April 28, 2024 • 20 mins
Celebrating the wrap up of humor month, and the super special milestone - episode 200 of Stranger Connections Podcast!
Listen in as Lisa David Olson interviews Lisa David Olson.
Still trying to connect with Carol Burnett (happy birthday!) but meanwhile, learn about Improvisation, Humor, Strangers, Skills to connect in the workplace, What Great Leaders Know, and how to protect the introverts.
Book: From the Spotlight to Real Life
Website: www.lisadavidolson.com
Podcast: Stranger Connections
Coaching and Speaking: lisa@lisadavidolson.com
Card Game: Dare Zone
Listen in as Lisa David Olson interviews Lisa David Olson.
Still trying to connect with Carol Burnett (happy birthday!) but meanwhile, learn about Improvisation, Humor, Strangers, Skills to connect in the workplace, What Great Leaders Know, and how to protect the introverts.
Book: From the Spotlight to Real Life
Website: www.lisadavidolson.com
Podcast: Stranger Connections
Coaching and Speaking: lisa@lisadavidolson.com
Card Game: Dare Zone
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Well, are you a parent ordid you have parents? Have you ever
had a teacher or a sibling,a pet, a kid? Have you
ever driven a car or walked acrossthe floor in a way each one of
those items is doing improvisation. StrangerConnections is the embodiment of Lisa david Olsen's
(00:25):
perspective of we're all just friends whojust simply haven't met yet. It's an
exploration of the weirdly wonderful side oflife and a look at the single commonality
we have with each other, ourdifferences. Slip off your shoes, pour
a cup of your favorite and let'smeet this week's barrel of quirks. Welcome
(00:47):
to Stranger Connections, where I celebratewonderfully weird people and quirky stories. I'm
your curious beast and host, Lisadavid Olson, the practically world famous business
humoristive speaker, and speaker trainer.Reach out if you want me to help
you reignite your team or event andwork on those customer service skills. Or
(01:08):
you want to start your journey towardthe Tedex stage or begin that book.
Hey, I'm your gal. Reachout to me. I am so excited
to say this is episode two hundredof Stranger Connections. I'm going to be
honest, Almost every week I thinkI'm going to quit. It takes hours
(01:29):
and hours to do one half hourepisode. Anyone else out there that has
dabbled with podcasts knows that it takesa while to get a guest, to
land the date, to actually record, and then edit and then spread it
across all the channels and social mediaand all the things. So anyone that's
been out there and has left mea review is following the show. I'm
(01:53):
also loading them onto YouTube so youcan see the video now. Check me
out, Lisa David Olsen, lookme up on YouTube. I usually share
the links within my Facebook post,but I want to thank everyone who has
shared a story, followed, listened, and left a review. So thank
(02:14):
you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate you. Today I am
interviewing someone I've never interviewed before.And no it's not Carol Burnette, although
I keep waiting for that call,Happy Birthday, Carol. It's not just
humor month April. It is alsoCarol Burnette's birthday, So happy birthday to
you. All right, let's getto this week's guest. I want to
(02:38):
welcome two Stranger Connections Lisa David Olsen. Good, thank you, thank you
for being here. Well, thankyou so much for having me episode two
hundred. Are you kidding me?That's amazing? How did we do it?
I don't know. We just don'treally quit. We just think we're
(03:00):
going to quit. Oh my gosh. Well, thank you for traveling all
this way. With the Midwest weatherbeing so rainy and so unpredictable. I
know it's it can be difficult gettinghere. Yeah, no problem. I
literally came from the kitchen, setdown the chip bag, and here I
am. Well, either which way, I appreciate it. And I want
(03:22):
to know. With April being humormonth, we can't stop being funny and
sharing humor, right, how arewe going to keep it going? We're
going to keep it going by includingothers in on the fun We're going to
share when there's a laughter moment,when you're in the office and there's something
funny, include others when it's appropriate. You know, if you're at the
(03:46):
store, share with the cash heresomething silly, make their day because there's
a ripple effect. You know,you're in the restaurant, you can picture
that table next to you, that'slaughing harder than you and you're like,
everybody looks right, Yes, Iknow exactly what you mean. Humor demands
our focus, It raises our endorphins, it lowers our blood pressure. It
(04:08):
releases nature serotonin and oxytocin the cuddledrug. So really you're getting a workout.
You're getting I don't know, internalsex. I don't know all of
this just from laughter. So youwant to use that ripple effect of joy.
Well, I'm glad you mentioned that. So what is the ripple effect
(04:30):
of joy? It's just what Iwas saying that when you have that moment,
include others. So when it's atwork and you bring in a coworker
and say, oh my gosh,you got to hear what just happened.
When that phone rings and you haveto go answer the phone, you are
going to have joy in your voice, an actual smile on your face which
does come across the phone line,and then that person receiving that smile through
(04:56):
the phone is going to have morejoy and have a better in their day.
We can experience the fun and thenget back to the art of work
and the you know, not justbe all gufas and the show of the
office. But work can be fun. Home can be fun. Even traffic
jams can be fun. You canbring silly props and make the people next
(05:20):
to you look at you. Whynot if you think of something else,
I want to know about it.Well, I was reading your bio and
I want you to share the nicknamethat you've given yourself. And I'm not
talking about the professional nag, becausethat's what I understand. You're saying you're
an accountability buddy and that you'll helppeople. I know you've helped people start
(05:43):
their books, you've gotten some tothe tedec stage, You've gotten other people
to speak. So what's your othernickname that you've given yourself. I call
myself an improv ninja because I've beendoing improv since over twenty years. Gosh
is it close to twenty five now? And I never thought I was a
(06:04):
performer. But I was in asinging group and we were just the goodwill
ambassadors of song, you know,And every year there was a contest,
and if you won in the singingcontest, then you joined the group forever
or until you made a statement thatyou were done. I lasted in that
(06:27):
group seven years. But in thatgroup, someone said to me, you
know, you should come to ourimprov troop. I think I think you'd
really enjoy it. You should cometry out. And my head just got
huge. I'm like, I cansing, I can. I think I'm
funny and I've been performing now asa singer, so yeah, I'll try
that out. And then she added, yeah, we need another woman.
(06:49):
So I'm like, okay, letme shrink my head back down to normal
size. And I tried out forthis troop and I was scared to death.
I didn't know anyone, but Iwas thinking, why not? And
that has served me so well.So I tried out for the improv troop.
(07:09):
I got in, and fast forwardto a few years later when the
owner and director had to leave townsomething about a warrant. No, not
really, and he sold me thetroop and it became mine and we are
an award winning comedy troupe in thearea of Lacrosse, Wisconsin. But improvisation
actually goes further than the stage,and I love talking about that too.
(07:33):
But I'm an improv ninja because it'snot just for acting in stage work.
It's in every aspect of my life. Oh wow, well, how can
you explain that you're making it soundlike everyone can do improv and I would
like to know more about that.Well, you're right, improvisation is done
by everyone. How so are youa parent or did you have parents?
(07:59):
Have you ever had a teacher ora sibling, a pet, a kid?
Have you ever driven a car orwalked across the floor in a way,
Each one of those items is doingimprovisation. It's doing that which you
can't predict. But you put onyour brave pants and you step forward and
(08:20):
you say, I don't know whatI'm going to do, but if I
did know, I would do this. Well, we certainly don't have to
think that as we're driving a car. But you aren't thinking, all right,
I'm going to pick up my leftfoot and then touch down with my
heel, and then step down withthe ball of my foot and then pick
up my right leg. You know, you're not thinking about walking. You
(08:41):
just walk. So everyone does improv, even with a conversation. It's not
scripted. You know, Hey,Joe, how are you? I'm fine,
because we're all fine, right,I'm fine, I'm good, and
that's all without overthinking it. Wedo improv. We just don't all do
it from a stage with a spotlight. Okay, that makes a lot of
(09:07):
sense, and you did write aboutthat in your book. I love your
book, by the way. Itis fantastic and everyone should leave a lovely
review on Amazon because that really helpsthe book to be seen. Oh,
thank you for that. You're right, I'm always looking for reviews. Have
I mentioned that at all? Yes? It is from the Spotlight to Real
(09:30):
Life, that's my latest book.It is tips from the Stage to reignite
teams, spark communication skills, andencourage speakers. Well, wow, that's
a lot in one title. Tellme kind of break that down for me.
Well, there's humor throughout the book. It's a lot about communication skills
(09:50):
from the stage that I learned tohelp enhance communication in real life. And
I love working with business teams,people who work together offices, corporate teams,
and we can use improv skills forcommunication and also to improve customer service.
And I love to compare that tomy day job and share with teams
(10:11):
how improvisation works in the workplace whendone right. In the book, there's
also a quiz to find out ifyou're funny. There are prompts from my
car deck called dar Zone. There'salso a section on why you could write
a book and should write a book. There's even free improvisation games and you
(10:33):
can use those at your family event, at your work event, anything,
get creative. You know, greatleaders know a connected team is a productive
team. So I love to cometo corporate and share that. Thank you
for sharing all that. I knowthat. You also say, do not
(10:54):
look at page one twenty five.Nope, do not look at page one
twenty five. Absolutely right, donot. Well, I was at a
retreat where you were the keynote,and I just love your interactive style.
I think it's very unique. Well, thank you, you're so kind.
Yeah, I love to be interactivewith the audience. I use a lot
(11:16):
of storytelling because I can get apoint across with storytelling, which is more
easily remembered than data. You know, I put a graph on the screen,
we're all going to zone out.But if I share a story about
tripping while trying to put my leginto my pants, you're gonna remember that,
or you're going to at least belistening, because, like I said,
(11:37):
humor demands focus. Not all storiesare going to be humorous, but
storytelling is much more easily remembered thannumbers on a screen. Thank you.
Yeah, and explain your card deck. You mentioned the Dare Zone at that
retreat. That game was really ahit. Well, thank you so much.
(11:58):
The Dare Zone is my invention andI'm really proud of it. When
I first worked it out, itwas all prompts on index cards that I
stuck into a ziploc bag. Andso now it's an actual card deck and
there's two prompts on each card,and you can choose one of the two,
(12:22):
or you can give every person twocards and then they can choose one
prompt out of four. An exampleis act out, preparing a taco backwards,
or share a favorite joke, riddleor punt. And yes, you
can use Google or tell us ifyou've ever hidden the best snacks in your
(12:45):
home or office, or crow likea drunken rooster. So some of these
prompts, and they're all corporate cleanof course. They can either be a
prompt to act out physically, youcan ask the audience to guess what you're
doing, or you can announce it. Or it's for storytelling and some teachers
have bought the deck so that theycan use it for writing prompts, so
(13:07):
use your imagination. And I alwayshave the l doo guarantee that I will
not scare the introverts. Okay,how can you promise that you're not going
to scare the introverts. That makesno sense to me. I'd love to
know more about that. All right, Well, I don't say, hey,
you in the red shirt, comeon over here, we're gonna act
(13:30):
out, you know, get uphere, let's be funny together. I'm
not going to do that to you, because even myself I may not be
feeling it that day. So I'mnever going to put someone on the spot.
I usually will say I need threevolunteers, and I won't tell you
more than that, but that isone of the things I say. You'll
(13:50):
have to bring me to your groupand I'll show you how I do it.
But I never put anyone on thespot because I know not everyone's always
feeling it. And those who don'twant to come up, that's fine,
because you know, we need anaudience, right, So it's okay whether
you want to come up and playand get a prize, or maybe you
are more comfortable sitting there and youknow, holding up fake scorecards or whatever.
(14:15):
Whatever zone you're feeling, I'm greatwith that. Well, I just
love your podcast, Stranger Connections,and I want to say congratulations again on
episode two hundred. That is huge. And you've told me every week you
think you're gonna quit. That's true. I do think I'm gonna quit.
It's a lot of work, andit's you know, I don't have paid
(14:37):
sponsors. I would take a paidsponsor. I do have a few commercials
in there, but it's all onmy own time, and it's a labor
of love because by the time youget someone you know, you go back
and forth and you get your guestslined up, and then you have to
pick the right time, and thenyou have to record it, and then
you edit, and then it's justso much. It's our every episode to
(15:01):
get twenty five minutes, it probablytakes four hours, and then I think,
oh my gosh, that was alot. And then afterwards the buzz
is so great. It's like givingbirth. I forget all the struggle and
I just do it again. Soyeah, every episode is a new baby.
Well, and the other part isI've met so many cool people and
(15:22):
whether they've become clients of mine.A lot of them are now friends of
mine. And that's the most importantthing, is the connections I've made.
I cannot put a price on that. Why do you close each episode asking
a person for their dare or prankstory? What does that mean? Well,
as a business humorist, what happensis people will let down their guard.
(15:46):
You ask something, you know.I always let them know ahead of
time, Hey, I'm going toask you to share a dare or a
prank story, one you've done orhad done to you, and they can
prepare. And a lot of timespeople will say, oh, I don't
know if I have one, andI'll say, well, ask your friends
and family maybe, you know,ask around, and generally what happens is
by the time we get to recording, they have two. It happens so
(16:10):
often they're like, oh, no, I've got two and I have to
decide which one I'm gonna use.I'm like, that's great, let's figure
it out. But what they dois they go off the script, they
go away from their bio, theygo away from the way they've ever told
their story before, and they sharesomething personal. My favorite pranks don't hurt
anyone. They're just silly or surpriseIt's an adrenaline rush. You know.
(16:32):
I prank at my day job,and I prank at home, and my
husband pranks me non stop, andhe really should record it because for some
reason he can just exist in aroom and it scares the heck out of
me. But anyway, it justis a great way to flip the script
and get a different story out ofpeople. And I'm so happy that I
always end with a dare or aprank story. So if that's all you're
(16:53):
into, skip to the end ofevery episode and get those stories. Well,
then you know, I'm going toask what what? What? You
know? I'm going to ask you, do you have a dare or a
prank story one you've done or haddone to you. You're not going to
get away without sharing that, Okay, Well, real quick, I'll share
(17:15):
that my most recent one I didin March of this year, and I
said that I was going to closemy comedy group, which is a lighthearted
group on Facebook called Counterclockwise, andthis is where we share memes. There's
no politics, there's nothing rated r, there is no body shaming, and
(17:37):
nothing inappropriate. It is all justfun memes. And my mantra is more
punchlines less headlines, so go overto Counterclockwise on Facebook and you'll see that.
So I said in March, hey, I'm going to wrap up the
group at the end of the month. It's just not enough people participating and
it's just become too much work weadingthings out. So I'm going to be
(18:00):
wrapping it up. So enjoy thelast week of the month, and then
I have to close it out.And people were posting, no, you
can't close this group. I lovethis group. When I'm having a down
day, I come over here andI find my laugh and somebody else said,
well where am I going to stealmy memes from so April First comes
around? Because I said at theend of March, Well, April First
(18:22):
rolls around. I get up early, get into the shower with a shower
cap and my glasses in the shower, and I made a video stating,
ha ha ha, April fools,gotcha, I'm not closing Counterclockwise, And
I thanked my admins again, Masonand Todd and Angela, all my admins
helping out, and I thank themagain and I let them know what the
(18:45):
prank was so they didn't think theywere losing their job that they're not paid
for. And so I pranked almostfive thousand people because that's how many people
are in the group, and Ipranked them from my shower, and I'm
pretty proud of that. Well,it has been an honor to interview you.
Thank you so much for sharing allyour stories. And we'll leave a
(19:07):
link to your book, and Iknow your card deck is available through your
Etsy shop, and I know you'reavailable to speak for corporate events and you
can do improvisation workshops and add humorto writing workshops and also customer service skills.
My gosh. We'll just share yourbio in the comments, and remember
(19:30):
we can only be strangers once,and I hope that you can stay weird.
Thank you, Lisa. You cancount on my weirdness around the clock.
Thank you so much for having mein. Happy two hundredth episode.
Thank you, thank you, thankyou. This has been Stranger Connections with
(19:51):
Lisa David Olson
Well, are you a parent ordid you have parents? Have you ever
had a teacher or a sibling,a pet, a kid? Have you
ever driven a car or walked acrossthe floor in a way each one of
those items is doing improvisation. StrangerConnections is the embodiment of Lisa david Olsen's
(00:25):
perspective of we're all just friends whojust simply haven't met yet. It's an
exploration of the weirdly wonderful side oflife and a look at the single commonality
we have with each other, ourdifferences. Slip off your shoes, pour
a cup of your favorite and let'smeet this week's barrel of quirks. Welcome
(00:47):
to Stranger Connections, where I celebratewonderfully weird people and quirky stories. I'm
your curious beast and host, Lisadavid Olson, the practically world famous business
humoristive speaker, and speaker trainer.Reach out if you want me to help
you reignite your team or event andwork on those customer service skills. Or
(01:08):
you want to start your journey towardthe Tedex stage or begin that book.
Hey, I'm your gal. Reachout to me. I am so excited
to say this is episode two hundredof Stranger Connections. I'm going to be
honest, Almost every week I thinkI'm going to quit. It takes hours
(01:29):
and hours to do one half hourepisode. Anyone else out there that has
dabbled with podcasts knows that it takesa while to get a guest, to
land the date, to actually record, and then edit and then spread it
across all the channels and social mediaand all the things. So anyone that's
been out there and has left mea review is following the show. I'm
(01:53):
also loading them onto YouTube so youcan see the video now. Check me
out, Lisa David Olsen, lookme up on YouTube. I usually share
the links within my Facebook post,but I want to thank everyone who has
shared a story, followed, listened, and left a review. So thank
(02:14):
you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate you. Today I am
interviewing someone I've never interviewed before.And no it's not Carol Burnette, although
I keep waiting for that call,Happy Birthday, Carol. It's not just
humor month April. It is alsoCarol Burnette's birthday, So happy birthday to
you. All right, let's getto this week's guest. I want to
(02:38):
welcome two Stranger Connections Lisa David Olsen. Good, thank you, thank you
for being here. Well, thankyou so much for having me episode two
hundred. Are you kidding me?That's amazing? How did we do it?
I don't know. We just don'treally quit. We just think we're
(03:00):
going to quit. Oh my gosh. Well, thank you for traveling all
this way. With the Midwest weatherbeing so rainy and so unpredictable. I
know it's it can be difficult gettinghere. Yeah, no problem. I
literally came from the kitchen, setdown the chip bag, and here I
am. Well, either which way, I appreciate it. And I want
(03:22):
to know. With April being humormonth, we can't stop being funny and
sharing humor, right, how arewe going to keep it going? We're
going to keep it going by includingothers in on the fun We're going to
share when there's a laughter moment,when you're in the office and there's something
funny, include others when it's appropriate. You know, if you're at the
(03:46):
store, share with the cash heresomething silly, make their day because there's
a ripple effect. You know,you're in the restaurant, you can picture
that table next to you, that'slaughing harder than you and you're like,
everybody looks right, Yes, Iknow exactly what you mean. Humor demands
our focus, It raises our endorphins, it lowers our blood pressure. It
(04:08):
releases nature serotonin and oxytocin the cuddledrug. So really you're getting a workout.
You're getting I don't know, internalsex. I don't know all of
this just from laughter. So youwant to use that ripple effect of joy.
Well, I'm glad you mentioned that. So what is the ripple effect
(04:30):
of joy? It's just what Iwas saying that when you have that moment,
include others. So when it's atwork and you bring in a coworker
and say, oh my gosh,you got to hear what just happened.
When that phone rings and you haveto go answer the phone, you are
going to have joy in your voice, an actual smile on your face which
does come across the phone line,and then that person receiving that smile through
(04:56):
the phone is going to have morejoy and have a better in their day.
We can experience the fun and thenget back to the art of work
and the you know, not justbe all gufas and the show of the
office. But work can be fun. Home can be fun. Even traffic
jams can be fun. You canbring silly props and make the people next
(05:20):
to you look at you. Whynot if you think of something else,
I want to know about it.Well, I was reading your bio and
I want you to share the nicknamethat you've given yourself. And I'm not
talking about the professional nag, becausethat's what I understand. You're saying you're
an accountability buddy and that you'll helppeople. I know you've helped people start
(05:43):
their books, you've gotten some tothe tedec stage, You've gotten other people
to speak. So what's your othernickname that you've given yourself. I call
myself an improv ninja because I've beendoing improv since over twenty years. Gosh
is it close to twenty five now? And I never thought I was a
(06:04):
performer. But I was in asinging group and we were just the goodwill
ambassadors of song, you know,And every year there was a contest,
and if you won in the singingcontest, then you joined the group forever
or until you made a statement thatyou were done. I lasted in that
(06:27):
group seven years. But in thatgroup, someone said to me, you
know, you should come to ourimprov troop. I think I think you'd
really enjoy it. You should cometry out. And my head just got
huge. I'm like, I cansing, I can. I think I'm
funny and I've been performing now asa singer, so yeah, I'll try
that out. And then she added, yeah, we need another woman.
(06:49):
So I'm like, okay, letme shrink my head back down to normal
size. And I tried out forthis troop and I was scared to death.
I didn't know anyone, but Iwas thinking, why not? And
that has served me so well.So I tried out for the improv troop.
(07:09):
I got in, and fast forwardto a few years later when the
owner and director had to leave townsomething about a warrant. No, not
really, and he sold me thetroop and it became mine and we are
an award winning comedy troupe in thearea of Lacrosse, Wisconsin. But improvisation
actually goes further than the stage,and I love talking about that too.
(07:33):
But I'm an improv ninja because it'snot just for acting in stage work.
It's in every aspect of my life. Oh wow, well, how can
you explain that you're making it soundlike everyone can do improv and I would
like to know more about that.Well, you're right, improvisation is done
by everyone. How so are youa parent or did you have parents?
(07:59):
Have you ever had a teacher ora sibling, a pet, a kid?
Have you ever driven a car orwalked across the floor in a way,
Each one of those items is doingimprovisation. It's doing that which you
can't predict. But you put onyour brave pants and you step forward and
(08:20):
you say, I don't know whatI'm going to do, but if I
did know, I would do this. Well, we certainly don't have to
think that as we're driving a car. But you aren't thinking, all right,
I'm going to pick up my leftfoot and then touch down with my
heel, and then step down withthe ball of my foot and then pick
up my right leg. You know, you're not thinking about walking. You
(08:41):
just walk. So everyone does improv, even with a conversation. It's not
scripted. You know, Hey,Joe, how are you? I'm fine,
because we're all fine, right,I'm fine, I'm good, and
that's all without overthinking it. Wedo improv. We just don't all do
it from a stage with a spotlight. Okay, that makes a lot of
(09:07):
sense, and you did write aboutthat in your book. I love your
book, by the way. Itis fantastic and everyone should leave a lovely
review on Amazon because that really helpsthe book to be seen. Oh,
thank you for that. You're right, I'm always looking for reviews. Have
I mentioned that at all? Yes? It is from the Spotlight to Real
(09:30):
Life, that's my latest book.It is tips from the Stage to reignite
teams, spark communication skills, andencourage speakers. Well, wow, that's
a lot in one title. Tellme kind of break that down for me.
Well, there's humor throughout the book. It's a lot about communication skills
(09:50):
from the stage that I learned tohelp enhance communication in real life. And
I love working with business teams,people who work together offices, corporate teams,
and we can use improv skills forcommunication and also to improve customer service.
And I love to compare that tomy day job and share with teams
(10:11):
how improvisation works in the workplace whendone right. In the book, there's
also a quiz to find out ifyou're funny. There are prompts from my
car deck called dar Zone. There'salso a section on why you could write
a book and should write a book. There's even free improvisation games and you
(10:33):
can use those at your family event, at your work event, anything,
get creative. You know, greatleaders know a connected team is a productive
team. So I love to cometo corporate and share that. Thank you
for sharing all that. I knowthat. You also say, do not
(10:54):
look at page one twenty five.Nope, do not look at page one
twenty five. Absolutely right, donot. Well, I was at a
retreat where you were the keynote,and I just love your interactive style.
I think it's very unique. Well, thank you, you're so kind.
Yeah, I love to be interactivewith the audience. I use a lot
(11:16):
of storytelling because I can get apoint across with storytelling, which is more
easily remembered than data. You know, I put a graph on the screen,
we're all going to zone out.But if I share a story about
tripping while trying to put my leginto my pants, you're gonna remember that,
or you're going to at least belistening, because, like I said,
(11:37):
humor demands focus. Not all storiesare going to be humorous, but
storytelling is much more easily remembered thannumbers on a screen. Thank you.
Yeah, and explain your card deck. You mentioned the Dare Zone at that
retreat. That game was really ahit. Well, thank you so much.
(11:58):
The Dare Zone is my invention andI'm really proud of it. When
I first worked it out, itwas all prompts on index cards that I
stuck into a ziploc bag. Andso now it's an actual card deck and
there's two prompts on each card,and you can choose one of the two,
(12:22):
or you can give every person twocards and then they can choose one
prompt out of four. An exampleis act out, preparing a taco backwards,
or share a favorite joke, riddleor punt. And yes, you
can use Google or tell us ifyou've ever hidden the best snacks in your
(12:45):
home or office, or crow likea drunken rooster. So some of these
prompts, and they're all corporate cleanof course. They can either be a
prompt to act out physically, youcan ask the audience to guess what you're
doing, or you can announce it. Or it's for storytelling and some teachers
have bought the deck so that theycan use it for writing prompts, so
(13:07):
use your imagination. And I alwayshave the l doo guarantee that I will
not scare the introverts. Okay,how can you promise that you're not going
to scare the introverts. That makesno sense to me. I'd love to
know more about that. All right, Well, I don't say, hey,
you in the red shirt, comeon over here, we're gonna act
(13:30):
out, you know, get uphere, let's be funny together. I'm
not going to do that to you, because even myself I may not be
feeling it that day. So I'mnever going to put someone on the spot.
I usually will say I need threevolunteers, and I won't tell you
more than that, but that isone of the things I say. You'll
(13:50):
have to bring me to your groupand I'll show you how I do it.
But I never put anyone on thespot because I know not everyone's always
feeling it. And those who don'twant to come up, that's fine,
because you know, we need anaudience, right, So it's okay whether
you want to come up and playand get a prize, or maybe you
are more comfortable sitting there and youknow, holding up fake scorecards or whatever.
(14:15):
Whatever zone you're feeling, I'm greatwith that. Well, I just
love your podcast, Stranger Connections,and I want to say congratulations again on
episode two hundred. That is huge. And you've told me every week you
think you're gonna quit. That's true. I do think I'm gonna quit.
It's a lot of work, andit's you know, I don't have paid
(14:37):
sponsors. I would take a paidsponsor. I do have a few commercials
in there, but it's all onmy own time, and it's a labor
of love because by the time youget someone you know, you go back
and forth and you get your guestslined up, and then you have to
pick the right time, and thenyou have to record it, and then
you edit, and then it's justso much. It's our every episode to
(15:01):
get twenty five minutes, it probablytakes four hours, and then I think,
oh my gosh, that was alot. And then afterwards the buzz
is so great. It's like givingbirth. I forget all the struggle and
I just do it again. Soyeah, every episode is a new baby.
Well, and the other part isI've met so many cool people and
(15:22):
whether they've become clients of mine.A lot of them are now friends of
mine. And that's the most importantthing, is the connections I've made.
I cannot put a price on that. Why do you close each episode asking
a person for their dare or prankstory? What does that mean? Well,
as a business humorist, what happensis people will let down their guard.
(15:46):
You ask something, you know.I always let them know ahead of
time, Hey, I'm going toask you to share a dare or a
prank story, one you've done orhad done to you, and they can
prepare. And a lot of timespeople will say, oh, I don't
know if I have one, andI'll say, well, ask your friends
and family maybe, you know,ask around, and generally what happens is
by the time we get to recording, they have two. It happens so
(16:10):
often they're like, oh, no, I've got two and I have to
decide which one I'm gonna use.I'm like, that's great, let's figure
it out. But what they dois they go off the script, they
go away from their bio, theygo away from the way they've ever told
their story before, and they sharesomething personal. My favorite pranks don't hurt
anyone. They're just silly or surpriseIt's an adrenaline rush. You know.
(16:32):
I prank at my day job,and I prank at home, and my
husband pranks me non stop, andhe really should record it because for some
reason he can just exist in aroom and it scares the heck out of
me. But anyway, it justis a great way to flip the script
and get a different story out ofpeople. And I'm so happy that I
always end with a dare or aprank story. So if that's all you're
(16:53):
into, skip to the end ofevery episode and get those stories. Well,
then you know, I'm going toask what what? What? You
know? I'm going to ask you, do you have a dare or a
prank story one you've done or haddone to you. You're not going to
get away without sharing that, Okay, Well, real quick, I'll share
(17:15):
that my most recent one I didin March of this year, and I
said that I was going to closemy comedy group, which is a lighthearted
group on Facebook called Counterclockwise, andthis is where we share memes. There's
no politics, there's nothing rated r, there is no body shaming, and
(17:37):
nothing inappropriate. It is all justfun memes. And my mantra is more
punchlines less headlines, so go overto Counterclockwise on Facebook and you'll see that.
So I said in March, hey, I'm going to wrap up the
group at the end of the month. It's just not enough people participating and
it's just become too much work weadingthings out. So I'm going to be
(18:00):
wrapping it up. So enjoy thelast week of the month, and then
I have to close it out.And people were posting, no, you
can't close this group. I lovethis group. When I'm having a down
day, I come over here andI find my laugh and somebody else said,
well where am I going to stealmy memes from so April First comes
around? Because I said at theend of March, Well, April First
(18:22):
rolls around. I get up early, get into the shower with a shower
cap and my glasses in the shower, and I made a video stating,
ha ha ha, April fools,gotcha, I'm not closing Counterclockwise, And
I thanked my admins again, Masonand Todd and Angela, all my admins
helping out, and I thank themagain and I let them know what the
(18:45):
prank was so they didn't think theywere losing their job that they're not paid
for. And so I pranked almostfive thousand people because that's how many people
are in the group, and Ipranked them from my shower, and I'm
pretty proud of that. Well,it has been an honor to interview you.
Thank you so much for sharing allyour stories. And we'll leave a
(19:07):
link to your book, and Iknow your card deck is available through your
Etsy shop, and I know you'reavailable to speak for corporate events and you
can do improvisation workshops and add humorto writing workshops and also customer service skills.
My gosh. We'll just share yourbio in the comments, and remember
(19:30):
we can only be strangers once,and I hope that you can stay weird.
Thank you, Lisa. You cancount on my weirdness around the clock.
Thank you so much for having mein. Happy two hundredth episode.
Thank you, thank you, thankyou. This has been Stranger Connections with
(19:51):
Lisa David Olson
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