3 Things Improv Comedy Taught Me About Starting a Business
No two crowds are the same, and as an improv team we must master the art of reading feedback and adjusting in real-time. In one recent performance, I realized our 20-minute show had been happening for at least 10 minutes, but my character hadn't said a word. There I was, silent on stage, and the audience was likely thinking, "Who is this dude, and what's he even doing up there?"</p>
By empathizing with the audience — putting myself in their shoes — I was able to call out the uncomfortable situation and make it a source of comedy. "Is my time-out over yet?" I blurted out. My savvy teammates quickly used "yes, and…" to justify that my character, indeed, had been forbidden to speak for ten minutes. This unlocked a fun new game of exploring the circumstances that led to my time-out in the first place, raising the stakes and adding new information and context to the ongoing scene.</p>
An entrepreneur has the same responsibility, because failure to empathize with customers and acknowledge what's on their minds will quickly put you out of business. Customer sentiment can turn on a dime, but it's easy to get ahead of these changes — good and bad — when you invest in a deep understanding of what customers care about. As an improviser, you do this by going to see other shows and sitting in the seats of an audience member on a regular basis. As an entrepreneur, you do this by using your own product, knowing your competitors' products, and talking to your customers all along the way.</p>
Longform improv sets typically run between 20 and 25 minutes, and Big Baby performs a style known as a "bunker monoscene" in which the entire show is a single scene in a single location. Without scripts or props, you need to think critically about how to make the most of that time in a way that keeps the audience engaged. It comes down to making thoughtful investments in character development and details early on, allowing for relationship growth, steadily increasing stakes, and emotional investments that build to a satisfying crescendo at the end of the show.</p>
Performers think about this obsessively when shaping their characters in the opening minutes of a scene, because that groundwork is what tees up satisfying outcomes later on. One of my favorite starting points is to play an old grandfather, because there is so much richness in how their personality can be revealed over time. While he may start out in a chair blurting out incorrect Jeopardy answers at inopportune times, that seemingly one-note trope can evolve as you realize that he has a unique relationship with every member of the family, memories from a 30-year career, and untold wisdom that arrives when you least expect it. And then he screams at the TV again. Doing the upfront work to create flexibility and options for your team provides you all with a powerful utility belt to pull from when things get slow.</p>
In business, the balancing act is similar. In an evolving economy, every entrepreneur's early investments are key to his or her team's future success. These are core business investments: Mission. Vision. Values. And they extend to include anything from the principles you adopt to the products you develop, and the way you go out to market and sell. Like improvisers, the best companies define their values and core beliefs early on, but preserve optionality for discovering new opportunities as they explore the world from within that framework. In both cases, taking the time to do this right will leave you with no regrets when the show reaches the end of its run.</p>
Related: 12 Low-Cost Business Ideas for Introverts</a></b></p>
Published at Wed, 06 Dec 2017 13:00:00 +0000
