Lessons

Lesson Info

Class Introduction & Warm up

So when you think about originality think about your individual uniqueness. I don't wanna say the word talent, but sometimes it is potentially that. Like maybe there's some innate talent that you have, some unique characteristics that really make you who you are, and so the lessons that we're gonna work on in this is how to kind of pitch yourself in a solo environment. How to practice your point of view. So, to raise your POV, identify it and share it. Yeah sharing your sense of humor. We all have a sense of humor even if you think you're not necessarily funny or don't know how to add humor. There is something there that could probably could have comedic effect in the way that you present yourself. We're going to reveal our super powers and identify some of those things that make us special and unique. A big thing that I'm excited about is celebrating our imperfections because I think too many times in public speaking we're trying to get everything perfect, and we're trying to ...

get every word perfect, and it's really really impossible. And, so, it's just okay to be imperfect and mess things up and go with it, and just be yourself. We're going to combine your passion and your work, so think about how do we take who you are outside of work, and the things you love? How do we take who you are inside of work and the things you're great at and love, and how we put those together. And the final lesson is about corralling your creativity. I think a big part about being creative is giving yourself restrictions and giving yourself structure. So the final exercise and lesson will focus on a particular framework to be creative within. Will you talk a little about originality as it works in our Speechless POINT system? Yeah, so again to reiterate the POINT system, it's the training system that speechless uses. It's also our judges criteria in our show. For those of you who did not hear that in other classes, we do a show called Speechless Live where people improvise presentations they've never seen before and POINT is what the judges actually score off of. And it stands for Presence, Originality, Inclusion, Narrative and Transformation. This particular class focusing on Originality. And as I said originality is really just about the uniqueness that you are. It's your talents. It's your personality. It's that, that particular intangible quality that you have that makes you, you, that sometimes is really hard to apply to a presentation, especially when it's scripted, especially when you're at work because you think oh no one needs to know that characteristic or hobby of mine. No one cares about my passion outside of work. Or maybe they do care, but I don't have time to put it in. All those things that make you really fun to be around. Whether it's your friends or significant other, or your family, that they really truly enjoy about yourself. Those are the things that we kinda wanna bring out. The originality that makes you, you is something that cannot only make the presentations you give more entertaining and interesting for people, but it'll actually make it more fun for you to give. And maybe if public speaking is something you don't look forward to it can be something you can get excited about because you know that you actually have agency to be yourself and there aren't as many rules and restrictions as you really think and you can kinda do whatever you want because a lot of times people don't know that they have that permission. And I wanna give you that permission during this class to just be completely you, whatever that means. Great and because we are speechless and everything we do is rooted in improvisation and theater techniques, we wanna remind you what the expectations are around doing improvisation with us. So the first thing we're gonna ask is that you be spontaneous. So don't censor yourself. Be your authentic self. And share those ideas with us and the group. And make each other look good and feel good. And that really comes down to just supporting each other and not putting the emphasis on how you're doing, but making everybody else feel like they're comfortable. We're gonna build on ideas so we're gonna, we've been working on our other classes on Yes, And, and we're just going to continue to use that skill to Yes, And ourselves, but also to build and share ideas with each other. And continue to have fun. A big part of this is about making this a game, making this something that's not so serious even though it might be for a serious application like your job. Right now let's kinda take those restrictions off and just have a good time. Yeah, great. You're gonna run this first warm up exercise for us. Perfect. And there's a download on this as well. There's a download. Woooooooo. So this is a particular exercise that is really great at getting out really unique ideas and specific information outta your head. It's just called Three Things. This is in another class we talked about our upcoming experiment with the neuroscientist Dr. Charles Lynne. This is another one of the exercises that will be used. It's a paradigm within. Because it all relates to how quickly your brain can process information and spit out different outputs. And so it's a really fun exercise to do for that reason. And so the way that this works is I'm going to give someone in the, I guess in the row of chairs, a category and you're gonna name three things as fast as you can. You're not gonna try to be clever, or smart, or funny, or whatever the little filter is. Really it's about kinda just speed and correctness. The accuracy of the actual category. So if I said three colors, just blue, red, green is better than burgundy and chartreuse. Don't try to be clever just see how quickly you can spit it out, and the faster you get and the more you practice the more filters you can put on if you wanna be thought you know a particular way you'll be able to do that. And the way that we're gonna do this is I guess we can kinda just go down the line. We usually do this in a circle, but since you're sitting we can kinda just go down the line. And after someone says that third thing let's all together say Three Things together. So let's practice that on the count of three. One, two, three, Three Things. Great, so I guess we can start with you giving one to me, and then we can go around or we can go the other way, How would you like to go? Great let's do that. All right. Three planets that haven't been discovered yet. Blurhywum, Sliplot and Crape. Three Things. Planets that have not been discovered That was perfect. Three places you've lived. Montana, Southern California, The Mojave Desert. Three Things. Three things you need to snap up. (laughing) My bra, my bank account and (laughter) I don't know, I don't know. I can't think of three things. Three Things. Yeah and that's the thing there's no wrong answer if you don't have one we just keep going and there's comfort in knowing the game keeps going. My bra and my bank account is my rap album, keep going. Give him a category. Three sports teams. Warriors, Giants, Forty Niners. Three Things. Three bottles of wine you've recently drunk. My God, uh Pinot Noir, a Cab and a Sauvignon Blanc. Three Things. Three countries you want to visit in 2018. Prague, South Africa and Spain. Three Things. Three ways to excavate the demons in your imagination. (laughing) With an excavator, with therapy and my mom. Three Things. Three types of noodles. (laughing) Zucchini noodles, rice noodles, bean noodles. Three Things. Three, three books you are going to read. Oh uh, Improv Nation, What's the Matter With That Lady and Green Eggs and Ham. Three Things. All right very good. Give yourselves a round of applause. (applause) Really simple improv warm up game. You know gets you thinking about specific choices. It gets you creative because you might be put on the spot with a category that is not in your wheel house. It's not your expertise. It's not your passion. I think you got sports teams. That's one that pops up a lot where people go well I don't really like sports so pass. It's like, this game isn't about necessarily having knowledge, it's about having an answer for the category and just three different ones, and if you can be accurate, great, in terms of like knowing something about it, just spitting it out. The one you gave me was a perfect example of planets that have not been discovered. Where there's just carte blanch, just say whatever you can come up with as long as it's not the name of a planet that's been discovered. So it really brings out kind of that specific uniqueness in your own mind and imagination. But before we move on really quickly, what were some of the things you noticed in what you did or heard that you thought like really spoke to someones originality? Yes. I like how Heidi handled her. Because especially it was the bra, it's like it's definitely like what's on her mind and what's like very real. (laughing) Yeah She also, another great thing about this game, is that you find rhythm and structure which is something we've mentioned in other classes. She said my bra, my bank account, there was my at the beginning of each of those, and they both start with a B. Maybe coincidence, but maybe just a way for you to keep the ball rolling with your own creativity. Also just an interpretation of what Alva had offered her. Right, so an interpretation that might've been different than mine or someone else's. So we also get to see that sorta reveal as well. Anything else about originality that popped out of the three things? Well Sammy I think yours might've been the hardest. But you reacted, like I felt for you. I thought shit what would I say? And I just really appreciated that kinda went with blaaaah like you used your face and you used voices and you're an expert in this, but I still. Well, I did wet my pants, but yes. (laughing) It was a very challenging one, but that's one for people at home you can play on your own. We actually again, as Kimberly mentioned, we have the download, and the download deck is just a series of categories. And really the best way to do it is to put a timer on the clock and see how quickly you can get through the whole deck. And then do it again and see if you can try your best not repeat any of those words. Yeah, great, that was fun. I love it's such a great way too, that if you get to play it with someone else, because you have to answer and then immediately turn and ask a question. So I also feel like it's a brain bender in that way as well.