1 00:00:00,341 --> 00:00:02,273 - You know, like James Brown said, if you stay ready, 2 00:00:02,273 --> 00:00:03,780 you ain't got to get ready. 3 00:00:03,780 --> 00:00:07,065 So when they said, "Hey, you want audition for who's line?" 4 00:00:07,065 --> 00:00:08,245 I said, sure. 5 00:00:08,245 --> 00:00:09,126 Can you do this? 6 00:00:09,126 --> 00:00:09,959 Yes. 7 00:00:09,959 --> 00:00:10,792 Can you do that? 8 00:00:10,792 --> 00:00:11,625 Yes. 9 00:00:11,625 --> 00:00:12,458 Can you do this? 10 00:00:12,458 --> 00:00:13,291 Yes. 11 00:00:13,291 --> 00:00:14,124 Okay, hired. 12 00:00:14,124 --> 00:00:16,707 (upbeat music) 13 00:00:19,627 --> 00:00:22,136 - What were those early years like for you kind of 14 00:00:22,136 --> 00:00:23,092 honing your craft? 15 00:00:23,092 --> 00:00:24,968 Like once you really, put your flag in the ground 16 00:00:24,968 --> 00:00:26,707 and said, I want to do this, how did you start 17 00:00:26,707 --> 00:00:30,271 really building that foundation to grow from? 18 00:00:30,271 --> 00:00:32,830 - You are only as good an actor 19 00:00:32,830 --> 00:00:35,580 as you are filled with knowledge. 20 00:00:38,843 --> 00:00:41,701 Whether it be life knowledge 21 00:00:41,701 --> 00:00:44,458 or whether it be book knowledge that you've gleaned 22 00:00:44,458 --> 00:00:45,999 and things that you absorbed. 23 00:00:45,999 --> 00:00:47,582 And I say that because you have to be a student 24 00:00:47,582 --> 00:00:49,576 of psychology. 25 00:00:49,576 --> 00:00:50,951 I have to be able to look at characters. 26 00:00:50,951 --> 00:00:51,996 I have to be able to look at people, 27 00:00:51,996 --> 00:00:53,248 especially doing comedy. 28 00:00:53,248 --> 00:00:54,625 I have to be able to look at someone 29 00:00:54,625 --> 00:00:56,537 and go, oh, I can do that guy that I saw 30 00:00:56,537 --> 00:00:59,947 in line at the grocery store, because it'd be funny. 31 00:00:59,947 --> 00:01:01,177 So I'm gonna do the hunchback 32 00:01:01,177 --> 00:01:02,720 and then my glasses, the whole thing. 33 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:04,476 So I kind of absorbed those things. 34 00:01:04,476 --> 00:01:07,269 Then because I could sing, I could hear voices. 35 00:01:07,269 --> 00:01:09,273 And so I could start doing impressions. 36 00:01:09,273 --> 00:01:11,140 I could turn those into characters. 37 00:01:11,140 --> 00:01:12,519 So I worked at Disney. 38 00:01:12,519 --> 00:01:13,811 I worked at Universal. 39 00:01:13,811 --> 00:01:15,108 I was a character. 40 00:01:15,108 --> 00:01:16,593 I started off as Goofy and Tigger 41 00:01:16,593 --> 00:01:18,558 I was a singer dancer there 42 00:01:18,558 --> 00:01:22,074 and did singing, dancing shows at Universal. 43 00:01:22,074 --> 00:01:25,939 And I was a Ghostbuster when the park first opened 44 00:01:25,939 --> 00:01:27,992 up in the Ghostbuster show. 45 00:01:27,992 --> 00:01:29,124 I was a percussionist. 46 00:01:29,124 --> 00:01:31,278 And I was a break dancer in a street crew. 47 00:01:31,278 --> 00:01:33,126 - We're talking range. 48 00:01:33,126 --> 00:01:36,707 This is range to go from (laughing). 49 00:01:36,707 --> 00:01:40,625 - It is range but also survival because I'm on my own. 50 00:01:40,625 --> 00:01:42,389 I got a gig. 51 00:01:42,389 --> 00:01:44,261 I have to learn to do all these things, 52 00:01:44,261 --> 00:01:46,332 but it's absorbing all that stuff. 53 00:01:46,332 --> 00:01:49,394 I never said no to a gig because I didn't know what 54 00:01:49,394 --> 00:01:50,810 the gig was gonna give me. 55 00:01:50,810 --> 00:01:54,861 Whatever they asked of me I wanted to be able to do. 56 00:01:54,861 --> 00:01:59,861 And so I embodied that yes and of the improvisational space. 57 00:01:59,991 --> 00:02:03,577 So I really attribute any success that I've had now 58 00:02:03,577 --> 00:02:05,956 in the subsequent years with everything that I did 59 00:02:05,956 --> 00:02:08,741 in Orlando for the first few years, 60 00:02:08,741 --> 00:02:10,991 because that set the stage. 61 00:02:12,623 --> 00:02:14,793 - Really breaking down the science behind how 62 00:02:14,793 --> 00:02:17,704 improvisation is great for creativity. 63 00:02:17,704 --> 00:02:19,536 There are parts of your brain like where your inhibition 64 00:02:19,536 --> 00:02:21,844 is lowered, and that just makes you feel less 65 00:02:21,844 --> 00:02:25,128 self-aware less conscious of something 66 00:02:25,128 --> 00:02:26,878 and you you're allowed to just let go. 67 00:02:26,878 --> 00:02:29,718 From that experience of improv, 68 00:02:29,718 --> 00:02:32,315 like what would you say you walked away with? 69 00:02:32,315 --> 00:02:34,934 - I walked away with a super power that I didn't know 70 00:02:34,934 --> 00:02:37,982 that I had to the degree that I had. 71 00:02:37,982 --> 00:02:41,232 - So let's hear the astronaut hoedown. 72 00:02:43,483 --> 00:02:46,034 - The audience is waiting for you to not succeed. 73 00:02:46,034 --> 00:02:49,705 The audience goes, Oh my God Margaret 74 00:02:49,705 --> 00:02:53,246 because I don't know how they aren't going to do it. 75 00:02:53,246 --> 00:02:56,378 ♪ Let me tell you something my girlfriend now was a slob ♪ 76 00:02:56,378 --> 00:02:58,086 ♪ But now look who's laughing ♪ 77 00:02:58,086 --> 00:02:59,993 ♪ Astronaut is my job ♪ 78 00:02:59,993 --> 00:03:01,839 ♪ Flying around the universe ♪ 79 00:03:01,839 --> 00:03:03,620 ♪ That is my duty ♪ 80 00:03:03,620 --> 00:03:08,620 ♪ I even made a pit stop in Mars and got some Martian booty. ♪ 81 00:03:08,637 --> 00:03:11,685 In that split second, you have to be able to pull 82 00:03:11,685 --> 00:03:14,391 up your computer screen in your head 83 00:03:14,391 --> 00:03:17,889 and go space shuttle, space, troposphere, gravity, 84 00:03:17,889 --> 00:03:20,889 centrifuge, space suit, Tang, boots. 85 00:03:22,324 --> 00:03:27,237 John Glenn, all of that has got to hit you in that second. 86 00:03:27,237 --> 00:03:29,283 And now we start doing the scene 87 00:03:29,283 --> 00:03:30,526 and now I've got to listen to you. 88 00:03:30,526 --> 00:03:32,621 - Smoke would be coming out of my ears at that point, 89 00:03:32,621 --> 00:03:35,710 cause I feel like my brain can not process like that. 90 00:03:35,710 --> 00:03:36,747 - As that show went on, 91 00:03:36,747 --> 00:03:39,539 I gained a confidence and a skill level that I'd never had 92 00:03:39,539 --> 00:03:41,394 because I never invested in it. 93 00:03:41,394 --> 00:03:42,926 Then once I started investing in it 94 00:03:42,926 --> 00:03:44,591 then I started going, okay, well 95 00:03:44,591 --> 00:03:46,719 if I'm going to be doing this show and I'm going to be known 96 00:03:46,719 --> 00:03:50,559 for this thing, I just don't want to be a guy that does it. 97 00:03:50,559 --> 00:03:55,559 I want to be the benchmark that, Oh, improv music or improv. 98 00:03:55,690 --> 00:03:57,893 You need to mention my name. 99 00:03:57,893 --> 00:04:00,310 (soft music) 100 00:04:01,233 --> 00:04:04,198 There's a certain thing that I have that I know. 101 00:04:04,198 --> 00:04:07,575 If you throw me into any situation 102 00:04:07,575 --> 00:04:10,445 something will come out of my mouth. 103 00:04:10,445 --> 00:04:12,198 I'm not always going to promise 104 00:04:12,198 --> 00:04:13,361 that it'll be the most brilliant thing 105 00:04:13,361 --> 00:04:14,913 but something will come out of my mouth. 106 00:04:14,913 --> 00:04:18,193 And the best thing is I now have a confidence 107 00:04:18,193 --> 00:04:20,897 that maybe the first thing won't be the best thing, 108 00:04:20,897 --> 00:04:22,549 but that second and third thing. 109 00:04:22,549 --> 00:04:23,382 Oh yeah. 110 00:04:25,418 --> 00:04:27,046 So those are life skills. 111 00:04:27,046 --> 00:04:29,340 Being able to do improvisation has taught me life skills. 112 00:04:29,340 --> 00:04:31,264 It's taught me to walk in my own skin. 113 00:04:31,264 --> 00:04:34,707 Being one of the improvisers of color 114 00:04:34,707 --> 00:04:38,055 that has a notoriety has taught me to walk 115 00:04:38,055 --> 00:04:39,219 in my own skin. 116 00:04:39,219 --> 00:04:40,427 To claim something. 117 00:04:40,427 --> 00:04:42,612 At the end of the day, it is a skill. 118 00:04:42,612 --> 00:04:43,985 It is a hard earned skill. 119 00:04:43,985 --> 00:04:47,221 It is a creative muscle that has to be worked and nurtured. 120 00:04:47,221 --> 00:04:48,696 And it's valued by some people 121 00:04:48,696 --> 00:04:50,282 because not everyone can do it. 122 00:04:50,282 --> 00:04:52,531 So if I have to impart one word of advice 123 00:04:52,531 --> 00:04:56,940 to anyone watching, you have to let yourself have fun. 124 00:04:56,940 --> 00:04:59,836 You can't wait for the creative police 125 00:04:59,836 --> 00:05:02,120 to come knocking at your door 126 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:03,754 and tell you that you can. 127 00:05:03,754 --> 00:05:05,217 You are free citizen. 128 00:05:05,217 --> 00:05:06,050 Go.