Grow in the Dark
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever got, is that it is very important to grow in the dark. When you hit the limelight, you don't have the freedom to screw up. So if I'm performing at the Sydney Opera House, which incidentally I have, I can't afford to tell a bad joke. Or have a bad gig.
Now when you want to succeed all the time, what do you do? You play safe. You do the things that you know will definitely work. However, as a result, you don't experiment, you don't take risks, you don't innovate and therefore therefore you don’t grow. You stagnate.
So as comedians, what is our solution to this problem? We go to small open mic nights. These are shows where there are very few people attending and our names are not on the poster. At shows like these, we experiment. We try new things, we see what works, we understand what doesn't, and the things that work, finally make it into the larger shows.
My question to you, as an organisation or a professional is, where is YOUR open mic night? Where are you going to experiment and make mistakes? What are the risks that you would like to take? Because if you don't identify a way to do this regularly, you won't be able to innovate and eventually you will stagnate.
QUESTIONS FOR YOU:
1. Where do YOU go to grow in the dark?
2. What has been your experience with risk taking and experimentation?
3. What was the last risk you took and how did it work out?
4. What's the best advice you've ever received?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, as well as your tips for growth and innovation.
NOTE:
#ComicSenseWithPapaCJ is a series and you’ll be receiving similar such newsletters every weekend for the next 40 weeks at least. So strap on ;)