Name: Creativity Guru Dr. James Kaufman | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #260
Uploaded: 2020-02-07T15:54:30.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Creativity Guru Dr. James Kaufman | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #260' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-02-07. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Creativity Guru Dr. James Kaufman | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #260' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-02-07. Transcript available.

Creativity Guru Dr. James Kaufman | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #260

I want to let you guys know that I will be performing March 7th at the Castle
Theater in Maui, Hawaii, or Kahului, Kahului.
Those tickets will go on sale Tuesday, February 11th at 10 a.m. Hawaiian time.
So, aloha, mahalo, gangalo.
I'm really excited about that. I need a vacation.
Today's guest is really the Patrick Mahomes of creativity.
He's a professor at the University of Connecticut.
He's written countless books, including Creativity 101.
It is Professor James Kaufman.
Shine that light on me.
I'll sit and tell you my story.
Of course, I've also learned when somebody has a sharp object in you, be nice.
I remember I was getting some back stuff done, and a guy has a needle this big,
and he starts
deciding to talk politics.
I'm just like, I'm nodding and smiling at everything he says.
I don't care what he said.
The needle's all the way in my...
Right now, you could be saying anything you want, and as long as you have a
blade this
big, I'm on your side.
Yeah.
Dr. James Kaufman, who wrote the...
Who really is one of the...
I mean, you're kind of like a little bit of the Sacagawea of creativity, kind
of the white
male Sacagawea in a way.
I've never been called that.
You're like Louis Ankle.
Some might say Forrest Gump.
Okay, I'll do that.
But I've been very lucky.
I've gotten to ask a whole lot of interesting questions, and it's a field that's
just starting
to kind of take off, and it sounds kind of silly, the idea of studying
creativity, but
some of this stuff's really intuitive, and some of it not necessarily what you
think.
When you say it's a field that's just starting to take off, because recently I
was actually
talking to my niece, and I said, imagination, right?
And she goes, what is it?
Is it on your phone?
And she thought it was an app, and it shook me to my core.
I was like, oh man, it made me think like, oh, creativity is dying, you know,
that it's
not like a new, that there's nothing really new there.
It's not like a, you know, like a seeded forest as much as maybe I used to
think it was.
Or is it that we're just being creative in different ways?
Because on one hand, yeah, probably if you gave your niece...
Like, did you ever play with those old, like, refrigerator boxes, or like just...
Oh yeah.
Just a huge...
Make a battleship or something, or a Noah's Ark, Amistad, or something?
Like, on one hand, yeah, probably if you gave her, hey, here's this huge
cardboard box,
do what you want.
So what?
Why are you giving this to me?
But she might also be able to, I mean, make a video, do any of this stuff using
the phone.
Right.
I mean, to me, it's all that, do you use to consume or create?
And there's nothing wrong with consuming.
I mean, I love watching stuff and listening to stuff.
But if you're also using it to create, I feel like the forest isn't quite dead
yet.
Yeah, I worry sometimes that, I mean, especially with the phone, I mean, even
with, you know,
mine is an example of just the alarm going off that, like, there's so many
interruptions
these days, specifically with my phone, to how much it interrupts my thought
processes.
You know, and even my sleep, it interrupts every process, it seems like.
There's a call, there's an email, there's a, I mean, it definitely seems like
these days
there's a lot more interruptions, whereas creativity needs more of like a bed
to kind of like, you
know, creativity, it seems like you need some time.
You got to get tangled up in the sheets, you know?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, it's what we sometimes call flow, that moment when you are creating and
you're engaged
and it's like you forget where you are.
And that's when like five hours pass and you're like, I haven't eaten for the
entire day.
And of course, if the phone buzzes, that takes you out of it.
It's why when I'm trying to actively write and do something where I'm actually
using like
full brain, turn off phone, sometimes even disable Wi-Fi.
And I can't get away with it for too long.
I mean, we live in a world where we get 400 emails a minute and I got two kids
and.
Oh, yeah.
We have a question actually that came in right here.
We'll put this question in.
Hi, Theo.
Hi, James.
My name is Max.
And I was wondering if Dr. Kaufman could maybe go into a little bit of detail
about what a
flow state is and maybe ways to achieve them.
Because I've heard a lot about them, but sometimes I just have a bit of trouble
achieving that
flow state.
So if you could expand, that would be great.
Thank you.
A lot of flow state junkies out there.
You know, people want that flow state.
It's an intoxicating feeling.
People who, I mean, you can get it other ways than just creating.
I mean, a lot of people who are into like mountain climbing or running, the
runner is high.
It's not horribly different.
The best way to enter flow is to do something creative that's a little bit
challenging.
If it's too hard, you're just going to go, screw it.
I can't do this.
And if it's something that's routine or too easy, it's going to be simple.
Like if you're playing the piano and you kind of play, you know, and if you're
just,
if you're doing chopsticks, you're not, you're not invested.
But then if I say, okay, Theo, here's this like Rachmaninoff symphony or
something, play
it.
You're not going to know what to do.
You're not going to enter flow.
I mean, you might be able to get a melody, but it's not going to connect with
you.
It's always that slight challenge.
And as you get better and you kind of keep matching it, you got to up the
challenge.
It's, it has to be something that you care about, that you have passion about.
I mean, it's one of the first things that I tell my students is what are you
interested
in?
Like forgetting about the word creativity, the word creativity freaks people
out.
I mean, I teach a class, several classes on creativity.
And one of the things I do is I have them do this big creative project.
And that's it in terms of the rules.
You got some students, they're just thrilled.
They're running with it and like by the third day, they're, oh man, I could do
this and
this.
And there are other students who are terrified.
Like if the assignment was cut off your little finger, they would have gone
that option.
Wow.
Because that's more definite.
That's more obvious.
Yeah.
But be creative.
It can mean anything.
And people sometimes think, well, I'm not creative.
And then they just shut it off.
And yet you start talking.
Okay.
Well, what are you interested in?
What do you like doing?
And then you work on that.
You play from that.
Okay.
And you just keep going in that passion, in that what are you interested in?
It doesn't mean you're going to be necessarily good at it.
But creativity isn't just about the outcome.
It isn't just about reaching a certain level of creativity.
I mean, that's always great.
But it's not always about creating something.
Certainly, when you first start off, it can just be in your head.
It can be an idea.
As long as it has some type of meaning to you.
Yeah.
Like if it's just a random thought.
Yeah, okay, no.
But let's say, I mean, okay.
Actually, if I could ask you, like, how do you get, like for your last comedy
special,
like, how are you writing it?
What was your process?
Yeah, the process is, you know, I take things from life that I thought were
funny or things
that made me laugh.
And then, you know, I started to expound on them on stage.
Then I would write them down into Word documents and sometimes go back and read
through the
document when I was feeling pretty good and, like, add in some stuff that I
thought was
funny or add in things I wanted to try.
And then I would go back on stage, do it again, and just kind of keep kind of
swimming in
that circle.
Until I felt like it was just kind of done.
At a certain point, my brain, I choose not to work on things anymore.
Because it's just like, to me, they're done.
There's nothing else.
There could be a lot more to do if I were somebody else.
But for me, it's like, this is as far as this bit or this area or this story or
world is going
to go.
So I think that was kind of the process.
I think, is that a process?
Yeah, yeah.
And one way of thinking about it is that all the initial stuff, the things that
you're
remembering happening that were funny, even the stuff before you're remembering
it when
it's happening, where maybe it's something funny you said or you saw or you're
thinking,
well, if that had happened, it would have been funny.
And then you're remembering it three days later.
Some of that stuff is going to stay in your mind and you're going to develop it
and you'll
try it out.
Other stuff will be there and you'll think about it and you'll consider it.
Not funny enough.
Not enough I can do with that.
Yeah, it's not enough for me.
Sometimes it's like it's not creative enough for me, I feel like.
Like somebody else, so it might be good for them, but this doesn't fit maybe
exactly my
tastes for what I find to be funny.
Like when you were first starting out, you probably, I mean, if you were like
me or anybody,
your hit ratio wasn't as good.
Yeah.
You know, so you just, okay, well, I bet that could be funny and maybe you're
trying
it out and you learn, okay, this works, this doesn't, or this could really work.
That process, like from like what's up here in your head to what you're
actually saying
when you're sharing it with another person, that's kind of like this personal
creativity
idea.
And that's something that everybody else can theoretically think it sucks.
So hopefully you get better and you can connect with other people because that's
so much of
what creativity is about, where when you're on stage and there's an audience
and it's
almost this interactive and you're reading it, then it gets to be what we might
call everyday
creativity, but at your point, much higher.
Expert level creativity, professional.
Refined for sure.
Refined.
I like that.
Because you've done it so many times and you kind of are familiar with a little
bit of
the dance, you know, yeah.
Once you get out there with the audience, you know, yeah, it's funny.
You can almost, it's almost like playing an instrument after a while, you know,
it's
like, okay, these are the notes that I know and this is the reaction and it's
going to
become sort of this circle.
And it frees you up to try more things.
Cause like, you know, okay, this is the stuff that I'll set the table with, you
know, while
I'm working on it and that some of you can almost go on autopilot while your
brain's still going
ahead, able to work in something, work in an audience reaction.
Yeah.
It's interesting.
Yeah.
It's like, you're almost like on all, like in Tesla, whenever you can just be
cruising,
you know, and sometimes you can just touch the wheel every now and then, you
know, like
you can, yeah, it's like you're driving, but every now and then you, you can,
it's almost
like you can go off course without even, but you're staying on course a little
bit, you
know, at the same time, once you get the kind of the cruise control of the, of
the, of
your set, you know, is it hard to be creative?
Like, cause I'm thinking like sometimes on stage, I find easier opportunities
to be creative.
I don't know if it's because of the fear, how my day is going, how I'm feeling,
my comfort
level, fear even.
Is it harder to be creative from a place of fear?
It's a good question.
So if you look at, okay, what type of emotion does your creativity come from?
A lot depends on the type of creativity.
So let's say that you're feeling good.
You're more likely to get the initial boost.
So the first minute or two, you're going to come up with more ideas, but you're
going to
be okay with it a little earlier.
So it, whether it's on stage in the moment or whether you're still kind of
brainstorming,
if you're feeling happy or you're excited or just you're in a good mood, it'll
be good
at first, but then it'd be like, okay, that was good.
If you're upset, whether it's sadness, could be anger, fear, it'll take you
longer to kick
in, but you