decided to
display their breasts in appreciation for the cure
(the benefits of solving these problems equal great
news for men!)
Isn’t that amazing! Because someone decided to have wheat toast
for breakfast, they were infused with more energy which allowed
them to go to the gym, shed that extra 15 pounds, run a benefit
marathon for breast cancer and we cured the world of breast
cancer. I’m sure that first person was glad they decided to eat
wheat toast for breakfast! Because of that, women are cured of
breast cancer and men get to see boobies.1
If you take a closer look at the above exercise you will notice
that both participants used the word “I” and not “you.” This is
because we want to cultivate an atmosphere of the group mind.
Everyone is working together to succeed so by claiming ownership
of all ideas every works harder to accomplish our goal. This is the
essence of the group mind because once we are all in it together we
work to bring our very best ideas to the forefront.
Let’s look at the larger picture here. This exercise shows how
using “yes, and” works. Neither person involved in this exercise
had any preconceived ideas of what was about to occur but they
still opened themselves up to the possibilities of a “what if”
scenario.
What if someone had wheat toast? It gave them more energy.
What if they had more energy? They could go to the gym. What if
they went to the gym? They could lose weight. What if they lost
weight? They could run more. What if they started running more?
They could run a benefit marathon for a cure for breast cancer.
What if we found a cure for breast cancer? Women would show
their breasts as a sign of appreciation. This all happened because
the initial idea was accepted and not judged. The second person
chose to say, “yes, and” instead of “no, but” and because of that,
we have cured cancer.
1. Men love boobies, Book of Genesis.
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39
This concept is what facilitated the national jewelry chain
raising their sales by 25%. It’s the same concept that thrust us to the
moon, and on a personal level, it’s the same concept that can make
your marriage more harmonious because it allows you to listen to
your partner to become more in tune with them.
These concepts can be used in business or in your personal life
because the fundamentals are the same. It is saying, “yes, and” to
life in all of its forms and it is also realizing and admitting that we
can’t always see the whole picture of life, no matter how hard we
try. We couldn’t see the whole picture as to how we would meet the
president, but we allowed the space for it to manifest. Sometimes
our greatest achievements happen when we aren’t looking, but then
can only occur if we allow ourselves to let go a little. As John
Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy
making other plans.”1
After this exercise was concluded, no one remembered who said
the original line of dialog nor did they remember who eventually
decided to cure cancer. The two people only knew that they
succeeded together by accepting each idea as if it was greatest
notion they had ever heard. The larger point here is that what we
come up with together is far better and more entertaining than what
we come up with individually. These ideas were no longer “your”
idea and “my” idea; they became “our” idea. United we stand,
divided we fall.
1. But he also said, “Coo coo ca choo, I am the Walrus,” so take it with a
grain of salt.
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40
Begin asking, “What if?” Respond to your “what ifs” by
saying, “yes, and” and the results will begin to materialize in
places you least expect it: on your balance sheet, in your marriage,
in your art, in your children, as well as a myriad of other places
that you haven’t even thought about. In improv and life, it’s not
about the landing, it’s about the leap. It’s the willingness to take
chances and risks that allows your dreams to materialize. By
creating an environment where all ideas are cherished, you
cultivate an atmosphere where people feel valued.
As business owners ourselves, we have learned that paying
people a large salary is not what retains quality employees.
Making them feel a part of a community is what keeps our most
prized employees from seeking employment elsewhere. When
people feel as if their ideas are valued and taken seriously, they feel
secure and they become willing to take chances.1 It is in that
bravery that the idea of the iPod became a reality. It is in that
bravery that people become willing to create, and creation leads to
invention. Invention leads to progress and progress leads to a better
way of doing things.
Ideas are our greatest currency. They are the genesis of all great
advancements, inventions, products, works of art or any other
creation. And when people feel like their ideas are being heard,
they will bring you their very best and this ultimately helps the
collective to perform better. This is when people feel as if they are
a part of something bigger than themselves. This is loyalty.
We treat everyone at Four Day Weekend as if they are family2
and our family has stayed together a long time because we value
their ideas and their input. And, because they are family, we pay
them well, too.3 We learned the most important lesson in business
from both a customer and an employee point of view: Loyalty is,
above all, based on appreciation.
1. That, and really hot women come to the show.
2. And by family, we mean the weird uncle that no one wants to sit by at
Thanksgiving.
3. It’s dangerous to upset a weird uncle!
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41
WORKBOOK EXERCISE: YES, AND...
Description:
Two participants stand facing each other making eye
contact. One participant makes a declarative statement (i.e.
“I like to workout”) and the other participant has to build on
the pertinent information from that declarative statement in
the first-person (i.e. “Yes, and because I like to work out, I’m
healthier”). This dialogue goes back and forth until a natural
conclusion is reached.
The Point of the Exercise:
This is the fundamental building block of improvisation. The
word “NO” is a controlling word, and a conversation and
creativitykiller. When we say “YES, AND…,” we are
agreeing with our partners and building on the pertinent
information they’ve established. We create an environment
where everyone’s ideas are accepted and built upon which,
in turn, promotes active participation by all members of the
group.
Directions:
Start with a declarative statement and pass the book clockwise
around the table, with each person adding their “Yes, and”.
Declarative statement: ______________________________
_________________________________________________
Yes, and _________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Yes, and _________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Yes, and _________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Yes, and _________________________________________
_________________________________________________
42
The Art of ImproviZEN
ACT TWO
The Art of LiZENing
To listen is a forgotten art, lost among the myriad of distractions
that have inundated our daily lives causing us to be far worse
listeners than we have ever been. The iPhone has become a more
treasured companion at the dinner table than the person sitting
across from us.
Men have been accused for a long time of being less adept
listeners than women, but with the advent of email, text messages,
instant messages and a host of other marvels of technology, women
have now joined our ranks in being less than stellar listeners. Now,
very few people listen.
This is an art that we ardently feel that we must master again,
because what good is the great idea if no one looks up from their
iPhone long enough to hear it? How many times have you been
introduced to someone by name, then seconds later you have
already forgotten? Remember being in the awkward position of
having to ask that person what their name is again? Or you make
the choice not to ask them their name again only to still not know it
on the seventh occasion you’ve met them.
There are only so many times you can get away with calling
someone Sport, Man, Dude, Champ, Tiger, Buddy, Love Bug,
Snookums, Bro, My Main Man, Chief or Doug.1 Now, you’ve
placed yourself in the uncomfortable position of not knowing their
name, only this time you’re sharing lunch with them. We’re sure
this has happened to you numerous times.
When Four Day Weekend signed with our first major agency
in Los Angeles, we were so caught up in the excitement of finally
having “made it” that none of us remembered the name of our
principle agent after he was introduced to us. We weren’t listening
when we were introduced to him by the senior agent, and soon we
found ourselves sharing car rides with our new agent as we were
driving to meetings with the studios. Not one of us knew his name,
and this was embarrassing.
1. If anyone is calling you this, they have no idea what your name is.
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43
We tried tricking him into saying his name by asking him things
like, “What do your friends call you when you’re hanging out?”
He responded, “They just call me by my name.” No matter what
we tried, we could not get his name out of him. We even stooped
so low as to ask him for a business card so that we could read it off
the card. Unfortunately, he told us he had just run out and wouldn’t
have any for at least another two weeks.
We continued to try to pry his name out of him to no avail. This
went on for almost three weeks before finally, one day at lunch, a
friend came up to him and said, “Hey Jack, how have you been?”
We all looked at each other and laughed. Now that everyone knew
his name, everyone started calling him “Jack” every chance we
got. Fortunately, our former agent never knew we didn’t know his
name. That is, until this book was published.1
Here we were, those who preach listening and we didn’t even
know our own agent’s name. It happens to all of us from time to
time, but we must remember: everyone loves hearing their own
name. It’s important to them and by knowing it you gain an
advantage connecting with that person. And you attain that
connection by being in the NOW and listening.
The human connection is the single most important edge you
can attain in business as well as your personal life. To listen to
someone’s story and take an interest in their lives is to create a
customer and friend for life. People do business with people they
like, and to like someone you must feel a connection to them. To
create that connection one must listen.
In our business we are happy, friendly people who know and
like each other, who have a shared history together. If this is the
first time you have met someone, this is your opportunity to create
your shared history with that person. By asking them their name,
where they are from, where they went to school or even finding
out details about their family you are initiating your shared history
with this person. The next time you see them you will know: That
is Sam. He’s married with two kids and he went to the same
college as I did. This is how we foster relationships that can
1. A big shout-out to Jack Leighton at APA. We still love you, Buddy,
Sport, Champ, Chief and Doug.
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44
eventually become mutually beneficial for both parties.
Centered and focused people listen and they create the space for
people to share. They aren’t waiting for the space so that they can
quickly interject their thoughts and opinions. They listen intently
and allow themselves to learn about the person with whom they are
having a conversation. In the world of improvisation, there are two
components to listening. We listen with our ears and our brain and
we receive with our heart. It is one thing to “listen” to
someone, but it’s an entirely different thing to “receive” someone.
The receiving is where empathy takes place, and empathy is the
space for truly getting to know someone. Everyone loves to talk
about themselves. People love sharing their story.
Recently, at an event for a Fortune 500 company, an attendee
came up to the cast and said to us, “Oh my goodness, you ask the
most interesting questions.” We just smiled and said, “Thank you.”
Do we ask the most interesting questions? The reality is that no, we
do not. What we do is ask people about themselves and, because
we do that, our questions seem to be interesting because we’re
interested “in” that person; therefore, the questions then become
interesting. That is why there is an old adage that when you attend
a cocktail party, concentrate on being an “interested” person and
not an “interesting” person.
The more small details about a person and their lives that you
discover, the more impressed they become. Why? Because, you
took the time to learn about them, and let’s face it, “them” is their
favorite subject. So why not give yourself the edge by learning
about their favorite subject: their birth date, how many kids they
have, their hobbies, where they went to school or the host of other
details that you can discover.
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45
Not only is it a joy to get to know someone in this way because
you can connect on the most basic human level, but also because
friends do business with friends. The next time they may need
services in your field your name will pop into their mind, all
because you listened to them.
We do this every night when we are performing our live show.
On any given evening we are faced with a room full of strangers
with whom we have seemingly nothing in common except that we
are all in the theater together. However, we very quickly connect
with the crowd by talking to a few people at random during the
show.
It starts simply enough: What is your name? Where are you
from? What do you do for a living? What are your hobbies? We
ask them very simple questions that anyone could answer and we
slowly build their trust by listening intently, but what happens is
nothing short of remarkable. Most people, when asked, would
probably admit that their life seems very boring, but we are here to
tell you that this simply isn’t true. Everyone has a story and
everyone’s story is unique and everyone secretly wants to tell their
story. If you are willing to legitimately engage them in their story,
what you’ll find is magic.
On one occasion a seemingly simple wedding videographer told
us the story of how he escaped from Iran during the revolution in a
casket that was loaded beneath a small truck. He had to stay in this
casket with the lid slightly cracked for nearly four hours without
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46
moving because he wanted desperately to make his way to
America. It was a fascinating tale that all came from asking him his
name and where he was from. On the surface he seemed to be just
a regular guy who filmed wedding videos, but by getting to know
him we found an amazing story. How? We found it by listening, by
allowing him to share his story.
In Four Day Weekend performances, we use “regular” stories
like this and, for one night out of their lives, we make these people
the “stars” of our show. We recreated a scene from this man’s life
and it became a magical moment shared with the audience. On
this night our videographer friend left our theater and people were
high-fiving him and slapping him on the back in congratulations
because as a group, we all recognized the wonderful humanity in
this man. This all came from listening.
In improvisation the single most important skill a performer can
have is to listen. Since we work without a script, much like you do
in business, we always have to be listening to see where the
comedy scene is progressing. We can think about where we might
want the scene to go, but we have to be attentive to just listen to
where it IS going. We always say, “We don’t know where we’re
going, we only know where we’ve been.” This keeps us open to
any and all possibilities. We remove any preconceived notions we
have about where something may lead and therefore open up the
possibilities for what might be. Then, it is our job to proceed
without judgment and move the scene along its natural path.
We may have been inclined to think that this man who spent his
life capturing the memories of others had little in the way of his
own story, but by being open to all possibilities we discovered the
story of a brave man who escaped a repressive regime in Iran to
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47
find success in America. And because we always remain open, we
discovered this man who called himself a “videographer” was in
fact a gentleman who longed to capture new beginnings because he
was given a new beginning in America. This was a very
successful businessman and, had we been closed off, we may have
never known his true story.
At Four Day Weekend, we always say, “If we participate in true
and open communication, we don’t know what we’re going to say
until you finish what you’re going to say.”
How many times have you been in a business conversation and
the person you’re engaged with is talking and you find yourself
thinking, “When is this person going to shut up so I can get my
point across?” While you’re not listening and instead are
waiting for your chance to express your agenda, you may be
missing exactly what your client or customer needs, wants, or is
looking for from you. By not listening, receiving, and being
present in the moment, you’ve missed the pertinent information.
Which begs the question, how can you “yes, and” if you don’t have
all the information? When we assume and we stop listening, we
close ourselves off to possibilities; but if we remain an open portal,
we invite opportunity.
It is very similar in business. If you are listening to what a client
or customer is saying without preconceived ideas, they may take
you down a path you weren’t expecting. They may open the
doorway for a bigger sale or might offer you longer-range business
that you hadn’t considered.
However, if you assume you know exactly what they want
without hearing them, not only might you miss an amazing
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48
business opportunity, but your client or customer will feel they
are not being heard. And when people feel as if they are not being
heard, friction is around the corner.
People often come up to the cast of Four Day Weekend after
performances and say, “You guys are so quick and fast. How do
you think that fast?” In actuality, this is an illusion because it’s not
that we’re fast -- we listen well.1 We listen for the pertinent
information in a scene and we build upon it. In the case of our
videographer friend, all we did was ask him his name and where he
was from, then simple curiosity led us to discover a greater story.
He told us he was from Iran and we asked what led him to
America. The results were not anticipated, but the story was a
lesson in courage and hope. We were all better from hearing the
tale. The story at most reminded us of the best that is within all of
us, and at the very least we as a collective were reminded of how
very lucky we are to have been born in this amazing country.2
In business, you listen to the pertinent information of what a
client, customer or co-worker needs and you build upon it to create
solutions. This doesn’t mean you listen to what they have to say
and then move the conversation in the direction that you want it
to go. The art of liZENing entails truly hearing what someone is
saying and letting them intuitively know that you understand their
point of view. That is receiving.
The bedrock of this method is listening. Talk less, listen more.
This is contrary to what many believe. A majority of people believe
that if they talk more, the perception is that they are smarter and
more in control of the situation. The reality is that on a
subterranean level, people have less faith in those who talk all the
time. We lose confidence in others when we feel that we aren’t
being heard because, in order for us to feel valued, we need to feel
heard.
1. Except when it comes to our agent’s name.
2. After all, how many Iranian improv troupes can you name? Trust us,
you do not want to be there when they bomb.
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Silence Is Your Friend
One of the Buddha’s most famous sermons is when he held one
flower in the air and didn’t say a word. It is said that one man
reached enlightenment by witnessing this sermon. The flower was
all that was needed to be shown. Words couldn’t convey what a
simple flower could. Wisdom is born of silence, and in that silence
is when listening occurs.
Something we’ve noticed in our training center is that a
beginning level improvisor, when faced with silence, will fill those
gaps with relentless impertinent chatter. They will talk, talk, talk
talk, talk out of fear, while the experienced improvisor…
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…will use the silence for power, emphasis and anticipation.
Communication isn’t limited to language. We communicate
in many ways that are more effective than the spoken word. For
example, in a Four Day Weekend show before even one word is
spoken, the catalyst for us to start a scene is by making eye
contact. Because we work without a script, we never know whose
turn it is to speak, so it is only through eye contact that we
communicate that it is our turn to talk.
We know who has an idea or who might have an idea for a
direction for a scene by making eye contact with them. We rely on
each other to create this unscripted show, and to do so we initiate
communication with our eyes to help create a scene. We
communicate with an unspoken language that allows us to
understand each other without using words.
This is the essence of the group mind. It is speaking to each
other without using words. This is not unlike people who have
been married for a long time and know each other so well that they
relay information to one another without even speaking a word.1
This is how we communicate in a Four Day Weekend performance.
How do we know when it’s our turn to talk? When we look at
our scene partner and we can see in their eyes whether they have
something to say. If they don’t, it’s a nonverbal invitation for us to
speak. This all takes place in the space of listening and receiving.
“The eyes are the windows to the soul.” It is in the eyes where
we truly “see” someone. If you find yourself looking at the floor
or the ceiling, you have lost your lines of communication and now
must revert back to using words, which often times don’t convey
what is needed to succeed. We think the 1980’s new wave
synthpop post-punk band Berlin2 said it best when they said, “No
more words, you’re telling me you love me while you looking
away. No more words. No more words. And no more promises of
love.”3
Eye contact is crucial to success in our live show and when we
fail to exercise this technique we place ourselves at a disadvantage.
1. You know the look...the “It’s bulk trash day” look.
2. To jog your memory, read this in a high falsetto voice.
3. If you’re under 40, Google it.
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For example, on one particular show night Oliver Tull and Frank
Ford started a scene together where the audience suggestion to
start the scene was “aviator.” Frank and Oliver failed to make eye
contact and because of this, Frank started the scene inspired by the
word “aviator”, unbeknownst to Oliver, as an airline pilot. Because
neither of them made eye contact, Oliver made a simultaneous
decision that he would start the scene as a policeman, who
happened to be wearing “aviator glasses” in his patrol car.
As we mentioned earlier, this would seem to be a “mistake”
because, why would a police car be right next to a jumbo jet?
However, because we never say, “no” and we will work with
anything, Oliver made the decision, in that instant, that he was
pulling the plane over for speeding. The scene became a classic
scene in our show because it took this “disruption of the routine”
and made it into an unconventional and unexpected situation which
garnered laughs.
Our point is two-fold here: we will work with anything and
there are no “mistakes”, however, we ask that you bring your very
best to every scene. Was this the optimum path to creating this
classic scene? Maybe not, but we remained open to the
possibilities. Our second point here is that had Frank and
Oliver made eye contact to start the scene, they may not have had
to work quite as hard to create a great scene. Fortunately, in this
case 00 came up on the roulette wheel, paying out a huge dividend.
Our body language reveals clues as to our truest intentions and
motivations. That is why listening is a paramount skill offering
insight that will teach you things you never imagined you could
ever learn.
It has been proven that words are the least effective way of
communicating. Often times, the body language that is
accompanying the words reveal the real message. By becoming
aware of this unspoken language, you provide yourself the
opportunity to evaluate your approach to a given situation. Do you
see arms crossed which signifies disinterest? Is the person you’re
talking with leaning back or not looking you in the eye? All of
these are signs of someone feeling unheard.
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As you begin to listen, more and more often, you will find that
people’s body language will change. They will begin leaning into
you as they talk to you. Crossed arms will soon uncross. As each of
these things happen, you will notice that the person you are
listening to becomes more open to ideas and thoughts, and you
have an honest line of communication opening up. Together, in
this space, you will now find solutions and paths to success that up
until this point have remained undiscovered.
As we’ve said, each person brings their unique life experience
to the table, and through that experience they add to the palette of
potential greatness. The only thing that is necessary to access this
wealth of potential is to be open through listening. Allow every
person to have the opportunity to share their life experience and
their ideas, because underneath each life lies wisdom and
excellence. It is only because people feel unheard that this aspect
of their self lies dormant.
Open the door to their potential by listening. You already know
your great ideas; have the confidence to invite other people’s
greatness into your life. Co-opt their life experience to create your
own success, because it is by sharing our common humanity that
we succeed in greater terms. Your success is their success. Their
success is your success. If you change the paradigm from
competition to inclusion, abundance awaits all.
Your family, your company, your co-workers, and fellow
humans are all on the same team, so embrace what you perceive as
your differences. Realize that those very differences may be
weaknesses that you have that are compensated by those around
you. Listening opens you up to this understanding and allows you
to see that differences are necessary to create the portrait of
success.
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WORKBOOK EXERCISE: ONE WORD SCENES
Description:
Two participants are given a suggestion from the audience and
proceed to conduct a scene based on that subject matter using
only one word at a time.
The Point of the Exercise:
People tend to talk, talk, talk without really saying anything.
Improvisation works by building on the pertinent information
of others. If I over-talk my point, it’s more difficult for my
partner to find the relevant details of what I said. In this
exercise, you are only allowed one word before it is your
partner’s turn. This teaches you to economize your thoughts as
well as learn to communicate through non-verbal means such
as body language, tone, and emotional adjustments.
Directions:
After you’ve participated in this exercise, briefly describe the
“One Word Scene” that you helped to create.
Write it here:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
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ACT THREE
The Art of CollaboraZEN
Nothing can ever be accomplished alone. For those that think it
can, this is one of the greatest illusions of all time. In
improvisation, we certainly can’t accomplish our objectives alone.
We depend not only on each of the performers that walk on the
stage every night but also the myriad of people who help us put on
the production.
We have box office staff that sells the tickets, bar staff that
serves drinks every night, door staff that seats all of our customers,
lighting directors that light the production, production assistants
that assist in everything from clean up to keeping our props clean
and organized, and a house manager that oversees it all. The list
goes on and on.
Every person on our production team brings value and
experience to our show. Each person brings their unique talent to
create the whole and without everyone involved, literally the show
would not go on. It takes a host of people to allow a cast of six to
“improvise” a show. Even those that seemingly make it up on the
spot need preparation and help to accomplish this high wire act
that we perform every night.
Louis Pasteur once said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”
In that preparation, it takes many minds to create. Even those that
work in seemingly private isolation, it still takes collaboration to
make anything a reality.
Think about a painter. In theory, it appears that an artist could
sit in their studio and over the course of a couple of months
hammer out a masterpiece without any help from anyone.
However, someone had to make the paint and the canvas in order
for the masterpiece to be created. Even if the painter created his
own paint and canvas, he still needs someone to help him bring the
painting to the public consciousness. The painting would need to
be displayed in a museum or a home to be enjoyed because at the
very least, someone has to look at the painting in order for it to be
enjoyed. No one can do it alone and, more importantly, who would
want to?
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In improvisation we have a saying, “What we come up with as a
group is far better than what we could come up with
individually.” We know that taking the sum of all of our experience
will create a much better product than by simply relying on the
talents of one person. Again, each person in our organization is an
expert in something that the others are not. Each person has unique
talents but there are limits to that talent.
In the Four Day Weekend show, some of us can sing or play
instruments, some do great impressions and characters and some
are more suitable to hosting or emceeing events. The totality of
all those talents makes for a great show, but if it were reserved for
just one of these talents the production would not be as great. The
whole is better than the sum of our parts.
This is true of companies as well. It takes a great research and
development department to come up with the products, an adept
marketing department that knows how to bring awareness of these
new products to the marketplace, and an energized sales department
to sell these products and it also takes a solid management team to
oversee the direction of the entire project.1 No one component is
any better than the other. It takes each of these unique components
to create success.
Marketing should never be at odds with sales. Although this can
happen, we have been brought in hundreds of times to
organizations where sales and marketing were at odds with each
other.2 They didn’t see “eye to eye” and it’s very difficult to make
eye contact to communicate when neither party is open to
looking the other in the eye.
We hear all the time, “The sales force is always out playing
golf,” from the marketing camp while the sales camp proclaims,
“Marketing doesn’t know what it’s like for us because they are up
in their ivory tower and they never actually put their boots on the
ground.” What neither camp realizes is marketing needs sales and
sales needs marketing.
1. And take credit for all of it.
2. This is why to combat this problem Four Day Weekend combined
marketing and sales into one position. This way she can only get mad at herself.
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Just like in comedy, for every Lou Costello there needed to be a
Budd Abbott. Jerry Lewis needed Dean Martin. Without Cheech,
Chong would probably have ended up in jail.1 The Sales
Department needs marketing and the Marketing Department needs
sales. Everybody knows that sales and marketing go together that’s
why they call it S & M.2
Research and development should never resist the insight of
marketing and everyone involved should know that management
always has the greatest interest of the whole at heart. Having
said that, management needs to always communicate to everyone
involved the reasons why it is proceeding in a certain way. A clear
and decisive strategy will always be supported as long as those
involved know the reasons for the strategy.
This is the essence of collaboration. Every party involved
knows the strategy and the reasons involved to create the greatest
success possible and to inherently know that each facet of the team
is doing their very best to serve the interests of the whole. If you
know that R & D is making the very best products for the
marketing department to bring into the marketplace and marketing
is providing the very best materials for sales to close the deal, all
the while management is overseeing everything in an efficient way,
then it behooves everyone to support the entire endeavor.
Ultimately, your success is dependent on everyone around you.
Know what your contribution is and execute to the very best of
your abilities and have complete confidence that those around you
will do the very same. You’re responsible only for your piece of
the pie.
At Four Day Weekend, our job is to make each other look good.
It’s David Wilk’s job to make Frank Ford look good, it’s Frank’s
job to make Oliver Tull look good, it’s Oliver’s job to make Josh
Roberts look good, it’s Josh’s job to make Ray Sharp look good,
it’s Ray’s job to make David Ahearn look good and it’s Ahearn’s
job to make Wilk look good. It’s a circle that never ends, but within
that circle is the whole and, as long as each part of the circle does
his or her job, we’ll have success.
1. Bad example, Chong actually ended up in jail.
2. We’re talking about Sales and Marketing, you pervert. Although
they do enjoy beating each other up.
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At Four Day Weekend, we want our audience to leave saying
“That show was great!” not “Man, that one guy was really funny.”
If someone ever comes up to us and says, “You were my favorite,”
we accept the compliment and say thank you, but the underlying
sentiment is “Man, I need to work harder, those guys are really
making me look good.”
Diversity Is What Makes Us Great
Almost every society, institution and person claims to value
diversity in both the workplace and even in personal settings, but
the reality is that diversity is often scorned in practice. We have
come to know diversity on mostly a cosmetic plane but to settle for
it on these terms greatly reduces its inherent value. True diversity
takes root in the fertile ground of ideas.
Diversity of thought is what truly manifests the possibilities for
greatness. The unfortunate nature of today’s climate is that
actually we marginalize and patronize those with differing ideas.
We vilify anyone with opposing ideas that challenge the way things
are commonly done; however, we must remember that all great
advances were made possible because a group of people
challenged the status quo.
At Four Day Weekend, our definition of diversity is taking
opposing views but not designating either view as right or wrong.
We take the merits of both views and we merge them to make a
new perspective that is even better and more effective.
For instance, it was a common misconception that the sun
revolved around the earth until Copernicus bravely opined an
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opposing point of view. His theory, and the one that proved true,
believed just the opposite: that the earth revolved around the sun.
This systematically changed the way we thought about things
and on a more profound level proved that we were not the center
of the universe. We realized we were a smaller microcosm in the
totality of the universe. We realized we were one of many and
although still important, we came to understand there is more to
the universe than just ourselves, we are not the only thing “out
there.” We were forced to acknowledge we are but one small piece
of the greater whole. In the climate of his day, Copernicus’ idea
was considered such treacherous thinking that it was punishable by
death. Copernicus, however, was brave enough to know that
radical ideas are often the truth and within that truth is the
possibility for an improved way of thinking.
Just look at today’s political climate. If some group or person
isn’t in complete alignment with a particular line of doctrine, often
times they are castigated in the most vitriolic way. This is because
in reality we are still learning to value diversity. The United States
of America was founded on the principal of the Melting Pot. A
veritable democratic stew that brought all colors, types, religions
and political affiliations together to create the greatest experiment
in self-government ever created.
This is what Four Day Weekend manifests. We are a melting pot
of ideas. For instance, early on in the life of our show there were
two distinct camps regarding the direction of our business. One
camp wanted to explore the possibilities of working with
corporations to create corporate content while another camp felt
that we should only explore “artistic” endeavors like film and
television. There were two completely different views regarding
the direction of the show but we didn’t disparage either. Rather,
we worked to find common ground where both philosophies could
thrive.
Our initial philosophy began in a much unified way. We wanted
to do a great live show and we placed our concentration on
creating the very best show we could. As our show gained some
success there became what could have been a division among us
regarding art and commerce. One camp only wanted to pursue
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“artistic” endeavors while the other camp felt we should pursue the
“corporate” entertainment avenue. What we found was that we
needed “commerce” to create “art” and vice versa. The two were
not mutually exclusive and, in fact, complimented each other.
As one camp decided to pursue the corporate side of the
business we discovered that facet of our business allowed us the
financial resources to create our first television pilot. We were
allowed total autonomy on this project because we financed the
production independently and we were not beholden to any studio
to make this production. Without the resources that we earned from
the corporate side of our business we simply would not have had
the ability to shoot our pilot. After shooting our pilot, we found a
manager who believed in our project and was willing to use their
connections to help us shop the pilot to talent agencies in Los
Angeles. This allowed us to secure our first top tier Hollywood
representation.
Our first agent wasn’t entirely sure we could sell our pilot to the
studios but thanks to our extensive corporate client list they were
willing to sign us to representation -- as they would receive 10%
of our corporate earnings. We were willing to do this because we
would now “have Hollywood’s ear.”
As we began working with our talent agency more and more,
they soon discovered we had quite a few “artistic” projects in
development and they no longer were as interested in our corporate
side; they began sending us out to pitch our projects to the studios.
During our pitch sessions we sold a television show, The Bermuda
Star to Fox, which allowed us to get even better representation with
a top 3 agency in Hollywood.
Let us digress for one moment. This is “yes, and” at work. Had
either party dug in their heels and said this is the direction of the
company we would have floundered because we needed all of the
ingredients to make this particular pie. Had we only pursued one
avenue, the “yes, and” chain would have been broken.
Our “corporate” work and our “artistic” pursuits formed an
unusual marriage which made our company better. Each
complimented the other in ways that we never really considered
until we were open to accepting both. This all occurred because
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we were open to allowing differing views of the direction of our
company to work “for” us instead of “against” us. We saw value
in both sides of the spectrum and we respectfully pursued each
avenue without diminishing the other.
This is the diversity of ideas. It’s when we begin to recognize
that our differences in opinions and backgrounds are, in reality,
what make us great. This is where the most effective form of
collaboration can take place. Only by harnessing all of the
disparate ideas that are available to us do we realize our potential
for greatness. As opposed to vilifying those with differing ideas we
should instead celebrate them for filling a void that we ourselves
have been unable to fill.
This reminds us of a quote we saw when we were doing a
corporate show at a Disney property. It read, “You don’t get
harmony when everybody sings the same note.” It takes a blend
of many different chords, tempos, lyrics, harmony and chorus to
make beautiful music.
We always like to say if you have an egg, you have an egg. If
you have a piece of ham, you have a piece of ham. With a little
collaboration you’ve got yourself an omelet. Sometimes you just
have to break a few eggs along the way.1
Collaboration is a process that welcomes seemingly dissenting
thoughts that are presented in a constructive fashion. When you
truly collaborate you remove the walls of resistance and allow for
the possibilities of a new road to travel.
1. And the law of Kosher.
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It is commonly misperceived that dissenting thought most often
comes in the form of hearing or saying the word “no.”
Constructive dissention isn’t saying the word “no” it is bringing
the idea of “what if” to the forefront. It is asking everyone to look
at any situation with a new set of eyes to see if we are missing the
potential for something greater. It is saying “yes, and” to new
possibilities but not doing it at the expense of how things were once
done.
“What if” the sun doesn’t revolve around the Earth? “What if”
the reverse is true and the Earth revolves around the sun? How does
this change the landscape of our thinking? What does this mean to
us now? Copernicus didn’t say the word “no”; he asked “what if”
and then he proved his theory which set the stage for a whole new
line of thinking. However, it doesn’t discount the fact that we once
believed the sun revolved around the Earth because it was
important for us to theorize first, before we could discover the
scientific truth.
Think of the workload that would entail if the entirety of any
project or the fate of a business were to lie in one person’s hands.
When you open yourself up to collaboration you liberate yourself
from the shackles of your own limitations. Business, relationships
and life both become easier.
In our situation, no one camp won out. We just tried to discover
how we could find common ground to marry both of these worlds
together. We actually said, “What if we marry both creativity and
commerce? What if we use the money we make from corporate
work to finance our artistic endeavors?” Answering these
questions fundamentally changed the way we do business and
created a new business model. These changes happened organically
because we were willing to allow the big picture to unfold. We
married creativity and commerce. We like to call it the C&C Laugh
Factory.1
All ideas have value. This is the core of collaboration.
Sometimes we must take the “wrong” turn in order to discover the
“right” one. It takes everyone in the group or organization to make
these discoveries. In improvisation, we know we can work with
1. Everybody laugh now. Duh, duh, duh duh, duh. Everybody laugh now!
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for that matter, who would want to? You would never be able to
take a vacation!
Welcome all ideas without judgment for within them may be
the answer to the unsolvable problem. Take the chance to look up
into the sky and consider for a moment that the earth may revolve
around the sun or that one day the possibility of landing on the
moon will be a reality.
It took an army to get three men onto the moon for the first time
and another army to return Apollo 13 to earth upon hearing the
words, “Houston, we have a problem.”1 In a crisis situation a team
of men and women jumped to the call. No one had all the answers
or solutions to return those brave men to Earth, but everyone knew
that if they just depended on each other and valued every idea, the
possibility was there to bring these astronauts home.
Every idea had to be valued because there wasn’t time to start
saying “no” whenever a potential solution was presented. Instead,
Houston listened to each suggestion and said “yes, and” doing
everything they could to come up with the safest and most practical
way to bring Apollo 13 back home.
Danger was imminent and time was short. Collaboration
answered and found the solution and the solution was found in two
little words: “Yes, and.” There wasn’t time in that situation to say,
“That’s a stupid idea. That will never work.” At that moment, time
was not on their side and it took everyone to agree to do their part
to bring the men of Apollo 13 back to safety. In times of tragedy or
triumph, collaboration is the roadmap to success.
1. We know Apollo 13 is just a movie, but it makes for a great story.
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WORKBOOK EXERCISE: CIRCLE STORY
Description:
A group of participants stand in a circle. An assigned
conductor picks a participant at random to start a story using
only one word at a time. The conductor then points to each
successive person in the circle (either in a clockwise or
counter clockwise fashion) to create/finish the story.
The Point of the Exercise:
This initial exercise instills the idea that, as a team, we only
succeed when we build on the ideas of others. After all, it’s not
what one person knows individually that’s important, but what
we all know collectively. In a conversation or discussion, we
don’t know where we’re going; we only know where we’ve
been. Therefore, we must listen to each other and build on
what our partners are saying - not what we’ve preconceived.
Directions:
Everyone at your table will now create a story with each
person only adding one word at a time. Remember, you only
get one word. There are no mistakes, only higher- and lowerpercentage choices. We can work with anything if we work
together. Don’t forget your punctuation. You can start a new
sentence anytime.
Onceuponatime...
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ACT FOUR
PoiZEN - The IN-Art of Blame
(Don’t B Lame)
We have all experienced times when we weren’t working for the
greater good of the group. This is fundamentally what makes us
human. Our own egos can be our greatest enemies when we
convince ourselves that nothing can be accomplished without us.
We have all been in the space when we’ve felt that only our ideas
have merit and that everyone else’s thoughts and ideas were
worthless. This is when we take the art of zen and turn it into
poison, or as we call it “poiZEN.”
Early on in the life of the Four Day Weekend, after we had
experienced a nominal amount of success, our egos got the better
of us and we started abandoning some of the principles that had
contributed to our early success. With success comes pressure and
often times this translates into insecure egos manifesting. We
started taking each other for granted and began judging each
other’s differences instead of embracing each other’s strengths.
This was the genesis of our organization becoming poisoned.
Even through all we had learned - and taught - about treating each
other as poets and artists, there was a period during some
difficult years when Four Day Weekend drifted into that
unproductive phase of a business called “poizen.”
We started viewing our differing abilities as hindrances instead
of realizing that our differing abilities are what made us great.
We stopped seeing that one person’s unique talent offset someone
else’s deficiency. We began blaming each other for minor setbacks
instead of recognizing there are ebbs and flows in business that are
far better weathered as a crew verses drifting out to sea alone.
There is no question we became fractured during this barren
period and we did so of our own volition. We stopped working
together and began splintering off into sub-groups and cliques,
which only served to foster paranoia and bickering. We were like a
married couple, but without the sex.1
During this time, it took a lot of soul searching and self-analysis
1. Come to think of it, we were exactly like a married couple.
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on all of our parts to realize the error of our ways. This didn’t come
overnight and it took a few years to correct the behaviors that were
not in our best interest. Many people may view this as a failure on
our part, forgetting the very tenets that created our success;
however, we view it from a greater context. Had we not weathered
these storms, we would not have the perspective or experience to
speak on this subject today.
It was this reintroduction to our own methods after a period of
abandonment that cemented what we already knew to be true. We
learned, after some hardship, we simply couldn’t do it without each
other. We shifted our perspectives to once again cherish and
embrace our differences and to value the contributions of
everyone. We recognized the ease and simplicity of relying on
others to accomplish goals, as opposed to trying to do everything
alone. We once again became accountable for our own contribution
and, most importantly, we stopped blaming.
Nothing can derail success more quickly than thoughts and/or
words of blame. Diverting accountability by blaming others is only
a diversion from one’s own personal foibles and inaction. To claim
an unfavorable situation is solely the fault of someone else, or to
choose to believe had your ideas been implemented success would
have been achieved, serves only as an excuse to do nothing.
At the Four Day Weekend Theater, anytime somebody starts to
tiptoe down blame lane they are always greeted with a smile and a
wink, “Hey man, don’t B LAME.” That is a reminder to stop
blaming and start participating in the solution.
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Blame (B Lame) is born of fear. It’s the fear of taking a chance
to live the life that you say you want. It requires great courage to
live the life you want to live. Read that again because it’s a very
important idea: It takes great courage to live the life you say you
want to live.1
Fear is often the catalyst that prohibits people from living their
dreams but as our friend and artist Erik Wahl says, “Fear is just
false evidence appearing real.” Everyone has dreams but only a
fraction of people take any sort of step to live those dreams. Few
people are willing and brave enough to claim ownership of their
dreams because most people fear failure. But what successful
people who have accomplished their dreams realize is that it
actually takes experiencing failure to achieve their
dreams. They are two
sides of the same coin, they
are yin and yang. You cannot
have one without the other.
There is no such thing as
failure; it is only a method by
which we learn. We always
say “FAIL” means “First
Action In Learning.” Our business has been a series of trials and errors.
There is no business model or template to follow in the world
of improvisation. Just like we improvise onstage we’ve improvised
our entire business model through trial and error. Each failure was
necessary to bring us to this point.
Once you realize this you can even start embracing your failures
more whole-heartedly because within those failures lie the seeds
for your success. Think of how liberating it is to recognize that
something doesn’t work so that you know never need to try it
again. This frees you to find the solution that does work.
1. It takes great courage to live the life you say you want to live. Sorry
about tricking you into reading it a third time, but we felt it was that important
for you to read it again.
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As Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing
the same thing over and over again and expecting different
results.”1
Recognize what doesn’t work and stop doing that thing. It
sounds simple because it is. “Failure” is just recognizing what
doesn’t work so that you know not to do it again. For example, we
now know that we won’t do a show outside on trade at a haunted
house at 3 a.m. next to a set of railroad tracks following a stripper
in lieu of payment for the
privilege of handing out our
flier to haunted house customers.
How do we know? Because we
we did it. And we can honestly
say that this situation was a
F.A.I.L. But look on the bright
side; we’ll never do another
haunted house again.
If you are living in a
manner that you find
unfulfilling it is the easy
choice to wallow and to think
that you are powerless to make
a change. Think about it: If you do nothing then your life doesn’t
change and you can feel comfortable with your less than optimum
situation because this is the way you’ve always lived. Nothing has
changed and you can feel safe within your discontent.
It can be scary to embrace change even when the change that is
being manifested is for your own betterment. This requires a new
way of thinking and it requires personal responsibility for you own
success. Many people reject this because they would rather blame
(B Lame) others than to accept the reality of life: we are
responsible for our own destiny. If you are successful, you have
yourself to thank. If you are unfulfilled with your life, you can
thank yourself for that, as well.
1. The definition of insanity at Einstein’s Bagels is ordering lox and bagels
over and over again and expecting to get a pastrami sandwich.
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Like attracts like. If you are someone that contributes and works
for the greater good of the group you will find yourself surrounded
by people who support you and make you better. If you are one
who blames others for the perceived failures of the group you will
find yourself amidst negative people who resist your ideas and
cause you to feel unworthy. You are your own choice. Your reality
is your own choice.
In any comedy scene that we create onstage, it’s our choices that
create the reality in the scene. There are infinite possibilities from
which to select. We can choose to play a cowboy, a priest, a
villain or the world’s smartest man and whatever choice we make
that then becomes the reality from which we work. We literally
become whatever our conscious mind chooses.
The same is true in life. We become whatever our thoughts are.
If we believe that life and the people in it support us then we will
find that our relationships in life are loving and harmonious. If
we believe that the world is against us and that life “sucks” then
our reality will mirror that. If we blame (B lame) then we will be
blamed. Just like in an improv scene, whatever role we choose to
play will manifest itself into our lives.
In improvisation we don’t judge things as “good” or “bad”, we
only accept it for what it is: a choice. We don’t apply a label. We
work with that which is given to create the best outcome for the
choice that was made. That is why we commit to make the
highest-percentage choice, so we can illustrate to those around us
that we value working with them and we are always working at the
top of our game and giving it our very best. We give our best and
in return the best is revealed for us.
To truly change and become better begins with the thought in
your head. How do we know this? We know this as we, too, have
gone through periods of blame and resentment. We treated each
other disrespectfully and we found that the world returned the
favor by treating us disrespectfully. We changed our thinking when
we recognized this and the world changed in accordance with our
thoughts.
We triumphed over our periods of blame and resentment by
doing one simple thing: We stopped blaming and being resentful
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and instead began honoring one another again as artists and
poets. We changed our thoughts about each other and from that one
simple act we manifested prosperity again.
It is important to remember, poiZEN only poisons you and
your group. It doesn’t hurt anyone but you. Knowing that, it seems
simple to conclude: Stop the poiZENing and start the positive
chooZEN.
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WORKBOOK EXERCISE: SHARED EXPERIENCE
Description:
Two participants sit side by side and are given a suggestion
based on an experience that they’ve never shared together
before (i.e. “Tell us the story of the time that the two of you
climbed Mt. Everest.”). The participants play off of each other
and proceed to tell a fabricated story as if they are old friends
who had really done it together in the past.
The Point of the Exercise:
Everything in improvisation is made up, which can create a
barrier between people. Why would we choose to be strangers
when we could choose to be friendly happy people who know
and like each other and have a shared history together? This
exercise forces us to create a rich history between
improvisational partners. It is similar to the sales concept of
“mirroring” your client in business.
Directions:
After you’ve participated in this exercise, briefly describe the
“Shared Experience” that the two of you helped to create.
Write it here:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
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ACT FIVE
PreZENce - The Art of Living In the Moment
Much has been written about living in the moment. It has been
theorized that if one can only live in the moment then that is the
foundation for eventually living in “bliss” or finding
“enlightenment.”
In improvisation we only have the moment. Since we are
working without a script we literally don’t know where are going.
In fact, we often times recite the mantra, “We don’t know where
we are going we only know where we have been.” In our show, we
don’t know what we are going to say until our scene partner
finishes what they have to say.
When you stop listening to what you perceive to be the
pertinent information you lose the real context. We all have biases
in our lives and at times we allow those biases to make snap
judgments that may not reflect reality.
For instance, what do you think after you hear, “I have a huge
penis…” You have already formed your idea of what this means
but you haven’t heard the full context of where we are going with
this. You have conjured up your biases to form your opinions not
based on all the facts. The rest of this sentence is, “…that is in a
hermetically-sealed jar from a donor cadaver that we could
surgically reattach to this pit bull victim,” said Dr. Miller.1
Ask yourself, what did you think that sentence meant as
opposed to what the reality of the situation was? That is why we
don’t know what were going to say until AFTER our scene partner
has completed what they are going to say. Obviously, if we had
formed our opinion on this scene at word five, we would have had
a totally different scene than we ended up with. The scene after
five words is one we can only show you on Cinemax. Thus, the
moment becomes our only ally. We only have the present moment
in front of us to make our very best choices and to bring the
highest version of ourselves to each situation.
It is in the moment that we work together to find brilliance.
Most importantly, the moment is all we have. The past is history
1. True story.
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and the only purpose it serves is to learn from it to make optimum
choices in this current moment. Conversely, the future is an
illusion. It doesn’t exist so to speculate about what might occur
in the future is to waste the precious current moment engaged in
thoughts of an illusion. There is an old saying, “The past is
history, the future is a mystery, and NOW is a gift. That’s why they
call it the present.” We also have a saying at Four Day Weekend,
“In improvisation we live in the reality of the moment.”
In our show, we can take a suggestion from literally any person,
place or thing and then we can “create” with literally no
preparation. By opening a newspaper, we can read a headline and
create a completely improvised comedy scene using only the
inspiration of the headline.
This may seem like a scary proposition to a lot of people, but if
you are true to the moment and you have faith in the people around
you and the process, you will succeed. This may seem risky, but as
you know in life it is about the leap and not the landing. Trust the
process, give yourself up and surrender to the process.
You have to take the leap into the perceived darkness and know
that those around you will pass you the trapeze bar so that you can
grab onto it and continue your journey. You have to have faith that
when you leap, your team will be there to send you the bar,
because if you don’t take the leap, you will lose your momentum
and be left alone at the top of the platform and your journey ends.
It is simply about trusting the process and those around you.
And it is in these small moments that the exhilaration of
improvisation comes alive. Audience and performers alike engage
in a zen-like group consciousness that is so enthralling because
everyone becomes more vitally alive as we are experiencing the
moment as a group.
This is why improvisation becomes a “you had to be there” type
of show. There is no way, after seeing a successful show, that an
audience member could recount the magic to a friend who wasn’t
in attendance. Why is that? Because upon retelling the
experience, one vital factor is missing: the moment has passed. We
have discovered this is why improvisation doesn’t translate as well
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on television or video because the most central component to
succeeding in the moment is to experience it as it happens. In that
instance we become alive. Energy courses through our bodies as
we fully embody ourselves into the moment.
This is why often times you will find people who love to engage
in extreme sports or intense occupations. Rock climbers,
skydivers, trauma surgeons, airline pilots, trapeze artists or X
Game type sports create an adrenaline rush because it forces the
participants to fully engage in the moment. Lives literally depend
on it. If they, at any moment, were to lose their concentration
someone could die.
In improvisation if we are not in the moment we can also “die”
a figurative death. For anyone who has ever stood in front of a
hostile audience it feels like “dying.” Many people mistake the
danger for the reason why there is such an adrenaline rush when, in
fact, it is fully engaging in the moment that creates the rush.
On a lesser scale, this is the excitement of improvisation.
Audiences secretly are terrified that at any moment we may fail in
1. In the writer’s room, one of us -- it doesn’t matter whom -- came up
with the idea for Cirque de So Lame, but he didn’t want to say it because he
thought it was a silly idea. Here we were, writing this book telling people there
are no bad ideas, and even one of us doubted himself. He thought his idea wasn’t
worthy until the rest of the group encouraged him to say it. We’re glad he did,
because we turned it into a gem.
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the show and this brings a heightened level of excitement because
it coerces the audience into the moment. They are watching a
trapeze act and someone might die (onstage).
Audiences enjoy the thrill of the perception that we might fail.
They want to see us get right up to the cliff, toes on the line, but
they don’t ever want to see us go over the edge. They want to see
us get to the edge, lose our balance and then recover. This is
exhilarating to an audience.
There is a perceived danger in improvisation because we make
this up as we go along and an audience is entranced to watch us
walk this tight rope act. We hear all the time, “I get really nervous
for you while you perform onstage.” The audience has a palpable
sense of fear because most people never truly take the chance to
live in the moment.
We, however, are not frightened during the show because we
have an innate trust in ourselves to engage in the moment. We
know that if we focus fully on only the moment at hand, the
universe will work out the details of the success of any show. It is
only when we abandon the moment is failure lurking.
If we become distracted by anything, this is when improvisation
fails and when this happens an audience subconsciously knows this
because they too are engaged in the moment. The very subtle
difference in energy is apparent and the chemistry of the group as
a whole changes. When we undermine each other onstage and we
don’t value each other the audience loses confidence in us and trust
is lost. It is irreparable.
Living in YOUR Moment
Your life is made up a millions upon millions of small moments.
It sounds intimidating to think about being conscious in every one
of those moments. Many of you may think it would be impossible
to be preZENt in all of them. You’d be right. The toils of life get to
all of us, and it is very easy to get lost in thought about a bill that
needs paying, a project that needs completing or a school function
for your kids that you need to prepare for. It happens to all of us.
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But change starts with doing small things a couple of times a
day and gradually increasing the couple of times a day to become
the greater part of your day.
In our culture, for a very long time, it was a point of pride for a
lot of people to say that they are very good at multi-tasking. For
years people placed value in being able to do a lot of things
simultaneously to “save time” when in fact they did multiple jobs
simultaneously and poorly therein losing time due to having to fix
the problems of a lackluster job performance.
Multi-tasking is not a beneficial skill; rather, multi-tasking can
deter your attention from the present and rob you of fully
experiencing the moment you are in. Multi-tasking is a “skill” that
creates more of a workload at some future time. There is simply a
better way of working.
Begin by allotting time out of your day for all the tasks you
have at hand. When the time comes to answer email do just that—
answer email. Don’t be on the phone AND answer email. If you
are devoting 50% of your attention to the phone and 50% of your
attention to your email you have just given two different things half
of your all, and both have suffered. To coin a phrase, “Give it your
all - not half of your all.”
In fact, as we write this book we made it a point to make this a
priority for our business. Even though we currently have a
feature film that we are ready to shoot and we have several
television shows in development we have made a decision that
writing this book is our top priority. You are reading this book
because we didn’t “multi-task” and try to do several things at
once. Had we done that, this book wouldn’t be complete and you
wouldn’t be sitting with your pants down on the toilet reading this.1
Paradoxically, concentrating fully on one task at a time, and
doing the very best job you can do, creates more time. Complete
one task and then move on to the next task. You will find at the
end of the day you are left feeling more satisfied, less stressed and
you will discover you have an abundance of time to complete your
checklist. Write your book, make your film and then create your
television shows. Prioritize the thing which is the most important
1. Courtesy flush would be nice.
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to you and start with that project. There will be enough time to
complete all of your projects and the benefit will be quality.
Living in the moment happens when you are preparing
breakfast for your children before they go to school in the morning.
Prepare their breakfast and enjoy their company. The office will be
waiting. Email will wait. Phone calls will wait. But this moment,
this one with your children, will pass. Enjoy it.
We have always been amazed when we travel around the
country we will often times see people in exotic locations and they
are always carrying around cameras trying to document their trip.
Parents will stress trying to get their children into just the right
position to take a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower and they will
chastise their children for not having “a good smile” on their face
all in the interest in preserving the moment in a picture.
We say, the Eiffel Tower is right behind you. Enjoy it NOW.
Experience it NOW. You may never get back to see it again and the
picture, which you are spending so much time trying to
capture, will probably sit in a photo album tucked away in an attic
for eternity.
Life is what is happening right now. In this moment, this is all
you have. Live it. Enjoy it.
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WORKBOOK EXERCISE: LISTENING
Description:
This exercise requires two participants. Your partner tells you
a true story with as many details as they can remember and
then you have to re-tell the story back to your partner with as
much accuracy as you can. Your partner then grades you on the
accuracy of your re-telling. It’s amazing how many details are
missed due to poor listening.
The Point of the Exercise:
Stop multi-tasking and listen! Everyone thinks that in order to
be a great improviser you have to be a quick thinker. The truth
is, it’s not how quickly you think, it’s how well you listen. A
great improviser listens to their partners and uses all the
information that’s been put out there to create a connection.
Directions:
After you’ve participated in this exercise, briefly describe your
listening experience, the grade you gave, the grade you
received and why.
Write it here:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
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ACT SIX
The Art of AccepZENce 1
To truly live in the moment, one of the most crucial criteria to
succeeding is to accept what is occurring in that moment. So often,
due to our own desire to control things, we fight the reality of a
situation and try to “will” it to be different. This seldom works.
How many times have you thought:
“She shouldn’t be doing that.”
“He shouldn’t be saying that.”
“They need to realize my idea is better.”
By inherently trying to control the reality of “what is”, you expend
all of your energy by fretting over “what isn’t happening” and you
fail to utilize your energy to make “what is” better. “She shouldn’t
be doing that,” is only a thought in your mind. It’s your own
prejudice and need to control that make you “think” that she should
be doing things exactly like you do.
But think about that, if everyone were doing things exactly
alike then innovation, by its very nature, could never occur. It takes
someone to think differently to bring innovation to the forefront.
And in order for innovation to take place, new ideas must be met
with acceptance.
Every great creator on the planet was met with resistance as
they tried to make their dreams a reality. What we suggest is
accepting what “she” is doing fully and acknowledging that it may
only be your own opinion that “she shouldn’t be doing that” or
“he shouldn’t be saying that” or “that your idea might be better.”
These are just thoughts in your head that have no basis in fact.
How do we know that she “should” or “should not” be doing
whatever she is doing? Because she is, that’s the reality of the
situation. How do we know that he “should” say exactly what he
is saying? Because he said it, that’s the reality of the situation. It
is only the war of thoughts in your head that create the resistance
inside you and this resistance then drains you of the very creative
1. Admittedly, this force fit of the word “zen” in acceptance is a stretch,
but we’re doing the best we can. We’re running out of gas here, people.
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energy you need to become the very best that you can be.
Often times, in our training center one of our students will
invariably say regarding a scene they have just performed, “I
thought he was going to say…” We always respond, “You are
100% correct. You did think that, however, that was not the reality
of what happened.” Embrace that which deviates from your
expectations.
Whenever we tell people that acceptance is an important
quality to finding more success and more tranquility in their lives
they always ask the same question: “So if something I don’t like is
happening I’m supposed to just sit back and let it happen to me and
not do anything about it?” The answer is no, of course not.
The power of acceptance lies within our ability to see the
landscape on the horizon and to not judge “what is.” What is the
point in judging reality? It just is. If you were to crash your brand
new car and scratch up the entire side of the car it serves no
purpose to get mad at your scratched up car. It’s scratched. No
amount of anger or emotion will ever improve the paint job.
By accepting that you have scratched the side of your car and
saving all the anger regarding your predicament, you free up your
energy to take the steps necessary to repair your car. You can make
a phone call to your insurance company, a mechanic or a body
shop and productively move forward. Getting angry or enraged or
not accepting “what is” never solves a problem. It only keeps you
mired in inaction which never resolves any challenge. You can be
angry and have a banged-up car, or you can have a have a bangedup car. The anger is your choice.
In improvisation we are not afforded the luxury to try to control
a scene. We have discovered that whatever is offered in a scene
is “what is” and it is our job to work with whatever is given to us
and make the very best of the situation. In fact, in our business it
is a major taboo to ever “deny” any situation. It is actually called
a denial. We teach acceptance of every idea because we know that
there is no certainty where a great idea can come from. In
improvisation, we know that acceptance creates an atmosphere
where everyone is willing to take a risk because their ideas will be
greeted with the utmost enthusiasm.
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If a performer in a scene were to say, “I just won a $6 million
lottery,” and his scene partner would respond, “No you didn’t.
That’s not even a lottery ticket, it’s a postage stamp,” every
person in the room would feel the energy change. By not
accepting the reality that our lucky lottery winner is $6 million
richer, we have derailed our potential to go spend the $6 million.
That money could have taken us on a journey of the world. We
could have visited the Parthenon, eaten a croissant in France or ran
with the bulls in Pamplona, but instead we are left with one
postage stamp to send a letter.
As an audience watched the show they would subconsciously
lose trust with everyone involved in the scene because they would
know at the most primal level that what was offered was not
“accepted.” Everyone, the audience included, will have lost faith
with each other and with it our ability to succeed as a group.
Now, because we work moment to moment in improvisation,
once our initial lottery ticket became a postage stamp it is now our
job to accept this lower-percentage choice and make it work. Even
though it appears a “mistake” has been made, we will work
together to make this the very best “mistake” that has ever
happened. We will accept the new offering fully and we may use
that postage stamp to write a letter to a long lost love that rekindles
a “romance for the ages.”
All of these ideas are formed and nurtured in a space called
“acceptance.” We will work with anything and we will not judge
what is offered. This brings us back to our earlier point when we
say bring your very best to the table every single time. If someone
offers you a $6 million lottery ticket -- accept it. Accept the gift
that has been given to you.
Opportunities present themselves in our lives every single day.
It is not luck that makes someone successful it is their ability to
recognize opportunities and to “accept” them. Just remember,
opportunity knocks; luck rings and runs.
The lottery ticket is a metaphor for our lives. How many times
have you been presented with an amazing opportunity only to
sabotage it for some reason?
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“The timing isn’t right.”
“I can’t move away to pursue it.”
“What will my spouse think if I do this?”
“I forgot my pants.”
As opposed to accepting the opportunity, we find a reason to make
our lottery ticket into a postage stamp.
Everyone has their rule book. It’s the book of rules we
formulate in our head that may have absolutely no basis in fact. It
is our prejudices about how things have to happen in order for us to
feel in control. The problem with having a rule book is that things
very seldom go the way that we think they will go. Situations
seldom play out as we figured they would in our head. We apply
our rule book to opportunities that present themselves to our own
peril.
“I’ll take my new dream job as long as I can make $100K.”
“I’ll start a business when I get enough money to support
myself for a year to make it work.”
“I’ll take a painting class after my kids go to college.”
These are all entries from The Book of Rules. Instead of accepting
your dream job at $90K a year, or starting the business today, or
taking that painting class while the kids are still at home, we apply
stipulations and talk ourselves out of living our dreams now.
Accept that your kids are at home now and take the painting
class anyway. Accept that you’ll never feel safe no matter how
much money you have and start your business anyway. Accept
your dream job for less money knowing that by doing what you
love more money is sure to follow because when you work within
your joy the universe rewards you.
Moving to a place of acceptance opens us up to untold
opportunities that can elevate our lives to a place of bliss.
However, trying to control things to fit into our rule book often
precludes our greatest dreams from manifesting.
Some of the greatest success stories of all time happened by
“chance.” Someone was in the right place at the right time and
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without any planning on their part they experienced what many
call “luck of the moment.” However, in order to capitalize on the
“luck of the moment” you have to accept it.
It takes great courage to live the life you say you want to live.
Many people claim they want to be rich, famous, successful
or successful or influential but it takes a truly brave person
to “accept” the opportunities given to them by the universe in order to live the life of their
dreams. We have met many successful people from all walks
of life: titans in business, politicians at the highest levels
of government, world-class athletes and world renowned
innovators. In person, they all claim that their path for success
didn’t work out exactly as they
planned, but they also claim they were always open to the
serendipities of life. Those special unplanned moments that seemed
to come out of nowhere that lead them to success. This all occurs
in the space called “acceptance.”
By accepting the opportunities in your life it makes you more
willing to allow others to accept the opportunities in their life.
Suddenly, as things start going your way you’ll find that you no
longer think, “She shouldn’t be doing that.” You’ll discover that
“he” can say whatever he likes because you are living your dreams.
Acceptance allows for the unplanned to manifest and it is in those
unplanned moments that genius lies.
In the film business we call them “happy accidents.” This is
when something occurs on a set that was completely unplanned
but, in fact, was actually far better than what was planned. The
great film cinematographer Conrad L. Hall coined the phrase
“happy accidents” when he was working on the film, In Cold
Blood. He was preparing to shoot a scene with Robert Blake
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that happened to be a very emotional moment in the film.
Blake’s character was looking out the window watching the
rain and he expressed the regrets of his life gone wrong.
As Conrad Hall was setting up the shot he noticed the rain
outside cast a shadow on Blake’s face making it look like there were tears running down his face. It added a deep emotional element to the scene and it happened totally by chance.
Now, had Conrad Hall not been in a place of acceptance, one of
the great moments of American film would never have been
captured.
A classic “happy accident” happened that forever changed
the course of Four Day Weekend. When founding member David
Wilk was getting married he had planned to have his rehearsal
dinner on the rooftop of the Caravan of Dreams Theater in
downtown Fort Worth. This was at the very beginning of the life
of Four Day Weekend. We had only been performing for about
a month at this point in our run and, at that time, we were at the
smaller 99-seat Casa on the Square Theater.
A contingency was set up for Wilk’s rehearsal dinner that if it
rained they would move the rehearsal dinner to an indoor space in
the facility. Sure enough, on the night of Wilk’s rehearsal dinner, a
torrential rain blanketed Fort Worth and the event had to be moved
inside to the “backup space.” Wilk and his future bride were
disappointed that they wouldn’t have the romance of looking out
over the city of Fort Worth as their friends and family gathered to
celebrate their nuptials.
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Wilk and his soon-to-be wife, Amy, were taken to the
alternative space, they were shown a 212-seat theater venue where
his rehearsal dinner would be held on the stage. Upon seeing the
space, Wilk asked, “What is this space?” The wedding planner
replied, “This is an old theater space that hasn’t been used in more
than three years.”
Wilk’s brain raced. He thought, “If we ever outgrow our current
space, this would be a great place to move the show.” Less than a
year later we took over that space that is now called The Four Day
Weekend Theater. That was 14 years and 5,000 shows ago. Why
are we there? Because it rained and “ruined” Wilk’s rehearsal
dinner.1 The rain was a gift that made us aware of this diamond in
the rough that is now our theater space.2
Open yourself up to the “happy accidents” of life. Those
unplanned moments that can forever change your life for the better
if you only accept them into your life. Often times these moments
disguise themselves as nuisances or as intolerable people but if
you can see underneath the shoddy wrapping paper you’ll discover
a great gift. Live in the moment and accept it fully. It will bring
peace to your life and the magic of the universe will work for you.
1. Amy Wilk still feels the rehearsal dinner was ruined.
2. Amy Wilk still hates the rain.
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ACT SEVEN
The Art of PashZEN (passion)1
Passion. It is something that cannot be bought and you certainly
cannot fake passion, yet it is the single most important
ingredient to success. Every great piece of art, sports
accomplishment, scientific advancement or business was at first
somebody’s passion to bring it to the consciousness of our world.
In the beginning of most endeavors, seldom is there a lot of
financial reward or external validation to motivate a person to
continue on the quest to greatness.
It is passion that gets the athlete up in the morning at 5 a.m. to
workout, in the hopes that all the hard work will culminate into a
championship. Passion drives a scientist to try countless
experiments in order to find a cure for a seemingly incurable
disease. The great blockbuster film starts with one hopeful screen
writer sitting before a blank computer screen -- not one ticket is
sold until long after the writer has completed their work, yet it’s
passion that starts the keyboard’s keys clicking until the final
punctuation mark is written.
Computer giant Apple was started in a small garage that was
filled with the passion of two men with the desire to bring the
personal computer to every home in the country. Money doesn’t
motivate people to greatness -- passion does.
We started Four Day Weekend with very little money. We
cobbled together $2,100 to buy some fliers and some cheap props
leaving only a small amount of money as a cushion during the
beginning months of our run. Because we were cash poor we
compensated for that with an abundance of passion. We were
passionate about bringing improvisation to the southwest and we
found unique answers to challenges that didn’t require money.
We couldn’t afford to pay rent on a theater because of our lack
of liquid finances -- we were broke and in our twenties -- so we
brokered a deal with an existing theater to follow their current
production of Forever Plaid. The theater was nearly 45 miles from
1. Seriously, we’re really working hard at these zen puns. We’re in the
home stretch. Stay with us.
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each of our homes but was in an area of downtown Fort Worth that
was thriving but didn’t have improvisational comedy
anywhere near the city. We offered the theater manager 25% of our
ticket sales in exchange for a spot at 11 p.m. on Friday and
Saturday nights. In addition, he was gracious enough to stick
around and run the lights for us in exchange for a six-pack of beer
every night. And trust us, he drank it. By the second act of our
show, we had a less-than-coherent lighting director but we worked
with it because the price was right.
We were given a limited six-week run and every Friday and
Saturday we would arrive at the theater at 10:30 p.m. with a sixpack of Budweiser in hand, and we would prepare to transform
the Forever Plaid set into the Four Day Weekend Improvisational
Theater.
This transformation entailed taking an electric blue curtain and
hanging it over the existing Plaid set. We were given roughly six
feet of stage depth to perform and were given explicit instructions
not to touch anything that belonged to the Plaid production. This
included everything on the stage except the floor. We were given
the floor and we were thrilled to have it.
It is passion that got us through these early days. We took the
one-hour one-way drive every Friday and Saturday to Fort Worth
from Dallas, and we worked late nights until nearly 2 a.m. -- only
to make the hour drive back to Dallas arriving back at home
around 3 a.m. Additionally, we all agreed that we wouldn’t take
any money until we became profitable because we had very little
cash in the bank.
Our six-week run became very successful and once the Plaid
production manager was confident that we wouldn’t touch any of
Plaid’s props, we were given a one-year contract to perform late
nights. It was six months before any of us took one dime out of the
company, and we were just fine with that, because we were given
the opportunity to perform the show we’d always wanted to do.
Early on in the production, a local theater critic attended one of
our shows to preview this “underground” comedy show that was
happening following Plaid. He surreptitiously slipped into the 99seat theater and took in an unannounced late-night performance.
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After seeing the show, he became our most ardent supporter and
his feature article paved the way for a “grass roots” fan base that
continues to this day.
It was in our passion that we opened ourselves up to the
possibilities of the universe. We couldn’t have planned for the
outpouring of support that we received after we were brought into
the local consciousness of the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but what we
could control was how much we loved what we were doing.
We put our intention “out there” into the universe to create an
improvisational comedy that could change the face of comedy in
the southwest portion of the United States and the universe
responded in kind. It is passion that paves the way for opportunity.
If you don’t love what you’re doing right now at this time in
your life, then make the choice to follow your passion. It may
seem scary but to live any other way is to live in conflict with your
purpose in life. When you align yourself with your purpose the
world around you will coordinate amazing “synchronicities” to
assist you in your goals.
In fact, when we started this show we took our own advice
and realized it’s not about the landing it about the leap. We took
our “leap of faith.” We all quit our jobs1 and pooled together our
$2,100 to start our journey. Were we scared? Of course we were.
We were met with incredulous glances from most of our family
and friends. Absolutely. One of us gambled and left a reliable
corporate job because he believed that if he worked hard and
followed his passion then he would be able to make even more
money doing what he truly loved. Today, he is living that dream.
Now is this considered luck? We hardly think so. We think he
“accepted” the chance to change the course of his life and now he
is “living his bliss.” This took tremendous courage and faith but
success is rewarded to those who take chances.
1. The one guy who had a job.
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It reminds us of sign on a half-frozen lake that reads, “Caution,
thin ice.” Do you know who put that sign out on that lake? An
entrepreneur. A risk taker.
However, if you are living and working without passion those
around you also respond in kind. You will find yourself in an
environment that also supports that point of view-a workplace
without passion.
As a manager and as a leader the most important attribute that
you can bring to your workplace is passion. Money is seldom that
motivator that prompts someone to stay late in order to finish the
job at hand. What motivates people is watching a leader who is
willing to go the extra distance and time to drive a goal to its
successful conclusion. As one audience member said to us when he
was asked what his mantra for life was: There is no traffic on the
extra mile.
Passion created the atmosphere where everyone in Four Day
Weekend was willing to drive an hour to work every night, take
a late night spot on a theater stage that sometimes only garnered
30 paying people and to perform the show for free. We wanted to
perform our unique brand of comedy and we were willing to do
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anything to make that happen. And although initially we didn’t
make any money we took $2,100 and we turned it into a very
successful and profitable company.
The money didn’t motivate us. Following our bliss did. We
followed a passion which culminated into changing our lives and
also lead us to owning our own theater, having a four-level training
center, a corporate communication division, a television and film
production arm, a national touring company, a Hollywood agent
and manager, a literary agent and we perform, speak and keynote
300 dates a year. We have written this book to share our knowledge
to help you do the same.1
1. Results may vary.
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WORKBOOK EXERCISE: HOT SPOT
Description:
All participants stand in a circle and are given a song theme
suggestion (i.e. a love song). One participant steps into the
circle and starts singing a known or a made-up song of his/
her own creation. As soon as this participant shows any signs
of stopping, another participant needs to step in and take over
(singing a different song based on the same theme or something inspired by the last song).
The Point of the Exercise:
No one likes being on a team and feeling like you have to do
everything yourself. This exercise emphasizes that your
teammates/co-workers should always have your back when
the going gets tough.
Directions:
After you’ve participated in this exercise, briefly describe the
“Hot Spot” moment that you helped to create.
Write it here:
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ACT EIGHT
The Art of CreatZEN
All of this leads us to our truest purpose: creating. We are here to
create the world we want to live in and our purpose is to use our
talents to create. In every moment of our lives we are creating
our own universe. In each moment we make choices that send
signals to the universe defining what it is we want in our lives. It
is in these moments that we are creating our world and it is in this
creation that we discover our bliss.
How many times have you watched someone using their talents
to create with such passion that you can literally feel a charged
energy around this person? The art of creating comes in many
forms and it is not left only to traditional artists. Plumbers,
attorneys, gardeners, chefs, teachers, business executives and
every other occupation on the planet create every day. But
creating isn’t only about the job you do it is about how you live
your life.
Creating extends outward to how you fill the time of your life
when you’re not working. We call these activities “hobbies” but in
fact we like to refer to them as our creative outlets which allow us
to create beauty in the world. For instance, the man who sprays for
bugs in our theater is also a very accomplished musician who plays
live shows on the weekends. He also donates his time working in a
zoo that houses some of the world’s largest cats including
cougars, lions and panthers.
He fills his free time creating and, because he does, he is one
of the most interesting people you’ll ever meet. However, he is so
often judged as just “the bug guy” that many people don’t get to
see how he creates in other areas of his life. He is an amazing artist
at his work, eliminating bugs, and he’s an amazing artist in his free
time, creating music. He has learned that continuing to create is
what makes him grow as a human being.
Recently, we were on a plane flying to San Francisco and we
began talking to a woman who was sitting in a row by us on the
plane. Throughout the course of our conversation she mentioned
that she had always wanted to learn another language. She said it
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had always been a dream of hers to learn to speak multiple
languages. So we asked her, “Why don’t you start learning a
language today?” She said, “I can’t do that. I’m too old. It’s too
late for me. It would take me five years to learn another language.”
We were surprised that this is what was keeping her from learning
a new language.
We told her the five years will pass regardless, so why not take
the time that is going to pass anyway to learn a language? You’ll
be five years older in five years no matter what, so why not speak
Italian after those five years have passed?
This is creating. This is continually creating the person you
want to be and it is in this creation that we become more vital
human beings. In the first day of class for our new students we
always tell them what we were told on our first day, “Allow
yourselves to be a student.”1
Growing old has nothing to do with age. Growing old has
everything to do with deciding to stop growing as a person. The
years will pass no matter what we do but how we decide to spend
those years will determine the life we lead.
We are often told by people that they are not doing work that
they are passionate about. This, we find, is true of most people.
They feel they are in a dead end job, they work 50-60 hours a week
and at the end of each day they go home and watch
television from the moment they get home to the moment they
go to bed, and then they get up the next morning to do it all over
again. Does this sound familiar?
1. Rest in peace, Marty DeMaat. You are remembered.
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We always tell people, if you’re not fortunate enough to be
working a job that you are passionate about at this moment, if you
don’t feel like you can “create” in your work, then take those free
moments when you normally watch television and use that time
to create. Scrapbook, paint, design a website, take a pottery class,
dance, sing in church or any of a myriad of other “creative”
endeavors - and become the person you want to be.
The website you design may “go viral” and become so hot that
a larger company offers to buy it. Someone may love your singing
in church so much they offer to pay you to sing in their wedding.
Or the pottery you make may be something you can sell.
All of these things take doing. They all take creating and
creation is the impetus for finding that dream job. But in order to
ignite the possibilities of what could be you have to take the very
first step. Walk out to your garage and begin that wood project
you’ve always dreamed about. Sign up for the improv class you
know you’ve always secretly wanted to take.1 Enroll in the online
class you’ve always dreamed about to further your education. The
moments of your life are going to pass regardless of whether or not
you do, so why not take the first step.
No one is going to knock on your door while you’re
watching television and ask you if you paint, or design websites
or if you sing and then offer you your dream job.2 You must begin
the process of living your bliss by creating. Become invigorated by
your passion and allow your excitement to become contagious to
those around you.
If you ever get an email from David Wilk you will see the
following phrase that accompanies every one of his
correspondences:
“Do what you love to do and do it so well that those who come
to see you do it will bring others to watch you do it again and again.”
Create and they will come.
1. Four Day Weekend offers a full four level training center. Go to
fourdayweekend.com for details.
2. They will, however, knock on your door and ask you to buy magazines.
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We were performing a show in San Francisco and, after the show,
we decided to go down to North Beach to take in some of the local
flavor. After dinner we were walking around when we came upon
the sounds of music being played up the block on a street corner.
The music sounded good so we worked our way towards the performers.
As we approached we saw a very small crowd of people
enraptured by this performance. On this corner were a man and
woman playing music. The man played a cello and the woman beat
her hands on a wooden box like a drum and she sang into a very
cheap microphone and the music was nothing short of
phenomenal.
People were literally hypnotized by the beauty of the woman’s
singing voice and they were entranced by the sound of the man’s
cello performance. She sang with such passion and love and he
played with such single-minded purpose that the energy was
almost sexually charged. Chills ran down the spines of all of us
that watched. Ten to twelve people were recording this
performance on their cell phones to capture this moment (as
opposed to living the moment as it happened, which we talked
about earlier).
At their feet was an open guitar case with a sign that read, “If
it’s worth a picture, it’s worth a dollar.” The guitar case was filled
with dollar bills from a great many passersby that were so
enthralled by their “creation” that people literally felt compelled to
pay them for this free performance.
After they played a few songs they took a break and we
approached the couple and asked what their story was. They told
us they were returning home to Seattle from Los Angeles after
spending a few months in Hollywood trying to get a record deal.
They told us that L.A. had beaten them down a little bit and they
were just trying to get enough money to get them home, so they
decided to play on the street corner until they got enough money to
get home.
We chatted a little bit longer about the business and as we did, a
well-known film producer standing next to them asked them if they
happened to have a CD he could buy because he liked their music
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so much that he would love to use it in a film that he was
producing in the coming months. They enthusiastically presented
the CD and said they would love to talk more.
All of this happened because they were willing to create for
seemingly little reward. They were trying to make a little money to
get back home and the passion of their creation prompted a movie
producer to want to work with them. They couldn’t have done this
if they had stayed home and watched television that night. They
had to create. They had to take action and once they did, the stars
aligned and presented them with a life changing opportunity.
In addition to this great opportunity, we were also taken by how
willing average people were to place money into this couple’s
guitar case. The passion of this couple’s creation had people
literally handing them money. The music was so good and was
so heartfelt that people wanted to be a part of it in any way they
could. The audience gladly became their benefactors because when
people are creating with passion everyone feels the desire to be a
part of it.
The truth of the matter is that so few people create and live their
passion that when someone gets to experience watching someone
do so, it becomes almost intoxicating. People will offer their help,
money and support just to witness you at work. When people
create, the energy around them is infectious and others want to be a
part of it in any way they can. This is the art of creation.
As long as we are living and breathing we can continue to create
and become the person we want to be. It is never too late to learn
how to paint, dance the tango, learn to cook, start a comedy show,
write a book, or any other interest that enters your mind.
Creation invigorates and infuses our life with purpose and it
is the genesis for realizing the potential of our lives. Conversely,
lying dormant and waiting for life to “give you a break” stalls your
potential and leads to hopelessness. If you find yourself saying,
“Life sucks. Nothing good ever happens to me,” or, “Why can’t I
ever catch a break like Joe did?” we’re here to tell you: be your
own break. Take the very first step and claim the life you want to
live. Create your life starting right now.
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Creating is our purpose. All great innovators are creators. All
advancements of our society were predicated on creation and it
starts by writing the first word of your novel, picking up your paint
brush, taking your first foreign language class or drawing the plans
for your first great invention.
Most people fear taking the chance of creating because they fear
what they label as “failure.” Four Day Weekend is proof that if you
are willing to take the first step towards your dreams, a President of
the United States may be waiting to meet you during your journey.
Every night we create between 20-30 new scenes, songs and
sketches in our show. And we have to tell you, not all of those 2030 scenes are great. A small percentage of them are inspired, most
are pretty good and a few fall flat but we know that you can’t also
be 100% successful when you’re creating.
We have no more talent than anyone else but what we do
possess is the willingness to take a chance to create. We are
willing to experience what many call “failure” because we know
there is no such thing as “failure”. “Failure” is simply the
advancement of creation. At the risk of repeating ourselves F.A.I.L.
is just an acronym for First Action In Learning.
You must have trials and missteps in order to perfect your
Kreation.1 If you can only see the beauty in these “mistakes” you’ll
be able to see the larger picture that they are what will bring you to
your ultimate divine creation. No great creator ever did so without
experiencing setbacks. It is inherently part of the process and it is
a necessary part of the process. Everyone falls from time to time,
but it is those who regroup and get up the quickest that become our
most admired people.
We’ll end this chapter with a story about a woman who we saw
speak at a corporate event where we were also performing. Her
name was Bonnie St. John. Due to a condition called pre-femoral
focal disorder, St. John had her right leg amputated above the knee
when she was five years old.
Despite this challenge, she went on to excel as an athlete, a
scholar, a mother and a businesswoman. After graduating magna
1. Upon spell checking we realize we misspelled “creation.” Don’t sweat
the small “mistakes.”
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cum laude from Harvard University in 1986, St. John won a
Rhodes Scholarship to Trinity College, Oxford, where she earned
her M.Litt. degree in economics in 1990. She worked in the White
House during the Clinton administration as a Director for the
National Economic Council, and is currently CEO of Courageous
Spirit, Inc.
St. John was simply a woman who never let her disability define
her. Everything she tackled she did so with her utmost
determination. That included her dream of being an Olympic
champion in skiing.
St. John trained, worked and struggled and she became so good
at skiing on one leg that she decided that she would attempt to
compete in the Paralympic Games, which are dedicated to those
with physical disabilities.
She worked hard and she had made it to the games. Her big day
arrived and, on this day, the course was particularly icy. She knew
that she was going to have to give her very best in order to take
home the gold. Her first run came off almost flawlessly and at the
end of the first round she was in first place. The gold was within
her reach. She was anxious and nervous for her last run because
she knew that it was the combined total of her two runs that
determined the champion.
When she started her second run, she came out of the gate
quickly. She knew the course was slick and, as she approached the
third flag, she felt her ski come out from under her and she went
down on the ice. A thousand horrible thoughts went through her
head. “I just blew. All of that hard work was for nothing. It’s over,
I lost.”
She picked herself back up and completed her run, but in her
heart, she knew that her chance for gold was lost. But something
surprising happened. Every other skier in contention for the
medals that followed her fell at least one place on the course. She
saw her lead hold and only one skier was left that could beat her as
the final competitor entered the gate. As the final skier came down
the hill, something amazing happened: St. John’s competition fell.
She went down just like the others, only she did something the
others didn’t do. She got up faster than anyone else who fell and
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she finished the run. She beat St. John by four-tenths of a second.
As we stood watching this amazing women tell her story of her
silver medal performance, she delivered what we think is the most
poignant message anyone could give, and it was this: everyone
falls, but it’s the person who gets up the quickest after that fall that
becomes a champion. St. John fell and in the time she was
berating herself for blowing the chance for gold, had she only
gotten up five-tenths of a second faster, she would be wearing gold
instead of silver.
Everyone falls, but whoever gets up the fastest becomes the
champion. Setbacks are a part of the journey and once this is
understood we can place our focus on rebounding after the
setbacks. The more time that is spent lamenting the setbacks, the
less chance there is to wind up the champion.
Failure will happen, but get back up - and get back up quickly.
No one is out to get you. No one is responsible for your success
but you. This is your life and it takes great courage to live the life
you say you want to live. Creation is our birthright, claim yours.
If there is anything we wish for you to take from this book, it
is go create - and manifest the life that you have always wanted.
Your dreams await and only you can fulfill them.
1. Just checking to see if you were still reading these.
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WORKBOOK EXERCISE: AD EXEC
Description:
This final exercise draws upon all of the skills we’ve learned
up to this point to help us create an entire improvised
advertising campaign for a fictional product on the spot. The
first person to answer is rewarded by an enthusiastic response
by the entire team. Only the first person’s answers are accepted
and built upon. After a rapid-fire series of questions, the group
has come up with a new campaign through improvised teamwork utilizing all of the skills they have learned.
The Point of the Exercise:
This is a fun, positive way to reinforce the point of the earlier
exercise - it’s not what one person creates individually that
makes us successful, it’s what we create together.
Directions:
After you’ve participated in this exercise, briefly describe the
“Ad Exec” product that you helped to create.
Write it here:
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The Art of ImproviZEN
ACT NINE
In ConcluZEN
As we write this in our 15th year of doing our show, we must say
it has been quite a ride. There is no way that when we started this
show on February 28, 1997 that any of us would have imagined we
would still be going strong in today. This journey has taken us on
many twists and turns and ups and downs and every moment of it
has been a joy.
When we started this show our goal was simply to make people
laugh. We had all been devoted to the craft of becoming the very
best we could be in the comedy business. Along the way, we have
performed for Congress, met a president, pitched television shows
to Hollywood, sold a television show to Hollywood, made films,
wrote a book…and we did all of this with two simple words: “Yes,
and.”
The amazing part of all of this is that we aren’t necessarily
exceptional people on the surface. We have all come from very
modest backgrounds and we came together to make each other
better. Without a doubt, we are far better as a collective than we
are individually. For a short period of time, we fought against the
notion that we were better as a collective but individual failures
proved how much strength there is in the group effort. As a group,
we possessed that rare unexplained magic called chemistry.
Our individual strengths offset our same individual weaknesses
and by doing so we create a perfect composite. This is possible
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in every organization by simply “accepting” everyone for their
strengths and their perceived weakness. Saying “yes, and” will
open the floodgates of success. It worked for our organization,
there is no doubt it can work for yours.
We wrote this book in an effort to share the knowledge we
acquired through years of successes and “failures” on the stage.
Through trial and error we discovered how groups can successfully work together to become better as a unit. We realized that the
tenets of improvisation could be applied to every area of people’s
lives. In business, in personal relationships and even in one’s
own relationship with themselves. These tenets reflect the Golden
Rules that we were taught when we were younger.
Listen to others.
Be supportive of others ideas.
Live in the moment.
Accept others and make them better at what they do and they
will, in turn, do the same.
Work nicely with others.
Treat others like you would like to be treated.
And when you fail at these above ideas, as you surely will from
time to time, regroup and start over.
Applying the tenets of improvisation to your daily life will
make you a better person and a more successful person.
We have been honored to have had the opportunity to perform for
the great people of our community all of these years and we have
met many wonderful people as we travel the world delivering our
keynote address to businesses, political groups and organizations.
No matter where we are in the world these ideas resonate with
people because they are fundamental truths that we know deep
down but only need to be reminded of from time to time.
Gandhi once said, “Be the change you want to see.”
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If you want those around you to become a better person, then
show them how it’s done.
If you want other people to become more accepting of your
ideas, then be accepting of theirs.
Show your friends, family and co-workers what presence looks
like.
If you are tired of people being “poisonous” at work, start with
yourself first.
Change lies within you. By changing how you interact with
others you will subtly see them change with you.
You picked up this book because you wanted a better way to
interact with others. You believed, although maybe subconsciously,
that there is a better way to relate with others, and there is:
by applying The Art of ImproviZEN.
The next time someone comes to you with an idea shout, “Yes,
and” and watch the glint of excitement in their eyes as they
notice the change in your demeanor. Instead of telling them how
D.U.M.B. (Don’t Underestimate My Beliefs) an idea it is, let them
know it’s the most exciting and brilliant thing you’ve heard in a
long time and soon they will be doing the same for you. Accept
their thoughts and ideas and soon acceptance will become a part of
modus operandi as well.
The changes in your life will be
subtle at first but over time you will
find that work becomes easier,
relationships become less strained
and inspiration will come easily and
frequently. “Happy accidents” will
present themselves more and more
often and with your consciousness
focused on acceptance you will
become more open to accepting all
of life’s serendipities.
You don’t have to walk out on to a stage to become an
improvisor. You improvise every day in your life with or without
The Art of ImproviZEN
107
your knowledge, so use these techniques that the
professionals use and soon you will be a star in your own right.
Thank you for giving us the time to share what we have learned with you. We know you are going to go out into the world and become
“the change you want to see.” We look forward to seeing you on the stage of life, and we wish you well on your journey.
THE END1
1. That’s it! Book’s over. Get on with your life, for God’s sake.
The Art of ImproviZEN
108
EPILOGUE
As we walked into the cavernous ballroom of the Aria Hotel in
Las Vegas the whirlwind of the proceeding 18 months seemed to
be settling down a little bit. A lot had happened. We performed for
Congress and met President Obama. We finished writing The Art of
ImproviZEN and from a business prospective things were running
as well as they ever had in our 15-year existence. We had settled
into a very comfortable routine but as is true in life we could tell
the best was still yet to come.
Life had presented us with another serendipitous encounter. It
was September 10, 2012, a day before the eleventh anniversary of
9/11, and we were preparing to do a tech rehearsal for a show we
would be performing for a financial institution the following
morning. Once again, in a moment of déjà vu, the ballroom was
being scoured by Secret Service agents preparing for a visit from
another President of the United States. This time it was a former
president and a fellow Texan, George W. Bush, who would be on
the docket with us the following morning.
Up until this point we had never met President Bush, although
we had several mutual friends who knew him well and, in fact,
said that we would get along well with the former Commander-inChief.
“He has a marvelous sense of humor and you guys will really
hit it off,” said Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief. To date we had
never crossed paths with the 43rd president, but it seemed like this
was soon to change. That is, until the producer of the event had
told us in no uncertain terms, “You will not be meeting the
president. Only two people will be cleared to interact with the
president, and they will be wearing pins to designate their status.”
We get told “no, but” a lot, and after experiencing the positive
effects of “yes, and” we tend to ignore the naysayers of the world
and just move along the road of acceptance to see where it will
lead. We nodded our heads and told the producer we understood
and we continued with our tech rehearsal. As we were
performing our sound check we leaned over to the producer and
The Art of ImproviZEN
109
kiddingly said, “After the president enjoys our show and invites us
over to say hello, are we allowed to talk to him then?” The
producer looked over to us and smiled and said, “If the president
asks to meet you, you can do whatever he would like you to do.
But I wouldn‘t count on it.”
The next morning we awoke and had some breakfast as we
prepared our opening comedy routine for the 2,000 credit union
executives in the audience. The conference was abuzz with
anticipation to see the former president speak. There was
something eerie about thinking back to that day in September in
2001 and now, eleven years later, we would be performing on the
same stage as the president who lead us through that dark time.
As we walked into the Pinion Ballroom in the Aria Hotel we
could once again see the security apparatus that surrounded a
former head of state. The room had been “swept” and we were
brought to a holding area backstage where we were to remain
during the president’s speech. We were to perform first doing 15
minutes up front and then we would introduce the CEO of the
financial institution, who would then introduce the 43rd President
of the United States, George W. Bush.
“You guys are not to leave the holding area during the speech.
You will be watched by a Secret Service agent throughout the
performance and when you leave the stage, exit stage left. You are
not to attempt to make contact with the president,” we were firmly
informed. “Oh, and thanks for being here. We look forward to the
laughs.” Once again, nothing primes a comedy crowd like Secret
Service agents with guns. We had literally been sequestered to the
equivalent of the “little kids’ table” at Thanksgiving dinner.
As we walked out on stage, this show was really no
different than any other show. We performed our 15-minute
opening to raucous laughter and then we brought on the CEO as
we were instructed to do. We exited stage left to go to our holding
area when, as we hit the curtain, we were met with our promised
Secret Service escort and President Bush’s personal aide, Freddy
Ford.
“The president was watching you guys backstage and he was
laughing. He would like to say hello to you,” Ford said. We looked
The Art of ImproviZEN
110
at each other a little confused because we were implicitly informed
there would be no contact.
“We were told to go to a holding area,” we responded.
“Well, I’m going to escort you to the president so that he can say
hello,” Ford replied.
“Yes, and” won again. “Yes, and” beat “no, but” and this time,
to the tune of us meeting our second President of the United States.
We now had our red president (Bush) and our blue president
(Obama). It was the political equivalent of yin and yang. By being
open to the world of all possibilities Four Day Weekend once again
succeeded when we were told we wouldn’t be able to.
“Yes, and” had the ability to reach across the aisle to bring red
and blue together to make purple. This is why in the song America
the Beautiful the lyrics say, “For purple mountain majesties.”
Because when we work together as the color purple, we become
mountains as opposed to working against each other and reducing
ourselves to molehills. United we stand.
If in politics we could treat each other as artists and poets and
listen to each other’s ideas while building on them to make them
better, we could truly change America for the better. If our
leaders could strike the word “no, but” and replace it with “yes,
and”, we could not only find solutions to our biggest challenges,
but we could create the perfect politiZEN.
All of these ideas swirled around our heads as the president
approached us.
“You guys are funny,” the president said as he reached out to
shake our hands. His demeanor was very loose and he instantly
engaged us in conversation.
President Bush spoke with us for about eight minutes before he
went out to do his speech. We talked about living in the Dallas/Fort
Worth area and we talked a little bit about Texas Rangers baseball
and our mutual friend Nolan Ryan. President Bush, although very
busy and about to deliver a speech on 9/11, took the time to get to
know us. He took the time to have a brief conversation with us that
he probably won’t remember, but it meant the world to us. He made
a “connection”, and in that connection confirmed the power of
The Art of ImproviZEN
111
saying “yes, and.”
As the president excused himself and began to step away from
us to prepare to take the stage, we asked if he would be willing to
take a picture with us following his speech. He said, “Of course.”
He turned to leave but then stopped and turned back to us. “Would
you guys be willing to do a show for the troops with me in the
future?” Our answer was instantaneous. We said, “Yes, and we’ll
do it as our gift to those brave men and women who protect our
country.”
Soon after talking with President Bush we went back to our
“holding area” where we watched his speech from backstage. The
president delivered his speech and then sat down with the CEO for
a Q&A. Before he was asked his first question he looked out to the
crowd and he said, “Wasn’t Four Day Weekend funny?” The crowd
applauded. “That’s the kind of talent we have in Texas.” The
crowd laughed.
The six of us all made eye contact with each other with
somewhat incredulous looks on our face. Did the former president
just take a moment and give us props from the stage for our
performance? The moment was surreal to say the least.
We continued looking at the backstage monitor of the president
speaking when his aide approached us with his business card and
said, “The president requests your contact information.”1
The moment was becoming even more surreal. We had indeed
come a very long way from our humble beginnings playing to
sparse crowds at 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights more than
1. With the help of President Bush, Four Day Weekend had officially
defeated the terrorists. You’re welcome, America.
The Art of ImproviZEN
112
15 years ago. Our “little” improv show paved the way for us to
meet not one, but two presidents. By tapping into the power of
“yes, and” we manifested our wildest dreams: To make a living
doing what we love to do.
As we sat backstage listening to President Bush recount his
thoughts on that historic day in September of 2001, we couldn’t
help but be moved by the fact that we had been truly blessed: To
live in a country where all things are possible. To be blessed with
dear friends who shared a dream and a belief that we could make
that dream a reality. And most importantly, to be blessed to have
our amazing fans come to our theater and support us week in and
week out.
We are not sure where the next leg of our journey will take us
but one thing we do know: We will say “yes, and” to whatever is
offered.
- Four Day Weekend
October, 2012
They say a picture is worth a
thouZENd words. Two of
which are, “yes, and.”
, 2012
September 11
THE ZEND1
1. You didn’t think we had it in us, did you? If we missed any, please zend
your puns to [email protected]