What I’ve learned about … beating fear

By Simon Young, April 4, 2007 @ 11 pm

Business and making shadow puppets may have more in common than you think. Improv expert Wade Jackson shares his tips on improvisation for improving success

Idealog March/April 2007, page 96. Photograph by Bruce Nicholson

Whether it’s a hard-to-please audience or the dotted line on a huge business loan, being creative incurs a lot of risks. You could be afraid, or you could try some alternatives.

Wade Jackson knows about alternatives. The double world improvisation champion (yes, there is such a thing) bridges the gap between theatre and business with his company, Improv Solutions. He’s also a co-founder of Covert Theatre, New Zealand’s first and only full-time comedy theatre, and a founding member of The Improv Bandits, New Zealand’s most successful improvised comedy act.

Jackson has faced The Fear, both on stage and in business. How does he deal with it?

Fear has its uses

“People say fear is a negative emotion. I believe no emotions are negative—it’s the way you handle it. Fear serves its purpose; it stops us from being harmed. But when it’s blown out of proportion, it kills.

“It’s a cliché, but Nike said it best: just do it. You’ve got to experience something and a lot of fears will just melt away. Be aware of the purpose of fear, and just get on with it.”

It’s not all about you

“Lower your standards. When you’re afraid, you’re putting too much of your self-worth into your performance. In improv, there is no right answer. Whatever you say is correct.

“Take your ego out of your ideas. We say one plus one is three. Your idea and life experience and expertise with my ideas, life experience and imagination create a third person—a thing we’d never create by ourselves. That’s true creativity, that’s true teamwork. Not you telling me what to do or me telling you what to do; that’s just leadership by command. So take your ego out; detach.

“Detachment is one of our four creative values. Another one is pattern disruption. People don’t want to disrupt patterns. The brain’s a patterning device; it self-organises. When you disrupt those patterns, it’s uncomfortable. You cross your arms a certain way. Try crossing them the other way and it feels funny. You’re not used to it. Lower your standards. If you haven’t done something before you can’t expect to succeed the first time.

“Stage fright is purely losing connection with your audience. If you focus on the people you’re there to serve, you’ll do well. The same is true for business. Stage fright for an entrepreneur is simply when he or she loses connection with the reason for being in business.”

Think where you’re going

“In October 2000 I had the idea for an improv theatre venue. Six months later I had the money, the people and the venue!

“But six weeks later I realised I didn’t have enough money. So what do you do? You go on tour to Montreal and Toronto. You leave a friend in charge to take all the phone calls.

“A big fear was the fear of embarrassment. ‘Oh God, I’ve just signed myself away, I’m going to be bankrupt after a couple of weeks!’

“I had a lot of sleepless nights, but I tried to focus on ‘how’—how I was going to raise the money that was needed. I had an unwavering belief, faith, whatever you want to call it, that it was going to work out. And it did—better than I could have imagined.”

– As told to Simon Young