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Team Building Through the Power of Play | The GrowthPro Edge · The GrowthPro Edge

• 0:00
  Speaker: Welcome to the Growth Pro Edge.
• 0:02
  Speaker: We're here to help scale your
• 0:04
  Speaker: business, build stronger teams
• 0:06
  Speaker: and sharpen your leadership
• 0:08
  Speaker: skills.
• 0:10
  Speaker: I'm your host Denise Killian
• 0:12
  Speaker: with the Growth Pro Group and
• 0:13
  Speaker: Train Entertainment.
• 0:14
  Speaker: And today on the Growth Pro Edge, we're talking about team
• 0:17
  Speaker: building and why it matters more than ever for companies.
• 0:22
  Speaker: Strong teams don't happen by accident.
• 0:24
  Speaker: They're built through trust,
• 0:26
  Speaker: communication, collaboration and
• 0:28
  Speaker: shared experiences.
• 0:30
  Speaker: And today I'm joined by Carlo de
• 0:32
  Speaker: Amore from Live in Theater, who
• 0:34
  Speaker: creates unique experiences that
• 0:37
  Speaker: get teams working together,
• 0:39
  Speaker: thinking differently, and having
• 0:41
  Speaker: fun.
• 0:42
  Speaker: Carlo, thank you so much for
• 0:44
  Speaker: being a guest on the Growth Pro
• 0:47
  Speaker: Edge.
• 0:48
  Speaker: I am thrilled to to be meeting you.
• 0:50
  Speaker: I'm excited to be here.
• 0:52
  Speaker: Woo hoo!
• 0:54
  Speaker: Listen, we are going to have a great conversation.
• 0:57
  Speaker: I am super pumped about it.
• 0:59
  Speaker: Okay.
• 0:59
  Speaker: And I'm excited.
• 1:01
  Speaker: I always love talking about team
• 1:02
  Speaker: building and the importance of
• 1:04
  Speaker: getting outside of your work
• 1:06
  Speaker: environment, and having some
• 1:08
  Speaker: opportunity to see each other
• 1:11
  Speaker: and relate to your coworkers in
• 1:12
  Speaker: a different way, and how
• 1:14
  Speaker: impactful that is on your
• 1:16
  Speaker: business.
• 1:17
  Speaker: So, uh, we met, uh, and you were
• 1:20
  Speaker: telling me about your company
• 1:23
  Speaker: and it's just a fascinating
• 1:25
  Speaker: story.
• 1:25
  Speaker: So let's start off Carlo and tell the people who you are and
• 1:29
  Speaker: what you do.
• 1:30
  Speaker: My favorite subject, me.
• 1:36
  Speaker: Uh, so I will tell you, my name is Carlo Di Maria.
• 1:39
  Speaker: And, uh, I am a bunch of things, but I am, uh, professionally,
• 1:45
  Speaker: I'm an actor, writer, director, producer, and an entrepreneur.
• 1:51
  Speaker: I started, uh, a couple of different ventures, and in two
• 1:55
  Speaker: thousand and nine, I started a company called Live in Theater.
• 2:00
  Speaker: It's also pronounced live in theater.
• 2:02
  Speaker: Up to you.
• 2:02
  Speaker: Whatever you want.
• 2:04
  Speaker: Um, the whole idea with the company is that you're living
• 2:06
  Speaker: inside the theater.
• 2:07
  Speaker: Why?
• 2:07
  Speaker: Denise?
• 2:08
  Speaker: Because it's not traditional theater.
• 2:12
  Speaker: It's not.
• 2:12
  Speaker: You're just going to sit there and watch.
• 2:14
  Speaker: Oh, no, no no no, no. In fact, when we did the shows in the
• 2:19
  Speaker: real world before Covid, and I'll talk to you about that and
• 2:24
  Speaker: how that changed things, uh, you knew you were doing a live
• 2:28
  Speaker: theater show when the audience because it's literally, uh, so I
• 2:34
  Speaker: jump, but you're with me, right?
• 2:35
  Speaker: Um, the shows are true crime mysteries.
• 2:39
  Speaker: So, um, which is hilarious because I, that, that, that,
• 2:44
  Speaker: that's my bread and butter because I'm not a puzzler.
• 2:48
  Speaker: I'm not like, uh, like if I do
• 2:50
  Speaker: an escape room, I don't know
• 2:52
  Speaker: about you, but I'm the person in
• 2:53
  Speaker: the corner who's just standing
• 2:54
  Speaker: there.
• 2:55
  Speaker: I just, I'm kind of useless when it comes.
• 2:57
  Speaker: It's not that I don't like it.
• 2:58
  Speaker: It's just.
• 2:59
  Speaker: I'm just not.
• 3:00
  Speaker: It's not my thing.
• 3:01
  Speaker: And the fact that I've sort of like, uh, we've been called, uh,
• 3:05
  Speaker: murder mystery on steroids.
• 3:07
  Speaker: We've been called a bunch of other things.
• 3:09
  Speaker: Um, and I'll tell you why.
• 3:10
  Speaker: But anyway, before I get lost in
• 3:13
  Speaker: my, in my own voice, uh, when we
• 3:16
  Speaker: were doing shows in the real
• 3:17
  Speaker: world, you know, it's typically
• 3:19
  Speaker: an actor surrounded by a team of
• 3:20
  Speaker: audience members and, you know,
• 3:22
  Speaker: you're doing a live in theater
• 3:23
  Speaker: show.
• 3:23
  Speaker: If the audience did this at first, they're like, wow,
• 3:26
  Speaker: because it was so in your face.
• 3:29
  Speaker: And why is that important?
• 3:31
  Speaker: Because we and I think part of it is because I, I had never
• 3:35
  Speaker: done a murder mystery before.
• 3:37
  Speaker: And I'm all about story.
• 3:38
  Speaker: Story.
• 3:38
  Speaker: Story.
• 3:39
  Speaker: Story and more importantly, character.
• 3:41
  Speaker: Character character character.
• 3:44
  Speaker: Um, it's almost like the the murder, the, the puzzle solving
• 3:48
  Speaker: became like a second there a second, a second element that
• 3:53
  Speaker: people absolutely love.
• 3:55
  Speaker: So I started the company in two thousand and nine.
• 3:58
  Speaker: Um, and, uh, it's just, do you
• 4:02
  Speaker: want the background, how I
• 4:03
  Speaker: started it?
• 4:04
  Speaker: I mean, you, you started the
• 4:06
  Speaker: company when we, we talked and
• 4:08
  Speaker: you were telling me about this,
• 4:09
  Speaker: you started the company and it
• 4:12
  Speaker: was you had you come across this
• 4:14
  Speaker: crazy book.
• 4:15
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 4:16
  Speaker: Old unsolved or unsolved crimes
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  Speaker: from this neighborhood in New
• 4:20
  Speaker: York.
• 4:21
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 4:22
  Speaker: And it came to you to you know what?
• 4:24
  Speaker: Let's create a production that is on the streets.
• 4:28
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 4:29
  Speaker: Where the audience participates in helping to solve the crime.
• 4:33
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 4:33
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 4:34
  Speaker: That's a that's a that's a great recap.
• 4:36
  Speaker: Uh, I'll just finesse a couple of other, uh, additional things.
• 4:39
  Speaker: Um, so I was living in the Lower East Side, which is the melting
• 4:43
  Speaker: pot of, uh, American when they say the American melting pot.
• 4:47
  Speaker: It is literally the Lower East Side.
• 4:48
  Speaker: It's the immigrant Lower East Side, where all these different
• 4:51
  Speaker: cultures came in.
• 4:53
  Speaker: I mean, as far as American
• 4:54
  Speaker: history goes, nothing can touch
• 4:57
  Speaker: the Lower East Side, just the
• 4:58
  Speaker: volume and the histories and the
• 5:01
  Speaker: German, Irish, Italians, Jews,
• 5:03
  Speaker: blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
• 5:04
  Speaker: blah, blah, blah for
• 5:05
  Speaker: generations.
• 5:06
  Speaker: And I am an immigrant.
• 5:07
  Speaker: So I moved into that neighborhood and, uh, I was
• 5:11
  Speaker: working at a museum and I was, I, I saw the gentrification.
• 5:15
  Speaker: That's what it was.
• 5:16
  Speaker: The neighborhood is changing before my eyes.
• 5:18
  Speaker: I'm living there for a couple of years and all of a sudden people
• 5:20
  Speaker: are starting to come.
• 5:21
  Speaker: So all of a sudden, the mom and pop little business is going out
• 5:23
  Speaker: of business and all of a sudden it's becoming a boutique.
• 5:26
  Speaker: So I'm like, oh, people are coming.
• 5:28
  Speaker: They're doing walking tours and I'm a theater person, so how do
• 5:31
  Speaker: I do what I do in the theater and involve people in a
• 5:35
  Speaker: different kind of way.
• 5:36
  Speaker: And I stumbled upon this book called Criminals in America,
• 5:39
  Speaker: written by Thomas F Burns, the first chief of the first
• 5:45
  Speaker: investigative unit in New York's New York City.
• 5:48
  Speaker: Uh, the guy was kind of a maverick Irish immigrant
• 5:51
  Speaker: himself, you know.
• 5:52
  Speaker: Cop typical.
• 5:54
  Speaker: And he was also a writer.
• 5:55
  Speaker: And he wrote this book.
• 5:57
  Speaker: He's the guy that invented the idea of the mug shot.
• 5:59
  Speaker: So photography had just been invented and he was like, we
• 6:02
  Speaker: should photograph the criminals.
• 6:04
  Speaker: Boom.
• 6:05
  Speaker: Brilliant.
• 6:05
  Speaker: You know, and he came out with
• 6:07
  Speaker: this book and it has a bunch of
• 6:08
  Speaker: pictures.
• 6:09
  Speaker: So there'll be a picture of Denise and the crime.
• 6:10
  Speaker: She commits a picture of the crime I commit.
• 6:13
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 6:14
  Speaker: And there were different aliases
• 6:15
  Speaker: because everybody had multiple
• 6:16
  Speaker: aliases.
• 6:17
  Speaker: Because they didn't have IDs.
• 6:19
  Speaker: You got pulled over.
• 6:20
  Speaker: They didn't ask you for I.D..
• 6:21
  Speaker: They didn't have those.
• 6:22
  Speaker: Those things we don't think
• 6:23
  Speaker: about anyway, in the back of
• 6:24
  Speaker: this book.
• 6:26
  Speaker: He had essays, written essays about very high profile cases
• 6:31
  Speaker: before his time, murders that had not been solved.
• 6:34
  Speaker: And, um, and one of them was the Ryan case.
• 6:38
  Speaker: It happened in the year eighteen seventy three.
• 6:40
  Speaker: It was a brother and a sister.
• 6:42
  Speaker: So out of all the cases, it was
• 6:43
  Speaker: the only one that was a double
• 6:45
  Speaker: double homicide.
• 6:46
  Speaker: And it was very personal, you know, brother and sister.
• 6:49
  Speaker: And he basically had written two pages of like the night of how,
• 6:53
  Speaker: you know, somebody had opened up a window and screamed murder!
• 6:59
  Speaker: And the cop, the beat cops that
• 7:01
  Speaker: were patrolling the Lower East
• 7:02
  Speaker: Side here, the, the they hear
• 7:05
  Speaker: murder.
• 7:06
  Speaker: And one of them does the alarm
• 7:07
  Speaker: rap and the alarm rap is
• 7:08
  Speaker: basically cops always have Billy
• 7:11
  Speaker: clubs and the streets are
• 7:12
  Speaker: cobblestoned.
• 7:13
  Speaker: Right.
• 7:14
  Speaker: So very much like you're putting.
• 7:15
  Speaker: You're putting your ear to the
• 7:17
  Speaker: railroad track to hear the train
• 7:19
  Speaker: coming.
• 7:19
  Speaker: You hit the stick on the
• 7:22
  Speaker: cobblestone and it reverberates
• 7:23
  Speaker: and another cop hears it, and
• 7:25
  Speaker: they go towards the sound and
• 7:27
  Speaker: they walk into the building, lit
• 7:28
  Speaker: matches.
• 7:29
  Speaker: And he's describing all this.
• 7:31
  Speaker: The brothers found downstairs
• 7:33
  Speaker: and he keeps getting blood
• 7:34
  Speaker: everywhere.
• 7:35
  Speaker: And he goes upstairs.
• 7:36
  Speaker: They go upstairs, they find the
• 7:37
  Speaker: sister and the landlord who's
• 7:39
  Speaker: drunk and blah, blah, blah,
• 7:40
  Speaker: blah, blah.
• 7:41
  Speaker: So I took that as a starting material, and somebody around
• 7:45
  Speaker: that time was trying to hire me to give tours and I didn't want
• 7:48
  Speaker: to do that.
• 7:49
  Speaker: But I said, it sounds great, but not really for me.
• 7:52
  Speaker: But I said, but I have a really
• 7:53
  Speaker: wonderful project for your
• 7:55
  Speaker: student group of one hundred and
• 7:57
  Speaker: fifty students that are coming
• 7:58
  Speaker: to New York City in three
• 7:59
  Speaker: months.
• 8:00
  Speaker: And I pitched the idea and she
• 8:02
  Speaker: went, oh my God, it sounds
• 8:04
  Speaker: amazing.
• 8:04
  Speaker: I said, I know it is.
• 8:06
  Speaker: And she said, but it's booked.
• 8:09
  Speaker: And I went great and I had to hurry up and make it right.
• 8:13
  Speaker: Right.
• 8:13
  Speaker: Because at that point, it was just this idea.
• 8:15
  Speaker: It was just this essay, it was just this essay and an idea.
• 8:19
  Speaker: And then basically I spent like a, I got some incredible actors
• 8:22
  Speaker: on board and we just kind of figured it out.
• 8:25
  Speaker: And basically in this essay there, there's a landlord and
• 8:29
  Speaker: there's the brother, dead brother and dead sister.
• 8:31
  Speaker: And so we created all of it.
• 8:36
  Speaker: Um, and basically the audience
• 8:38
  Speaker: would come into a neighborhood,
• 8:39
  Speaker: the China Chinatown, fantastic
• 8:42
  Speaker: neighborhood, and they would
• 8:44
  Speaker: meet Thomas F Burns, this cop,
• 8:46
  Speaker: um who, because of the
• 8:48
  Speaker: corruption in the police force,
• 8:50
  Speaker: was so out of control, he was
• 8:53
  Speaker: deputizing these audience
• 8:55
  Speaker: members that I have no one else
• 8:57
  Speaker: but you.
• 8:58
  Speaker: Will you do it?
• 8:59
  Speaker: And they'd say yes.
• 9:01
  Speaker: And then every there would be different teams of audience.
• 9:03
  Speaker: This is important because you're going to see how it became
• 9:06
  Speaker: something completely different.
• 9:08
  Speaker: There would be different teams.
• 9:09
  Speaker: They'd have a map of the surrounding area, like a four
• 9:12
  Speaker: block square, and they'd head out into the streets of the
• 9:15
  Speaker: Lower East Side.
• 9:16
  Speaker: Um, sorry, Chinatown.
• 9:18
  Speaker: And they meet a a character on a stoop.
• 9:20
  Speaker: And, uh, and this is everybody's
• 9:22
  Speaker: wearing eighteen hundreds period
• 9:24
  Speaker: costumes.
• 9:25
  Speaker: The women are wearing hoop skirts.
• 9:26
  Speaker: There's a coal seller on the street corner selling coal right
• 9:30
  Speaker: to the pedestrians walking by.
• 9:32
  Speaker: The most amazing thing about New York, one of the great things is
• 9:35
  Speaker: that we were doing these shows for such a long time.
• 9:38
  Speaker: You know, they were becoming
• 9:39
  Speaker: such hits that local New Yorkers
• 9:41
  Speaker: from the neighborhood would play
• 9:43
  Speaker: in.
• 9:43
  Speaker: In fact, when we jumped in.
• 9:45
  Speaker: I love that so much.
• 9:47
  Speaker: We did a show about the nineteen seventies.
• 9:49
  Speaker: This is like a year later.
• 9:51
  Speaker: We did a show, nineteen
• 9:52
  Speaker: seventies, very grimy, New York
• 9:54
  Speaker: City and the cops, New York City
• 9:56
  Speaker: cops knew exactly where all the
• 9:57
  Speaker: characters were, because they
• 9:59
  Speaker: would see us with these crowds
• 10:00
  Speaker: of people, and they'd roll down
• 10:01
  Speaker: the window.
• 10:02
  Speaker: Hey, Trixie.
• 10:03
  Speaker: Looking good, baby.
• 10:04
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 10:05
  Speaker: The audience would be like, oh, my God, everybody is in on it.
• 10:08
  Speaker: It's so amazing.
• 10:09
  Speaker: So and that was the the very first show was called the Ryan
• 10:12
  Speaker: Case eighteen seventy three.
• 10:14
  Speaker: And we were in operations for a
• 10:16
  Speaker: couple of years, and we were
• 10:17
  Speaker: nominated for a Drama Desk
• 10:19
  Speaker: Award, which is a huge
• 10:20
  Speaker: accomplishment.
• 10:21
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 10:22
  Speaker: Um, and then, uh, with the nineteen seventies show, CBS
• 10:27
  Speaker: came to one of our shows.
• 10:28
  Speaker: I didn't even know that they
• 10:29
  Speaker: were there because it was just
• 10:31
  Speaker: like, oh, you know, I was doing,
• 10:32
  Speaker: I was wearing every single hat
• 10:34
  Speaker: possible.
• 10:35
  Speaker: And they came CBS and they named us top six attractions for
• 10:39
  Speaker: groups in New York City, which was a huge game changer for us,
• 10:43
  Speaker: because then anybody's coming into New York City and they're
• 10:46
  Speaker: putting group activity and we're popping up on CBS, right?
• 10:51
  Speaker: And then that's when we started
• 10:53
  Speaker: seeing more and more corporate
• 10:54
  Speaker: groups y corporate for the same
• 10:56
  Speaker: reason general public would
• 10:58
  Speaker: come.
• 10:58
  Speaker: It's really unique.
• 11:00
  Speaker: We don't play fast.
• 11:02
  Speaker: So the shows are not hammy.
• 11:04
  Speaker: They're hilarious, but hilarious
• 11:06
  Speaker: for different reasons because
• 11:07
  Speaker: the actors are so connected and,
• 11:09
  Speaker: and you are, we're tapping into
• 11:11
  Speaker: the audience's childlike sense
• 11:13
  Speaker: of play, which is still what we
• 11:15
  Speaker: do.
• 11:16
  Speaker: Um, and so there, there's all of that.
• 11:20
  Speaker: It would happen indoor and outdoor, but it was also team
• 11:23
  Speaker: building because you had to solve really intricate puzzles.
• 11:26
  Speaker: So we started doing more and more corporate audiences.
• 11:30
  Speaker: Before Covid, we were in, uh, Austin, Texas.
• 11:34
  Speaker: We were in obviously in New York.
• 11:36
  Speaker: We were in Florida, we were in Cocoa Beach, we were in Miami.
• 11:39
  Speaker: We were doing private events in LA.
• 11:43
  Speaker: We were in Madrid, Spain.
• 11:45
  Speaker: Um, and we were talking to China
• 11:48
  Speaker: about taking our shows to China,
• 11:50
  Speaker: and then Covid hit and then it
• 11:52
  Speaker: was all over and secretly don't
• 11:55
  Speaker: tell anybody.
• 11:56
  Speaker: Secretly, I was super excited
• 11:57
  Speaker: because it was so much work, you
• 11:59
  Speaker: know?
• 11:59
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 12:00
  Speaker: Super grateful.
• 12:01
  Speaker: But it was a lot of work.
• 12:03
  Speaker: And then somebody, one of my actors said, we should do our
• 12:06
  Speaker: shows on Zoom, and we got a pptp loan to keep our actors employed
• 12:14
  Speaker: during the height of Covid.
• 12:15
  Speaker: You know what it was like?
• 12:17
  Speaker: And our shows took off and we
• 12:20
  Speaker: started working with booking
• 12:21
  Speaker: agencies.
• 12:22
  Speaker: These are companies that booked us in the real world for
• 12:25
  Speaker: corporate shows who are now shifting to virtual programming.
• 12:30
  Speaker: And we started playing for companies literally all over the
• 12:33
  Speaker: world as far east as Singapore, um, every English speaking
• 12:39
  Speaker: country in the world.
• 12:41
  Speaker: Um very accessible.
• 12:43
  Speaker: The click of a link.
• 12:44
  Speaker: And you have these incredible actors that come to you.
• 12:47
  Speaker: We're averaging between four and six hundred performances a year,
• 12:51
  Speaker: which is way more than even Broadway houses do.
• 12:56
  Speaker: I was going to say that's a tremendous amount of shows, and
• 13:00
  Speaker: like a couple of things that I just want to key in on.
• 13:04
  Speaker: I love the organic growth that happened.
• 13:09
  Speaker: You had this idea and you were
• 13:12
  Speaker: just like, you know what, I'm
• 13:14
  Speaker: going to figure this out and
• 13:16
  Speaker: have this really cool
• 13:16
  Speaker: experience.
• 13:17
  Speaker: And it was meant to be solely
• 13:20
  Speaker: the purpose was artistic
• 13:21
  Speaker: creation.
• 13:23
  Speaker: A thousand percent of the right and involve an audience and have
• 13:27
  Speaker: a unique theater experience out on the streets.
• 13:31
  Speaker: Yep.
• 13:32
  Speaker: That then morphed and grew into something bigger.
• 13:37
  Speaker: And then this business that was bi coastal and across the ocean.
• 13:42
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 13:43
  Speaker: And then Covid hit.
• 13:44
  Speaker: And so you have to reinvent
• 13:45
  Speaker: yourself again, like so many
• 13:47
  Speaker: businesses did.
• 13:48
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 13:48
  Speaker: And now you're doing more
• 13:50
  Speaker: business than you ever could
• 13:51
  Speaker: have if you were only in person
• 13:54
  Speaker: for sure.
• 13:55
  Speaker: For sure.
• 13:55
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 13:56
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 13:56
  Speaker: And that was just wild, isn't it?
• 13:58
  Speaker: I love this story.
• 13:59
  Speaker: It is.
• 14:00
  Speaker: It is totally wild.
• 14:01
  Speaker: And it's not like it was a lot of it was accidental.
• 14:06
  Speaker: Just I was telling you earlier,
• 14:08
  Speaker: and I think because it makes
• 14:10
  Speaker: sense to how we were able to
• 14:12
  Speaker: take this format and transfer it
• 14:14
  Speaker: to virtual.
• 14:15
  Speaker: So the audience, this is the real, the real shows in the real
• 14:18
  Speaker: world comes into one space, one main breakout room, right?
• 14:23
  Speaker: And then they get broken up into
• 14:25
  Speaker: different teams, separate
• 14:27
  Speaker: breakout rooms, and they go to
• 14:29
  Speaker: the breakout rooms and instead
• 14:30
  Speaker: of the audience walking to the
• 14:32
  Speaker: actors, the actors get sent in
• 14:34
  Speaker: one after the other and you
• 14:35
  Speaker: interrogate them.
• 14:36
  Speaker: And then we all.
• 14:37
  Speaker: So it flowed perfectly into Zoom.
• 14:41
  Speaker: And there's things that we can do, uh, virtually that we were
• 14:46
  Speaker: never able to do.
• 14:47
  Speaker: For example, we can have.
• 14:49
  Speaker: And it, and it helps to the world, to the immersion of it
• 14:52
  Speaker: because they are immersive.
• 14:53
  Speaker: Like we have a background that sets the, the tone, right?
• 14:58
  Speaker: And then there's, there's sound, there's sound score.
• 15:00
  Speaker: Like there's a piece that's set in the American south, there's
• 15:03
  Speaker: crickets in the background, or there's faint music coming from
• 15:06
  Speaker: the bar next door.
• 15:07
  Speaker: Um, so it becomes more and more immersive.
• 15:09
  Speaker: And for us, if we were doing in-person shows for two hundred
• 15:14
  Speaker: people, which we did, oh my God, it, it's a lot.
• 15:19
  Speaker: It's, it's, it's super chaotic, super fun, but it's a lot.
• 15:23
  Speaker: Now we can do three hundred people and very manageable and
• 15:29
  Speaker: nobody like our, our actors.
• 15:31
  Speaker: That's another thing that we've
• 15:33
  Speaker: been able to employ actors such
• 15:35
  Speaker: a long time and pay them really
• 15:37
  Speaker: well.
• 15:37
  Speaker: And then they roll up to their
• 15:39
  Speaker: computer and they absolutely
• 15:40
  Speaker: love it.
• 15:40
  Speaker: Because most acting gigs don't
• 15:43
  Speaker: require don't allow you to work
• 15:45
  Speaker: remotely.
• 15:46
  Speaker: So actors go on trips and they
• 15:48
  Speaker: bring their screen and their
• 15:49
  Speaker: costume pieces, and then they
• 15:51
  Speaker: are doing it, you know, so it's
• 15:53
  Speaker: yeah, it's been, it's, it's
• 15:54
  Speaker: worked.
• 15:55
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 15:56
  Speaker: It was a blessing for us.
• 15:58
  Speaker: Covid and our ability to adapt.
• 16:00
  Speaker: I mean, that's why we're still
• 16:03
  Speaker: here because we always, I don't
• 16:05
  Speaker: know if you've had the
• 16:06
  Speaker: experience, but for us, whenever
• 16:07
  Speaker: there was like a disaster, a
• 16:10
  Speaker: potential, oh my God, how do we
• 16:11
  Speaker: do that?
• 16:12
  Speaker: It was always like, oh yeah,
• 16:14
  Speaker: gift, oh, gift, you know,
• 16:16
  Speaker: everything that seemed like a
• 16:17
  Speaker: disaster always turns into an
• 16:19
  Speaker: opportunity.
• 16:20
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 16:21
  Speaker: If you have the right mindset
• 16:22
  Speaker: and you open yourself up to it,
• 16:24
  Speaker: right?
• 16:24
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 16:25
  Speaker: If you just collapse in the calamity of it and the emergency
• 16:30
  Speaker: of it, then you're not going to, you're not going to get through.
• 16:32
  Speaker: But if you if you open up and
• 16:36
  Speaker: lean into it, and this is what
• 16:37
  Speaker: we have to do, how do we get
• 16:38
  Speaker: there?
• 16:39
  Speaker: That creates so much opportunity
• 16:42
  Speaker: and does often become a gift,
• 16:45
  Speaker: right?
• 16:45
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 16:46
  Speaker: I mean, that, that that speaks
• 16:47
  Speaker: also to the in the beginning, I
• 16:51
  Speaker: was doing, you know, as a, as a
• 16:53
  Speaker: business owner just doing
• 16:54
  Speaker: everything.
• 16:55
  Speaker: And it was so overwhelming and
• 16:57
  Speaker: so much work and like, and I
• 16:59
  Speaker: wasn't like the best boss ever,
• 17:01
  Speaker: you know, I would just like lose
• 17:03
  Speaker: it.
• 17:04
  Speaker: I was like, oh my, I was so overwhelmed.
• 17:06
  Speaker: And I would often times, like, I, I called it, I eventually
• 17:11
  Speaker: when the actors would call in to live in theaters, sink or swim
• 17:14
  Speaker: school, I'd be like, the audience is coming, go like,
• 17:18
  Speaker: and, and, and actors.
• 17:20
  Speaker: Oh my God, the most amazing
• 17:21
  Speaker: thing, one of the most amazing
• 17:22
  Speaker: things for me as a lifelong
• 17:24
  Speaker: performer and, and I grew up at
• 17:27
  Speaker: a time where I really, I, I had
• 17:30
  Speaker: a mentor, which was such a
• 17:31
  Speaker: rarity.
• 17:32
  Speaker: You know, it's such a rarity now, but somebody that instilled
• 17:35
  Speaker: a value of like, you know, what it means to be an actor in the
• 17:39
  Speaker: theater and the craft of it.
• 17:42
  Speaker: Um, so I'm, for me, it's always like, that's number one.
• 17:46
  Speaker: Um, and I would see actors literally blossom like in three
• 17:52
  Speaker: months because guess what?
• 17:54
  Speaker: Guess what, Denise.
• 17:55
  Speaker: Uh, we have no time.
• 17:57
  Speaker: And I need you to play all of the, all of the female parts and
• 18:01
  Speaker: all of the three shows.
• 18:02
  Speaker: I need you to learn them.
• 18:03
  Speaker: And then you'd be like, okay, more roles.
• 18:06
  Speaker: And then it was literally like a sink it out.
• 18:09
  Speaker: Figure it out, figure it out, people.
• 18:12
  Speaker: And, and listen, I, I was a
• 18:14
  Speaker: broadcast journalist for thirty
• 18:16
  Speaker: years before I started doing
• 18:17
  Speaker: this.
• 18:18
  Speaker: And so much of that is we have a deadline.
• 18:22
  Speaker: The audience is coming, right?
• 18:24
  Speaker: They're tuning in at this time.
• 18:25
  Speaker: It doesn't matter if all the cameras died and the power went
• 18:28
  Speaker: out at the station.
• 18:29
  Speaker: And at.
• 18:30
  Speaker: We got to figure it out, get the
• 18:32
  Speaker: extension cord and, you know,
• 18:34
  Speaker: let's go.
• 18:35
  Speaker: Um, I mean, you learn so much, you learn so much.
• 18:38
  Speaker: And more importantly, you realize it's okay, it's okay if
• 18:44
  Speaker: it's not perfect and it's never going to be perfect.
• 18:47
  Speaker: That's the other thing that I
• 18:48
  Speaker: always say, you know, like
• 18:49
  Speaker: actors, something all actors are
• 18:51
  Speaker: different.
• 18:52
  Speaker: Some actors be like, yeah, but I
• 18:53
  Speaker: need to get, I'd say, you know,
• 18:54
  Speaker: you're never going to get it
• 18:55
  Speaker: right.
• 18:56
  Speaker: You're never because it's art.
• 18:58
  Speaker: There's never going to be like a day where, okay, I did it.
• 19:00
  Speaker: No, you never get to that.
• 19:02
  Speaker: It's a quest, an unending quest
• 19:04
  Speaker: to be able to keep working on
• 19:06
  Speaker: it.
• 19:06
  Speaker: It's like working out, you know, it's like you're never going to
• 19:09
  Speaker: get that body, body, body because there's always going to
• 19:12
  Speaker: be, you know, something.
• 19:14
  Speaker: No, absolutely.
• 19:15
  Speaker: Absolutely.
• 19:16
  Speaker: So I love the genesis of this.
• 19:20
  Speaker: And now you are wildly successful and sought after for
• 19:26
  Speaker: corporations and groups to come for team building.
• 19:31
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 19:31
  Speaker: And you know that.
• 19:33
  Speaker: Um.
• 19:33
  Speaker: Sorry.
• 19:33
  Speaker: Go on, go on.
• 19:34
  Speaker: Oh, no. No, no. So I want to
• 19:36
  Speaker: talk about that wasn't ever your
• 19:38
  Speaker: intent when you said it wasn't
• 19:40
  Speaker: right.
• 19:40
  Speaker: It wasn't it.
• 19:41
  Speaker: It wasn't my intent and none of it was my intent.
• 19:46
  Speaker: You know, I literally, I was just like, I had been fairly
• 19:50
  Speaker: successful as an actor.
• 19:52
  Speaker: Um, and, um, but I wanted more, I, so I stopped thinking like an
• 19:57
  Speaker: actor and just started thinking like a creator.
• 20:00
  Speaker: I, I have, I have, uh, and I'm so grateful for this and like an
• 20:05
  Speaker: unending, like creative flow that just, just always new idea,
• 20:09
  Speaker: new idea, a new idea.
• 20:10
  Speaker: So I didn't want to wait for somebody to decide I was right
• 20:14
  Speaker: for this or that.
• 20:15
  Speaker: So I just started making.
• 20:16
  Speaker: But genuinely it was just to create art and then all of a
• 20:21
  Speaker: sudden becomes a business.
• 20:22
  Speaker: And I was like, oh my God, how did this happen?
• 20:24
  Speaker: But then I was like, okay, great, well, let's pay my bills.
• 20:27
  Speaker: So that's amazing.
• 20:28
  Speaker: And I'm able to hire actors and,
• 20:30
  Speaker: and, and we're creating really
• 20:32
  Speaker: good work.
• 20:32
  Speaker: So it's a win win.
• 20:34
  Speaker: But you know, it's if you didn't
• 20:36
  Speaker: intend it, then you there's a
• 20:38
  Speaker: lot of growing pains and then
• 20:39
  Speaker: figuring out how to make the
• 20:40
  Speaker: business manageable.
• 20:41
  Speaker: And the more that when we
• 20:43
  Speaker: shifted and now it's ninety five
• 20:46
  Speaker: percent corporate audiences that
• 20:48
  Speaker: come to us, the team building
• 20:51
  Speaker: has.
• 20:54
  Speaker: Um, the clarity of what it is that we do and the high level of
• 21:00
  Speaker: team building that we create is constantly surprising to me.
• 21:06
  Speaker: Listen, at the end of the day, this is spot on true, ninety
• 21:11
  Speaker: nine percent, ninety eight percent of the people who come,
• 21:14
  Speaker: they're like, oh my God, that was so much fun.
• 21:17
  Speaker: That was so much fun.
• 21:18
  Speaker: They usually say, can we do another one?
• 21:20
  Speaker: Right?
• 21:20
  Speaker: And we have a huge retention rate.
• 21:22
  Speaker: Like eighty percent of the
• 21:23
  Speaker: people come second, third,
• 21:25
  Speaker: fourth, fifth show, which is
• 21:26
  Speaker: amazing.
• 21:27
  Speaker: But there are some people, in my opinion, the people who are very
• 21:32
  Speaker: perceptive, that understand.
• 21:34
  Speaker: We had give you a couple of examples.
• 21:37
  Speaker: We had a woman from, uh, Google.
• 21:39
  Speaker: She's a long time, uh, colleague of ours now.
• 21:43
  Speaker: And very early on, she came, uh, to one of our shows and, uh,
• 21:48
  Speaker: virtual shows and I think it was twenty one, I'm not sure, but
• 21:52
  Speaker: she brought like fifty or seventy people, I think, from
• 21:55
  Speaker: the engineering department and one of the offices here and that
• 21:58
  Speaker: they were everybody was virtual, uh, because of Covid.
• 22:02
  Speaker: And she called me right after
• 22:04
  Speaker: and she said, Carl, I have to
• 22:06
  Speaker: tell you.
• 22:07
  Speaker: And I was like, oh, did something happen?
• 22:09
  Speaker: I was freaked out for a second.
• 22:11
  Speaker: And, um, she said, no, I have to
• 22:12
  Speaker: tell you, I had such an unusual
• 22:13
  Speaker: experience.
• 22:15
  Speaker: Um, during, during, during the,
• 22:18
  Speaker: the, the, the, the show multiple
• 22:20
  Speaker: times.
• 22:21
  Speaker: But the first time it happened,
• 22:22
  Speaker: I, I had never heard everybody
• 22:25
  Speaker: in my team laugh at the same
• 22:27
  Speaker: time.
• 22:29
  Speaker: And she said, I've been working
• 22:30
  Speaker: with some of these people for
• 22:31
  Speaker: years.
• 22:32
  Speaker: And she said, I realized I
• 22:34
  Speaker: actually had never heard some
• 22:36
  Speaker: people laugh.
• 22:38
  Speaker: And so she's not talking just about the laughter, what she's
• 22:43
  Speaker: talking about what for an hour, hour and a half or two hours,
• 22:46
  Speaker: depending on the size of the group, what these shows do.
• 22:50
  Speaker: And we do for everybody
• 22:53
  Speaker: together, bring everybody
• 22:54
  Speaker: together in a way, a that's
• 22:56
  Speaker: completely unexpected.
• 22:58
  Speaker: They do not expect it.
• 22:59
  Speaker: We see people sometimes if they
• 23:01
  Speaker: don't know us, they're like this
• 23:02
  Speaker: in the beginning and then
• 23:03
  Speaker: halfway in and then they're
• 23:05
  Speaker: like, and they're like, so
• 23:06
  Speaker: excited.
• 23:07
  Speaker: We're tapping into.
• 23:08
  Speaker: I know this sounds kind of corny sometimes, but it's true.
• 23:11
  Speaker: We're tapping into the childlike sense of play.
• 23:14
  Speaker: And the way we do that is we play everything for real.
• 23:17
  Speaker: So what does that mean?
• 23:18
  Speaker: We don't play farce.
• 23:20
  Speaker: We're not trying to be funny.
• 23:21
  Speaker: The shows are hilarious because
• 23:23
  Speaker: they're hilarious because of the
• 23:25
  Speaker: audience.
• 23:26
  Speaker: The audience is hilarious.
• 23:28
  Speaker: The audience.
• 23:28
  Speaker: Yeah yeah yeah yeah, but but but we're not trying to be funny.
• 23:31
  Speaker: In fact, we're playing it.
• 23:32
  Speaker: So this really happened because
• 23:36
  Speaker: we're all contemporary
• 23:37
  Speaker: audiences.
• 23:39
  Speaker: We've all seen incredible film and TV, and we can't play fast.
• 23:43
  Speaker: We can't be like, ha ha, kind of hammy.
• 23:46
  Speaker: We can't do that.
• 23:46
  Speaker: That's atrocious for us.
• 23:48
  Speaker: So by playing the reality, the
• 23:50
  Speaker: audience goes like, oh wow, it
• 23:51
  Speaker: feels like I'm in a TV show or
• 23:53
  Speaker: something.
• 23:53
  Speaker: And, and what I say matters.
• 23:55
  Speaker: And that's the other part, highly interactive.
• 23:58
  Speaker: I tell my actors every, the audience, every audience team is
• 24:05
  Speaker: your scene partners.
• 24:07
  Speaker: So what the audience says, what they do and what you think they
• 24:14
  Speaker: think are all offerings.
• 24:16
  Speaker: So if you said something to me.
• 24:19
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, I can't ignore it.
• 24:22
  Speaker: So it allows the audience to be like, oh, wow.
• 24:25
  Speaker: Internal dialogue.
• 24:26
  Speaker: Oh, wow.
• 24:27
  Speaker: What I say makes a difference here, and I can steer this any
• 24:31
  Speaker: way I want.
• 24:32
  Speaker: So they can a level of confidence.
• 24:34
  Speaker: And the last thing is that we, we give it to you.
• 24:38
  Speaker: We, we, we, we are real.
• 24:40
  Speaker: So that if you and I are best besties, right?
• 24:44
  Speaker: And we go to to which we should be.
• 24:46
  Speaker: But if we go see an experience like this, right.
• 24:49
  Speaker: It's one thing.
• 24:50
  Speaker: But if you're my boss and I'm, uh, and I'm an intern, it's a
• 24:56
  Speaker: little bit, uh, there's a little bit of tension built in status
• 24:59
  Speaker: tension in there.
• 25:00
  Speaker: And we lean into that.
• 25:02
  Speaker: So we give.
• 25:03
  Speaker: So for you to stand up or me to stand up in front of my boss, it
• 25:07
  Speaker: takes a little bit of courage.
• 25:09
  Speaker: So you see people, you'll see
• 25:11
  Speaker: side of your employees and your
• 25:12
  Speaker: colleagues that you've never
• 25:14
  Speaker: seen before.
• 25:15
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:16
  Speaker: And that's those are the lessons, right, that I want to
• 25:19
  Speaker: talk about now.
• 25:20
  Speaker: Of you had to figure some of
• 25:23
  Speaker: this happened organically, and
• 25:24
  Speaker: then you've leaned into some of
• 25:26
  Speaker: it when you see oh oh oh, okay,
• 25:28
  Speaker: okay, okay.
• 25:29
  Speaker: Um, the, the lessons you've
• 25:32
  Speaker: learned in team building because
• 25:34
  Speaker: it's not just a trust fall,
• 25:36
  Speaker: right?
• 25:37
  Speaker: No, it's not it's, it's not any of that silliness.
• 25:41
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 25:41
  Speaker: But the, the value of team building.
• 25:46
  Speaker: And you mentioned a few things there that I want to, I want to
• 25:49
  Speaker: talk about a little bit that being interactive is essential.
• 25:53
  Speaker: Everybody's voice is important because often in any group
• 25:58
  Speaker: setting, whether it's corporate or whether it's a baseball team.
• 26:02
  Speaker: Yeah, you've got a group of people.
• 26:05
  Speaker: There's some people that are going to be up front.
• 26:07
  Speaker: You've got the team captains,
• 26:08
  Speaker: whether they're we call them, we
• 26:10
  Speaker: call them.
• 26:11
  Speaker: We call them bulldogs.
• 26:12
  Speaker: Those are the ones that are.
• 26:14
  Speaker: And then the quiet ones.
• 26:15
  Speaker: So we we actively reach out to everybody.
• 26:19
  Speaker: And that's another beauty of
• 26:20
  Speaker: what happens in virtually,
• 26:22
  Speaker: right.
• 26:23
  Speaker: So I know you're I see your name.
• 26:24
  Speaker: What do you think, Denise?
• 26:26
  Speaker: Why are you letting him ask me these questions?
• 26:28
  Speaker: Denise.
• 26:28
  Speaker: So I'm calling you by your name and we reach out to everybody.
• 26:32
  Speaker: So we include everybody becomes very inclusive.
• 26:35
  Speaker: Right?
• 26:36
  Speaker: Right.
• 26:36
  Speaker: And it's the letting people who aren't in the office or in
• 26:43
  Speaker: whatever team you're on, um, that are naturally more quiet.
• 26:47
  Speaker: Maybe it's because they are shy, maybe it's because they're just
• 26:51
  Speaker: internal processors and don't have the need to say things as
• 26:55
  Speaker: much as the rest of us like me and you do.
• 26:57
  Speaker: Um, right.
• 26:59
  Speaker: Or maybe they feel like they can't, they've been shut down.
• 27:02
  Speaker: They've been told no. So they're just going to I'm going to keep
• 27:05
  Speaker: my mouth shut.
• 27:05
  Speaker: I'm going to slink into the background as much as I can.
• 27:10
  Speaker: The value of bringing them out and and instilling that
• 27:16
  Speaker: confidence that no, we want to hear from you.
• 27:19
  Speaker: We need to hear from you.
• 27:20
  Speaker: We can't solve this without you, you know, kind of a thing.
• 27:24
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 27:25
  Speaker: Is is so valuable when they get back to the office.
• 27:29
  Speaker: Oh my gosh.
• 27:30
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 27:30
  Speaker: I mean, think, think about
• 27:32
  Speaker: that's the magic of story,
• 27:34
  Speaker: right?
• 27:35
  Speaker: That's the magic of story if you think about it.
• 27:37
  Speaker: Right.
• 27:38
  Speaker: Um, I've been saying this lately.
• 27:40
  Speaker: If you think of the people who I used to say family, but then I
• 27:44
  Speaker: was like, maybe it's just the people that light you up, the
• 27:47
  Speaker: people that light you up in your life, whoever they are.
• 27:49
  Speaker: Right.
• 27:50
  Speaker: Um, what do we do with those
• 27:52
  Speaker: individuals ninety percent of
• 27:54
  Speaker: the time?
• 27:55
  Speaker: Yes.
• 27:55
  Speaker: We have activities that we do.
• 27:57
  Speaker: We have a drink, we have dinner, whatever.
• 27:58
  Speaker: We play a pinnacle, we, we bowl whatever.
• 28:02
  Speaker: Mostly we're sharing stories.
• 28:05
  Speaker: I'm saying, Denise, oh my God, I
• 28:07
  Speaker: have to tell you this thing,
• 28:08
  Speaker: right?
• 28:08
  Speaker: Sometimes called gossip.
• 28:10
  Speaker: That's totally fine.
• 28:11
  Speaker: Or you're telling me a story and
• 28:13
  Speaker: I'm like, listening to your
• 28:14
  Speaker: story.
• 28:15
  Speaker: We're sharing that back and forth.
• 28:17
  Speaker: I mean, that's primal.
• 28:18
  Speaker: That's human nature.
• 28:21
  Speaker: So what we do with living
• 28:22
  Speaker: theater, the, the, the actual
• 28:25
  Speaker: stories that are surrounding
• 28:27
  Speaker: these mysteries are about real
• 28:29
  Speaker: things.
• 28:30
  Speaker: They're about relationships.
• 28:31
  Speaker: They're, they're about love triangles.
• 28:33
  Speaker: They're about revenge.
• 28:35
  Speaker: They're about fame.
• 28:36
  Speaker: They're about loss.
• 28:38
  Speaker: Um, because again, we respect the audience.
• 28:43
  Speaker: We can't do something silly.
• 28:44
  Speaker: We can't do like a nineteen eighties prom where somebody
• 28:47
  Speaker: gets a blow dart to the neck.
• 28:49
  Speaker: You know what I mean?
• 28:50
  Speaker: Instantly, it's like, it sounds it sounds silly, but.
• 28:53
  Speaker: And it is.
• 28:54
  Speaker: And then we're, we're not as connected.
• 28:57
  Speaker: So we do we do something that's really, really strong.
• 29:00
  Speaker: The storytelling is great.
• 29:02
  Speaker: And then we do the interactive
• 29:04
  Speaker: because when you connect, when
• 29:07
  Speaker: you have, you're given the
• 29:08
  Speaker: opportunity to bond like this
• 29:09
  Speaker: with somebody.
• 29:10
  Speaker: You're like, Denise is Hilarious.
• 29:13
  Speaker: Oh my God.
• 29:14
  Speaker: Hey, Denise, you want to grab lunch?
• 29:16
  Speaker: And all of a sudden you start forming relationships because, I
• 29:20
  Speaker: mean, so we've all been there.
• 29:23
  Speaker: A job that we didn't feel like,
• 29:25
  Speaker: feel like we fit in or just like
• 29:28
  Speaker: it doesn't really matter what I
• 29:29
  Speaker: say.
• 29:29
  Speaker: So what happens?
• 29:30
  Speaker: I just slowly start to check out
• 29:32
  Speaker: and maybe I'm spending way more
• 29:33
  Speaker: time on my phone and looking for
• 29:35
  Speaker: another job.
• 29:36
  Speaker: Or the boss says, you know, I, you're not pulling your weight.
• 29:40
  Speaker: You have to go leave.
• 29:41
  Speaker: And the, the amount of time and
• 29:43
  Speaker: energy that's take that takes
• 29:46
  Speaker: people, especially corporate,
• 29:48
  Speaker: don't have enough opportunities
• 29:51
  Speaker: to connect in a way that's
• 29:53
  Speaker: significant.
• 29:55
  Speaker: And it's not enough.
• 29:56
  Speaker: It's not enough for us to work on a project together.
• 29:59
  Speaker: It's not enough, you know.
• 30:01
  Speaker: No, because that's all.
• 30:02
  Speaker: We're still in our same archetypes, right?
• 30:05
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 30:05
  Speaker: Like we're still in our same here's our lanes.
• 30:09
  Speaker: We know what our lanes are at work.
• 30:11
  Speaker: Yeah, and I'm not crossing them.
• 30:13
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 30:13
  Speaker: Because it's a clear structure which creates a I mean, yes, you
• 30:18
  Speaker: can be efficient in that way, but it also creates a hierarchy,
• 30:22
  Speaker: which means that those you're, you're limiting people's
• 30:26
  Speaker: potential if they feel that they can't cross that boundary or
• 30:32
  Speaker: cross that lane and, and doing the team building like this.
• 30:36
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 30:37
  Speaker: It opens that up entirely.
• 30:39
  Speaker: It does.
• 30:40
  Speaker: It opens it up.
• 30:40
  Speaker: And it allows us to not be manager, intern.
• 30:47
  Speaker: We're colleagues.
• 30:49
  Speaker: We're we're on the same level, right?
• 30:52
  Speaker: It's us against if, if anything,
• 30:55
  Speaker: the actors, right, who are
• 30:57
  Speaker: giving us so much sass and we
• 30:58
  Speaker: have to get the courage and we
• 30:59
  Speaker: have to like, all right, we're
• 31:01
  Speaker: all we're all talking at the
• 31:02
  Speaker: same time.
• 31:03
  Speaker: Maybe let's take turns or maybe.
• 31:05
  Speaker: Maybe let's.
• 31:06
  Speaker: Why don't you do that, Denise?
• 31:07
  Speaker: And I'll I'll look at the
• 31:08
  Speaker: dossier so people start to
• 31:10
  Speaker: collaborate in ways that are
• 31:12
  Speaker: super efficient.
• 31:14
  Speaker: And again, you can bring that into your work because we have
• 31:18
  Speaker: that experience, I feel.
• 31:20
  Speaker: Um, we had a client, uh, there's still a client, Deutsche Bank
• 31:25
  Speaker: and, um, and one of the, the guys that was always there on
• 31:30
  Speaker: the call, he was telling our lead facilitators, who were the
• 31:34
  Speaker: actors that are managing everything on Zoom.
• 31:37
  Speaker: And he told our lead
• 31:38
  Speaker: facilitator, we consider this
• 31:40
  Speaker: training.
• 31:41
  Speaker: And she's like, what do you mean?
• 31:43
  Speaker: It's like working out for us.
• 31:44
  Speaker: We understand.
• 31:45
  Speaker: We understand what you guys are doing here.
• 31:48
  Speaker: And I was so excited to hear that because again, most people
• 31:51
  Speaker: are like, that was so much fun.
• 31:52
  Speaker: And there's tons to be said about that.
• 31:55
  Speaker: You know, I think it's at the end of the day, Denise, when we
• 32:00
  Speaker: were kids, um, when an adult said, go play.
• 32:06
  Speaker: Right.
• 32:06
  Speaker: Um, Uh, hopefully none of us turned around and said, how do
• 32:09
  Speaker: you do that?
• 32:10
  Speaker: Because we knew how to play.
• 32:11
  Speaker: We just knew how to play.
• 32:13
  Speaker: As adults, we just become atrophied children.
• 32:16
  Speaker: We forget how to play and we see it.
• 32:18
  Speaker: We see it all the time.
• 32:20
  Speaker: When we have a character talking
• 32:22
  Speaker: to an audience member, you see
• 32:24
  Speaker: them full on, full grown adults
• 32:26
  Speaker: going, oh yeah, they're talking
• 32:28
  Speaker: the characters talking to me,
• 32:30
  Speaker: right?
• 32:31
  Speaker: It's it's childlike.
• 32:32
  Speaker: Like, oh my God, it's so much fun, you know?
• 32:35
  Speaker: And the fun is the vehicle.
• 32:37
  Speaker: The mystery is the vehicle.
• 32:39
  Speaker: What's at the end of it is bonding in deep ways, you know?
• 32:44
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 32:45
  Speaker: And, and changing the
• 32:46
  Speaker: stereotypes, the preconceived
• 32:48
  Speaker: notions, right.
• 32:49
  Speaker: You know, if you're the boss, if you're the manager, inherently,
• 32:52
  Speaker: you're the bad guy or the jerk that has to say no to this or
• 32:56
  Speaker: that or get back to work, you know, kind of a thing.
• 33:00
  Speaker: And, and you're placed in that box, right?
• 33:04
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 33:04
  Speaker: Or if you're the quiet person.
• 33:06
  Speaker: Oh, they're not really invested.
• 33:08
  Speaker: They don't really care.
• 33:09
  Speaker: You get placed in that box and you're put over here and then
• 33:12
  Speaker: you're put over, you know.
• 33:13
  Speaker: Right.
• 33:13
  Speaker: And that this when you get
• 33:15
  Speaker: outside of that and realize, oh,
• 33:18
  Speaker: maybe they're not a jerk after
• 33:20
  Speaker: all, or oh, no, maybe they're
• 33:21
  Speaker: just really shy or they're like
• 33:24
  Speaker: the E.F.
• 33:25
  Speaker: Hutton that when he finally does say, say something, it's going
• 33:28
  Speaker: to be brilliant.
• 33:30
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 33:30
  Speaker: So we need to wait and listen to it, right?
• 33:32
  Speaker: You know, like there's, there's all of these things that you get
• 33:35
  Speaker: to discover and see each other in different ways outside of the
• 33:39
  Speaker: boxes we put each other in when we're at work.
• 33:43
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 33:44
  Speaker: And it's, it's literally, yeah, yeah.
• 33:46
  Speaker: I, we always say like, you'll see a side of al from accounting
• 33:50
  Speaker: that you've never seen before.
• 33:52
  Speaker: And it's yeah, again, beyond the fun, beyond the mystery.
• 33:58
  Speaker: It's, uh, it's sharing a shared
• 34:00
  Speaker: experience that is, uh, Uh,
• 34:04
  Speaker: heartwarming and and
• 34:07
  Speaker: challenging.
• 34:08
  Speaker: The shows are very difficult to solve.
• 34:10
  Speaker: So, and to be honest, I think one of the biggest obstacles in
• 34:14
  Speaker: solving it, and we have like maybe forty percent of the, of
• 34:17
  Speaker: the groups get it right.
• 34:18
  Speaker: Uh, is that you're quite honestly laughing your butt off
• 34:22
  Speaker: in the middle of it all.
• 34:23
  Speaker: So trying to keep the story narrative together to, to, to
• 34:25
  Speaker: understand, you know, it takes a lot, it takes a lot of focus.
• 34:29
  Speaker: It takes a lot of, uh, critical
• 34:31
  Speaker: thinking and asking the right
• 34:32
  Speaker: questions.
• 34:34
  Speaker: Uh, and it's all just fun because even the people that
• 34:36
  Speaker: don't get it right are like, oh man, we were so close.
• 34:39
  Speaker: I should have listened to the
• 34:40
  Speaker: niece, I should have, but I had
• 34:43
  Speaker: to be the big person kind of
• 34:45
  Speaker: thing.
• 34:46
  Speaker: That's hilarious.
• 34:47
  Speaker: But no, I, um, so I want to ask,
• 34:49
  Speaker: when you talk about team
• 34:50
  Speaker: building exercises and doing
• 34:52
  Speaker: this, obviously in person is the
• 34:55
  Speaker: best, right?
• 34:56
  Speaker: In terms of you fill each
• 34:58
  Speaker: other's vibe and, and all of
• 34:59
  Speaker: those things.
• 35:01
  Speaker: The transition into virtual opens the experience up to so
• 35:04
  Speaker: many more people.
• 35:06
  Speaker: As you said, you're doing four to six hundred shows a year.
• 35:08
  Speaker: My heavens.
• 35:09
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 35:10
  Speaker: So more people get to experience it.
• 35:12
  Speaker: Does it take away?
• 35:14
  Speaker: Have you found a difference in
• 35:17
  Speaker: the take away from in-person
• 35:19
  Speaker: versus virtual?
• 35:20
  Speaker: You know, we still do in-person shows for companies that want to
• 35:24
  Speaker: book us and bring us to them.
• 35:26
  Speaker: Uh, obviously the costs are much, much higher.
• 35:29
  Speaker: We do them in, in New York, in the tri state New York area, you
• 35:33
  Speaker: know, and, uh, but yeah, we can go across the country if, if
• 35:37
  Speaker: anybody wants, um, to be honest, I'm, I'm biased on the virtual,
• 35:45
  Speaker: I feel like, and for, for me, if I'm being super honest, part of
• 35:50
  Speaker: it is like, from a business standpoint, it's so much.
• 35:54
  Speaker: Right.
• 35:54
  Speaker: It's so much easier.
• 35:56
  Speaker: Um, but I think like I said
• 35:58
  Speaker: earlier, we have elements of
• 36:00
  Speaker: things that we can do that is
• 36:02
  Speaker: more focused.
• 36:03
  Speaker: It's more immediate.
• 36:06
  Speaker: Um, we audiences, just like if
• 36:09
  Speaker: you go to our Google reviews,
• 36:10
  Speaker: you see people and that's
• 36:12
  Speaker: predominantly from since, since
• 36:15
  Speaker: Covid.
• 36:16
  Speaker: So it's all like virtual feedback that they're giving us
• 36:19
  Speaker: and people are like, oh my God, it was so engaging.
• 36:22
  Speaker: It was so much fun.
• 36:23
  Speaker: It doesn't seem to our act.
• 36:25
  Speaker: My actors would be different.
• 36:26
  Speaker: The actors would be like, no, it's better in the real world.
• 36:29
  Speaker: Um, but, um, there's an efficiency to it.
• 36:34
  Speaker: Um.
• 36:37
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 36:37
  Speaker: And then we're, we're only looking like from the waist up.
• 36:39
  Speaker: Do you know what I mean?
• 36:40
  Speaker: Um, which is okay, I'll tell you one thing like, because it's
• 36:44
  Speaker: corporate and because it's, uh, sometimes we, it depends.
• 36:49
  Speaker: The group can be doing a, doing a conference.
• 36:51
  Speaker: They can be an off site, we can do a hybrid.
• 36:54
  Speaker: Some people are in the office,
• 36:56
  Speaker: some people are calling in from
• 36:57
  Speaker: their computers anywhere in the
• 36:59
  Speaker: world.
• 36:59
  Speaker: Um, but I think more than
• 37:03
  Speaker: anything, um, yeah, I think
• 37:08
  Speaker: it's, it's, it's a little, it's
• 37:09
  Speaker: a little bit different, but not
• 37:10
  Speaker: much.
• 37:13
  Speaker: Okay.
• 37:13
  Speaker: That's interesting.
• 37:14
  Speaker: And yes, I actors would say, of course it's in person.
• 37:18
  Speaker: Of course it's in person as somebody who does a lot of
• 37:21
  Speaker: training and speaking and, and, and those sorts of things.
• 37:25
  Speaker: Uh, for me in person is always
• 37:27
  Speaker: better because I can physically
• 37:28
  Speaker: feel.
• 37:29
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 37:30
  Speaker: The room.
• 37:31
  Speaker: Right.
• 37:31
  Speaker: There's a, you know what I'm talking about a thousand
• 37:36
  Speaker: percent, a thousand percent.
• 37:37
  Speaker: Uh, I think one of the reasons that that at least to me and I,
• 37:42
  Speaker: I'm, I'm biased, right?
• 37:44
  Speaker: Because again, from a business standpoint, it just, it's so
• 37:47
  Speaker: much more efficient, easier, we can reach audiences much more
• 37:51
  Speaker: efficiently, so much more affordable for, uh, virtual
• 37:55
  Speaker: groups as well.
• 37:57
  Speaker: Um, but we're lucky in that our shows are very text heavy.
• 38:04
  Speaker: I mean, we're talking, right?
• 38:05
  Speaker: We're talking, you're talking, we're all talking.
• 38:08
  Speaker: There's a lot of talking.
• 38:09
  Speaker: So that is always available to
• 38:12
  Speaker: us, even when it's virtual as
• 38:14
  Speaker: opposed to like feeling the
• 38:16
  Speaker: room.
• 38:17
  Speaker: I, you know, I understand you.
• 38:18
  Speaker: We, we're also very adept at like, you have to be aware, like
• 38:22
  Speaker: I, I tell my actors, you know, and we have very large groups.
• 38:26
  Speaker: Um, every little box when you're in your private breakout room
• 38:29
  Speaker: and there's ten or fifteen audience members, you can't, you
• 38:32
  Speaker: have to acknowledge everyone.
• 38:34
  Speaker: So you have to be like darting, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 38:36
  Speaker: Who says something?
• 38:37
  Speaker: You know, who just rolled their eyes?
• 38:39
  Speaker: Who?
• 38:40
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 38:41
  Speaker: Who who's who's checked out?
• 38:43
  Speaker: We did a, we did a, um, a very large group of, um, like it was
• 38:49
  Speaker: ten, ten shows that were booked for a company somewhere in, in
• 38:54
  Speaker: Europe and like a Scandinavian country just recently, and one
• 38:58
  Speaker: of the facilitators, because there's multiple shows happening
• 39:01
  Speaker: at the same time.
• 39:02
  Speaker: Uh, she's texting me.
• 39:03
  Speaker: She was like, um, these, uh,
• 39:06
  Speaker: folks are not turning their
• 39:08
  Speaker: cameras on and they're not
• 39:11
  Speaker: talking.
• 39:12
  Speaker: Um, and then she was like, but the chat is out of control.
• 39:18
  Speaker: So they were doing everything on
• 39:19
  Speaker: the chat, blah, blah, blah,
• 39:20
  Speaker: blah.
• 39:21
  Speaker: Like asking questions.
• 39:22
  Speaker: And so the actors had to like respond to the chat, you know?
• 39:25
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 39:26
  Speaker: Uh, it was maybe that was because of the language barrier.
• 39:28
  Speaker: They felt comfortable or maybe it was cultural.
• 39:31
  Speaker: Maybe.
• 39:32
  Speaker: Maybe.
• 39:32
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 39:33
  Speaker: Right.
• 39:33
  Speaker: Maybe.
• 39:34
  Speaker: Who knows?
• 39:35
  Speaker: And they didn't tell us
• 39:36
  Speaker: anything, but they told us it
• 39:37
  Speaker: was amazing.
• 39:38
  Speaker: But it was, like, so weird.
• 39:40
  Speaker: Like, that's tricky for an actor.
• 39:42
  Speaker: Oh my God, there's so many videos.
• 39:44
  Speaker: Like if you go onto our Instagram, we have, we have
• 39:47
  Speaker: videos of like our actors just interacting with audience
• 39:50
  Speaker: members and just the silence, the confidence that they have
• 39:53
  Speaker: with just like.
• 39:57
  Speaker: Waiting.
• 39:58
  Speaker: Waiting for an audience to ask.
• 40:00
  Speaker: Right.
• 40:00
  Speaker: Or some actors will be like, why are you just looking at me?
• 40:03
  Speaker: What is wrong?
• 40:04
  Speaker: Hello?
• 40:05
  Speaker: Right, right.
• 40:05
  Speaker: Hello?
• 40:06
  Speaker: Hello?
• 40:08
  Speaker: That's funny.
• 40:09
  Speaker: Hilarious.
• 40:10
  Speaker: Yeah, that's that's always my favorite, uh, trick.
• 40:12
  Speaker: Back in my previous life and investigative reporting of.
• 40:17
  Speaker: I'm.
• 40:17
  Speaker: I'll sit.
• 40:18
  Speaker: I'll ask the question and I'll sit.
• 40:19
  Speaker: I'll wait as long as it takes.
• 40:21
  Speaker: And you're done talking.
• 40:22
  Speaker: And I know you didn't tell me everything.
• 40:24
  Speaker: I'll sit and wait.
• 40:26
  Speaker: It's like that teacher, that teacher trick.
• 40:28
  Speaker: I'll wait.
• 40:30
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 40:30
  Speaker: And you'll fill the void.
• 40:31
  Speaker: Because naturally, we want to fill the void.
• 40:34
  Speaker: The silence is uncomfortable.
• 40:36
  Speaker: So they'll they'll spill it.
• 40:38
  Speaker: They'll say it, they'll do it.
• 40:40
  Speaker: They will.
• 40:40
  Speaker: That's great investigative technique, too.
• 40:43
  Speaker: And you're interrogating subjects.
• 40:44
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 40:46
  Speaker: So, uh, no, that's really fun.
• 40:48
  Speaker: But it takes some confidence to do it for sure.
• 40:50
  Speaker: And some.
• 40:51
  Speaker: Sure.
• 40:51
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 40:52
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 40:53
  Speaker: Um, but no, I love that.
• 40:55
  Speaker: That is so fabulous.
• 40:57
  Speaker: So Carlo, sadly, I could sit and
• 40:59
  Speaker: talk to you for hours and hours
• 41:00
  Speaker: and hours.
• 41:01
  Speaker: I could too.
• 41:02
  Speaker: And we're going to become besties, so we will.
• 41:05
  Speaker: Okay.
• 41:05
  Speaker: But we are coming to the close of our time today, my darling.
• 41:10
  Speaker: Tell us, um, how can people give us your website?
• 41:15
  Speaker: How can people reach out?
• 41:17
  Speaker: For sure?
• 41:18
  Speaker: Interested in learning about team building or learning about
• 41:22
  Speaker: how they can experience this amazing thing that you're doing?
• 41:27
  Speaker: And I think they, they should.
• 41:28
  Speaker: Yeah, they should go to live in theatre dot com.
• 41:31
  Speaker: It's, um, um, live or live in theatre.
• 41:35
  Speaker: The idea is like you're living inside the theatre and theatre
• 41:37
  Speaker: is t h e a t e r dot com.
• 41:40
  Speaker: Uh, you can book our shows directly.
• 41:42
  Speaker: You can fill out a form and one of our teams will get a hold of
• 41:47
  Speaker: you within twenty four hours.
• 41:50
  Speaker: We'll talk about, like, what you're looking for.
• 41:52
  Speaker: What size group, where you're
• 41:53
  Speaker: from, where where you're calling
• 41:56
  Speaker: in from.
• 41:56
  Speaker: We can set you up with the best possible experience available.
• 42:01
  Speaker: You can find us there.
• 42:02
  Speaker: You can find me on LinkedIn at
• 42:04
  Speaker: Carlo D'Amore, and you can find
• 42:06
  Speaker: us on Instagram at at Living
• 42:10
  Speaker: Theater.
• 42:11
  Speaker: Perfect my friend.
• 42:14
  Speaker: Thank you so much.
• 42:16
  Speaker: I am in love with what you do.
• 42:18
  Speaker: Awesome.
• 42:19
  Speaker: You should definitely go about it.
• 42:21
  Speaker: Um, I definitely want to come
• 42:23
  Speaker: and, um, I may be like, hey, do
• 42:25
  Speaker: you need to fill an actor I feel
• 42:26
  Speaker: like I want to do, I think you'd
• 42:29
  Speaker: be amazing.
• 42:29
  Speaker: I think you'd be amazing.
• 42:33
  Speaker: Let's do it.
• 42:33
  Speaker: Let's do it, baby.
• 42:35
  Speaker: Um, Carlo, thank you so much for your time.
• 42:37
  Speaker: I appreciate it.
• 42:37
  Speaker: Thank you so much, Denise.
• 42:38
  Speaker: It was a pleasure.
• 42:39
  Speaker: Have a wonderful rest of your day.
• 42:41
  Speaker: Well, we hope today's
• 42:42
  Speaker: conversation has given you some
• 42:44
  Speaker: practical tools to help you
• 42:46
  Speaker: sharpen your edge and accelerate
• 42:48
  Speaker: your growth.
• 42:49
  Speaker: If you're ready to grow your
• 42:51
  Speaker: team, your business or yourself,
• 42:53
  Speaker: contact us at the Growth Pro
• 42:55
  Speaker: group dot com and set up a free
• 42:57
  Speaker: growth call with one of our
• 42:59
  Speaker: coaches.
• 43:00
  Speaker: Once again, a special thanks to our sponsors, In-bed Party
• 43:04
  Speaker: Center Software in a global.
• 43:07
  Speaker: Benson, Simcox, Shafer and
• 43:09
  Speaker: roller for all that they do to
• 43:11
  Speaker: help us bring you the Growth Pro
• 43:14
  Speaker: Edge.
• 43:15
  Speaker: And until next time, I'm Denise
• 43:17
  Speaker: Killian with the Growth Pro
• 43:18
  Speaker: Group.
• 43:19
  Speaker: Keep learning, keep growing and
• 43:22
  Speaker: keep striving for the
• 43:23
  Speaker: extraordinary.