December 30, 2025 • 51 mins
In this episode of Improv and Magic, I sit down with the incredible Margot Escott, LCSW — a nationally recognized psychotherapist, educator, and speaker known for her groundbreaking work at the intersection of improvisational theater and mental health. Margot has spent decades teaching clinicians, caregivers, and creative professionals how improv can reduce anxiety, build resilience, and transform the way we communicate.
I’ve admired Margot’s work for years, so getting the chance to talk with her about improv therapy, emotional wellness, creativity, and the power of play was a true gift. We explore how improv helps people reconnect with joy, navigate difficult emotions, and develop stronger relationships both personally and professionally.
If you’re interested in improv for mental health, creative growth, therapeutic techniques, or the science behind laughter and connection, this episode is packed with value. Margot’s warmth, wisdom, and humor make this conversation one of my favorites.
To learn more about Margot Escott's work, visit improv4wellness.com.
Learn more about the podcast and me by visiting ldmadera.com, and don't forget to help the podcast by rating and reviewing!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Hello friends. Hello my friends.
It's great to have you here again on Improv and Magic.
I hope you're all happy and welltoday and I hope you're all
ready for another amazing episode.
Today's guest is Margo Escott, and she is a very special type
(00:23):
of improviser. She's not only a super talented
performer, but she also is a psychotherapist who uses improv
as a therapy tool. Just another example of how
amazing this art form can be. There's so much that Margo
shares in this conversation thatI hope everybody listening takes
to heart. So let's get started.
(00:44):
Here now is my guest, Margo Escott.
Well, my friends, I'm very happyto welcome here on Improv and
Magic. She is an absolutely lovely ray
of sunshine. She is Margo Escott.
(01:06):
Hello, Margo. It's good to have you here.
Hi LD, glad to be here. This is a good time for me to
talk to you because I understandyou have a big vacation planned
coming up. I certainly do.
Where are you going? I'm going to be in the mountains
of Colorado. Oh, wonderful.
I've never been to Colorado. Have you been there before?
Almost every year for about 30 years, and I was in college
(01:29):
there from 67 to 69, which was aperiod marked by drug, sex,
rock'n'roll, and that's why theyasked me to leave.
What are What are your favorite things you like to do when you
visit Colorado? I like to go hiking in the
mountains and will be in Keystone, Co And where we're
(01:51):
staying has a beautiful pool anda hot tub where you can see the
mountains while you're swimming and sitting in the hot tub.
And we've been going out there for so many years, almost 30
years. We've been going out there
either summer or winter. So we have friends there too,
that we like to see. My husband's a guitar player,
really good guitar player. And we have another friend who's
(02:13):
a guitar player named Randall who's out there.
So we get together and jam a little bit and.
That sounds amazing. Well, I wish you the best and a
lot of fun in your vacation, Margot.
Thank you. So now, as I always do, I always
like to start at the beginning. So where did you grow up and
what was growing up like for you?
I grew up in North Caldwell, NJ,which is about 18 miles from the
(02:35):
George Washington Bridge, and assoon as I was 18, I was going
through the Lincoln Tunnel because drinking was legal then.
Drinking will show up quite a bit and I had a very nice
family. My father was an airline captain
for Pan Am Airlines, and my brother was two years younger
than me, and I used to beat him up until he got strong enough to
(02:55):
beat me up. And my mom was 1.
Wonderful. And it was kind of actually the
neighborhood I grew up in. Have you ever seen The Sopranos?
Yeah. OK.
The street I grew up on was called Brookside Terrace.
And if you go up that street andup a little hill, the house that
they used for The Sopranos was on my street.
Oh, no way. Yeah, and I, I grew up in a very
(03:18):
well in the 1950s. So I grew up with Leave it to
Beaver and Father Knows Best andand I walked to school.
I don't know where you grew up, but, you know, walked to school
winter, fall, spring and had no,we don't have that here in South
Florida, but I, you know, we hadsnow days and things like that.
And I, it was a pretty rosy childhood for the most part, but
(03:46):
I will say that once I got into 7th and 8th grade, I got more
interested in boys and my parents sent me to a girls day
school. So it wasn't boarding, but it
was a girls day school. And while I was there, there
were 19 girls in my class at theKimberly Academy in Montclair,
NJ. And I love to make up song
parodies and create little skits.
(04:09):
I had no idea improv was going to be my life in my life much
later on. So it sounds like even at a
young age you had a very creative spirit.
Oh yeah, yeah, I was a painter for a while and you know, I
worked regular jobs for quite a long time.
When you were growing up, did you sort of have an idea of what
(04:29):
it was that you wanted to do with your life?
I wanted to be getting an Oscar every year.
I watched the Academy Awards, and I kept thinking that needs
to be me sometime. But that didn't, that wasn't in
the cards. So I was just kind of, you know,
blindly making my way through life, not thinking, you know, my
parents kind of want me to be a teacher or a nurse and get
(04:52):
married. But I had other things in mind.
I ended up being a bartender in Greenwich Village in Soho one
point in the 70s. It kind of sounds like there was
a lot of quite a bit of moving around that you did.
Once I got out of high school, there was, yeah, I went to
Colorado for a while, came back home, lived in Manhattan for a
(05:13):
while and then finished school in New Hampshire and then came
back New York. I love Manhattan.
I always, I hate to say I'm fromNew Jersey 'cause people think
of Jersey girl. I like to say I spent 10 years
in Manhattan, so I like to focuson being in New York City.
So what was it that made you interested in being creative?
(05:35):
You mentioned that you watched alot of TV.
Were there other things that inspired your creative spirit?
It's a good question. I always like to be doing
something. I always liked to get laughs.
And when I was doing those little skits or sketches in high
school, I love getting the laughs.
(05:55):
But I never thought about pursuing it.
You know, I kind of went on a straight as I could go track,
but at. What point did that start to
become real? At what point did you start to
realize, you know what? This is actually something I
could probably do because here are all these people that are
doing it and are getting successful at it and getting
Oscars for it. Truly, most of my life.
(06:17):
I've been a psychotherapist for 41 years here in Naples.
So it wasn't until I took my first improv class about 13
years ago and then started studying online with other great
improv teachers around the country.
And this is way before the pandemic that I started to
(06:37):
think, yeah, yeah, maybe this issomething I can do.
What got you interested in psychotherapy?
Well, I had ABA in English from Franklin Pierce in New
Hampshire, and there's not. In the 70s, there weren't a
whole lot of job opportunities other than a glorified
secretary. And I met a woman who was a
(06:59):
social worker, had an MSW, and Ifound out I didn't need an
undergrad degree in psychology or social work.
So I applied to NYU and I got in, and I loved it so much.
You know, most people become therapists because they want to
find out what's wrong with them or their families.
(07:21):
I actually have never heard thatbefore.
You never heard it? Oh yeah, it's kind of common.
Were there was there anything about your studies in
psychotherapy that kind of surprised you in any way?
Again, a really good question. I won't say surprise, but I've
been giving workshops and seminars for most of my career.
Even before I got into improv and we had a class on
(07:45):
psychopathology and they show a lot of movies, classic movies
like Spellbound and maybe Psychoclips of movies.
And eventually, when I became a therapist here in Naples, I
started giving workshops on psychiatry at the movies,
(08:07):
psychotherapy at the movies, andthere's been a plethora of shows
about psychotherapist since then.
Gabriel Byrne was in a great show, and there's just been a
bunch of them. But that really interested me
about combining cinema with therapy.
So the big moment, What made youdecide to take an improv class?
(08:28):
The long story or the short story, Give me the.
Long story. OK, I love giving the long
story. I suffered a brain aneurysm in
around 2011 and I had the surgery and here in in in
Naples, I had a brilliant neurosurgeon.
(08:49):
But when I came to, my brother was there and my husband was
there and apparently all I was saying was cold, cold, cold and
hot, hot, hot. And the doctor said, you know,
we can see she has mobility in her limbs, but we don't know if
she'll get her memory back or ever be able to speak again.
(09:11):
And my brother said, too bad about the memory.
So there's a lot of humor in my family.
My brother's hysterical. So as I was recovering from
that, I had a really great friend, Claire McKinney, and she
was involved in the local theater productions down here.
And she said, Margo, I think youshould try an acting class
(09:31):
'cause you're pretty dramatic, you know?
And I said, that sounds good. So I, I signed up for an acting
class, but they gave me a scriptand told me I had to memorize
it. But then I took my first improv
class and it was like being withthe Pied Piper.
Mr. Craig was my first improv teacher.
He had studied with Dell close at Second City and was in comedy
(09:54):
sports. And he inspired me so much.
And actually when I got home after my first class, I had like
a light bulb, you know, clickingover my head.
Improv could be used in therapy.Isn't this a brilliant idea?
So I started going online because I thought I was creating
(10:16):
something brand new. Oh, woe is me.
There were a lot of people already doing it even back then
in like 2012. Whatever.
But I discovered a wonderful woman who wrote one of the first
evidence based research projectson improv and anxiety in Kristen
Krueger out in Chicago, neuropsychologist.
(10:39):
And she became a mentor for me. And and then eventually I worked
with this man named Doctor Daniel Weiner, who in around
1984 wrote the first book on using improvisation in clinical
psychotherapy. And he had studied for several
years with Keith Johnstone in New York.
(11:02):
So I got trained in that method.And so I'm a certified trainer
and therapist, and it's called Rehearsals for Growth.
Very grateful to him for that opportunity.
That was kind of a codified way of using improv and
psychotherapy. And I was thinking about talking
to you and, and here we are. And I was thinking about, you
(11:24):
know, drama therapy, music therapy and dance therapy have
been around for a long time. Improv therapy is not recognized
yet, but we're collecting more and more research and studies
showing the psycho, psychological and cognitive
(11:45):
benefits of improv. That's amazing.
That's truly amazing. It goes without saying how, like
you said, there's been so many studies and and research done on
the benefits of improv outside of being a performance art,
which I always find fascinating.Based on your experience, what
benefits have you seen with applying improvisation as a
(12:06):
psychotherapy tool? Again, a really good question.
You're getting good at this. So first of all, it makes them
laugh and we're not laughing at somebody, were laughing with
somebody. Prior to getting to improv, I
for 30 years was presenting and writing workshops called The
(12:28):
Healing Power of Laughter and Play, and I had been teaching
something called New Games, which was a phenomenon in the
70s that was very similar to improv.
So I had been seeing results in these large audiences that I
worked with for many, many years.
So when I started working in individual therapy, I saw a
decrease in anxiety, more self-confidence.
(12:52):
I also used mindfulness and music in my improv and
mindfulness of course is a greatway to get still to get
centered. And I believe improv is a
mindful art form as well. Did I answer your question?
Oh. You definitely answered my
question, and very beautifully might I add.
(13:12):
Before you started taking improvclasses, what was your sort of
opinion about improv in general?Did you watch any improv before
taking those classes? Only Whose line is it?
I love that show. And eventually I became good
friends with Laura Hall, the keyboard player on Whose Line?
(13:32):
And I didn't. I did the I played the alphabet
game with Colin Mochrie. So I love that show, but I never
thought about doing it myself. And it looks so hard, you know,
they come up with all these quick answers.
When you were studying improv, I'm sure that there were times
where you learn about short formand probably learn about long
form as well. When you started to learn about
(13:54):
long form, were you kind of surprised that improv doesn't
always have to be funny? No, because we weren't always
funny. We tried to be real.
I was in a team for about 5 years called Improv Anonymous
down here and a lot of people went for the jokes, but a lot of
us kind of kept it real and see what evolved from the
(14:16):
relationship, which is kind of the basis of long form.
I've recently been studying withBilly Merritt from the Upright
Citizens Brigade and it's been amind blower because it's
basically all long form and different forms of long form.
When my I was taught the Herald I wasn't wild about it.
(14:38):
Too many directions, too many things to do.
But I like doing longer scenes. Yeah, there's a lot of people
that develop a love hate relationship for the Herald
because there's so much that goes on.
And, you know, the Herald is oneof those formats where everyone
really tries to emphasize on doing it right and making sure
(15:00):
each of those scenes are connecting the way they they
need to connect to. Do you just kind of enjoy just
going out there and just seeing whatever happens, happens?
Yeah. I think it, it inhibits me to
have to think about, you know, which game are we in?
Are we going back to whatever and forms do that.
A form can be very restrictive and not help you to be out of
(15:20):
your head 'cause you're thinking.
Now I do happen to like the Armando Diaz.
I think that's a lot of fun because I like to be the
monologist and and there's some forms I like, but basically I
just like to get right into it and start doing scenes.
You know, I read a a quote that you shared on Psychology Today
(15:41):
and I think it's a very interesting quote.
And I was wondering if you couldtalk a little bit about this.
Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.
I think that's a Buddhist saying.
It's not my original thought, but as I mentioned, I'm I'm in
so many 12 step groups today. I just get up to the podium and
(16:01):
say I'm Margo and I'm not a gambler.
That's something we hear a lot in the 12 step rooms.
So pain is inevitable in life, as the Buddhist talk about, you
know, life is pain, but the suffering, the prolonging of the
suffering, the holding on to theresentments and the fear, all
(16:23):
right. And you know, fear is FEAR.
Fuck everything and run or or false evidence appearing real.
You know, I bring that up because I'm always fascinated by
how improv sort of has that ability to bring stuff out in
people. And I imagine you must have seen
that many times where using improvisation has brought out
(16:47):
something inside people that either they've held back for a
long time or probably didn't even know they had there before.
Yeah, they're become more playful and more, more
childlike. Not childish, but childlike.
And the exploration and the discovery.
I was very fortunate that my first teacher was trained in
Spolen and I have worked a lot with Aretha Sells, Viola Spolens
(17:11):
granddaughter, as well as somebody named Gary Schwartz out
West who studied with Viola himself.
So I was very lucky to get that.I called my basic training
because I think everything we docould be found in that.
Now I know there's all these other different schools of
improv, but I find that basic training is so helpful.
(17:34):
Do you have a preference betweenshort form or long form or is it
all good for you? All good for me.
I've talked to a lot of improvisers who they don't care,
they'll do whatever. I'm one of those.
But I've also seen some people Iwon't name names but.
Oh, come on. Come on.
Well, I'll put it this way. In one of my previous episodes
(17:56):
with, I talked to Matt Besser. And I asked this only because I
kind of knew what he would say. But you know, we were talking
about what he enjoys about improv and his love for improv.
And I asked him, do you get thatsame enjoyment from watching
short form? And Matt said fuck no.
Have you ever been to a dull, close marathon?
(18:17):
No, I haven't had the pleasure of going to 1 yet.
I went to one. I went to DCM 14 in Manhattan
and I ran into Matt on the street and I think I offended
him. I said, you know, you kind of
look like a better looking Tom Hanks.
And he didn't he he just went like the people can't see this,
but he just kind of looked at me, didn't say anything and kept
(18:41):
walking away from that crazy woman.
But that was I got to see Amy Poehler and Ascats and Matt
Walsh shows. I love that.
It was so great. Do you get to do a lot of
festivals? I haven't been to a lot of
festivals. I've had some issues with my
(19:01):
health and I have to be very careful.
I'm prone to falling. I haven't fallen today, so
that's good, but I, I have, I have to be very careful and
where I go. And also, you know, frankly, I'm
a retired social worker and I teach improv, but that's not
(19:23):
necessarily the most lucrative form of income.
And so it's expensive to fly someplace.
And I did go years ago, a wonderful improviser from Second
City named Stephanie Mack, who is now in England.
And she's going to be at the Fringe this week, you know, the
Fringe in Edinburgh. And she had a conference, yes,
(19:48):
and mental health. And I did go to that, and it was
fabulous. It was therapists and
improvisers and I had such a great time.
I met so many wonderful people and I, I and I got to present
and the room I was presenting inwas way too small for the number
of people and I believe we were at the annoyance Mcnaber was
(20:09):
placed. And so I let everybody out of
the room and we went into the lobby where there was more than
enough room to play. How about you?
Do you go to a lot of festivals?I'm trying to do more festivals
out of state. So far everything that I've gone
to has been just in Florida, butI'm hoping to kind of broaden my
(20:30):
festival horizon. Yeah, I've been to just the
funny and I think my Dakota was there the year I was there.
I'm pretty, you know, the musical improviser.
So what festival? What festival would you really
love to go to? Oh my gosh.
Well, any festival in Chicago and certainly the Del close
(20:53):
festival, you know, I feel like I have a show that's good, but
it just needs to be seen by morepeople.
So and, and that's always a struggle with any act, whether
it's solo, a duo or any sort of group.
There's always that struggle where you want to get accepted
into more festivals, but there'sstill that beginning period
where you just need to get more eyeballs.
(21:13):
Exactly. Now in the past two years I've
started studying online with some place called the Sketch
School, and that's with Mark Wiseka, who was from Detroit,
Second City and then Second Cityand teaching sketch writing and
a lot of them produced at SecondCity.
And he has had this online school which has been a a life
(21:36):
sent for me. I just love taking classes.
I love writing sketches and I'vebeen able to perform in once a
month. I perform in something called
the Sketchy Solo Squad and I canget clips of my performance and
put it on my YouTube channel. So who knows?
Well, what was it about Sketch that got you interested in it?
(21:58):
You know, it's funny, just like IA friend suggested acting for
me, a friend said Margot, I think you might like this guy
Mark Wazeka, and you might like sketch writing.
And I'd always been a bit of a writer.
I'm not a very disciplined writer, but it sounded fun.
And from the first class I was hooked.
And there's 3 levels 101201301 and then additional workshops,
(22:23):
like every week he had somethingcalled sketchy Subs.
And so on Wednesdays and Sundays, you could take an to
workshop. And I have studied with some
amazing people. I've taken workshops.
I took a great workshop with somebody named Doug Carroll on
writing for late night comedy. And that that was about joke
writing and just wonderful teachers, including Mark, of
(22:46):
course. I, I don't know if you know
Jamie Moyer. She's a frequent teacher with us
and she's fabulous. Yeah.
Jamie's been on the podcast here.
How? Do you get these people on your
podcast? She hasn't been online yet.
Maybe you need to put in a good word for me.
I I absolutely will. I'll put in a good word for you.
You know, this is sort of a subjective question, but in your
(23:09):
opinion, what makes a really good sketch?
Well, a really interesting premise.
If this is true, then what else?And keep keeping brevity in it.
We're performing online, so they're monologues that in my
case, we're doing monologues on online.
(23:30):
Doing sketch in person is something I have not done yet,
but I would love to. I've written sketches that could
be performed, you know, in person.
And it's just a super fun way tohave comedy.
And it's really improv to sketch.
(23:51):
That's a class they teach there that I've taken a couple of
times because that's how they worked at it.
Second City and other schools, they would improvise a scene and
then together create a sketch. And in the sketch school we have
writers rooms, these workshops that Mark has.
So we're working with other people, other like minded
people, collaborating and pitching ideas.
(24:13):
And it's it's still kind of improv, but it's a little bit
beyond and, and I find it intriguing.
I really do. And, and Mark is one of the
nicest people in the world, you know, next to Jay Suko and my
other teacher, Rich Baker. Fabulous people.
This may be a hard question to answer, but do you have a
(24:36):
particular favorite sketch that you enjoy?
That I've written or a favorite sketch that I've seen that.
You've seen, or you could include one that you've written
if you'd like. They're not quite as well known.
Well, I loved Gilda and an earlyGilda sketch was where she's
(25:00):
inviting a drunk Bill Murray who's in the street up for some
Bristol cream. It was a it's a commercial
parody. There's many types of sketches
and this was a commercial parody.
I. Think I know exactly the sketch
that you're talking? About hey, hey, you know, she,
first of all, she's calling people.
Would you like to come over for some Harvey's Mistle cream or
(25:21):
whatever? Would you like to come over?
And finally nobody's answering her.
So she looks out the window. Hey, you, you want to come up
here? And then Bill Murray comes up.
I also love the classic one she did with Candice Bergen about
stupid people and Candice Bergenflubbed a line and they kind of
(25:43):
broke character and started laughing. 01 of my when I teach,
I, I, I sometimes teach using sketch comedy for therapy as
well. And one of my favorites to show
is the Godfather scene with JohnBellucci.
And Elliot Gould is the therapist.
(26:03):
And Elliot Gould, you know, starts off, remember, next week
we're meeting at 5:00. And then later on, Elliot Gould
says, now remember, group is meeting next Tuesday at 7:00.
And Elaine Newman is in there and she's like this Val girl.
I don't know what I'm going to do.
My boyfriend said I'm making Presbyterian pie.
(26:25):
And and then John Bellucci's doing that whole Godfather
thing. Those are two.
Those are some of my favorites. I really love that.
And now Key and Peele are two ofmy favorites.
Key and Peele are fabulous I think.
Oh, they're amazing. I especially love the parody
they did where it's a behind thescenes of Family Matters.
Have you seen that one? No.
(26:46):
I don't think so. I'll send you a.
Link on that one? Yeah.
Well, obviously a big part of sketches is the characters that
are in the sketches. And I know in the sketches that
you've done, you've created somevery dynamic characters.
You've created Tony Forefingers and Grandma Shirley, Loretta
Swan song, which is a wonderful name by the way.
(27:08):
Where do you get the idea for the characters in your sketches?
Well, my last sketch I was the Statue of Liberty who had been
arrested by ICE. And that of.
Course is pretty topical, a lot of sketch and, and a lot of, you
know, joke writing and it's not they're two different things, of
course, but it can be based on what's going on in the news
today and also things that just come into my awareness for some
(27:35):
reason. I had gallbladder surgery about
two months ago and I did a sketch about a woman recovering
from gallbladder surgery. He was going to Publix to return
some items that don't quite fit anymore.
Depends. And you know, using real life
and using your real character isis fabulous.
(27:56):
When you do these characters, isthere some part of Margo in
every character that you do you?Can't escape that, I don't
think. Yeah, I've always been a firm
believer that characters are youand not you at the same time.
And you know, I took a workshop once with Joe Bill and he said
that every character that you do, there's always going to be a
percentage of you. Some characters it might be 90%,
(28:17):
some characters it might be 10%,other characters it might just
be 2%. But there's always going to be
something of you in that character.
And that's what makes that character human you.
Know we differentiate between the the actor and the character,
you know, the actors not gettingtheir feelings hurt, where is
the character maybe getting beaten down or something like
(28:38):
that. And I think it's true that a lot
of ourselves is in those characters we find somewhere.
Going back to the improv part ofour conversation, would you say
that improv for you has been that thing that you hold onto to
get you through some of these tough challenges and any sort of
(29:00):
tough situations that you may begoing through?
Absolutely, absolutely. I, I, I've been through a lot of
things in my life, brain surgery, knee replacements, hip
replacements, I mean, a lot of different things.
And in fact, one time I thought I was having a stroke, so I did
a live video from the hospital. I'm all plugged up with stuff
(29:23):
talking about how to see if you're having a stroke.
Another thing I did well when I was having my gallbladder
surgery, I was performing from the hospital.
So yeah, taking real life and and having fun with it, you
know, And I think today I'm going to go to something
slightly different. But today is Say Yes Day in
(29:45):
memory of Jason Chin. Are you aware of that?
Have. You seen his videos at all?
Not all of his videos, but I've seen one or two I think.
Well. The one that just I love
watching all the time is when he's making all these entrances
into a scene. It's kind of a classic scene.
And I like the idea of saying yes, saying yes to all the
(30:08):
wonderful people who've gone before me and to support me and
follow my podcast like yours. Just out of curiosity, when you
were filming yourself trying to find out if you were having a
stroke or not, was there any part of you that said to
yourself this would make a good sketch?
I wasn't doing sketch writing then, but now that you've put
that in my mind, I'll have to goback and find that video.
(30:31):
It probably would make a good video sketch.
Now do you do stuff on TikTok LD?
You know, I tried to do the whole TikTok thing but for some
reason it just never appealed tome.
So I I used to, I only did like maybe 3 or 4 videos, but I don't
know tick tock. I was never able to make that
personal connection with it likeso many others have.
(30:52):
Yeah. There's with women who are
premenopausal or postmenopausal.There's a We Don't Care club and
some of the tick tocks coming out from the We Don't Care club.
And one of the ones I follow is a woman named Beth Crosby who
happens to be married to Mark Wiseka and hers.
Her tag is garbage mom and I just love it I every day.
(31:13):
She's very productive and I likeseeing the newest one she puts
out. We don't care.
Well, you know, you bring up a very interesting point because
now we're at a time where we have TikTok, we have YouTube, we
have Instagram, we have Facebook, we have, you know,
name your favorite social media platform here.
And now we see that everyone is now taking advantage of that and
(31:37):
taking their comedy everywhere. Do you think that it's a really
good thing to see so much comedynow being shared all over the
Internet, whether it's good or bad?
Well, I hopefully want to just watch the good, but I think it's
a great thing and people can try.
You know, there's some crazy stuff on TikTok.
OK, but you know, we just happento be in the States.
(31:58):
But there's improv and Africa. I've been working with a
Nigerian group and and a lot of improvisers in India and China
and Japan and Sweden and Germanyand a lot in England and the UK
and South America. So we're a global thing and I
think being able to see some of these other improvisers is very
(32:20):
helpful. Do you notice any differences
with improv from different countries?
That's a good question. Not really.
I think, you know, it's been interesting.
I've talked to improvisers who never studied improv at all and
just started doing it. I'm more old fashioned kind.
(32:43):
I think it's good to have a likea spolen base and other or Keith
Johnstone to have a base. I'm just seeing wonderful acts
from around the world. In fact, there's I would love to
go to Oslo in October. There's going to be a great
festival in Oslo. You know, I've heard from other
people that the big difference you see in improv in different
(33:05):
countries is mainly the audience.
You know, here in the United States, if the audience like
something, they really let you know and they're happy to play
along with it. But I've also spoken to two
people from from the UK and theyboth mention the same thing.
In the UK, the audiences there are not so quick to share their
emotions as they are here in theUnited States.
(33:26):
Well, you're talking about the British right now and and
they're a unique blend of their own civilization.
OK, a little more formal, I think would vary from country to
country. And again, it's not all meant to
be funny, right? I mean, there's some great forms
(33:47):
of improv like playback theatre and Boel technique, which are,
you know, kind of going inside and also for social change.
And we're at a time right now, especially you and I, living
where we're living where we really need social change and
comedy. Mark Twain and others have, you
(34:08):
know, been there to inspire us to use satire and parody about
what's going on in the two awfulreal world right now.
Not a soapbox, but just. So going back to the idea of
using improv as a great psychotherapy tool, improv in
(34:30):
recent years has really started to get a lot more attention as a
performance art. But I think there's also now
been within the last couple of years also particular attention
of how improv can be beneficial to people with mental illnesses,
with physical illnesses and ailments and stuff like that.
Why do you think lately improv has become a big focus in that
(34:51):
regard? Well, because a lot of us,
psychotherapist, physical therapist, occupational
therapist, started doing improv and like myself, could see the
applications. I've been working with people
with Parkinson's for over 10 years now.
And I used to do it in person and then I started doing it
(35:14):
online around the time of the pandemic.
And I have a group that's been meeting for years every Saturday
morning, and now I have a Wednesday group.
And with Parkinson's, I don't know if you're familiar with
Parkinson's disease. My dad had it.
And there's something called facial rigidity.
So when we do exercises to move our face and show motion and
(35:37):
speaking in gibberish and reminding people to celebrate
failure, that's a very positive thing for people who may have
some speech issues, may have a few movement issues.
And I think that because many ofus in the healthcare field have
gotten exposed to improv or taking it out to the streets.
(36:00):
Now, I don't know if you know, but this weekend is the Applied
Improv Network Conference and Saint Petersburg, just outside
of Saint Petersburg. And there's thousands of people
that belong to the Applied Improv Network.
And if I wasn't taking a trip tothe mountains, I would be there.
And a lot of those people are, they might be therapists, they
(36:22):
might be people who are professional speakers.
They're just a whole wide range of individuals that make up the
Applied Improv Network. So I urge people to check it out
too. You referenced something that
I'm very fascinated by. Your show, The Parkinson's
inspired people playing improv. How did that get started and
what gave you the idea to try that?
(36:45):
Well, as I mentioned, I've been working with the same group of
people on Saturday mornings for several years now and some of
these people were with me in person, but most of them are
have come from around the country, California, Arizona,
New Jersey, New York, one from Florida.
And their, their level of performance, their, the way they
(37:08):
were performing in class was so beautiful.
So I asked them if they'd like to do a live performance, and we
did it live on Facebook and thenput it out on YouTube.
And one of our members who is very, she's a writer and we were
trying to get a team name and she said, well, let's call it
(37:28):
Pippi Parkinson's inspired People with Parkinson's improv.
And then another lady who's a wonderful graphic artist made
the design for our T-shirts. So on Saturday morning and
Wednesdays we wear our T-shirts with our Pippi players proudly
showing and let we've done one. We did a film noir show, which
(37:49):
was very popular. And we don't do a lot of long
form. We play a lot of gibberish games
like gibberish opera and three headed expert and they just love
it. And, and we've had shows where
because of the diversity of our players, we've had audience
(38:09):
members come from India and the UK and all over the country.
So it's pretty exciting. Were you ever surprised at all
to see how improv is able to have these great benefits for
people? Not really 'cause I was on Cloud
9 after my first improv class. First of all, even though some
(38:30):
of the games were a little difficult for me.
OK, I remember I just suffered abrain aneurysm.
I, it was so much joy in it. And when the classes are full of
joy, I, I don't really like conflicted scenes.
I don't like argument scenes. I like, there's no need for an
argument. You know, we just, yes, and each
(38:51):
other. And if this is true, what else?
And there's so much joy in it and, and people need more joy
today. I mean, we know, I say we know.
I can't quote the research that it definitely decreases anxiety
and depression and also builds on cognitive skills.
So my players, my Parkinson's players and my also anxiety
(39:13):
players, they're building cognitive skills and memory
skills that are going to last them all week long.
You know, it's interesting to that point that you made.
I tell students all the time, all scenes don't have to be
argument scenes. And for some reason a lot of
people, especially students, they pick up on the idea that
we're doing a scene, so there must be conflict so that the
(39:35):
scenes interesting. Why do you think argument scenes
tend to be the easiest route fora lot of people?
Well, you just said it. I think it's an easy route,
however conflict can be. Should I go out with him tonight
or not? Should I eat both of the
brownies or just one? I mean, we can have all kinds of
conflicts that aren't necessarily argumentative.
(39:59):
Now a lot of improvisers, myselfincluded, love to talk and
learning how to keep brief lineswhere we're, yes, ending.
Our partners line as well as their emotional content may help
us, may help us prevent getting into those argument conflicted
(40:19):
scenes. Absolutely, Absolutely.
In your opinion, do you think there's anything about improv
that's misunderstood? Well, that anybody can do it.
I mean, yes, if I always spoil it, anybody can improvise,
anybody can act, but you need a toolbox.
Just isn't anything in life, youknow, if you're going to drive a
car, you need to learn how it operates.
(40:41):
OK. And you know, you don't have to
get into like exactly how to take apart a carburetor if, if
that's something that can be taken apart, but you do have to
know kind of how it works. And I, I take many classes
still. I, I think it's really important
for improv teachers to take classes.
And I learned so much every time.
(41:02):
And also playing with different people helps.
I don't know if I answered that question.
I like that answer, whether you answered it or not.
You know, I I was just talking to A to a guest about how.
Oh. You're not mentioning what guest
it is and in case it's somebody that rejected me, that's a good
move LD. You're on to me.
You're on to me. But no, we were.
(41:24):
I was just sharing with this guest about how I have a lot of
friends who are not improvisers and when I tell them that I
teach improv and I recommend them giving it a try, they
always have the reaction of Oh no, no, I, I, I, I can't do
that. Is that something that you see a
lot, especially from some of thepatients that you work with?
Only a few, because as a therapist my first job is to
(41:47):
establish a therapeutic, trusting relationship with my
patient. So if they're already there,
I've had very few and I, I, I used to have an office where I
worked in person. I just do online therapy now.
But if they don't want to do it,they don't have to do it.
But if they want to try something a little bit different
(42:10):
and it could be a metaphor for change as well, because this is
something you didn't think you could do and now you're doing
it. And what else could you do?
And what else could you do? As an instructor, I always love
seeing the transformation in students because it's so right
in front of you. I mean, just within the span of
a couple of weeks, you see people change from being the
(42:33):
shyest, scaredest people ever into becoming rock stars.
And you know, I I long to see that every single time.
It's probably the best benefit of being an improv instructor in
my opinion. Absolutely.
When I was teaching in person improv for anxiety, you can
imagine some people are too anxious to show up, right.
(42:54):
But the people that did took thefirst jump, the first leap of
faith and came to a class where we're using improv to help cope
with our anxiety. And it's just amazing to see the
kind of transformations people who were kind of soft spoken.
And I all, I frequently use the phrase share your voice because
(43:16):
so many people are soft spoken and they're talking like this.
And we really can't hear you over here.
And so, yeah, it's a it's an honor to be able to teach people
improv. I, I, I just love it.
What do you think it is that makes a lot of people scared to
try improv? Lack of, oh lack of
self-confidence. Looking silly is the first one
(43:39):
looking silly, looking ridiculous.
I'm an adult, I can't do this. And many years ago I was giving
a lot of my workshops on discovering your inner child
through laughter and play. The inner child thing has gotten
a little maybe passe, but there is a child that lives within all
(44:02):
of us. When Richard, George Carlin,
excuse me, when George Carlin was asked how old he was, he
said, I'm five, I'm seven, I'm nine, I'm eleven, I'm 13.
Because all of these ages are still in me.
So being able to release the childlike, playful self that's
(44:22):
when within all of us is so incredibly free.
There really is nothing like seeing a bunch of adults having
the freedom to be children again.
Absolutely, Absolutely playing. Playing tug of war with an
invisible rope. Well, you and I are definitely
kindred spirits in the sense that we both have our own
(44:45):
podcasts. Can you talk about how you got
your podcast started and what your podcast is all about?
Well, my my podcast has a reallyoriginal title, Improv
Interviews and I wow. That's an interesting title.
And really what happened was it was about, you know, my first
year doing improv. And so again, 2013, maybe 12,
(45:12):
and my wonderful first director named Craig Price had arranged
for Stacey Smith. Who you know?
Stacey Smith? Yes.
I do. Abroad now, but she was, maybe
she was performing in Sarasota or something, and we got her
down to Naples to teach us musical improv #1 what a treat.
(45:33):
And I approached Stacey and I said, would you be OK if I
interviewed you? And at that point, all I had was
like a little laptop. I didn't have any fancy
equipment or microphones or any.I think I had a snowball mic, if
you can remember those, a snowball Mike anyway.
And she was very gracious and she was my first interview.
And then I started expanding to people that I heard about that I
(45:58):
wanted to learn from. And so maybe we do a short form
game during the interview and that's how it grew.
We're going to be celebrating my2 hundreds episode pretty soon,
so I'm pretty psyched about that.
Congratulations. And my producer is a fellow
named Bright Sue, and he's a religion from China, but been in
(46:18):
the States a long time. He wrote the first book about
improv in Chinese and Mandarin, and he has introduced me to a
lot of fabulous Asian players. So So I take the advice of other
friends and find what I can. You know, what's so interesting
is as I listen to you talking and Share your story, I get a
(46:39):
sense that you definitely have abig part of you that is willing
to try anything and try everything.
Would you say that is a big partof who you are?
I'm a risk taker. Absolutely.
I absolutely AM. I, I was the first girl in
Lincoln, Vt to jump off this onebridge that a girl supposedly
(47:01):
had never jumped off on and off of.
And the the boys were teenagers drinking Colt 45.
And the boys said, now when you go off the bridge, just step
out, go straight down. Well, of course I jumped out and
collapsed, but I was OK. I was OK and I'm actually
thinking about, you know, I'm working on a one woman show,
(47:24):
which will be very exciting and a big challenge.
And who knows now? How did you decide to do your
podcast? Well, I was very interested in
the idea that in a podcast you can have these in depth and deep
conversations with people. And you know, when I was
(47:44):
deciding, do I want to just talkto improvisers or magicians?
Which route do I want to go to? I finally had the revelation of,
well, this is my podcast. I can do whatever I want.
So that's when I decided that I was going to make this improv
and magic, hence the title. But I I really get a kick out of
hearing people sharing their personal stories as you have,
(48:05):
because I always love hearing about what was it that made that
person who they are. And I think no matter how
successful a person may turn out, their story is what
fascinates me just as much you. Know me too, and I've spoken to
several improvisers who identified as being an introvert
and that was never my gig. In fact, I loved attention and
(48:30):
when I was going to that girls school, I mentioned or we had
our lunch in the gymnasium, which is also where the stage
was for our shows and I would get up on the stage and you
know, sing song parodies and I loved it.
I always loved it. So I was always attracted to
that because I love attention. Well, Margo, I have one final
question for you. Yes.
(48:52):
What's the one piece of advice that has served you well that
you'd want everyone else to hear?
If you're thinking about trying something, do it.
Because even if we don't reach our loftiest goals, you've done
it. You've gone out.
You step outside of your comfortzone and you try something
(49:14):
entirely different, whether it'simprov or riding a horse or
going to a mosh pit. You know, my Woodstock
anniversary is coming up. That just remind me.
But just go for it because this is the only life we get as far
as I know. And if we don't do it now, then
when? So step out and be the self you
(49:36):
want to be. Yeah, a motto that I've
definitely been living by withinthe past couple of years is it's
always better to do it than not do it and wonder what if?
Exactly. Exactly.
Well Margo, you are an absolute delight to talk to and I'm so
happy we got to meet each other.Thank you so much and I wish you
all the best in your career and your life my friend.
(49:58):
Likewise, I'm sure LD, I think you're doing fabulous work over
there and maybe our paths will cross eventually in real time.
So thank you so much for having me.
You've been a wonderful, wonderful host.
Go ahead and do it. Take that chance, take that
risk, do that thing you've been wanting to do.
(50:20):
Why wait? You have a beautiful life, so
make the most of it. Thank you very much, Margo
Escott, for sharing your amazingwisdom with us.
And thank you for what you do for people.
I encourage all of you listeningtoday to visit Margo's website,
improvforwellness.com. That's Improv, the number 4
(50:41):
wellness.com. And if you're able to get in
touch with her, tell her LD sayshi.
Well, my friends, that's going to do it for today.
But don't worry, there's more amazing episodes coming real
soon. Visit my website, ldmadera.com
and don't forget to like and review.
I'm LD Madera, you are who you are and you are special.
(51:06):
See you next time.
Hello friends. Hello my friends.
It's great to have you here again on Improv and Magic.
I hope you're all happy and welltoday and I hope you're all
ready for another amazing episode.
Today's guest is Margo Escott, and she is a very special type
(00:23):
of improviser. She's not only a super talented
performer, but she also is a psychotherapist who uses improv
as a therapy tool. Just another example of how
amazing this art form can be. There's so much that Margo
shares in this conversation thatI hope everybody listening takes
to heart. So let's get started.
(00:44):
Here now is my guest, Margo Escott.
Well, my friends, I'm very happyto welcome here on Improv and
Magic. She is an absolutely lovely ray
of sunshine. She is Margo Escott.
(01:06):
Hello, Margo. It's good to have you here.
Hi LD, glad to be here. This is a good time for me to
talk to you because I understandyou have a big vacation planned
coming up. I certainly do.
Where are you going? I'm going to be in the mountains
of Colorado. Oh, wonderful.
I've never been to Colorado. Have you been there before?
Almost every year for about 30 years, and I was in college
(01:29):
there from 67 to 69, which was aperiod marked by drug, sex,
rock'n'roll, and that's why theyasked me to leave.
What are What are your favorite things you like to do when you
visit Colorado? I like to go hiking in the
mountains and will be in Keystone, Co And where we're
(01:51):
staying has a beautiful pool anda hot tub where you can see the
mountains while you're swimming and sitting in the hot tub.
And we've been going out there for so many years, almost 30
years. We've been going out there
either summer or winter. So we have friends there too,
that we like to see. My husband's a guitar player,
really good guitar player. And we have another friend who's
(02:13):
a guitar player named Randall who's out there.
So we get together and jam a little bit and.
That sounds amazing. Well, I wish you the best and a
lot of fun in your vacation, Margot.
Thank you. So now, as I always do, I always
like to start at the beginning. So where did you grow up and
what was growing up like for you?
I grew up in North Caldwell, NJ,which is about 18 miles from the
(02:35):
George Washington Bridge, and assoon as I was 18, I was going
through the Lincoln Tunnel because drinking was legal then.
Drinking will show up quite a bit and I had a very nice
family. My father was an airline captain
for Pan Am Airlines, and my brother was two years younger
than me, and I used to beat him up until he got strong enough to
(02:55):
beat me up. And my mom was 1.
Wonderful. And it was kind of actually the
neighborhood I grew up in. Have you ever seen The Sopranos?
Yeah. OK.
The street I grew up on was called Brookside Terrace.
And if you go up that street andup a little hill, the house that
they used for The Sopranos was on my street.
Oh, no way. Yeah, and I, I grew up in a very
(03:18):
well in the 1950s. So I grew up with Leave it to
Beaver and Father Knows Best andand I walked to school.
I don't know where you grew up, but, you know, walked to school
winter, fall, spring and had no,we don't have that here in South
Florida, but I, you know, we hadsnow days and things like that.
And I, it was a pretty rosy childhood for the most part, but
(03:46):
I will say that once I got into 7th and 8th grade, I got more
interested in boys and my parents sent me to a girls day
school. So it wasn't boarding, but it
was a girls day school. And while I was there, there
were 19 girls in my class at theKimberly Academy in Montclair,
NJ. And I love to make up song
parodies and create little skits.
(04:09):
I had no idea improv was going to be my life in my life much
later on. So it sounds like even at a
young age you had a very creative spirit.
Oh yeah, yeah, I was a painter for a while and you know, I
worked regular jobs for quite a long time.
When you were growing up, did you sort of have an idea of what
(04:29):
it was that you wanted to do with your life?
I wanted to be getting an Oscar every year.
I watched the Academy Awards, and I kept thinking that needs
to be me sometime. But that didn't, that wasn't in
the cards. So I was just kind of, you know,
blindly making my way through life, not thinking, you know, my
parents kind of want me to be a teacher or a nurse and get
(04:52):
married. But I had other things in mind.
I ended up being a bartender in Greenwich Village in Soho one
point in the 70s. It kind of sounds like there was
a lot of quite a bit of moving around that you did.
Once I got out of high school, there was, yeah, I went to
Colorado for a while, came back home, lived in Manhattan for a
(05:13):
while and then finished school in New Hampshire and then came
back New York. I love Manhattan.
I always, I hate to say I'm fromNew Jersey 'cause people think
of Jersey girl. I like to say I spent 10 years
in Manhattan, so I like to focuson being in New York City.
So what was it that made you interested in being creative?
(05:35):
You mentioned that you watched alot of TV.
Were there other things that inspired your creative spirit?
It's a good question. I always like to be doing
something. I always liked to get laughs.
And when I was doing those little skits or sketches in high
school, I love getting the laughs.
(05:55):
But I never thought about pursuing it.
You know, I kind of went on a straight as I could go track,
but at. What point did that start to
become real? At what point did you start to
realize, you know what? This is actually something I
could probably do because here are all these people that are
doing it and are getting successful at it and getting
Oscars for it. Truly, most of my life.
(06:17):
I've been a psychotherapist for 41 years here in Naples.
So it wasn't until I took my first improv class about 13
years ago and then started studying online with other great
improv teachers around the country.
And this is way before the pandemic that I started to
(06:37):
think, yeah, yeah, maybe this issomething I can do.
What got you interested in psychotherapy?
Well, I had ABA in English from Franklin Pierce in New
Hampshire, and there's not. In the 70s, there weren't a
whole lot of job opportunities other than a glorified
secretary. And I met a woman who was a
(06:59):
social worker, had an MSW, and Ifound out I didn't need an
undergrad degree in psychology or social work.
So I applied to NYU and I got in, and I loved it so much.
You know, most people become therapists because they want to
find out what's wrong with them or their families.
(07:21):
I actually have never heard thatbefore.
You never heard it? Oh yeah, it's kind of common.
Were there was there anything about your studies in
psychotherapy that kind of surprised you in any way?
Again, a really good question. I won't say surprise, but I've
been giving workshops and seminars for most of my career.
Even before I got into improv and we had a class on
(07:45):
psychopathology and they show a lot of movies, classic movies
like Spellbound and maybe Psychoclips of movies.
And eventually, when I became a therapist here in Naples, I
started giving workshops on psychiatry at the movies,
(08:07):
psychotherapy at the movies, andthere's been a plethora of shows
about psychotherapist since then.
Gabriel Byrne was in a great show, and there's just been a
bunch of them. But that really interested me
about combining cinema with therapy.
So the big moment, What made youdecide to take an improv class?
(08:28):
The long story or the short story, Give me the.
Long story. OK, I love giving the long
story. I suffered a brain aneurysm in
around 2011 and I had the surgery and here in in in
Naples, I had a brilliant neurosurgeon.
(08:49):
But when I came to, my brother was there and my husband was
there and apparently all I was saying was cold, cold, cold and
hot, hot, hot. And the doctor said, you know,
we can see she has mobility in her limbs, but we don't know if
she'll get her memory back or ever be able to speak again.
(09:11):
And my brother said, too bad about the memory.
So there's a lot of humor in my family.
My brother's hysterical. So as I was recovering from
that, I had a really great friend, Claire McKinney, and she
was involved in the local theater productions down here.
And she said, Margo, I think youshould try an acting class
(09:31):
'cause you're pretty dramatic, you know?
And I said, that sounds good. So I, I signed up for an acting
class, but they gave me a scriptand told me I had to memorize
it. But then I took my first improv
class and it was like being withthe Pied Piper.
Mr. Craig was my first improv teacher.
He had studied with Dell close at Second City and was in comedy
(09:54):
sports. And he inspired me so much.
And actually when I got home after my first class, I had like
a light bulb, you know, clickingover my head.
Improv could be used in therapy.Isn't this a brilliant idea?
So I started going online because I thought I was creating
(10:16):
something brand new. Oh, woe is me.
There were a lot of people already doing it even back then
in like 2012. Whatever.
But I discovered a wonderful woman who wrote one of the first
evidence based research projectson improv and anxiety in Kristen
Krueger out in Chicago, neuropsychologist.
(10:39):
And she became a mentor for me. And and then eventually I worked
with this man named Doctor Daniel Weiner, who in around
1984 wrote the first book on using improvisation in clinical
psychotherapy. And he had studied for several
years with Keith Johnstone in New York.
(11:02):
So I got trained in that method.And so I'm a certified trainer
and therapist, and it's called Rehearsals for Growth.
Very grateful to him for that opportunity.
That was kind of a codified way of using improv and
psychotherapy. And I was thinking about talking
to you and, and here we are. And I was thinking about, you
(11:24):
know, drama therapy, music therapy and dance therapy have
been around for a long time. Improv therapy is not recognized
yet, but we're collecting more and more research and studies
showing the psycho, psychological and cognitive
(11:45):
benefits of improv. That's amazing.
That's truly amazing. It goes without saying how, like
you said, there's been so many studies and and research done on
the benefits of improv outside of being a performance art,
which I always find fascinating.Based on your experience, what
benefits have you seen with applying improvisation as a
(12:06):
psychotherapy tool? Again, a really good question.
You're getting good at this. So first of all, it makes them
laugh and we're not laughing at somebody, were laughing with
somebody. Prior to getting to improv, I
for 30 years was presenting and writing workshops called The
(12:28):
Healing Power of Laughter and Play, and I had been teaching
something called New Games, which was a phenomenon in the
70s that was very similar to improv.
So I had been seeing results in these large audiences that I
worked with for many, many years.
So when I started working in individual therapy, I saw a
decrease in anxiety, more self-confidence.
(12:52):
I also used mindfulness and music in my improv and
mindfulness of course is a greatway to get still to get
centered. And I believe improv is a
mindful art form as well. Did I answer your question?
Oh. You definitely answered my
question, and very beautifully might I add.
(13:12):
Before you started taking improvclasses, what was your sort of
opinion about improv in general?Did you watch any improv before
taking those classes? Only Whose line is it?
I love that show. And eventually I became good
friends with Laura Hall, the keyboard player on Whose Line?
(13:32):
And I didn't. I did the I played the alphabet
game with Colin Mochrie. So I love that show, but I never
thought about doing it myself. And it looks so hard, you know,
they come up with all these quick answers.
When you were studying improv, I'm sure that there were times
where you learn about short formand probably learn about long
form as well. When you started to learn about
(13:54):
long form, were you kind of surprised that improv doesn't
always have to be funny? No, because we weren't always
funny. We tried to be real.
I was in a team for about 5 years called Improv Anonymous
down here and a lot of people went for the jokes, but a lot of
us kind of kept it real and see what evolved from the
(14:16):
relationship, which is kind of the basis of long form.
I've recently been studying withBilly Merritt from the Upright
Citizens Brigade and it's been amind blower because it's
basically all long form and different forms of long form.
When my I was taught the Herald I wasn't wild about it.
(14:38):
Too many directions, too many things to do.
But I like doing longer scenes. Yeah, there's a lot of people
that develop a love hate relationship for the Herald
because there's so much that goes on.
And, you know, the Herald is oneof those formats where everyone
really tries to emphasize on doing it right and making sure
(15:00):
each of those scenes are connecting the way they they
need to connect to. Do you just kind of enjoy just
going out there and just seeing whatever happens, happens?
Yeah. I think it, it inhibits me to
have to think about, you know, which game are we in?
Are we going back to whatever and forms do that.
A form can be very restrictive and not help you to be out of
(15:20):
your head 'cause you're thinking.
Now I do happen to like the Armando Diaz.
I think that's a lot of fun because I like to be the
monologist and and there's some forms I like, but basically I
just like to get right into it and start doing scenes.
You know, I read a a quote that you shared on Psychology Today
(15:41):
and I think it's a very interesting quote.
And I was wondering if you couldtalk a little bit about this.
Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.
I think that's a Buddhist saying.
It's not my original thought, but as I mentioned, I'm I'm in
so many 12 step groups today. I just get up to the podium and
(16:01):
say I'm Margo and I'm not a gambler.
That's something we hear a lot in the 12 step rooms.
So pain is inevitable in life, as the Buddhist talk about, you
know, life is pain, but the suffering, the prolonging of the
suffering, the holding on to theresentments and the fear, all
(16:23):
right. And you know, fear is FEAR.
Fuck everything and run or or false evidence appearing real.
You know, I bring that up because I'm always fascinated by
how improv sort of has that ability to bring stuff out in
people. And I imagine you must have seen
that many times where using improvisation has brought out
(16:47):
something inside people that either they've held back for a
long time or probably didn't even know they had there before.
Yeah, they're become more playful and more, more
childlike. Not childish, but childlike.
And the exploration and the discovery.
I was very fortunate that my first teacher was trained in
Spolen and I have worked a lot with Aretha Sells, Viola Spolens
(17:11):
granddaughter, as well as somebody named Gary Schwartz out
West who studied with Viola himself.
So I was very lucky to get that.I called my basic training
because I think everything we docould be found in that.
Now I know there's all these other different schools of
improv, but I find that basic training is so helpful.
(17:34):
Do you have a preference betweenshort form or long form or is it
all good for you? All good for me.
I've talked to a lot of improvisers who they don't care,
they'll do whatever. I'm one of those.
But I've also seen some people Iwon't name names but.
Oh, come on. Come on.
Well, I'll put it this way. In one of my previous episodes
(17:56):
with, I talked to Matt Besser. And I asked this only because I
kind of knew what he would say. But you know, we were talking
about what he enjoys about improv and his love for improv.
And I asked him, do you get thatsame enjoyment from watching
short form? And Matt said fuck no.
Have you ever been to a dull, close marathon?
(18:17):
No, I haven't had the pleasure of going to 1 yet.
I went to one. I went to DCM 14 in Manhattan
and I ran into Matt on the street and I think I offended
him. I said, you know, you kind of
look like a better looking Tom Hanks.
And he didn't he he just went like the people can't see this,
but he just kind of looked at me, didn't say anything and kept
(18:41):
walking away from that crazy woman.
But that was I got to see Amy Poehler and Ascats and Matt
Walsh shows. I love that.
It was so great. Do you get to do a lot of
festivals? I haven't been to a lot of
festivals. I've had some issues with my
(19:01):
health and I have to be very careful.
I'm prone to falling. I haven't fallen today, so
that's good, but I, I have, I have to be very careful and
where I go. And also, you know, frankly, I'm
a retired social worker and I teach improv, but that's not
(19:23):
necessarily the most lucrative form of income.
And so it's expensive to fly someplace.
And I did go years ago, a wonderful improviser from Second
City named Stephanie Mack, who is now in England.
And she's going to be at the Fringe this week, you know, the
Fringe in Edinburgh. And she had a conference, yes,
(19:48):
and mental health. And I did go to that, and it was
fabulous. It was therapists and
improvisers and I had such a great time.
I met so many wonderful people and I, I and I got to present
and the room I was presenting inwas way too small for the number
of people and I believe we were at the annoyance Mcnaber was
(20:09):
placed. And so I let everybody out of
the room and we went into the lobby where there was more than
enough room to play. How about you?
Do you go to a lot of festivals?I'm trying to do more festivals
out of state. So far everything that I've gone
to has been just in Florida, butI'm hoping to kind of broaden my
(20:30):
festival horizon. Yeah, I've been to just the
funny and I think my Dakota was there the year I was there.
I'm pretty, you know, the musical improviser.
So what festival? What festival would you really
love to go to? Oh my gosh.
Well, any festival in Chicago and certainly the Del close
(20:53):
festival, you know, I feel like I have a show that's good, but
it just needs to be seen by morepeople.
So and, and that's always a struggle with any act, whether
it's solo, a duo or any sort of group.
There's always that struggle where you want to get accepted
into more festivals, but there'sstill that beginning period
where you just need to get more eyeballs.
(21:13):
Exactly. Now in the past two years I've
started studying online with some place called the Sketch
School, and that's with Mark Wiseka, who was from Detroit,
Second City and then Second Cityand teaching sketch writing and
a lot of them produced at SecondCity.
And he has had this online school which has been a a life
(21:36):
sent for me. I just love taking classes.
I love writing sketches and I'vebeen able to perform in once a
month. I perform in something called
the Sketchy Solo Squad and I canget clips of my performance and
put it on my YouTube channel. So who knows?
Well, what was it about Sketch that got you interested in it?
(21:58):
You know, it's funny, just like IA friend suggested acting for
me, a friend said Margot, I think you might like this guy
Mark Wazeka, and you might like sketch writing.
And I'd always been a bit of a writer.
I'm not a very disciplined writer, but it sounded fun.
And from the first class I was hooked.
And there's 3 levels 101201301 and then additional workshops,
(22:23):
like every week he had somethingcalled sketchy Subs.
And so on Wednesdays and Sundays, you could take an to
workshop. And I have studied with some
amazing people. I've taken workshops.
I took a great workshop with somebody named Doug Carroll on
writing for late night comedy. And that that was about joke
writing and just wonderful teachers, including Mark, of
(22:46):
course. I, I don't know if you know
Jamie Moyer. She's a frequent teacher with us
and she's fabulous. Yeah.
Jamie's been on the podcast here.
How? Do you get these people on your
podcast? She hasn't been online yet.
Maybe you need to put in a good word for me.
I I absolutely will. I'll put in a good word for you.
You know, this is sort of a subjective question, but in your
(23:09):
opinion, what makes a really good sketch?
Well, a really interesting premise.
If this is true, then what else?And keep keeping brevity in it.
We're performing online, so they're monologues that in my
case, we're doing monologues on online.
(23:30):
Doing sketch in person is something I have not done yet,
but I would love to. I've written sketches that could
be performed, you know, in person.
And it's just a super fun way tohave comedy.
And it's really improv to sketch.
(23:51):
That's a class they teach there that I've taken a couple of
times because that's how they worked at it.
Second City and other schools, they would improvise a scene and
then together create a sketch. And in the sketch school we have
writers rooms, these workshops that Mark has.
So we're working with other people, other like minded
people, collaborating and pitching ideas.
(24:13):
And it's it's still kind of improv, but it's a little bit
beyond and, and I find it intriguing.
I really do. And, and Mark is one of the
nicest people in the world, you know, next to Jay Suko and my
other teacher, Rich Baker. Fabulous people.
This may be a hard question to answer, but do you have a
(24:36):
particular favorite sketch that you enjoy?
That I've written or a favorite sketch that I've seen that.
You've seen, or you could include one that you've written
if you'd like. They're not quite as well known.
Well, I loved Gilda and an earlyGilda sketch was where she's
(25:00):
inviting a drunk Bill Murray who's in the street up for some
Bristol cream. It was a it's a commercial
parody. There's many types of sketches
and this was a commercial parody.
I. Think I know exactly the sketch
that you're talking? About hey, hey, you know, she,
first of all, she's calling people.
Would you like to come over for some Harvey's Mistle cream or
(25:21):
whatever? Would you like to come over?
And finally nobody's answering her.
So she looks out the window. Hey, you, you want to come up
here? And then Bill Murray comes up.
I also love the classic one she did with Candice Bergen about
stupid people and Candice Bergenflubbed a line and they kind of
(25:43):
broke character and started laughing. 01 of my when I teach,
I, I, I sometimes teach using sketch comedy for therapy as
well. And one of my favorites to show
is the Godfather scene with JohnBellucci.
And Elliot Gould is the therapist.
(26:03):
And Elliot Gould, you know, starts off, remember, next week
we're meeting at 5:00. And then later on, Elliot Gould
says, now remember, group is meeting next Tuesday at 7:00.
And Elaine Newman is in there and she's like this Val girl.
I don't know what I'm going to do.
My boyfriend said I'm making Presbyterian pie.
(26:25):
And and then John Bellucci's doing that whole Godfather
thing. Those are two.
Those are some of my favorites. I really love that.
And now Key and Peele are two ofmy favorites.
Key and Peele are fabulous I think.
Oh, they're amazing. I especially love the parody
they did where it's a behind thescenes of Family Matters.
Have you seen that one? No.
(26:46):
I don't think so. I'll send you a.
Link on that one? Yeah.
Well, obviously a big part of sketches is the characters that
are in the sketches. And I know in the sketches that
you've done, you've created somevery dynamic characters.
You've created Tony Forefingers and Grandma Shirley, Loretta
Swan song, which is a wonderful name by the way.
(27:08):
Where do you get the idea for the characters in your sketches?
Well, my last sketch I was the Statue of Liberty who had been
arrested by ICE. And that of.
Course is pretty topical, a lot of sketch and, and a lot of, you
know, joke writing and it's not they're two different things, of
course, but it can be based on what's going on in the news
today and also things that just come into my awareness for some
(27:35):
reason. I had gallbladder surgery about
two months ago and I did a sketch about a woman recovering
from gallbladder surgery. He was going to Publix to return
some items that don't quite fit anymore.
Depends. And you know, using real life
and using your real character isis fabulous.
(27:56):
When you do these characters, isthere some part of Margo in
every character that you do you?Can't escape that, I don't
think. Yeah, I've always been a firm
believer that characters are youand not you at the same time.
And you know, I took a workshop once with Joe Bill and he said
that every character that you do, there's always going to be a
percentage of you. Some characters it might be 90%,
(28:17):
some characters it might be 10%,other characters it might just
be 2%. But there's always going to be
something of you in that character.
And that's what makes that character human you.
Know we differentiate between the the actor and the character,
you know, the actors not gettingtheir feelings hurt, where is
the character maybe getting beaten down or something like
(28:38):
that. And I think it's true that a lot
of ourselves is in those characters we find somewhere.
Going back to the improv part ofour conversation, would you say
that improv for you has been that thing that you hold onto to
get you through some of these tough challenges and any sort of
(29:00):
tough situations that you may begoing through?
Absolutely, absolutely. I, I, I've been through a lot of
things in my life, brain surgery, knee replacements, hip
replacements, I mean, a lot of different things.
And in fact, one time I thought I was having a stroke, so I did
a live video from the hospital. I'm all plugged up with stuff
(29:23):
talking about how to see if you're having a stroke.
Another thing I did well when I was having my gallbladder
surgery, I was performing from the hospital.
So yeah, taking real life and and having fun with it, you
know, And I think today I'm going to go to something
slightly different. But today is Say Yes Day in
(29:45):
memory of Jason Chin. Are you aware of that?
Have. You seen his videos at all?
Not all of his videos, but I've seen one or two I think.
Well. The one that just I love
watching all the time is when he's making all these entrances
into a scene. It's kind of a classic scene.
And I like the idea of saying yes, saying yes to all the
(30:08):
wonderful people who've gone before me and to support me and
follow my podcast like yours. Just out of curiosity, when you
were filming yourself trying to find out if you were having a
stroke or not, was there any part of you that said to
yourself this would make a good sketch?
I wasn't doing sketch writing then, but now that you've put
that in my mind, I'll have to goback and find that video.
(30:31):
It probably would make a good video sketch.
Now do you do stuff on TikTok LD?
You know, I tried to do the whole TikTok thing but for some
reason it just never appealed tome.
So I I used to, I only did like maybe 3 or 4 videos, but I don't
know tick tock. I was never able to make that
personal connection with it likeso many others have.
(30:52):
Yeah. There's with women who are
premenopausal or postmenopausal.There's a We Don't Care club and
some of the tick tocks coming out from the We Don't Care club.
And one of the ones I follow is a woman named Beth Crosby who
happens to be married to Mark Wiseka and hers.
Her tag is garbage mom and I just love it I every day.
(31:13):
She's very productive and I likeseeing the newest one she puts
out. We don't care.
Well, you know, you bring up a very interesting point because
now we're at a time where we have TikTok, we have YouTube, we
have Instagram, we have Facebook, we have, you know,
name your favorite social media platform here.
And now we see that everyone is now taking advantage of that and
(31:37):
taking their comedy everywhere. Do you think that it's a really
good thing to see so much comedynow being shared all over the
Internet, whether it's good or bad?
Well, I hopefully want to just watch the good, but I think it's
a great thing and people can try.
You know, there's some crazy stuff on TikTok.
OK, but you know, we just happento be in the States.
(31:58):
But there's improv and Africa. I've been working with a
Nigerian group and and a lot of improvisers in India and China
and Japan and Sweden and Germanyand a lot in England and the UK
and South America. So we're a global thing and I
think being able to see some of these other improvisers is very
(32:20):
helpful. Do you notice any differences
with improv from different countries?
That's a good question. Not really.
I think, you know, it's been interesting.
I've talked to improvisers who never studied improv at all and
just started doing it. I'm more old fashioned kind.
(32:43):
I think it's good to have a likea spolen base and other or Keith
Johnstone to have a base. I'm just seeing wonderful acts
from around the world. In fact, there's I would love to
go to Oslo in October. There's going to be a great
festival in Oslo. You know, I've heard from other
people that the big difference you see in improv in different
(33:05):
countries is mainly the audience.
You know, here in the United States, if the audience like
something, they really let you know and they're happy to play
along with it. But I've also spoken to two
people from from the UK and theyboth mention the same thing.
In the UK, the audiences there are not so quick to share their
emotions as they are here in theUnited States.
(33:26):
Well, you're talking about the British right now and and
they're a unique blend of their own civilization.
OK, a little more formal, I think would vary from country to
country. And again, it's not all meant to
be funny, right? I mean, there's some great forms
(33:47):
of improv like playback theatre and Boel technique, which are,
you know, kind of going inside and also for social change.
And we're at a time right now, especially you and I, living
where we're living where we really need social change and
comedy. Mark Twain and others have, you
(34:08):
know, been there to inspire us to use satire and parody about
what's going on in the two awfulreal world right now.
Not a soapbox, but just. So going back to the idea of
using improv as a great psychotherapy tool, improv in
(34:30):
recent years has really started to get a lot more attention as a
performance art. But I think there's also now
been within the last couple of years also particular attention
of how improv can be beneficial to people with mental illnesses,
with physical illnesses and ailments and stuff like that.
Why do you think lately improv has become a big focus in that
(34:51):
regard? Well, because a lot of us,
psychotherapist, physical therapist, occupational
therapist, started doing improv and like myself, could see the
applications. I've been working with people
with Parkinson's for over 10 years now.
And I used to do it in person and then I started doing it
(35:14):
online around the time of the pandemic.
And I have a group that's been meeting for years every Saturday
morning, and now I have a Wednesday group.
And with Parkinson's, I don't know if you're familiar with
Parkinson's disease. My dad had it.
And there's something called facial rigidity.
So when we do exercises to move our face and show motion and
(35:37):
speaking in gibberish and reminding people to celebrate
failure, that's a very positive thing for people who may have
some speech issues, may have a few movement issues.
And I think that because many ofus in the healthcare field have
gotten exposed to improv or taking it out to the streets.
(36:00):
Now, I don't know if you know, but this weekend is the Applied
Improv Network Conference and Saint Petersburg, just outside
of Saint Petersburg. And there's thousands of people
that belong to the Applied Improv Network.
And if I wasn't taking a trip tothe mountains, I would be there.
And a lot of those people are, they might be therapists, they
(36:22):
might be people who are professional speakers.
They're just a whole wide range of individuals that make up the
Applied Improv Network. So I urge people to check it out
too. You referenced something that
I'm very fascinated by. Your show, The Parkinson's
inspired people playing improv. How did that get started and
what gave you the idea to try that?
(36:45):
Well, as I mentioned, I've been working with the same group of
people on Saturday mornings for several years now and some of
these people were with me in person, but most of them are
have come from around the country, California, Arizona,
New Jersey, New York, one from Florida.
And their, their level of performance, their, the way they
(37:08):
were performing in class was so beautiful.
So I asked them if they'd like to do a live performance, and we
did it live on Facebook and thenput it out on YouTube.
And one of our members who is very, she's a writer and we were
trying to get a team name and she said, well, let's call it
(37:28):
Pippi Parkinson's inspired People with Parkinson's improv.
And then another lady who's a wonderful graphic artist made
the design for our T-shirts. So on Saturday morning and
Wednesdays we wear our T-shirts with our Pippi players proudly
showing and let we've done one. We did a film noir show, which
(37:49):
was very popular. And we don't do a lot of long
form. We play a lot of gibberish games
like gibberish opera and three headed expert and they just love
it. And, and we've had shows where
because of the diversity of our players, we've had audience
(38:09):
members come from India and the UK and all over the country.
So it's pretty exciting. Were you ever surprised at all
to see how improv is able to have these great benefits for
people? Not really 'cause I was on Cloud
9 after my first improv class. First of all, even though some
(38:30):
of the games were a little difficult for me.
OK, I remember I just suffered abrain aneurysm.
I, it was so much joy in it. And when the classes are full of
joy, I, I don't really like conflicted scenes.
I don't like argument scenes. I like, there's no need for an
argument. You know, we just, yes, and each
(38:51):
other. And if this is true, what else?
And there's so much joy in it and, and people need more joy
today. I mean, we know, I say we know.
I can't quote the research that it definitely decreases anxiety
and depression and also builds on cognitive skills.
So my players, my Parkinson's players and my also anxiety
(39:13):
players, they're building cognitive skills and memory
skills that are going to last them all week long.
You know, it's interesting to that point that you made.
I tell students all the time, all scenes don't have to be
argument scenes. And for some reason a lot of
people, especially students, they pick up on the idea that
we're doing a scene, so there must be conflict so that the
(39:35):
scenes interesting. Why do you think argument scenes
tend to be the easiest route fora lot of people?
Well, you just said it. I think it's an easy route,
however conflict can be. Should I go out with him tonight
or not? Should I eat both of the
brownies or just one? I mean, we can have all kinds of
conflicts that aren't necessarily argumentative.
(39:59):
Now a lot of improvisers, myselfincluded, love to talk and
learning how to keep brief lineswhere we're, yes, ending.
Our partners line as well as their emotional content may help
us, may help us prevent getting into those argument conflicted
(40:19):
scenes. Absolutely, Absolutely.
In your opinion, do you think there's anything about improv
that's misunderstood? Well, that anybody can do it.
I mean, yes, if I always spoil it, anybody can improvise,
anybody can act, but you need a toolbox.
Just isn't anything in life, youknow, if you're going to drive a
car, you need to learn how it operates.
(40:41):
OK. And you know, you don't have to
get into like exactly how to take apart a carburetor if, if
that's something that can be taken apart, but you do have to
know kind of how it works. And I, I take many classes
still. I, I think it's really important
for improv teachers to take classes.
And I learned so much every time.
(41:02):
And also playing with different people helps.
I don't know if I answered that question.
I like that answer, whether you answered it or not.
You know, I I was just talking to A to a guest about how.
Oh. You're not mentioning what guest
it is and in case it's somebody that rejected me, that's a good
move LD. You're on to me.
You're on to me. But no, we were.
(41:24):
I was just sharing with this guest about how I have a lot of
friends who are not improvisers and when I tell them that I
teach improv and I recommend them giving it a try, they
always have the reaction of Oh no, no, I, I, I, I can't do
that. Is that something that you see a
lot, especially from some of thepatients that you work with?
Only a few, because as a therapist my first job is to
(41:47):
establish a therapeutic, trusting relationship with my
patient. So if they're already there,
I've had very few and I, I, I used to have an office where I
worked in person. I just do online therapy now.
But if they don't want to do it,they don't have to do it.
But if they want to try something a little bit different
(42:10):
and it could be a metaphor for change as well, because this is
something you didn't think you could do and now you're doing
it. And what else could you do?
And what else could you do? As an instructor, I always love
seeing the transformation in students because it's so right
in front of you. I mean, just within the span of
a couple of weeks, you see people change from being the
(42:33):
shyest, scaredest people ever into becoming rock stars.
And you know, I I long to see that every single time.
It's probably the best benefit of being an improv instructor in
my opinion. Absolutely.
When I was teaching in person improv for anxiety, you can
imagine some people are too anxious to show up, right.
(42:54):
But the people that did took thefirst jump, the first leap of
faith and came to a class where we're using improv to help cope
with our anxiety. And it's just amazing to see the
kind of transformations people who were kind of soft spoken.
And I all, I frequently use the phrase share your voice because
(43:16):
so many people are soft spoken and they're talking like this.
And we really can't hear you over here.
And so, yeah, it's a it's an honor to be able to teach people
improv. I, I, I just love it.
What do you think it is that makes a lot of people scared to
try improv? Lack of, oh lack of
self-confidence. Looking silly is the first one
(43:39):
looking silly, looking ridiculous.
I'm an adult, I can't do this. And many years ago I was giving
a lot of my workshops on discovering your inner child
through laughter and play. The inner child thing has gotten
a little maybe passe, but there is a child that lives within all
(44:02):
of us. When Richard, George Carlin,
excuse me, when George Carlin was asked how old he was, he
said, I'm five, I'm seven, I'm nine, I'm eleven, I'm 13.
Because all of these ages are still in me.
So being able to release the childlike, playful self that's
(44:22):
when within all of us is so incredibly free.
There really is nothing like seeing a bunch of adults having
the freedom to be children again.
Absolutely, Absolutely playing. Playing tug of war with an
invisible rope. Well, you and I are definitely
kindred spirits in the sense that we both have our own
(44:45):
podcasts. Can you talk about how you got
your podcast started and what your podcast is all about?
Well, my my podcast has a reallyoriginal title, Improv
Interviews and I wow. That's an interesting title.
And really what happened was it was about, you know, my first
year doing improv. And so again, 2013, maybe 12,
(45:12):
and my wonderful first director named Craig Price had arranged
for Stacey Smith. Who you know?
Stacey Smith? Yes.
I do. Abroad now, but she was, maybe
she was performing in Sarasota or something, and we got her
down to Naples to teach us musical improv #1 what a treat.
(45:33):
And I approached Stacey and I said, would you be OK if I
interviewed you? And at that point, all I had was
like a little laptop. I didn't have any fancy
equipment or microphones or any.I think I had a snowball mic, if
you can remember those, a snowball Mike anyway.
And she was very gracious and she was my first interview.
And then I started expanding to people that I heard about that I
(45:58):
wanted to learn from. And so maybe we do a short form
game during the interview and that's how it grew.
We're going to be celebrating my2 hundreds episode pretty soon,
so I'm pretty psyched about that.
Congratulations. And my producer is a fellow
named Bright Sue, and he's a religion from China, but been in
(46:18):
the States a long time. He wrote the first book about
improv in Chinese and Mandarin, and he has introduced me to a
lot of fabulous Asian players. So So I take the advice of other
friends and find what I can. You know, what's so interesting
is as I listen to you talking and Share your story, I get a
(46:39):
sense that you definitely have abig part of you that is willing
to try anything and try everything.
Would you say that is a big partof who you are?
I'm a risk taker. Absolutely.
I absolutely AM. I, I was the first girl in
Lincoln, Vt to jump off this onebridge that a girl supposedly
(47:01):
had never jumped off on and off of.
And the the boys were teenagers drinking Colt 45.
And the boys said, now when you go off the bridge, just step
out, go straight down. Well, of course I jumped out and
collapsed, but I was OK. I was OK and I'm actually
thinking about, you know, I'm working on a one woman show,
(47:24):
which will be very exciting and a big challenge.
And who knows now? How did you decide to do your
podcast? Well, I was very interested in
the idea that in a podcast you can have these in depth and deep
conversations with people. And you know, when I was
(47:44):
deciding, do I want to just talkto improvisers or magicians?
Which route do I want to go to? I finally had the revelation of,
well, this is my podcast. I can do whatever I want.
So that's when I decided that I was going to make this improv
and magic, hence the title. But I I really get a kick out of
hearing people sharing their personal stories as you have,
(48:05):
because I always love hearing about what was it that made that
person who they are. And I think no matter how
successful a person may turn out, their story is what
fascinates me just as much you. Know me too, and I've spoken to
several improvisers who identified as being an introvert
and that was never my gig. In fact, I loved attention and
(48:30):
when I was going to that girls school, I mentioned or we had
our lunch in the gymnasium, which is also where the stage
was for our shows and I would get up on the stage and you
know, sing song parodies and I loved it.
I always loved it. So I was always attracted to
that because I love attention. Well, Margo, I have one final
question for you. Yes.
(48:52):
What's the one piece of advice that has served you well that
you'd want everyone else to hear?
If you're thinking about trying something, do it.
Because even if we don't reach our loftiest goals, you've done
it. You've gone out.
You step outside of your comfortzone and you try something
(49:14):
entirely different, whether it'simprov or riding a horse or
going to a mosh pit. You know, my Woodstock
anniversary is coming up. That just remind me.
But just go for it because this is the only life we get as far
as I know. And if we don't do it now, then
when? So step out and be the self you
(49:36):
want to be. Yeah, a motto that I've
definitely been living by withinthe past couple of years is it's
always better to do it than not do it and wonder what if?
Exactly. Exactly.
Well Margo, you are an absolute delight to talk to and I'm so
happy we got to meet each other.Thank you so much and I wish you
all the best in your career and your life my friend.
(49:58):
Likewise, I'm sure LD, I think you're doing fabulous work over
there and maybe our paths will cross eventually in real time.
So thank you so much for having me.
You've been a wonderful, wonderful host.
Go ahead and do it. Take that chance, take that
risk, do that thing you've been wanting to do.
(50:20):
Why wait? You have a beautiful life, so
make the most of it. Thank you very much, Margo
Escott, for sharing your amazingwisdom with us.
And thank you for what you do for people.
I encourage all of you listeningtoday to visit Margo's website,
improvforwellness.com. That's Improv, the number 4
(50:41):
wellness.com. And if you're able to get in
touch with her, tell her LD sayshi.
Well, my friends, that's going to do it for today.
But don't worry, there's more amazing episodes coming real
soon. Visit my website, ldmadera.com
and don't forget to like and review.
I'm LD Madera, you are who you are and you are special.
(51:06):
See you next time.
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