Latest / How To Talk To Humans / Why Crowd Work Is Taking Over Comedy | The Power of Human Connection

Transcript

Why Crowd Work Is Taking Over Comedy | The Power of Human Connection · How To Talk To Humans

• 0:00
  Larry Wilson: Hi, this is Larry Wilson and this is How to Talk to Humans.
• 0:04
  Larry Wilson: This is the podcast that shows you how to improve your communication skills.
• 0:10
  Larry Wilson: Are you looking to get a better job?
• 0:12
  Larry Wilson: Are you looking to find a relationship?
• 0:15
  Larry Wilson: Are you trying to do things in your life that have frustrated you and eluded you so far?
• 0:22
  Larry Wilson: I can show you so easily how to change that.
• 0:25
  Larry Wilson: Now, I can only do it with humans.
• 0:27
  Larry Wilson: If you're looking to deal with vampires or zombies extraterrestrial, this is not the show for you.
• 0:33
  Larry Wilson: But if you're really looking to improve your communication skills, I can show you what I've learned for 40 years in the show business working with the biggest celebrities and superstars in the world.
• 0:47
  Larry Wilson: And their secrets are unbelievable.
• 0:52
  Larry Wilson: What I'm going to be teaching you during the course of this podcast every week are tools that you can use to communicate toward success.
• 1:05
  Larry Wilson: One of the people in this group said, uh made a comment to me, not in the training, but privately, said, uh, said, you know, it's weird, certain stuff you've been talking about for like 10 or 12 years, I now see is starting to come true.
• 1:22
  Larry Wilson: Like I'm seeing it come up in the news about communication stuff.
• 1:26
  Larry Wilson: And I said, well, it's not that it's starting to come true.
• 1:30
  Larry Wilson: I think it's always been true, which is why I was teaching it and presenting it, but it's now being um corroborated by other sources, by someone who did a university study about something said, oh, you know, we found that uh people who actually make eye contact on camera are able to close more business dealings than people who don't.
• 1:56
  Larry Wilson: And I'm thinking, well, yeah, of course, right?
• 2:00
  Larry Wilson: Or something about uh people who are actually listening to clients and then are able to address what the client has said in a way that shows you really saw them, you really heard them.
• 2:17
  Larry Wilson: Little tiny things like this.
• 2:20
  Larry Wilson: People who are employing empathy.
• 2:22
  Larry Wilson: They were saying to me, you know, it's so weird that you kind of saw this uh coming way before anyone else did it.
• 2:30
  Larry Wilson: And I, you know, I'm pleased when people see the power of what I'm presenting here.
• 2:36
  Larry Wilson: But it's not that I uh saw something like I'm some great prognosticator, that's not really what it is.
• 2:45
  Larry Wilson: I just go by what I see works.
• 2:50
  Larry Wilson: That's all.
• 2:52
  Larry Wilson: I don't have special uh training besides my life experience, I don't have uh university studies backing me up, I don't have advanced uh degrees to um act as some kind of resume for myself or bona fides, you know.
• 3:15
  Larry Wilson: I I just have spent my whole life exploring this and accumulating things that work, and it doesn't matter to me who said it or where I learned it.
• 3:31
  Larry Wilson: Sometimes you know from things you've heard in this training, sometimes they're very interesting where I learned them.
• 3:37
  Larry Wilson: And it's somebody you might not expect to have taught me something, but it doesn't really matter.
• 3:44
  Larry Wilson: What matters is does it work or not?
• 3:47
  Larry Wilson: And I guess it comes down to more does it work?
• 3:51
  Larry Wilson: Is it easy and can other people do it?
• 3:56
  Larry Wilson: Well, oddly enough, all these things that have been accumulated into Wilson method, that's what they all have in common.
• 4:06
  Larry Wilson: They're really easy.
• 4:09
  Larry Wilson: Anyone can do them, and they work so I only say all that by way of saying, because I promise you some laughs here.
• 4:21
  Larry Wilson: There's been a trend recently, and those of you who are on social media, I'm I assume people see similar feeds to what I see.
• 4:30
  Larry Wilson: Maybe not, you can tell me if you have no idea what I'm talking about.
• 4:35
  Larry Wilson: I see a lot of stuff on social media, I know it's on Facebook, I know it's on Instagram, of comedians doing what they now call crowd work.
• 4:48
  Larry Wilson: Now, there's nothing wrong with calling it crowd work, and Glenn is giving me the thumbs up again, because he knows we used to call this ad-libbing.
• 5:01
  Larry Wilson: In other words, something unscheduled in your show, something that was not part of the show.
• 5:10
  Larry Wilson: It could be that uh someone in the audience burped really loud, or could be some in the audience laughed at something that was wildly inappropriate.
• 5:23
  Larry Wilson: But whatever happens in the audience, I mean, sometimes some in the audience might say something to you, uh, might challenge you or criticize you or insult you or heckle you.
• 5:34
  Larry Wilson: But what they now call crowd work meant that the skilled and experienced performer simply effortlessly rolled with the punches and included that in their performance.
• 5:52
  Larry Wilson: You know, uh it could be made as a joke, it could be made really seriously, could be done a number of different ways, but it's the difference between someone who freezes like a deer in the headlights because that wasn't supposed to happen.
• 6:09
  Larry Wilson: Uh uh I don't have a script for what I say now.
• 6:13
  Larry Wilson: Well, but you're human, aren't you?
• 6:16
  Larry Wilson: I'm hoping you're human.
• 6:19
  Larry Wilson: I'm hoping that you've taken enough information that you know you have everything you need to be able to handle an unexpected turn of events.
• 6:33
  Larry Wilson: And someone belches very loud at a quiet, uh, suspenseful moment, and you could say, Oh, avoid the fish tacos, you know.
• 6:46
  Larry Wilson: I mean, it's not that funny a joke, but I guarantee you get a thunderous laugh.
• 6:54
  Larry Wilson: And the reason is because everyone in the audience are humans as well.
• 7:00
  Larry Wilson: And I've told you in other trainings here about the importance of empathy.
• 7:05
  Larry Wilson: The people in the audience are looking at you up in front of them speaking, whether it's a performance show like I do, like Glenn does, or whether you're making a presentation to a board of your company.
• 7:22
  Larry Wilson: Maybe it's three people that you have to get up in front of.
• 7:25
  Larry Wilson: A woman who trained with me in my uh uh boot camp, my two-day boot camp a few years back, Danielle Rosen, although I should refer to her actually as Dr.
• 7:38
  Larry Wilson: Danielle Rosen, because she trained with me because she was in a PhD program.
• 7:43
  Larry Wilson: And she knew that she was going to be forced at the end of it to defend her doctoral dissertation.
• 7:51
  Larry Wilson: She was gonna have to get up in front of, I think it was three people, and they would ask her questions about it, and she'd have to speak.
• 7:58
  Larry Wilson: In some cases, she might not know what they were gonna ask, but certainly was gonna be about her dissertation.
• 8:05
  Larry Wilson: And she was so great in the training, she was so great and so open to all of it.
• 8:12
  Larry Wilson: And then a year later sent me a video of her in her cap and gown when she graduated the PhD program as Dr.
• 8:19
  Larry Wilson: Dania, um, that I was very proud of her.
• 8:23
  Larry Wilson: But it doesn't have to be uh a show like Glenn does or I doesn't have to be like that.
• 8:30
  Larry Wilson: It can be anything where you have to present, you have to be in front of people.
• 8:35
  Larry Wilson: Maybe it's part of a you were ahead of or working with a nonprofit.
• 8:40
  Larry Wilson: Maybe there's 2,000 people in the room who are potential donors, and you have to get up and explain to them why they should donate to your nonprofit.
• 8:49
  Larry Wilson: Anything like this.
• 8:51
  Larry Wilson: But anything unexpected that happens, you can respond spontaneously and as a human.
• 9:02
  Larry Wilson: Now, I have a theory, as no doubt you're aware, I have theories about everything, about why this is suddenly becoming so popular on social media.
• 9:16
  Larry Wilson: And I think it's because of the very thing we talk about all the time here.
• 9:22
  Larry Wilson: That people are desperate for human interaction.
• 9:30
  Larry Wilson: I don't think you have to be a swami with a crystal ball to figure this out.
• 9:36
  Larry Wilson: Social media this is highly controversial what I'm about to say.
• 9:42
  Larry Wilson: Social media is not real.
• 9:45
  Larry Wilson: Now, I'm not saying it doesn't exist, obviously it exists, but it is not what it purports to be.
• 9:53
  Larry Wilson: People posting, you know, selfies of themselves in airplanes or fancy cars or fancy vacation places.
• 10:03
  Larry Wilson: That's not real.
• 10:05
  Larry Wilson: That's very, very low-grade show business is what it is.
• 10:10
  Larry Wilson: It's show business that has no story, that has no narrative.
• 10:15
  Larry Wilson: It's just like it's like sometimes you see those pictures of rappers holding up fistfuls of cash, you know.
• 10:22
  Larry Wilson: Well, that's not real.
• 10:26
  Larry Wilson: And I think I know all of you have seen this, uh, beside the fact that all these electronic devices have filters to make us look more attractive, to make us look skinnier, uh, to make us look younger, all these kinds of things.
• 10:43
  Larry Wilson: That's not real.
• 10:44
  Larry Wilson: That's just low-grade showbiz.
• 10:48
  Larry Wilson: And I believe, unconsciously, the people who are on social media are starving for real human interaction.
• 10:58
  Larry Wilson: So they may like your act, whatever it is.
• 11:02
  Larry Wilson: Maybe you're presenting something about a philosophical uh foundation you have of something, and that's being brought out to the world.
• 11:14
  Larry Wilson: Could be something like that.
• 11:15
  Larry Wilson: But it may be that whatever it is you're presenting when something unexpected happens that goes in show business.
• 11:28
  Larry Wilson: We we say we're going off book, and the book, of course, is a script.
• 11:34
  Larry Wilson: If you're doing a play that you have, if you go off book, it means you're ad-libbing, you're spontaneously saying words that no one is expecting, that no one knew, including you, were going to be spoken.
• 11:50
  Larry Wilson: Who knows where it's going to lead?
• 11:53
  Larry Wilson: But it's very exciting to an audience.
• 11:58
  Larry Wilson: And uh I I want to also emphasize again here, because some of you may not be with me on this, there are things that the audience does not consciously understand, and this is one of them.
• 12:10
  Larry Wilson: They don't know why they like it, they'll come up with reasons.
• 12:14
  Larry Wilson: Oh, I was so impressed with how quick-witted she was, or uh how he was uh able to handle that so deaf.
• 12:21
  Larry Wilson: All of that may be true, but I believe what it really is is the humanity of the moment.
• 12:31
  Larry Wilson: And, you know, sometimes there are people who have certain lines that they've used for a million years.
• 12:38
  Larry Wilson: For a million years.
• 12:39
  Larry Wilson: If you see enough shows, live shows, you'll start to hear sometimes lines repeated.
• 12:44
  Larry Wilson: Someone will stumble over their words and they'll say almost under their breath, Oh, never buy false teeth at a garage sale.
• 12:53
  Larry Wilson: You know, something silly like that.
• 12:57
  Larry Wilson: There's nothing wrong with saying something prepared, but when you say something that is genuinely ad-lib, it's galvanizing to the audience.
• 13:07
  Larry Wilson: It is electrifying.
• 13:09
  Larry Wilson: They can't look away.
• 13:11
  Larry Wilson: And if you're someone who has enough experience and confidence in your ability to do this, you may go on several minutes, maybe five minutes, interacting either with someone in the audience or with your own thought that just came to mind, whatever it is.
• 13:29
  Larry Wilson: But to the audience, it's so clear that this is a unique moment that's happening just now.
• 13:40
  Larry Wilson: And when it's over, it's gone.
• 13:43
  Larry Wilson: It's not going to be repeated.
• 13:45
  Larry Wilson: It only happened because someone knocked over that display and it made this big noise, and then you said something, and then the audience laughed, and then you said something else, and someone in the audience shouted something.
• 13:56
  Larry Wilson: They know on an unconscious level, this is just for us.
• 14:03
  Larry Wilson: This is something we're sharing right now as humans.
• 14:08
  Larry Wilson: And I believe that's the reason that ad-living, or as people now call it, crowd work, is so popular.
• 14:16
  Larry Wilson: Now, I have to tell you, when I was coming up in entertainment and working in a lot of clubs, there was a guy I would see in Los Angeles because he he was at uh the improv a lot, who I thought was the best ad lib person I'd ever seen, a guy named Jimmy Brogan.
• 14:40
  Larry Wilson: And I I don't, I mean, I met him, but he would never remember it.
• 14:44
  Larry Wilson: Uh it's not like we were friends or anything.
• 14:47
  Larry Wilson: But I was just in awe of how relaxed he was.
• 14:52
  Larry Wilson: And I'm not, I mean, I shouldn't say something that sounds like it might be sound like I'm insulting.
• 14:59
  Larry Wilson: I don't want it to be.
• 15:00
  Larry Wilson: I don't know if Jimmy actually had a structured act.
• 15:04
  Larry Wilson: I assume he must have.
• 15:06
  Larry Wilson: But the times that I saw him perform at the improvisation or at uh comedy and magic club in Hermosa, he just came out on stage and started talking to the audience.
• 15:19
  Larry Wilson: I mean, really saying, Oh, you, you know, that's funny that you're dressed this way because I was thinking, and he's off to the races, and someone in the audience says something, and Jimmy takes it and runs with it.
• 15:30
  Larry Wilson: And he was so adept at it that it seriously seemed like this was a polished act, but it couldn't be.
• 15:42
  Larry Wilson: Because how did he know what someone in the audience would say or or respond when he said, I mean, it was amazing.
• 15:49
  Larry Wilson: It was amazing, and I know Jimmy's performing now because uh another friend of mine, uh Roman Spinali, who's a young up-and-coming comedian, I know has worked with Jimmy just recently and said, yeah, exactly the same.
• 16:05
  Larry Wilson: So that's that was my foundation for seeing someone handle this with no sweat, without any fear, without any tension or anxiety.
• 16:18
  Larry Wilson: Jimmy is just totally relaxed.
• 16:20
  Larry Wilson: Now, I think it's interesting because of this prevalence now that I see online of crowd works.
• 16:29
  Larry Wilson: This has been Larry Wilson.
• 16:31
  Larry Wilson: I want to thank you for spending this time with me, and I hope you found this information useful.
• 16:38
  Larry Wilson: If you're looking for more, you can find it at thewilsonmethod.com.
• 16:43
  Larry Wilson: There's a ton of stuff there.
• 16:46
  Larry Wilson: If you want, you can even speak to me because I'm human.
• 16:51
  Larry Wilson: Send me an email at info at wilsonmethod.com because I read every single one.
• 17:00
  Larry Wilson: I hope that you'll join us next week in this continuing journey.
• 17:06
  Larry Wilson: And you'll be with me for the next episode of How to Talk to Human.