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Humor in Corporate America ft. Comedy Partners
32 Plays4 months ago
In this hilarious and insightful episode, we dive into the world of workplace humor with Gerry Katzman and Heather Pasternak from Comedy Partners. These seasoned comedians share their expertise on injecting laughter into the office environment, proving that a well-timed joke can boost morale, productivity, and team bonding.
Comedy Partners, a dynamic duo specializing in corporate comedy training and team-building workshops, offers a unique blend of improv techniques and stand-up comedy skills to help businesses create a more engaging and enjoyable workplace culture. Gerry and Heather discuss their journey from the comedy club stage to the corporate boardroom, revealing how humor can be a powerful tool for communication, creativity, and conflict resolution in professional settings.
Listen as we explore:
- The science behind humor's positive impact on workplace dynamics
- Practical tips for incorporating appropriate comedy into daily office interactions
- How to use improv techniques to enhance teamwork and problem-solving skills
- Common pitfalls to avoid when trying to be funny at work
- Success stories of companies that have embraced a culture of humor
Whether you're a manager looking to lighten the mood in your department or an employee seeking to add some levity to your workday, this episode is packed with laugh-out-loud moments and actionable advice to transform your office into a more joyful and productive space.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guests
00:00:01
Speaker
and hello everyone welcome to the weekly coop i got the comedy partners on from l la heather pasternak jerry katzman jerry was using his phone so his audio is a little bit shaky i fixed up a little bit of it uh but otherwise amazing conversation hadn't an amazing time with them great people honestly just really enlighten me about corporate America and how pitching million dollar deals need to warm up. We need more humor in the office. We just need better work culture and these guys really know how to do it. They really do bring
00:00:39
Speaker
you out of your shell. So, amazing combo, can't wait. That being said, feedery.org, sign up is in Feedery App Instagram, or you can go to mybio.com, just keep on Instagram as well. We are so close to the launch, would love you to have um we'd love for you to be on our wait list, so feel free to sign up on feedery.org, or follow us on Instagram. That being said, guys, let's get after it. Let's get after it.
Comedy in Corporate Training
00:01:26
Speaker
And hello, everyone. Welcome to the Weekly Coupe. I have a very special guest here today. Might have to. We'll see what happens. It is Heather Pasternak, and we might get Gary on. Or is it Gary or Jerry? Gary Katzmann, my comedy partner of the time. Gary Katzmann. We'll hopefully be joining us in just a minute. um And so what these two have done is they've helped thousands of people transform their lives through the power of comedy, which I'm a huge comedy fan myself. Their years of experience appearing on NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, Comedy Central have uniquely positioned them to unlock the secret toolkit that comedians use to get audiences immediately on their side.
00:02:15
Speaker
For years, they have helped their corporate clients at companies like Netflix, Paramount, Amazon, unleash new levels of authenticity, charisma, relatability, and persuasion. The comedy partners evolved out of one of the most loved award-winning comedy schools in Los Angeles. Corporations started to realize the advantage of having their people trained specifically in the art of flow, authenticity, and unflappability. um
00:02:46
Speaker
Some of our first clients were advertising agencies whose executives needed to be able to stand strong and defend creative concepts in the face of sometimes fierce opposition from their clients. For them, we, meaning comedy partners, created a bulletproof communication training. And they soon realized there was entire suites of performer skills that could be immediately applied to the corporate world and helping teams bond to increase their sales ever since. Oh my gosh. You read everything on there. You're on point. Is there one of the best, one of the best descriptions I think I've ever read. Sorry to any past guests that I've ever been on. Sometimes, you know, you send someone a bio and they're like, I'll read three words of this. But yeah, that really is kind of the whole thing. If anybody wants to see the the comedy.
00:03:37
Speaker
handup comedy class standupcomedyclass.com. And it's really cool. Basically, you know, nowadays, as you know, it's like, it used to be that you could sort of be this stuffy person who like pretends to be perfect, and you do really well in business. And now everybody wants to work with like real authentic people. And I know we authentic gets overused a lot, but when you're using it right, it's like that is what our most beloved celebrities have. They have that magnetism and that charisma where they're able to turn on the lovable human parts of themselves. And and it's like, what if you could have that performer level of charisma in your business life?
Team Dynamics and Vulnerability
00:04:15
Speaker
you know What would you be able to accomplish? So we find that it really translates into like higher sales, better numbers, better client,
00:04:24
Speaker
relationships. um So it's been really fun, you know, to sort of we we teach comedy and we get to be, you know, I do a lot of stand up. I've done late night stuff and I do shows and I get to be like a comedian among comedians. But when I do corporate stuff, it's especially fun because it's like the clowns are here, you know, and we get to sort of come in and and do the silliness. So we were drawn to your podcast because you talk about just a holistic approach to things, which, you know, sometimes in business people call these the soft skills. And now they're starting to see that, Oh, actually one thing really leads into the other and the importance of it. So yeah, it's been a lot of fun to do. Yeah. That's, I mean, amazing description that you just threw out there. Um, I think first and foremost, I love comedy. It's one of my favorite genres of, I guess, like entertainment, as you call it, whether it's like TV shows, movies, books, like I'm a huge comedy fan, cause I'm actually not a scary movie fan, like at all, because like, I just don't.
00:05:24
Speaker
It puts me in a different frequency or a different vibration and comedy, I feel like boosts me up. So that's why I'm a huge comedy fan. um I love how you said holistic because, you know, when I created this show and I pivoted towards holistic health. I didn't want it to just be about health. I didn't want it to just be about food. I didn't want it just to be about the air you breathe and like the water you drink and those sorts of things. They're very important. But I love how you said holistic because what you consume with your eyes and your ears is how your brain develops. That's why
00:06:03
Speaker
When you have subconscious healing for children, that's why the traumas at a young age can surface later into the adult years because of that. Well, so like negative speech or negative thought patterns, like, you know, you often uncover that people need help with their inner monologues if they have depression and that kind of stuff. And it's interesting because in the corporate environment, it's like, um, It's sometimes we do these team training exercises and we teach this thing, like, everyone has bad ideas, but you have to be comfortable and trust your team enough to be able to share a bad idea to get to the good ideas. Right. So it's like, can you silence those inner demons that are like, I have to be a co-director, this has to be right on the first time or can you
00:06:49
Speaker
and facilitate a environment with your coworkers where it feels like people trust each other and have each other's back and encourage each other. You know, the same thing you sort of get from improv exercises where you learn to yes and and make people feel supported. There's a quote that I'm going to butcher, but it's like if we all treat each other like we're geniuses, then we will be geniuses, you know, so apply some of those performer mindset skills to team trainings. A lot of times corporations will bring us in when they have a new team leader or they've had like a shift and they want to sort of um
00:07:22
Speaker
Rebound people and it's cool because I call it structured vulnerability like in the workplace It's definitely not always appropriate to talk about our personal lives But if you have some people come in and walk you through some structured vulnerability, it's like, okay We're all gonna share we're all gonna go this deep about something and all of a sudden you're like Oh my God, like I never knew that about you or you know what I mean? Someone I worked with for 10 years. I never realized that your parents immigrated here from wherever or you know, these, just these little things that make us really able to connect with each other. Um, I find it so helpful and it's so much fun to like give people a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in what they do. Yeah. 100%. I,
00:08:04
Speaker
Yeah, I fully agree on it. And I guess like, you know, my first question is like, what made you want to get into this
Heather's Journey from Acting to Comedy
00:08:12
Speaker
like space? You know, were you inspired at a young age or what, what got you into that? I studied acting at and NYU and then I moved back to Los Angeles where I'm from. And I was just another actress in America and I couldn't get it. And my friend was like, you should take this comedy class. And I took the class and I didn't realize how empowering it would be like, It turned me into a writer. It allowed me to create my own opportunities that I could invite casting directors to. My writing partner met me through that. um I ended up meeting Jerry, teaching with Jerry. i So I originally started as a student. I always say that I just took his class 10 years ago and never left until he eventually let me teach with him, which is pretty much true. And then Jerry had developed these heckler stopping skills for comedians. And advertising companies found these videos online. And they were like, wow, you know our ad our ad
00:09:00
Speaker
agents will spend, you know, $500,000 creating a spec commercial, they'll go pitch it to the company like Nike, like, you know, just do it. And then Nike is like, that's weird and sexual. And they're like, okay, sorry, bye. You know, like, they didn't know how to defend their creative and wasting so much money and creative ideas so they were like well who knows how to sort of pivot and you know handle pushback and they found the heckler stopping skills and they reached out to Jerry and said how you know can you translate this to the corporate world so we did and we do that still we work with all kinds of different companies you know in every business well hey Jerry hi um I was just talking about how we got started in every business there's pushback right there's uncomfortable conversations and you know there's
00:09:46
Speaker
another quote I'll butcher of like your success directly related.
00:09:53
Speaker
So depending on a company's needs, we can tailor an exercise that's specifically for them. like I'll give you an
Reflective Listening and Presentation Skills
00:09:59
Speaker
example. We worked with an opinion research party where they have to present their findings. And they present them in these big forums. And they find that people would sort of be asking questions that were like disguised as questions and just meant to sort of insert their opinions into stuff. So we created like a whole program for them of how to do um What is the listening thing called? It's a reflective listening where they would like restate what their complaint is and handle it head on and sort of get on their side about it. Get curious instead of defensive and just some of those things that really help you navigate through those difficult conversations and you know ultimately you're able to turn up and opposition into opportunity if you approach it this way. So it's fun for us to sort of tailor it. that
00:10:44
Speaker
kind of how we got into it, and then we realized, oh my god, there's all these other performer skills that could could benefit the business world, like how performers, athletes, musicians, everyone warms up their bodies, right? Like you would never have a football player hit the field without stretching first. Yet in the corporate world, we have people who will pitch a million dollars of business without ever warming up their body or mind or voices. so We take them through these vocal warmups and we always ask them, like would you rather to give a presentation now or how you feel after this warmup or before? And everyone's like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I wasn't doing this. It's 10 or 15 minutes out of my day. So that's sort of some of the stuff that we find really translates well. Yeah, absolutely. That's a great point. um
00:11:29
Speaker
Jerry, thanks for joining. Sorry I muted you for a minute. I was trying to get some get some gems coming through on Heather's end. So Jerry, thanks thanks for joining. i know The timing isn't the best, but thanks for making time. I woke up this morning. I was up all night with a cough. And i I'm here in in Massachusetts visiting my family. I've got an old elder older mom and a little son. And I thought, man, I better get tested for all the possible things. But as it turns out, I just found out from the doctor that I'm i'm pretty good. And it's probably allergy related. So thanks for your patience. Sorry I'm late to the podcast. Your diagnosis is you're just a dad with a toddler. You're so right.
00:12:10
Speaker
just a walking petri dish of good yeah oh yeah We're happy you could join us. Talk about authenticity, just coming in with what's going on. and and yeah Talk about an authentic podcast. I'm liking it. I'm loving it. So yeah, Jerry, we were just talking about you know what, what like obviously we did the overview, we did the background of you know comedy partners and what you guys do. But what kind of inspired you to to take on, you know, this industry, this business and really just hone in and create something so niche and specific that honestly, I think is probably one of the best creations I think I've seen for, you know, not like an entertainment industry type of concept, but you're taking the and entertainment industry
00:12:56
Speaker
and making it successful into the corporate world for people to you know to become successful in business. So like what kind of inspired you to get into this niche? I sort of alluded to some of the advertising companies that found us through heckler shopping skills, but maybe you could speak to just how you got into comedy in the first place, Jerry. I think it's such an interesting trajectory.
Finding Authentic Insights in Comedy
00:13:17
Speaker
Yeah. i mean sort of melding both of your comments together. You know, Heather and I, the business that we do in addition to the comedy partners is called standupcomedyclass.com. And for 20 years, we've been helping people, normal people, learn how to do standup comedy. And as we do that, as you take a person, you say to them, okay, well, we've got 10 weeks to get you into shape. You've never done standup before.
00:13:47
Speaker
but You've always had a dream of being on stage like Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle or, you know, Ali Wong. Like, how do we how do we get you there? And the process is, we help you figure out what's going on in your life truly, what are the authentic things that are occurring. with you, you're going through divorce, your parents your your you're getting married, you're trying to buy a car, you've got roommates, you you're bipolar, whatever it is. And then we help you find those authentic insights that you have to share about those things, and then we help you turn them funny.
00:14:23
Speaker
And we found that this process, this sort of there's almost a spiritual process here where all humans are walking around with some things about themselves that they're shameful about. So if you talk about those things that shame which was poisonous to yourself, you talk about them and that neutralizes the poison, right? so now It's no longer poisonous. If you make it funny, it becomes medicine for yourself and for everyone else. We've gone through this transformational process with thousands of people over decades and so many years, and we've seen how many people it's healed and how much more authentic those people seem after they've gone through that process. It's it's really stunning. if we If we took a videotape of someone in week one of our process,
00:15:08
Speaker
and someone in week 10 of our process. its It's not a totally different person. It's the same person, but coming through with so much more vibrancy and authenticity. And we thought, boy, this is such a gift that we're able to give people. in an artistic creative setting, wouldn't it be amazing if we could turn that into a business setting? and And that's what we've been getting. And we're able to get that kind of result in sometimes 90 minutes with a group of CEOs or a group of executives, a group of employees. It doesn't matter what level they're at. People need to be able to tap into their own authenticity and see that it's OK to share themselves authentically. And we show them how to do that. And it's been quite, quite revelatory.
00:15:55
Speaker
That's amazing. Yeah, that's a it's just interesting because I was talking about like how I used to view, comedy I mean, comedy is one of my favorite, you know, entertainment sections, genres, you know, that I was talking about earlier before you joined. And it's just interesting how you can place it, you know, just beyond the television screen um or beyond, you know, the nightclub, you know, kind of however you want to word it. ah For both of you guys, like who would you say your biggest comedic comedic influences are and how they like shaped like your just like style of of comedy and even just like shifting it to also maybe influencing you know these sessions with these corporations? Do you have any people that you've looked up to or who you currently look up to now? Here, do you want to go first?
00:16:50
Speaker
Uh, in the current crop of comedians, uh, there's a guy you probably have heard of him named John Mulaney. Oh yeah. um so ready funny And he often partners with Nick Kroll. Um, and right together I, they really tickle me so much. back There was a guy named Bill Hicks, and I was in college, I saw a video tape of his, and he was talking about, he was doing stand-up and he said, you know in-up we have a thing called a premise. It's that insightful thing that you say that makes an audience go, oh my god, that's so true, and I've never realized that before. And he was doing stand-up and he said, he he he was talking about marketing and advertising, and he said, do you realize that all advertising is, every commercial you've ever seen,
00:17:38
Speaker
is someone who's showing something to make you feel badly about your own life so that you feel that the only thing you can do is get the thing they're advertising to make your life feel better. And he had this beautiful bit about it. In fact, I have to watch it again to remember how funny it was. But I remember sitting there in college on on a couch going, Oh my God, he's right. Like every juicy fruit commercial I had ever seen with all these cool looking, you know, cool looking kids, best friends around like, you know, skiing down together, whatever, even though it was beautiful imagery, at the end of it, i it made me think, I want friends like that. I want a life like that. I don't have it. Maybe I should grab a Budweiser. Maybe I should smoke Marlboro. And for a comedian to get you to understand
00:18:30
Speaker
something that deep that like fundamentally shifted my my I suddenly realized oh man advertising is actually not that positive a thing it's actually making us all feel really badly about ourselves you know comedy is that laughter it's that spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down you can get people to really notice a lot about themselves lives feel less alone. There's an amazing comedian in New York who was named Uncle Dirty, and he has an amazing quote. He said, ah laughter's the sound of people realizing they're not alone.
00:19:04
Speaker
and And if you can give people that and get them to realize I'm not alone ah for feeling, I always thought I was the the weirdo or the loser or the person who felt weird about this or that. But comedy allows us to let people feel less alone by telling them the truth. And so those are, for me, my my my sort of people who really shifted things for me comedically. What about you, Matt? Just to put that in the context of the corporate world, like we're not telling execs to walk into the meetings and be like, I'm going through a divorce. You know what I mean? But like just not being afraid to access those parts of your school makes you more charismatic and magnetic. you know um But yeah, there's so many great comedians out there. Ali Wong, Taylor Tomlinson.
00:19:48
Speaker
um You know, I really like there's a guy named Eddie Pepitone who basically just like screams the whole time into a microphone and he's like this big dude from New Jersey. I tend to really enjoy people who I'm like, wow, he does something I wouldn't really do. That's like totally different for me. You know, there's so many great styles and great people and great inspirations coming out of comedy.
Addressing Sensitive Topics in Comedy
00:20:10
Speaker
It's really a lot of fun. Maria Bamford is another person. Oh, yeah. So out there, but so, so wonderful. So out there, but so in here in our hearts. Yeah. That's amazing. What about you? sure Do you have any favorites? Yeah, good question. I would say I'm a yeah i'm a huge John Mulaney fan um just from his wit. you know I actually used to watch Big Mouth religiously. Yeah, I love Big Mouth. What a fun show. Great show. Nick Kroll, also great as well. um Started, ah I started paying attention to Shane Gillis as well, just because of how, it's interesting just because he has a family member with Down syndrome and the way he can navigate that family dynamic.
00:21:04
Speaker
use comedy with it and actually like not be offensive to certain groups of people. um i think I think that takes a lot of talent honestly and I'll probably get to that as a question later for you guys but yeah trying to like navigate a field in comedy. I'm sure it can be pretty stressful because you know you got to think about your different audiences and who you might offend in certain jokes and those sorts of things. So um so I think Shane Gillis actually has a way to maneuver it pretty well. um
00:21:37
Speaker
and just on that you put up that his but it's it's somebody close to him and his family like I think a general rule of comedy is like, if it's about you, you've sort of earned the right to talk about it. And if it's somebody else's issue or a group of people, let them be the ones to have opinions about it. You know what I mean? Like, we love people who are willing to share and be personal. We have this Saying in comedy if you're gonna point a finger at someone else make sure you've got three pointed back at you you know sort of like to just always be aware and um it's we don't ever really want to punch down like you want to sort of Lean towards if you throw yourself under the bus if you're gonna be as critical critical of other people you better be that critical of yourself and that kind of thing you know so sometimes people are worried about that when they start comedy and then they realize you know what I'm a good person and if I speak from the heart and talk about the things I care about I have nothing to worry about because
00:22:26
Speaker
I'm just being honest and truthful. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, no, I think just being able to stick to your um I mean, just stick to your guns in a sense. And and I mean, like sticking to your your joke criteria and and fully just standing by it, I think is is crucial when you talk about authenticity. And yeah, I think Shane has an ability to to actually navigate that. So um I'm trying to think if there's anyone else. I guess also I'll just say I think great comedy, it doesn't force you to think anything. It just makes you think. It doesn't have an agenda really. It's not like, I'm going to make all these people agree with me. And I think that that's why it can sometimes be even more powerful than someone who makes a good argument for something because it allows the audience to take in
00:23:16
Speaker
you know, the information and decide what they want to do with it. Um, and also we sort of say, if you're going to say anything that's a little bit charge or political or this, just make sure the laugh is big enough to warrant it. You know, if you're going to take us somewhere dark, make sure you got the lightness to balance it out. We never tell anyone like you can't talk about this, but we, our rule is, you know, we love people with different opinions, different walks of life. Everyone's entitled to feel the way they feel, but it's gotta be funny. Yeah. No, very true. Very true. And, you know, talking about kind of prepping for, or just like creating your own content, creating your own criteria to present to audiences with you guys in your
Comedy Writing Process
00:23:58
Speaker
creative process. Is there a certain routine you guys do is, you know, what, when you come up with new material, if you come up with new material, I don't know if you guys have just stuck with the same thing or if you guys have had to adapt over time.
00:24:11
Speaker
But um an amazing formula, which we teach in our class, if anyone's interested, standupcomedyclass.com. And one thing that was cool that happened over the pandemic with us is it did change how we worked because we realized, oh my gosh, we can do this on Zoom. We had students coming in from like Panama, um you know, like all over the world. Australia. Yeah, join us. So I would say the process is the same in that we, as Jerry explained, like we have you look at your own stuff, often it's stuff that you feel shame about or whatever. um find your insights and then find the funny and we create sort of a writer's room where everybody is supportive of each other. There's sort of this there's this idea of comedians that you have to be like sad and wearing a leather jacket and smoking in an alley and like we don't really believe that or think it's true and actually that's part of the reason why we get a lot of women taking our class because the open mic scene for women is really rough out there. It's like do you want to meet eight dudes in this alley at midnight and hear rape jokes? It's like no you know so we create this
00:25:09
Speaker
really supportive group of like 10 people who listen to each other and care about each other and want to make each other funny and we create like a writers room kind of similar to what you know successful TV shows use where it really takes a village and everybody sort of learns from each other's different styles and stuff so Yeah, I think one thing we learned, I mean, that was always part of Jerry's curriculum, but being able to do it on Zoom really broadened our horizons as far as all the different kinds of people we could have in class. And even um we have alumni classes where we have comedians who are already on the road performing at really high levels and they can tune in from, you know, Minneapolis, Boston, wherever they are that week and go, let me run some stuff. So it's a lot of fun.
00:25:50
Speaker
And I think, um you know, Cooper, for anyone who's watching and for yourself or anyone, you know, part of the process is just taking a notebook or a computer or whatever you like and just asking yourself, hey, what's what's really going on with me right now? See, there's one way of writing comedy, which is what do I think people want me to talk about? And that's OK. It can work. You know, that's where you get Lots of comedians talking about airplane food or, you know, Instagram or or they hear another comedian talking about whatever Shane Gillis is talking about. And they go, I'll talk about that. But what we're what we typically encourage people to do is just sit down right at the top of paper. What's going on with me right now? And you'll just start to realize, like, wow, you know what? I'm I'm actually I've been finding anxiety.
00:26:40
Speaker
you know i i'm really ah My parents are getting older and I'm and i'm really worried about that. you know i I'm single and I've been single for a while and I'm not even sure I've got it in me to keep dating. And from there, from those really real things that are personal going on with you, then we start the process. And part of our next part of our process is figuring out what is that thing you can say about dating. that is but a little bit deeper than like casual conversation. It's called a premise. It's an insight. We call it the aha before the haha, the nod before the laugh. So we go, well, you might say, let's say you're going through a breakup. I once had this premise. It's not ah original to me, but a premise
00:27:25
Speaker
that when I was driving after a breakup, I realized that even the most casual songs, the dumbest songs suddenly felt super meaningful to me, right? And there's a premise out there that says, when you're happy, you hear the music, but when you're sad, you hear the lyrics. And that's the kind of thing that can start a joke off right. Or you might be in a relationship and you might say, and what's weird about relationships is the thing that first attracts you to someone will eventually become the thing that drives you insane about them. And people hear that go, yes, yes, I've had that experience too. So if someone wanted to try to get started in generating material, I think those two steps, asking yourself what's going on with yourself and then
00:28:07
Speaker
once you've chosen that topic that you want to write about, ask yourself what's that deeper, oh yes, that's a deep thought to share about that thing. If you do that, then you'll be able to make your way into a joke. Right on. I think another hot tip from Jerry about finding your comedic voice whenever you naturally make somebody laugh in real life, just writing down what that is. It's such a good clue into your comedic voice because we all have these ideas of ourselves or these ideas
Discovering Your Comedic Voice
00:28:38
Speaker
we want to emulate. And then you actually sit down and write it. And it's like, oh my God, every time I make someone laugh, I'm doing a song or I'm doing a voice or oh, I'm doing wordplay. I didn't even know I liked wordplay. You know, so it's like, it's cool to just start keeping track, you know,
00:28:52
Speaker
Yeah, we call that we call that the comedy DNA exercise. And if you can start to just, you know, your friend said, I liked you better when you used to drink. And you're like, I liked you better when I used to drink. Right. And so yeah so you you write a few of those down. Right. And suddenly you go, oh, I'm really good at comebacks. I'm good at zingers. I'm good at sarcasm. If you if you write down five or six examples of when you make people write down what your friend said write down what you said if you write down five or six of those you're going to notice a pattern about yourself that's going to make it easy even easier for you to generate more comedy in the future yeah yeah 100 um thank you for sharing that and it's actually funny i actually um i've come to like i think it's nicki glazer as a comedian what fantastic we love nicki and she could just read it too and i think Part of that was because she was able to to roast Tom Brady in such a very clever way because like, you know, roast comedy is definitely different. You know, you definitely got to throw punches and she did that. And I was like, wow, I'd respect to you because you were probably the best one on that stage compared to everyone else. So um yeah, Nikki Glaser was another one that just like popped into mind. And one of just people that I just really,
00:30:13
Speaker
enjoy um listening to and just like coming up with clever ways to joke around with people. so By the way, she's a great example of what Heather was talking about. about my So she's pointing her finger at Tom Brady for most of it. But then if you notice at the end of that thing, she goes, now don't be fooled. I would do anything to be with Tom Brady, right? And then she pointed back at herself. So she throws herself back under it too, which is so humanizing. I also think roasts are a lot like a good wedding speech. Like you think that it comes from being venomous, but you know, a good wedding speech usually starts with a compliment, right? A compliment sandwich. Like I think Nikki did that a lot too. She's like, Tom Brady is so hot that, and then she sort of goes after him. So it's like she sort of won our goodwill by starting in that sort of um supportive place. And it also makes her turns more surprising because you think she's giving him a compliment. And then it's like, whoop,
00:31:09
Speaker
actually know you know yeah for sure um um for the next question I kind of wanted if you guys are allowed to share this I don't know if you guys are allowed to share anything in in this regard but you know do you guys have a memorable moment of your like career like with comedy partners like that you're able to share with the audience that maybe had a breakthrough with someone or like a big organization or or whatever I'll share one that you may have a different one okay We were brought in to work with a company. I guess I have to be a little careful because we worked with Amazon on on it in a tricky situation, and which I'm not gonna go into the the situation that we helped to help them to navigate. But there was there was some changes within a team and we were asked to come in and and help them navigate that that situation.
00:32:08
Speaker
And by the time we we worked with them for, I don't know, was it two hours, Heather? Was it 90 minutes? Yeah, 90 minutes. Afterward, that team was interacting with each other so differently with so much heart and so soul and openness and vulnerability. And the feedback we got, and it's on our website somewhere, the testimonial was, my team has been together for 10 years and they have never opened up to each other the way they did today. Thank you so much. And and we oftentimes come in as a preparatory thing. So that team had what's called an offsite, a retreat where they had to solve some problems. And a lot of corporations will bring us in as a activity to do before they have to get into the deep work of negotiating, ah ideating,
00:33:04
Speaker
inter interpersonal, you know, discussions. So they bring us in to get people's hearts open and get them open to each other and their minds open and show them about, you know, part of our training is about ah improv. And in improv, there's the concept of yes and. It means that if you offer us an idea, we're not gonna go, nah, that's a terrible idea. We're gonna say, yes, and you know what else we could do, Cooper? And by getting people into the improv comedy mind space, we open up a whole array of possibilities for teams and get them working together. It's just a heightened efficiency and a heightened state. And so for me, that moment of getting these people who had been together for so many years
00:33:49
Speaker
to understand each other and trust each other more deeply. That's for me, one of our career highlights. What about you Heather? You got anything else? I was going to mention that one too, but I was also thinking about, so we have this exercise that we do. I don't think it's one of Jerry's favorites, but it's one of mine. Um, cause I'm a words of affirmation girl. So it's like, it's positive gossip. We talk about how in the workplace there's so much room for criticism and what could we do better in this? We often don't stop and appreciate people. So we have this exercise where we, we set it up so you're really forced, you know, you're not looking making eye contact, but you're forced to hear all the positive things people think about you in the office. um And I remember we did this with one group and there was this like big burly dude in the group and after he just turned around, he looked at me and he was like, that felt nice. And I just was like, Oh, it feels so nice to like wake people up to the love and the joy and the appreciation that's already around them all the time.
00:34:40
Speaker
Maybe we made him feel a little bit more excited about getting up in the morning and going to see those people. Like that that kind of stuff just feels really good to me. So that that was one of mine. Cooper, one of the things that's really coming clear to me in this conversation is that comedy is this really interesting ah convergence of two different things. There's the deep, to get to the funny, you kind of have to get to the vulnerable first. So it's like this really joyful thing. We make people laugh. We make them happy. we Like Heather said, the guy goes, that felt really nice. The fun part of it. But in order to get to the fun part, sort of the price of that is you have to go through the realness first. And you're a very spiritual person. I know you do Reiki and you do all kinds of things. I think there's like a ah spiritual quality to comedy.
00:35:31
Speaker
which is that you get to enjoy the joy, but you have to kind of do the work of the inner work first. And our our job is kind of comedy alchemist is to help people get their way through the inner work so that they can come out the other side and laugh and be happy. Yeah, 100%. I definitely think the shadow work of your soul is what can actually create the success for you. And and and that's ah but the part that I think a lot of people are missing nowadays is they're not willing to go into the shadow work of self and go into the imperfections of self, which is so crucial because ah perfectionism is probably the biggest wall I have to climb.
00:36:17
Speaker
and that requires being vulnerable, which perfectionism and vulnerability are like two polar opposites. That's like two Rams, butting each other, like head, butting each other. That's, that's how serious it is. And in order to do that, I've had to ah become vulnerable myself and I've had to tell people my vulnerabilities. And especially with social media, like I think social media is a great tool. It's a great marketing tool. But it actually, it's very toxic because you could put out this facade person, lifestyle that you have, um when in reality, you know you do struggle in many in different aspects of life. And I definitely do struggle in aspects of life still to this day. um And you know that's that's the the beautiful thing is you get to to heal as you learn about yourself. um But then when you accept those shadows, which
00:37:16
Speaker
A comedic genius accepts the shadows of self, brings it out in vulnerable state to shows with audiences. And that's how you can build that relationship with your audience because they're like, wow. acknowledge it And the more we know that everybody has those, you know, it just makes it less shameful and it's a nice way to connect with people. Yeah, yeah, it's funny like people. um I love the people that go, you know, do you have any shame? And it's like, no, I don't actually because we don't want to have shame. We we want to be fully expressive of ourselves. so that's say You have shame. Exactly. um ah And and I guess, you know, like I said, I fall short.
00:38:09
Speaker
I fall short in some sort of way, you know, whether it's in family dynamics, you know, friendships, relationships, you know, working work life, um you know, it's not always going to be perfect. And you have to lean into that imperfect, like that imperfect moment, um which I know, with comedy, you can bomb just as much as you can get cheered for. Um, so I, I have a curious question. Have you guys ever gone into situations with, you know, corporations or whatever, and you've had maybe this concept not land before.
Embracing Failure and Growth
00:38:49
Speaker
Has that actually happened? Yeah.
00:38:52
Speaker
know it's spy we well Definitely when we were starting out, we were learning how to translate it even more, but I have a memory of a company going, you know, well, I don't know if this feels like a realistic simulation of some of the pushback we get or something. And then in the way that we responded to them not totally buying it. We actually were demonstrating what we were trying to teach and it became like this beautiful, reachable moment. So I think you have to be not afraid to quote unquote bomb and just that's the same way if you're writing from this place of truth.
00:39:26
Speaker
You know that it doesn't go perfectly. The sentiment of what you believe in and what you're trying to communicate is so real that you know that you've got the goods at the end of the day. You know what I mean? So that's not to say we might not bomb again and it might not become this beautiful teachable moment. But in that scenario, which is the only one that comes to mind for me at the moment, we we were able to sort of like bring it in more powerfully than we, you know, even set out from the jump. So that kind of worked out. Yeah. Yeah. I once taught a class, and there was a woman in the front row, and she was looking at everything I taught, oh just her face was just like, ugh.
00:40:09
Speaker
So I finished classes many years ago. And at the end of the class, she came up to me and I was like, I was ready to say to her like, look, this is not going to work for you. I can tell this isn't working for you. Let's just part ways now before we go into a long class weeks and weeks together. And she, she looked at me and she said, I have needed to hear what you had to say tonight so badly. And I went,
00:40:35
Speaker
i thought you hated everything i had to say she goes oh i should have warned you that's just how my like she has resting sour face you know what i mean but she was it was actually a face she makes when she completely intrigued and so even when you think you've bombed and believe me we've thought we've bombed but even when you think you've bombed you just have no idea what that audience got out of it you you there's so many times in comedy where you go that sucked and the people will come up chapter girl that was the funniest thing I've ever seen you go
00:41:09
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, God. You learn not to tell them how to feel like you learn to keep it to yourself if you think that it wasn't perfect. And usually you can take a bombing and turn it into something awesome. If you just try to get on the try to understand and get curious about that person's reaction instead of getting defensive, that's usually the key to unlocking a good meeting place. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. i I'm so sorry. I have to jump, not to plug another podcast on your podcast, but I have to go. I have a spot on the Adam Carolla podcast, but I'll let you guys keep partying without me. Have a great time. yeah Enjoy. fun Yeah. Thanks for joining. Seriously.
00:41:58
Speaker
There should be a hang up button, I think, or something of that nature. I have. See you later. Thanks, Heather. Thanks. All right, sir. She she came in early and you're the one leaving late. So this is good. This is good. Yeah, or or were we're getting a good cross section. But no, it's it's I mean, it's really crazy how failure is so like it's it's funny how failure is so I don't even like know how to describe it. It's just like a it's a common part of life and it's not even a failure. It's just like a learning lesson. And I think, you know, with with comedy like you don't you don't fail. You just learn and either you keep going because I think a lot of people see success in in the comedy realm. And I don't I don't know your thoughts on this because like I think with social media has been able to propel people into comedy. I think if you look at like Matt Rife
00:42:56
Speaker
yeah And um oh, there's a few other people that like they got famous on social media first and then they went to the stand up realm. And, you know, that wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, I'm sure. Kind of like musicians, musicians, you know, don't perform in front of thousands of people in their first show. It's like 10, 10 to 20 of their close friends, you know. So do you think there is a little bit of um Do you think it's propelled now like the imposter syndrome side of of just like the comedy industry where people think, oh, well, you know, I'm going to open mic night and, you know, I'm only performing in front of like 10 people and then the laughs aren't as loud, you know, and and then people I feel like give up a little too quickly. What are your thoughts on that? I think what you're talking about is, I think you're talking about a lot of things and and I think the one that's most maybe applicable is
00:43:58
Speaker
both the imposter syndrome thing, but also the failure thing. And whether it's comedy or anything else, you fail, and then you have a choice to make. And most of us are wired to say, I failed, I feel shame for that failure, I feel terrible about that failure, and I'm gonna give up. you know And the people who ultimately are the successes in the world just don't give up. They just don't give up. And that is, I'm in my middle ages. you know I'm not a young man anymore. And I still, to this day, am trying to cultivate within myself that kind of growth mindset where and I have a bad outing at anything, whether it's trying a new sport, or trying something at the gym, or you know whatever it is. even This is going to sound so dumb. it's like
00:44:55
Speaker
I try to eat healthy, but I find that if I slip up and that's even bad language, but if I have like, if I eat unhealthy in the morning or in the beginning of the day, right logically I should go, well, I had a little bit of a less healthy thing. So the rest of the day I'll just eat healthy. But my set point is, uh, you screwed up. Let's just go for it. You know what I mean? like Donut at breakfast, you might as well have fried chicken wings at dinner and pizza for dessert, you know what I
Comparison and Growth Mindset
00:45:25
Speaker
mean? like Like, you just go crazy. And it's silly, I don't know what it is about most of us as humans, but we just throw in the towel so easily. And we go, ah, I went up, I sucked at that open mic. Who am I kidding? why why Why should I keep doing comedy? I'm obviously not good at it. I'll never be as good as X person. All of these mental things, comparison.
00:45:49
Speaker
Eleanor Roosevelt said, comparison is the thief of joy. yeah You compare yourself to someone else, it's such a double edged sword, right? Because it's like, you see someone who's less good at you than something you go, well, I'm better than them. But then you see someone who's better at you than something you go. I'll never be as good as them." And just all of the mental practices, the mindset practices to stop comparing ourselves to other people, to not take on failure as as as a as a signal to quit, but rather as a signal of, okay, how can I improve? These are things that even with
00:46:24
Speaker
you know many years in this profession i still myself have to keep cultivating better and better mindset tools so that i don't give up so that i keep going and i keep progressing and i keep moving and i think it's a struggle for all of us all of us hmm that's a great way to put it yeah i think a lot of people give up way too easily uh i mean i've had I've had instances in my life where I could have gave up and you know i kept I still kept trying to play football at a collegiate level and I got to that level. and i mean I just had to dig in a little bit deeper than most and sometimes that's that's what you got to do if you really love it and that's not a bad thing. like If you want to be great at comedy,
00:47:08
Speaker
You might need a comedy coach or you might need to step up and yeah, work with comedy partners, you know, make that investment in yourself. If you want to be really good at business, you got to read business books. You got to have, you know, a mentor. You got to, you got to do those things. um And, you know, it took well as a person, you have to grow in whatever you want to be good at, at your passion. and Like you got to grow in that in order to grow as a person. So with growth, um what's is their future for comedy partners? And is there some sort of trajectory that you want to go on and some sort of expansion that you want to provide?
00:47:52
Speaker
Yeah, I think, you know, for stand-up comedy class, it's about dot com. It's about introducing people to their own power and their their ability to unlock the comedy within themselves and unlock their life story and tell their life story and have fun doing it and building community. So we're going to continue doing that. As Heather mentioned, the ah the idea, the advent of Zoom has allowed us to do that internationally. We have students all over the world, wherever people are listening from, if they have the dream of making people laugh, they can reach out to us at standupcomedyclass.com and we can within 10 weeks have them doing standup successfully for most people. And then with the comedy partners and thecomedypartners.com, we're just gonna continue, know we've worked with
00:48:43
Speaker
Amazon we work with Netflix we work with Paramount we've worked with so many you know ah Fortune 500 companies, but we'll continue working with those companies and smaller companies, helping their workers unlock the teamwork that comedy provides, as well as the authenticity and the ability to speak, sell, and persuade, and sort of inhabit their their own charisma, their own magnetism. That's what turns us on, helping those people become even more magnetic, attractive, persuasive and entertaining speakers, presenters and sellers. and And that's what we're going to continue to do because we love it. We have a great time doing it. And it really is a rewarding pastime. As I know, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it is. It is rewarding to I don't even know. It's just I really think that we're in a great time right now in life to grow.
00:49:43
Speaker
whatever it is that we want to grow. Um, I literally had someone on here that I had this, I've had this show for about three years. I think it was about two years ago. I had a woman on who just started doing artwork and sketch, and she was making, you know, like maybe $50 per sketch. Now she's in art galleries, you know, all over the world. Um, she's in Manhattan doing pop-up shows, you know, having a lot of success, making a lot of money. And she's only been doing this for literally three years. You know, she's only been doing art for three years as like a full-time thing. So, you know, ah it really is possible to do what you want. And all you have to do is just tap into yourself.
00:50:29
Speaker
and you know show yourself to people. um post Post yourself um and present yourself in front of others. so and that's That's really inspiring and and honestly I'm just really ah excited for you guys and where you are going, because I think we just, we need more of this and we need more ah people getting into the corporate world and making it a more positive environment to be like to
Comedy's Impact on Corporate Environments
00:51:02
Speaker
be around. um I think sometimes we do lack connections in the corporate world that are very authentic. And I think you guys presenting
00:51:12
Speaker
that authentic piece is going to shape corporations and maybe put them on a better you know path that actually is not just self-serving, but forward and serving for the community. That's our hope. Thank you so much for having us on. This has been so delightful. Yeah, absolutely. No, I'm i'm really excited to share this with the people. I'm really excited for people to to get to know you guys better. And that being said, so you got comedypartners dot.com. That's right. You got any socials? You got any other things you want to plug real quick before we sign off? Yep. We're on LinkedIn at the Comedy Partners. We're at thecomedypartners.com. Standupcomedyclass.com. You can follow me at Jerry Katzmann, G-E-R-R-Y-K-A-T-C-M-A-N. And Heather Pasternak is her, or handles Instagrammer.
00:52:04
Speaker
Hello, Pastor Nick. And we'd love to talk to anyone who's interested in unlocking the power of comedy and truth and authenticity and kindness. That's what we're all about. So if what we said resonated with you, don't hesitate to reach out to Heather and myself or either of us at the comedy partners. Absolutely. Well, shout out to Heather. Thanks, Heather. I know you're not here right now, but thanks for joining as well. um Yeah, Jerry, thank you so much for your time. And I'm really excited to see you you know, where you guys go and thrive. thank you so much cooper we had a great time we'll see
00:52:58
Speaker
Thank you so much, Cooper. We had a great time. We'll see you soon.