Plan to be Spontaneous

Harry Mack has a fun little magic trick. He asks a person or a crowd of people to throw out three completely random (and hopefully challenging) words, and he produces a freestyle rap on the spot. I'll show you. (This video's 17 minutes, but you can watch just the first one and get the premise.)

The raps are always freestyle, always in the moment, but should you ever watch four or five (or a hundred) of his videos, you can pick off a few of Harry's "tricks." He has a few methods that he can use to pull the "random" word into a pattern of his design. It truly is improvisational work, but within each great improv are frames.

Stand Up comedians do the same. They hold little joke methods in their back pocket to pull out in various situations that make it seem as if the person is fast and in the moment. Sometimes, it's part of an expression that works well in lots of situations. Other times, it's a method of telling a joke or story that earns laughs. Here's a video from Charisma on Command that shows more of that:

This is something you can (and should) steal for your own purposes.

The Challenge is To APPEAR Spontaneous

If everyone knows your [not exactly unique material] is coming from a mile away, it won't be as funny. If you use only ONE kind of joke, it becomes too obvious and can risk being a caricature of yourself.

I'll give you a few examples of my "casual conversation" laugh-getters. And remember, I use laughter as a way to bond people faster with interactions. I'll explain after how this works for me:

• Someone will have an interesting article of clothing on. I'll say, "Oh wow! That matches my underpants!" It's good for a laugh for a few reasons: one is that people never talk about their undergarments so I get an embarrassment-based laugh, but secondly, people laugh because it's often absurd. Like, I'll say it about a sequined dress or jacket.
• Someone will say, "Maybe we should rob a bank," in jest, you know, suggesting that they're being a bit naughty. I'll say straight-faced: "My parole officer says I have to stop." That sentence can be re-used in lots of fun situations.

But let me be super clear: I'm not writing this to tell you how to be a freestyle rapper or a comedian. This is for you as a communicator, be that as a content producer or when you find yourself talking to people at a meeting or an event.

Build Little "Spontaneity Seeds"

The mission from this letter to you is to take the idea: people who are great at being spontaneous are actually well-practiced at guiding "wild" or "wide open" language towards a structure from time to time. This applies in so many ways. What if your job is to provide software demonstrations? You don't want them to feel robotic, but you definitely don't want to "create from scratch" all the way around.

The trick? Have the "seeds." Have the Harry Mack "rhyme patterns" or the Ryan Reynolds "absurd answer." Build your version of these for your personal application. Look for yours and make them part of the plan.

Make sense?

Chris...