I love watching comedians. I especially love improv. Watching Robin Williams, for example, I always have the sense that he is walking on a razors edge between disaster and brilliance. He throws himself out there with no net below to catch him, (switching metaphors) walking the tightrope of hilarity, knowing that at any moment he could fall off into the abyss of absurdity.
“What’s working tonight? What’s not working?”
“What is the present psychological state of my audience?”
“Do I push the envelope here or … there?”
Talk about staying in the moment!
Anyway—
In any effective communication strategy, the ability to calibrate where my audience is in-this-moment, and the ability to remain flexible are absolutely necessary.
Watching the Red Skelton Video: he has a prepared shtick, he walks out … and shit happens. Literally. Now what? He goes with it. He improvises so as to attain his intended outcome: eliciting laughter from his audience. He doesn’t ignore the obvious. He doesn’t seek to keep to the script. He uses the unexpected, takes a different route, and arrives at his destination.
What would have happened had he ignored the cow pies? The audience wouldn’t have heard a word he said, but would have remained fixated on the south end of the cow.
Rapport with your audience isn’t something you attain and then forget about it. Rapport is an ongoing process. Are they with me or not? If not, I must re-captivate them. If what I had planned to say is no longer possible, what do I say now?
The strategy you have developed for persuading your audience is not what matters most. What matters most is your intended destination. If your strategy isn’t taking you where you want to go, if the unexpected derails your plans, don’t be hard headed … be flexible.
Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2009
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