Most people that know me personally know that I am not a fan of motivational speakers.  I have even taken this feeling and turned it into a keynote presentation known as “Why I Hate Motivational Speakers”. This sentiment is not directed at the people (the speakers themselves), but rather their general message.  I often ask:

• If motivational speakers were effective why has the industry grown instead of decreased?
• Why do audience members at these events need the permission of a stranger to accomplish the goals that they wish to achieve?  (Can’t they give themselves permission?)
• Do people know that they can become addicted to this industry?
• Isn’t success relative to every one’s own reality?  (Speakers that climb Mount Everest couldn’t have done so without their Sherpas, but while the speakers return to North America to talk about their accomplishments, the Sherpas are already going up Everest with another soon-to-be-motivational speaker.  We think this accomplishment is special, but if we lived in Nepal it would seem ordinary.)

So when I was asked by JCI Calgary to find a speaker that all of our members would enjoy it was no easy task to find the person that I felt could deliver a solid and unique message.  Thankfully, I had the good fortune of meeting Les Hewitt several years ago.

Les is the author of The Power of Focus (co-written with Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield).  His presentations (and his book) focus on the tools that you need to accomplish your goals and the introspection required to figure out what your goals should be.  Having seen him present I know that he is different from all the “motivational speakers” that I lament against and will have thought-provoking insights for even the most skeptical attendee.

Fortunately, this event is not closed to the public.  If you are interested in learning from the expert on goal achieving you can join Les and myself (I’ll be “hosting” the event that day) on February 7 from 12:30pm until 4:00pm for this interactive workshop.  Tickets are only $50 as the event is being underwritten by JCI Calgary.  All the details (and advance tickets) can be found online at JCI Calgary’s site by clicking here or through the Facebook event page by clicking here.

I hope to see you there!

Several times over the past few weeks I have been asked the same question by several different people: “What is your biggest goal in your career?” Combined with last week’s post on rewarding yourself for goals set and achieved I thought that now was a good time to answer this question.

As I mentioned last week, I do make goals.  However, I don’t have THE goal – the ONE that needs to be achieved.  I used to.  Then I achieved it.  After accomplishing what you thought was impossible or the “end of the road” you can be left with a very empty feeling with no sense of direction.  I am thus leery to make any more career goals because achieving it could imply the end of the career.

Add to this fact that there is no singular huge goal to accomplish in show business – there is always something bigger.  Let’s say I get my own 60-minute HBO special… that’s a really good and really big goal… but after this has been accomplished there’s still something bigger.  Maybe it’s my own talk show (ala Ellen Degeneres) or a new special every year (ala George Carlin).

So the short answer to this question is that I don’t have any single goal for my career – just a collection of goals that I work towards with the intent of not stopping performing until I absolutely have to.

With Christmas now over every one’s attention quickly turns to New Year’s Eve, 2009, and the inevitable resolutions that will be made and quickly forgotten.  I’ve had a standing New Year’s resolution to “not make resolutions” – so far I haven’t failed.

This is not to say that I don’t make goals for myself – of course I do.  The arbitrary date of January 1 just never felt any better than any other date and I have never felt particularly motivated to set a goal just because everyone else is at the end of the year.  My current outstanding goals (the ones that I am working on now) have various completion dates and were created when they were needed.  If February comes around and I need to set a new timeline for an accomplishment, I won’t wait 10 months to set a “resolution” – I will just make a new goal.  (If you put off setting goals for yourself like this, I would recommend a resolution to stop procrastinating.)

However, if you are motivated by the end of the year to start making goals – I would always recommend including an award for yourself once you have completed the goal.  This “reward” may help to keep you motivated and gives you a benefit to work towards.  Instead of saying, “I will lose 10 pounds,” say that, “If I lose 10 pounds this year I will buy myself a new car.”  (Or whatever reward you think is reasonable… a car for 10 pounds may be a little too much of a reward… well, maybe a Smart Car.)  I always include a reward for my goals no matter when I set them and it is always a great motivator.  I also thoroughly enjoy each reward that I receive when my goals are completed.

So whether or not January 1 is a turning point in your year, or just another date on the calendar and an excuse to drink champagne, I wish you a Happy New Year and All The Best in 2009!

PS:  If you need help on goal-setting, a business group that I am a part of (JCI Calgary) is producing a training event with Les Hewitt, the author of The Power of Focus.  Click here for more details.

I don’t watch the news.  I decided a long time ago that the information contained within those broadcasts was useless.  I still watch TV, but the only programs I see that contain any “current events” are The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report.  Yes, both programs are biased as can be (what news program isn’t?), but I love them both for different reasons.

Some people question me: “How can you be a comedian and not watch the news?” The truth is that my act has never had a political angle to it.  The few times that I have tried something like that, I looked like an idiot.  Also, if comedy fans want the best satirical take on current events they can watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert deliver this almost nightly.

Not watching the news does have some benefits.  I don’t believe that the world will end tomorrow.  Definitely a plus. Listening to the anchors every night must have a negative effect as a result of the polarized arguments on topics like global warming and the economic crisis.

When walking around outside I find myself struck by the ridiculous nature of the economic doom-sayers.  I still see people out with friends and family, having dinner in restaurants, and buying Christmas presents.  In fact, if you never listened to the news you might not even be aware of the “crisis”. (Also – if you didn’t check up on your investment statements.)

That said, I do wish to learn more about the situation and as luck would have it I came into possession of a book called Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan.  The book does an excellent job of explaining economic concepts in a clear fashion without graphs and equations.  I came across an interesting quote:

“Economists reckon that by the time the Berlin Wall crumbled, some East German car factories were actually destroying value.  Because the manufacturing process was so inefficient and the end product was so shoddy, the plants were producing cars worth less than the actual inputs used the make them.  Basically, they took perfectly good steal and ruined it!”

I don’t think I have to listen to the news to find the similarity to today’s situation.  Beurocrats are considering a massive economic bail-out and are choosing to interfere with the free market.  (On a side note, why is this action not considered socialism when Barack Obama’s health-plan is?) Just a few lines after the above quote is this one, referencing a government-subsidized business in India (which is nominally capitalist)…

“Every day, twelve hundred employees reported to work with the avowed goal of producing fertilizer.  There was just one small complication: The plant had never actually produced any salable fertilizer.  None.  Government bureaucrats ran the plant using public funds… It limped along because there was no mechanism to force it to shut down.”

The important point there is “mechanism to force it to shut down.”  No matter how bad it gets, continued interference can not help.  So, I’ve decided to start investing in shirts.  That’s right.  This past August, on vacation, I spent quite heavily on a new shirt in which to perform in.  I spent so much in fact that several people commented: “You almost lost your shirt on that shirt.”

This “investment” was before the economic crisis – and it hasn’t lost any value to me – so it’s stable.  (That’s more than can be said about most other investments.) And, sometimes, I am living in it, so it’s like real estate – which I am told is always a good investment.

So even if the entire economy collapses (which I won’t find out about until a few days later without watching the news) I will look good.

I had the pleasure this last week of working with one of my favourite comedians, Bengt Washburn.  Watching him work is inspiring.  It often surprises me when new comics don’t watch the pros perform – you can always learn a lot from the experience.  One thing that Bengt showed me was the ability to find the “big picture” from a small joke or premise, and that exact thing happened this past week…

For the past few months I have been working on a joke with an introduction line of: “a little bit of racism saves lives”.  The joke, on it’s own, is working out fairly well – but it lacks a couple of other elements to bring together to start to create a truly insightful moment in the show.  Well, inspiration hit last week…

The “big picture” for this joke is all about our assumptions.  It is our assumptions that save our lives (and if not, saves our time).  I have always hated hearing the expression: “When you assume you make an ass out of you and me.”  Hardly, how about: “When you use that expression you make an ass out of you.”

Having to wake up everyday and verify everything you know would take more than the entire day and thousands of years ago would have resulted in your death.  Assuming that a predator wants to eat you is a good thing.  Assuming that a gun-weilding maniac may be dangerous is a good thing.  Assuming that gravity still works every morning just makes sense (if you don’t make this assumption you may end up wearing a tinfoil hat and waiting for the aliens to return).

It then occured to me that our base assumptions (the assumptions that we use most often) define who we are. People that assume everything is going to be alright become optimists, people that think the best of others quickly gain new friends, and people that assume the worst become politicians.

So our goal shouldn’t be to stop making assumptions but to make sure that our assumptions result in the type of person that we want to be. Hopefully, I can find the funny in this whole thing – I guess I have some writing to do…

(Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink” also touched on this subject about how the human brain quickly makes decisions/assumptions.)

As I am still in a sharing mood after last week’s post I thought today I would turn my attention to the maternal side of my family and “introduce” you to my Grandma Lawrence.  She is without a doubt my biggest fan and almost my agent.  In fact, the first show that I ever produced and starred in was in 2003 and I am sure that she is directly responsible for at least 100 of the 400 people in the theatre that night.

Truthfully, without a constant source of support this type of career would be almost impossible – and Grandma is that support for me.  I almost think that she has seen more of my shows than I have and my friends now call her “Grandma” (even some of my friends that are over 50 themselves).  She was even briefly featured during Magically Delicious a couple of weeks ago:

I remember growing up and listening to Grandma sing.  That is her gift.  She has shared it with countless thousands of people and I have decided to share it with you today.  This recording was made in the 1950′s – so all the crackling noises are natural and they can’t be removed but I prefer it that way – it adds authenticity.  Here’s my Grandma’s “Danny Boy”…

So why is this post an “Opinion”.  Well, in my opinion, I have never heard a sweeter sound.

It’s been a busy week of making people laugh (that can be more exhausting that you realize) and eating turkey (which you probably know is pretty exhausting) so after taking yesterday off, I awoke this morning to get my hair styled (yep – I go to a stylist) and vote.  It was only when I arrived home that I realized that today was Tuesday!  That means it’s time once again to share…

Last week during my radio interview to promote Magically Delicious the interview team was so disarming and comfortable that I was surprised at some of the stories that they pulled out of me.  I told them things that I had never let loose in an interview before – most likely because they were questions I had never been asked.  It was during this interview that I told a story about my Dad that I figured I would share online here as well.

People often ask me something along the lines of: “What do your parents think of this career choice?” There is no short answer to the question… they are excited and nervous for me all at the same time.  Their perception of the industry is also not quite the reality of the industry, which can cause some problems.  Fortunately, years ago my Mom shared with me a story about my Dad and his Dad (my Grandfather) that is useful and parallels my own life.

My Grandfather, in fact, both my Grandfathers, were farmers all their lives.  They knew how to farm and how to raise a family on that lifestyle.  Asking either of them to consider a different way in which to live, especially one that uses new and different technologies, would be difficult.  My Grandpa Lawrence (maternal side) has a license plate which reads: “You Can Take the Man Out of the Farm, But You Can’t Take the Farm Out of the Man.” It’s an old adage (well – as old as farms), but couldn’t be more true.  I think it’s the same for other people as well… you could take me off the stage, but… you get the idea.

So, my Dad, after living on the farm for 18 years heads off to college in Edmonton (from his Saskatchewan roots – Go Riders!).  His degree has something to do with mechanical engineering and/or technology.  It prepared him to do what he loves – build stuff out of sheet metal.  For a few years he worked for a company in Calgary and then opportunity knocked: the chance to buy his own manufacturing company.  After what I can only imagine was a TON of leveraging he was successful.

Dad had his own shop.  A couple thousand square feet with the machinery he needed.  He knew that this would be successful – but probably couldn’t explain why. A small start in South Calgary (after years of hard work) would turn into an incredibly successful enterprise with millions in sales and hundreds of customers.  Dad was right – but we are jumping ahead in the story…

A little while after opening this business my Grandfather (Dad’s Dad) comes to Calgary to see what his son has started.  Dad gives Grandpa the full tour, explains what the equipment does, points out some customer orders that are about to completed, and introduces him to this industry.  After all that my Grandpa looks around and says, “So, you can make a living at this?”

So now, if my folks ever ask me about the career or use the “U-word” (university), I always remind them of this story.  Just because they haven’t experienced it before, doesn’t mean it won’t work.

And if the public asks me what my parents think?  Due to time constraints and the length of this story I usually just say, “They’re fine with it!” Which is true – it’s just not as interesting as the longer version.

Note:  There is a “News & Updates” announcement after this “Opinion”.
Click here to jump to the update.

We do not like what we can not explain.  This could be a result of nature or nuture (I have no idea), but I what I do know is that sometimes the “reason” or “explanation” makes no difference.  Last Wednesday night, after a particularily good show, I walked out to discover what was left of my car…

No sooner had I taken this photo than the theories started to fly:  It was vandals.  They tried to steal the car and were spooked away.  It was kids.  It was an accident and they ran off.  It was the glass company looking for another client.  (Although I am suspicious that the repair company had the window in stock.)

The truth of the matter is that it could have just as easily been a comet (that woud have actually been really cool).  The reason had no effect on the outcome (which was a replacement window and a couple of hours sitting in a waiting room).  It is experiences like this that force me to try to remember the advice of Don Miguel Ruiz in his book “The Four Agreements”.

In this book, the second of the four agreements is “Don’t Take Anything Personally”.  Whomever did whatever to my car had nothing to do with me (unless they didn’t like a joke or two), so becoming personally offended only serves to waste more of my time.  Imagine a world where no one was offended because of the actions of others.  Bar fights would be a thing of the past.  So would most violence amongst humans.  How many times has a person died because of a misinterpreted glance?

Sometimes this advice is hard to take, but it has served me well in the past…  A couple of years back I was jumped (or maybe mugged – I’m not sure as they didn’t take anything) outside of a bar.  So far as I know it was a random act of violence.  Taking it personally would have left me with many unanswered questions, it would have left me searching for a reason which would never have arrived.  Instead, I realized it wasn’t my problem but the problem of the anonymous pair that decided to cause me physical pain.  (Some readers may realize that I turned that story in a stand-up comedy bit as well… might as well make the night worth a couple of fun minutes on stage.)

I guess the point of this post is to give you a challenge:  the next time that you find yourself under attack or the victim of a random event beyond your control, try to realize that it has nothing to do with you.  Whatever happens is more of an expression of the character of the instigator than it is an expression of who and what you are – don’t take it personally.

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The “News & Updates” part…

Last week’s appearance on CityTV’s “BT” (Breakfast Television) to promote Magically Delicious was a huge success.  You can see my appearance on the program on the Vids/Pics page or by clicking here.  (We are now less than a week from the premiere of the show featuring myself, Ryan Pilling, and Tyler Wilson working together to create never-before-seen magic.  Get your tickets here.)

Some good also came of Wednesday night’s show… a friend managed to snap off some photos of me in action.  They are currently in a Facebook photo album on my fan page, but you don’t need an account to take a look.

With this blog I have joined the ranks of the millions of other people who think that other people care about their opinions (this may be accurate, and it may not).  Suffice to say, in order to work on a blog you need quite the ego, and thankfully after years of successful performing my ego is thoroughly large enough to render this first (and not last) opinion…

These days it is trite business advice to say that “improvements in your industry often come from other industries.”  This has been cliche since the first business-analyst pointed out the improvement that banks adopted from fast-food chains of the drive-thru.  (That may have been vice versa – but it’s not important to the rest of this article, so play along.)

That said, I do think that the more philosophical side of performing magic (yep – there’s a philosophy to it… if you have too much time on your hands) renders one quote with universal applications:

“Magicians stop thinking too soon.”
-Paul Fox, magician

As it relates to the magic community this quote speaks to methods and presentations.  Replace the word “Magicians” with “Comedians” and it speaks to timing and delivery.  Insert any profession (artistic or scientific) and the central theme of the quote starts to become clear: “Your first idea sucks.”

I used to have a drama teacher that said something similar (paraphrased here): “My first idea is always like everyone else’s.  My second idea is a bit more unique.  Now my tenth idea!  Look out!” The arts are full of numerous examples of such thinking and I think it is time for more traditional businesses to start looking at it the same way.

Having sat through countless board meetings and employee trainings I know that businesses want to find ways to increase their employees’ creativity… and another training seminar isn’t going to do it.  Each one of these companies only ever gives their employees enough time for that first thought.  The time and deadline pressure are what remove creativity by not allowing people time for that second, fourth, and twentieth thoughts.

An employee’s first thought is likely your competitions first thought.  My first take on a joke has likely been done before by someone else.  But… given time, brainstorming, experimentation, or whatever… a unique and brilliant idea, thought, joke, etc, is sure to follow.  Audiences often compliment performers on their creativity, mistakenly thinking that “creativity” is a gift.  In my experience, “creativity” is simply past the point that others gave up thinking.