Improv

Addicted, But Far From Anonymous

Garth Beyer

You’re an alcoholic. Wonderful!

You’re addicted to sugar. That’s great!

You can’t control the amount of food you eat. Not a problem!

You’re obsessed with exercise. That’s cool!

We all have our dependencies, our addictions. Every single one of us.

My top three addictions are writing, confrontation (challenging everything and taking on challenges), and attempting to have as much wit as Oscar Wilde. These addictions are like badges of pride that I wear everywhere I go. At first I thought how interesting it was that one or all three addictions would be entwined with any conversation or any story I would tell people. Then I realized that these addictions are my story.

Being obsessed. Having addictions. Being dependent. All are powerful traits – and I mean that in a good sense!

The problem with being wedded to certain influences is when you wear the problem like a badge; when being an alcoholic becomes your story; when you tell everyone how attached you are to eating junk food, day in and day out; when you start using your addiction to drugs as an excuse for the life you’ve lived.

I had a friend who suffered a serious back injury. I was one of the first people who heard the story of how it happened. It was pretty silly. Weeks went by and I heard my friend tell the story over and over to everyone he talked to. In fact, by the 6th or 7th time, it seemed like it was scripted. My friend had the story down pat. It was as if my friend was ready to tell it for the next couple months. My friend was addicted to telling the story and dependent on the responses and type of attention that was received. How can my friend expect to recover when the injury is the story, and the story, my friends life?

The same goes for the alcoholic who is fine with telling everyone that they are. Who is fine with accepting that the reasons they treated people poorly and had a shitty life was because they were an alcoholic. They go to AA, to be grouped with other people who think they are special because they have an addiction. Am I against people getting together to overcome something like alcoholism? No. Am I against the idea that in going there that they have a signficant problem, an addiction that influences their thoughts and actions – and they believe they are special cases? Yes, there’s a big problem.

Every one of our addictions, whether it be alcohol, sugar, writing, singing, debating, planting, breaking things, or running; they all put us under an influence. Each addiction acts as a filter on our mind, sometimes filtering out good motives and considerations, sometimes filtering out the bad.

I was on an Improv team for a few years. Our troupe was called Improv Anonymous. We often opened the show up by getting in a circle, telling our names, and talking about our addiction to Improv. When we weren’t doing our show, we still did Improv: in class, at a friend’s house, in Culver’s. That Improv badge we wore with pride, what we were addicted to, altered every part of our lives.

I’ll say it again: Being addicted to something isn’t bad, whether it’s drugs or playing basketball. Being comfortable with announcing your addiction, wearing it like a badge of honor, and letting it become your story; that’s when we run into problems. There’s a reason why it’s alcoholics anonymous.

“The world is just; it may, it does, patronize quacks; but it never puts them on a level with true men.” – Amelia Barr

 

Stay Positive & Just A Heads-Up: It’s Easier To Change Addictions Than To Stop Them

Garth E. Beyer

What Improvisation Is And What It Can Do For You

What Improvisation Is And What It Can Do For You

Garth Beyer

“Improvisation is motion.” – Bobby McFerrin

Improvisation precedes the understanding of something. It’s connecting who you are with who you want to be. It’s the bridge that you get to dance across. Improvisation is calling fear to you and making it your friend. It’s how you surface courage.

I have to take after Bobby McFerrin’s example to show how powerful improvisation is. He tells his students to sing nonstop for ten minutes. They can sing whatever tune they want or make up their own, it doesn’t matter, but they must keep singing. All of his students want to stop within two minutes. They think of different reasons why they should: they start to think how dumb it is,  they think how stupid they must look and sound, they start to think they are singing terribly, they start to think that everyone around them thinks they are unworthy and making a fool of themselves.

Within just two minutes it feels the world is screaming at them to stop, but they don’t. They continue singing for ten minutes everyday for three weeks and by the end, the best way I can describe it, is that they find their voice.

This exercise can be done within any realm of passion: singing, writing, dancing, climbing, drawing, or even milking cows (purple cows).

For many, success is a huge sought after factor, day in and day out.

For a select few, harmony is more important.

Improvisation leads to harmony.

 

Stay Positive & It Just So Happens That Harmony Leads To Success

Garth E. Beyer

Improv-e Leadership: A Toastmasters Collaboration

Garth Beyer

Making leaders is a lot easier than most believe — and it’s FUN. It is not so much about teaching others how to become leaders. I could write hundreds of posts about leadership that you will shake your head in agreement with. Although, even after reading all the leadership lessons, I know that you still wont be a leader. Why not?

Improv Leadership was the theme I created at last nights Toastmasters meeting, as I was the designated Table Topics Master. I, just as you are doing now, have been studying all the leadership lessons and qualities I can get my eyes on. We all know the most successful people in the world were great leaders.

Leaders create legacies.

Note: You will need to understand the art of Improv before reading further. Click here to get the definition or visit my post on Improv Writing. You can skip your exploration of the art of Improv if you feel you are capable of getting your creative juices flowing.

All leaders were creative, without the skill they could not have created a legacy.

As a member of Improv Anonymous in Illinois, I learned to play a game called “Story Story Die”. The leader of the group would ask the audience to come up with a situation and an object and then create a quirky title out of it. Then the game begins as “Once Upon A Time..” and the leader would begin to point at each member of the Improv group. The Improv member who the the leader points to would have to start telling the story, focusing on the audience suggestions. In the middle of telling the story, the leader would then point to another member and they would have to take up where the last member left in the story. When one member takes too long to respond, has no clue where they are in the story, says something ridiculous, or flat-out chokes — everyone laughs and yells out “DIE”. The leader then asks the audience how they want them to die: poisonous snake bite, death by dandelions, thinking too hard about why the sky is blue, etc. The member acts out their death and the game continues until only one person remains. Then they have to successfully end the story. There you have it, the theatrical game of “Story Story Die”.

The Humorous Way To Open Up And Find Your Personal Leadership Qualities

Normally this activity is outrageously funny because the topics are ridiculously crazy and the members of the team are experts at humor. However, for the Table Topics, I wanted to turn a fun activity into a fun semi-professional learning experience. Thus, I joined Improv with Leadership. I opened the floor with the game and made sure everyone would try their best to revolve the story around leadership. Here is a short synopsis of it, written by our Toastmaster of the evening.

“Garth performed his first table topics, “Impromptu leadership.”  As a group we told a fun Piece-by-piece story (with the pieces being very short from each member) about a group of hikers (Kevin) on the Appalachian trail (Matt) who find themselves confronted by a hunter (Xiao Lei), stumble upon an heretofore unknown desert (Shirley), become confused and start hallucinating (Chris and others).  Joan plucks out the map and realizes they are just a half mile from shelter and storms off (Margaret), but they don’t have enough water to get there (Jill), and they all perish (Garth), because they don’t have good leadership.”

During the story told by all the Toastmasters members, I did not have anyone “Die” so I had to make all the characters in the end die. It’s Improv; make it up as you go.

Leadership Cannot Be Taught, Leadership Comes From…

As I said, you can teach someone all the qualities of a leader but that will not make them a successful leader. Leaders become leaders because they recognize their best qualities and exploit them. It is not about teaching leadership, it’s about bringing out the leader within. So after the story, I began asking questions to have members of the meeting acknowledge their own independent leadership qualities. I asked questions like the following:

1. Who is a leader to you and why?

2. What would you do if the club, job, or organization that you are part of, made you the leader for a day?

3. Tell me a story of a time when you had to take the lead.

4. Define leadership.

5. Who wants to be a leader? What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

6. What three qualities do you think a leader must have?

7. What advice would you give to someone going into a leadership position for the first time?

Now I think you should answer the questions yourself. Realize that becoming a leader is not something you can become by reading books, listening to cd’s and attending seminars. Becoming a leader comes from within. When you realize your greatest potential, your best qualities, what YOU define as leadership, only then can you become the greatest leader of all — The Leader of Your Self

Standing Up And Standing Out

Garth Beyer

I had just attended my first TOASTMASTERS CLUB (#137) on Wednesday the 16th at downtown Madison. Speaking has been a passion of mine since I had an audience; my parents. They tell me stories of how I would cry whenever I was alone and never stop with my “baby talk” when I was with people. This was not a habit that could be broken like sucking your thumb.

Diving into middle school I was the most outspoken person in the class. Now, it has gotten me in trouble quite a few times, but that was before I learned how powerful of a speaker I am. Even in my first two years of high school I was Mr. Talkative and always spoke at any events I went to, always contributed my input at conferences or meetings, and always wanted to know more than what I was told; resulting in the fact I asked a lot of questions.

I say that I was like this my first two years of high school because I passed a college admissions test and enrolled in a duel credit program in which I went to college full time for my junior and senior year of high school. That is right, no high school classes at all! I was the president and founder of The Running Start club at Rock Valley College, I gave a speech to all the students and parents of the students who were also enrolled into the duel credit program,  I participated in Model United Nations, I gave the opening speech at my high school graduation,I attended the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, and many other events. All of which I was speaking in front of groups, or on the local radio, or on the television. Everyplace I went, not only did I have something to say, but I had something worth hearing. Now that you know some background of me, you can tell how inspired I am about public speaking which results with me attending my first Toastmasters Club meeting the other day.

Back when I lived in Illinois with my dad, I remember him bringing up the Toastmasters club one day. He had joined for about a month so that he could improve his group speaking skills since he is in the Archery teaching business and will have to speak in front of hundreds of kids and parents. I said he joined for about a month because he learned quickly it was not one of his talents, nor did he have the motivation to make it one. Other than that, he may have mentioned to me once more while I still lived there that I would be great at Toastmasters, but I never listened.

I have since moved to Madison Wisconsin with my girlfriend and have taken up a writing job for an entrepreneur, Dale Suslick. Dale is one of my mentors for business and balance management.  He receives a couple speaking engagements each month and it is something that I wish to take up as well. Dale is also part of two Toastmasters clubs. Now you can bet that he has encouraged me to join Toastmasters and I decided that I would go to the next meeting nearest to where I live.  I researched where the meeting was and found that it was on the first and third Wednesday of each month. I was really disappointed that I would have to wait two weeks until the next meeting. I emailed the vice president of public relations for the club expressing my interest in learning more and possibly joining. He offered me a quick response full of information, and at the end he noted when the next meeting was.. was in two days! I must have looked at the calendar wrong. I still did not know if I could make it to the meeting since I was still working on my eBook (Parents Cost Us Money Too).

That Wednesday was an extremely busy day. I worked at my temporary job at the Higher Educational Aids Board for seven hours, and came home and continued writing my eBook for another three hours. I gave myself a deadline to have the eBook done, and I knew I would not reach it if I went to the Toastmasters meeting. But I had to go. I can write more of my eBook every day for the next month, but I would not be able to go to a Toastmasters meeting for at least two weeks, and who knows if something may come up that day. As I said, I had to go. I quickly changed my clothes, sprayed some cologne on, and raced out to wait for the bus. I continued waiting, and waiting, and waiting, until I started considering skipping the meeting and going back home. My jeans were stiffening up from the cold 25 degree winds blowing all over. I stuck it out and got on the bus after waiting nearly twenty minutes out in the brutal cold. (On a side note, for those who did not catch the small lesson in this part of the story. Always take the earlier bus, or leave 10 minutes earlier to a meeting, because you never know what may hold you up. I arrived to the meeting on time because I took the earlier bus.)

I walk into the meeting room about five minutes early and am acknowledged first by a member of the club. His name was Dave and he requests that he is called the Sasquatch because he is slightly over sized and has a long hair and even longer and more thick beard.You can only imagine. I was then introduced to the Toastmaster, Matt. In meeting with him, he asked if I would be the Time Keeper of the meeting. I went into this meeting with an extremely positive attitude and a need to prove myself worthy. I readily accepted and was fed the info I needed to know to behold the responsibilities correctly.

Once the meeting had began and introductions were made, Matt asked everyone if anyone knew a good joke. I immediately raised my hand because I had heard a great joke while listening to some of Zig Ziglers pod-casts at work. In addition to the Time Keeper, I was now the Joke Master as well. Before I continue I would like to update you on how this particular club’s agenda was laid out. Hopefully having more of an idea of what goes on at a meeting will motivate you to join. Each meeting begins with the president giving an improv introduction. Following this the Toastmaster will give a speech reaching out to the members and persuading any noobies to join. Next, table topics are discussed. One person, in my case Dave, got up and began giving a speech about a topic. His topic was “Veterans”. After he spoke about his own experience having a family member that was in the Vietnam War, he began to ask each member in the club different questions related to the topic. He asked everyone a question except me. He was not trying to exclude me, he simply knew that I was new and already had a task I was trying to carry out. Fortunately for me, the Toastmaster interrupted and said that Dave had time to ask one more question, and he suggested to ask me since I had been the only one who had not participated. I was eager to respond since speaking was exactly what I went there for. Since he was all out of questions, I was able to give an impromptu speech related to the topic. I spoke for a minute and ten seconds (I had to time myself) about how my Papa was in the Secret Service and would always tell my family and I stories of when he was in the service. I related this event to reading a sci-fi, horror, military, and historical novel all combined in one. I described that I would hear the story and it would get extremely suspenseful, but I never heard the ending. There was no conclusion in the novel. As I said, my Papa was in the Secret Service and with that he has been sworn to secrecy about a lot of subjects. (All the good stuff!) Everyone loved my speech and applauded greatly.

The time carried on and I kept track of the time it took for the next four speakers who had speeches to present. Then people are selected to evaluate each speaker and they get up and present their feedback. After all the evaluators present their information, the Time Keeper (me), has to tell everyone their times. That was easy enough, but I was also the Joke Master that was next in the agenda. I told everyone how I had been listening to Pod Casts of Zig Zigler (who I highly suggest researching and learning from). I had to say that I could not attach the joke to the motivational story that Zig told because I did not remember it completely and I did not want to butcher his work. I stuck with the joke and I asked everyone, “Why are blind people afraid to sky dive?”. After dead silence and looks of puzzlement all the way around the room, someone shouted out “Why?” I said, “Because it scares their dogs.” Laughter bounced off each wall in the small room as everyone got a kick out of the joke.

The Poem Master was up next and he gave a phenomenal voice to a poem.

Then the quiz master was up and asked us questions to see if we had paid attention to the speeches.

Then the grammarian was up to say how many times people said “uhm”, “uh”, and other various faults.

During the process we were filling out ballets for best table topic, best speech, and best evaluator. The Awards Master was next up and he began by saying that I won the Table Topic award! I was thrilled and jumped up to the podium with excitement and thanks everyone for their votes, shook the Toastmasters hand, and sat back down with such a huge grin on my face that I could eat a banana sideways.

The Toastmaster gave a final discussion and the meeting was over. I could not believe it, I won an award at my first meeting and I was not even an official member! Looking back, I cannot believe that I even considered not going. You need to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way, especially when it is something that interests you. I hope my story encourages you to give Toastmasters a chance, and your still the opportunity to be connected with other brilliant people. I greatly look forward to the next meeting and you can bet that I will post another blog about my experience.

Do you recall when I said that I often asked a lot of questions in life? Well, I do because I want to learn. So if you have any Public Speaking skills, lessons, websites, blogs, etc. that you would like to share with me, I would be the most grateful. I have a wide variety of experience with speaking and maybe we can connect! Feel free to contact me at TheGarthBox@gmail.com

Stay Positive and Stand Out Among The Others Who Stand Up

– Garth E. Beyer