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When I was seventeen, I auditioned for the school talent show.  It was a terrifying moment in my adolescence. After all, I had never played my original songs for anyone, much less the music teacher and a bunch of fellow students. Vulnerability was at an all time high, and confidence was at an all time low.  The good news is, I didn’t die. The audition went fine. And the…

Improv comedy is about saying yes to others, but also saying yes to yourself.  Owning your choices and following your feelings and engaging with whatever arouses you and not backing away in shame and guilt just because you let yourself love something.  That’s what makes you a good scene partner with yourself, so to speak. Instead of denying, you respect and listen and notice and treat each of your…

As I learned from my guitar teacher, everybody breaks strings, but being an artist is about how quickly you return to the music.  If a string breaks and you suddenly lose your balance and scream out loud and smash your guitar to the ground and cut the concert short by twenty minutes, you lost.  Because you allowed the moment to be bigger than you.  But if a string breaks…

A friend of mine works for a tech startup.  He tells me that whenever the company interviews candidates for their customer service positions, the last question on the list is as follows. Would you rather be friendly or right?  It’s an interesting concept. Especially in the black and white world of tech support, when frustrated and impatient users just want answers.  But I couldn’t help but wonder to myself,…

Consider these two truths of the human experience.  One, there’s potential for anxiety in almost everything around us. Daily life is littered with triggers.  Two, connectedness is the frame in which human beings heal. Change is an interpersonal experience.  And so, when the storm of anxious thoughts moves through, the worst thing we can do is isolate. The worst thing we can do is suffer silently and secretly. The…

I once came across a job application for a marketing position whose headline stated the following: If you’re thirsty for blood and hungry for a chance to prove yourself, you could be the one we’re looking for.  Notice the absence of traditional job application language like talent and experience and multiple references and bachelor’s degree and impeccable attention to detail and must be highly organized and be able to…

All modern vehicles have a check engine light. A malfunction indicator lamp that flashes a of an engine, alerting the driver of serious troubles like low oil pressure, potential overheating, catalytic converter issues, emissions problems or an imminent breakdown.  This light can be a lifesaver. It can help drivers erase a major problem before it becomes one.  Of course, sometimes the light simply means a loose gas cap. Or a…

Cue cards are traditionally held right beside the camera for the performer to read from, while still appearing to look directly into the lens.  But in many television productions, especially sketch shows, cue cards are also positioned off camera, to the left or right of the stage, out of frame, unseen by the viewing audience.  And so, on any given television set, actors might encounter three sets of cue…

You don’t have to manage your time if you master your priorities.  That’s a powerful mantra for taking action and getting things done.  But it assumes a high level of certainty. My question is, what if you don’t know who you are yet? What if you’re still in the early stages of an uncertain endeavor? What if you’re so crazy busy and overwhelmed that you barely have time to…

On any given day of busking, I earn between five and thirty dollars in tips.  Which isn’t a ton of money, but that’s not the point. Because the significance of that currency far exceeds its monetary value.  In fact, a friend of mine once asked me if I did anything special with that money at the end of each performance.  Absolutely. It’s one of my favorite rituals. I roll…