WEBVTT - Alan Alda and Tina Fey Take Over the Pod 0:00:01.639 --> 0:00:04.520 Hey, Brian, Hi Katie. So while we're on our summer break, 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:07.200 we've been revisiting some of our favorite episodes of this show, 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:09.040 but it'd be nice to mix it up a little 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:10.760 bit this week. And I know just the way to 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.760 do that, Brian. How about giving Alan Alda a call. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.480 Alan Alda is and the actor from Mash and thirty 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:18.400 Rock and The West Wing and about a million other 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.400 shows I love. Yes, but we were supposed to call 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:30.360 him ten minutes ago. Oops hove Hello, Hi Alan Alda. 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:34.200 In the category of better late than never, it's Katie Currak. 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:37.560 How are you, Katie? I'm great. How are you doing? 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.000 So nice to hear your voice. And I'm here with 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:44.360 my colleague Brian Goldsmith, who's also my podcast co host, 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.519 who is a gigantic fan of yours. Brian, Meet Allan. 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.120 I don't know whether to call you Allan or Senator 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.880 Arnie Vinnick. But that goes back to my West Wing days. Yeah, 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.120 I think Allen is probably good. Now, I'm not I'm 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:02.080 not I'm not rich stuff like a senator. What are 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:05.679 you wearing? You know? That's I reserve that for text 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:15.000 communications or sex communications as and certainly devolving but Alan, 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:18.000 our podcast is going to be taking a summer break, 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.440 but we still want to give our audience something wonderful 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:25.040 to listen to. And we've heard so much about your podcast, 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.320 and we thought, why not steal an episode of Alan show? 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.360 What do you think? I think that's so great of you. 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:35.920 I love it. I love I'd love the chance to 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:39.319 introduce our podcast to your audience. Are you enjoying this 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.000 whole new medium. I can't tell you. I'm enjoying it 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.000 more than I thought I would, And I mean I 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.440 thought i'd enjoy it, but this is just wonderful. We have. 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:54.320 I enjoy the conversations I have. We have wonderful conversationalists 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:58.240 on and we talk about this subject that I'm obsessed with, 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:02.600 which is relating to other people when communicating the hard 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:05.080 things to them. And you've been obsessed with that for 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:07.880 quite a while. I know that sort of the art 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:12.359 of conversation and communication is something you've been focused on 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:17.000 for for a few years now, right, really at least 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.760 twenty five years, because I've started working on that when 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:24.760 I was interviewing scientists on the Science Program on PBS, 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:28.919 which I did for eleven or twelve years, and then 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:32.200 I started. I helped start a Center for Communicating Science 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:36.720 at Stony Brook University. So we've been training scientists to 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:41.560 communicate better and medical professionals all over the world, thousands 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:45.080 of them. And now it's just pure fun talking to 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:51.360 people like Sarah Silverman, and it's a permanent judge Judy 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:53.400 and people that you don't even know so well, like 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:56.280 I don't know if you heard this. Kate Bowler is 0:02:56.320 --> 0:03:01.440 a writer who has UH fatal illness and she wrote 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.160 a really funny book and we have a really wonderful 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:07.840 conversation about the terrible ways people have tried to cheer 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.720 her up. I bet that's sort of funny and sad 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.920 at the same time. But yeah, it's very emotional. Clearly, 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:18.000 you're trying to be instructive through your art of conversation. 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.720 You're trying to broach how to have a conversation, which 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:25.800 is a really interesting concept. You know. It's that's right 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:30.160 because it's not didactic, it's not a lecture. It's it's 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:33.560 pure conversation and it and it takes place on both 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:37.000 sides of the microphone. I mean, I'm I'm conversing with them, 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.840 I'm not interviewing them. Not asking them a list of questions, 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.720 and things come up that neither one of us expected. 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.200 So it's it's it's alive, and that's why I'm having 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:50.440 such a wonderful time. And they get surprises, you know. 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.800 I talked to Renee Fleming, who's doing this wonderful thing 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:59.320 about exploring with with scientists to healing power of music, 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:02.560 and this you'll love. I didn't expect this to come 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:05.520 out of her. Sometimes when she's recognized, when she's out 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:08.480 in public, people come up to her and say, I 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:12.240 love you, Katie Kirk. I know, isn't that funny. I 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.680 was actually near Lincoln Center and someone came up to 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.280 me and said, Renee Fleming, I love you so much. 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.080 And I said, gosh, I can't sing a note, but 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:24.520 thank you, or you should just say thank you anyway. 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.320 And then the person thought, my god, Renee Fleming can't sing. 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.479 Alan Um, that's been I'm afraid of. People come up 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:33.520 to me and tell me that they love my work, 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.920 and then they call me Alan Arkin and sometimes they 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:41.839 even get his mail. Wow, Alan, I saw a New 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.960 York Post headline that called you the world's oldest millennial. 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:49.880 I thought that was my job first of all. Second, 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:54.800 I just I've since computers came out, I've I've always 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:59.160 loved them. And and I tried to teach myself to 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:04.960 the program a computer that was so early that my 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:08.120 watch now has more computing power than that first computer. 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.599 But I love to fool around with it. As a 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:12.560 matter of fact, you know what I do. I fixed 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:16.480 my friends computers, so I have I have an imaginary 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:23.000 company called Celebrity Tech Support, And and the slogan is 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:28.000 why letting nobody touch your stuff? I like it. I 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:32.640 like it, but real quickly I know that that one 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:34.719 of the reasons I think they called you that is 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.039 also because you're into this sort of new medium of 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:42.440 podcasts compared to the other work you've done, which has 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:47.479 been extraordinary. Alan, what what is it about podcasting that 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:51.279 you're really enjoying? Is it being able to kind of 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:56.760 have a conversation that doesn't have a time limit. That's 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:00.479 a wonderful part of it. Uh is some thing about 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:05.599 it that's homegrown, even when it's done professionally. And that's 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:08.000 interesting because I used to notice when I'd be when 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:13.680 I'd be interviewed on a very big television show like 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.560 like The Tonight show, there was a lot of attention 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.839 to what was going to be said. It wasn't very spontaneous. 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:25.880 He's going to ask you this, you answer that like that? Yeah, 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:28.240 I scripted. You know, they do a preus of view. 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.480 They find out what you have to say that might 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:32.960 be entertaining, and then they make sure you say it. 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:35.640 Whereas when I was on When I was on shows 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:40.520 that were less popular and therefore less stressful to the 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:45.480 produced producers, it was much more improvisational and much more fun, 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:49.320 and more unexpected things came out. And I think podcasts 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:51.880 are a little like that. Well, I know you had 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.960 a conversation on your podcast with Tina Fey, a fellow 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.920 uv A grad like me, um, and I think she's 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:04.080 so fantastic. So we thought we would run your conversation 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:07.640 with Tina Feye in place of one of our podcasts 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:09.760 while we take a break. What do you think, Oh, 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:14.640 that's wonderful. You know. The reason that the conversation with 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:18.800 Tina is so appropriate to my series is that I 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:23.600 learned so much about relating to other people from studying 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:28.160 and doing improvisation, and that's how Tina's started too. So 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.440 we both talk about improv but we even do some 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.800 in in the way that nobody's ever heard it before. 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.000 It I won't give it away, but this kind of funny. 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:39.880 But what how What about you with the podcast? What? 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:43.120 What's What's? What? What? Why do you think it's such 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.320 a good medium? What? What do you enjoy about it? 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:49.240 I think people are hungry for more depth and this 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:53.840 very sort of superficial society and media landscape that we've created, 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.560 where the news is so you know, seven and in 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.960 little snippets. I think the chance to really kind of 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:07.240 settle in listen and you know, feel close to a 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:12.280 conversation and learn something is extraordinarily appealing for a lot 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.880 of people, including my twenty two year old daughter. So 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:17.760 I think there's a hunger for I think there's a 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.680 hunger when we're out there, Alan, Yeah, I hear I 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:24.360 hear that same same response from from a wide range 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:28.400 of ages and experience. Well, people who are in their 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:31.840 twenties listen to us, and people in their eighties, and 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:35.640 and they're all interested in and just what you're talking about, 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.640 that conversational approach where things build on one another. Plus, 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:42.600 I think people must love hearing your voice because it's 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.280 so recognizable and I think, you know, I think it 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:50.720 probably you're the science person, but fires up neurons of 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:55.079 familiarity that actually produce endorphins. I'm just kind of making 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.800 this up, but it's doing it for me right now. 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.360 It's doing that for me right now. You have a 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:05.960 new field as a neuroscientist. I love. Yeah, I know. 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:08.320 Well listen, I've got to run, You've got to run. 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:12.240 But we were so grateful for you allowing us to 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:16.480 basically bogart one of your episodes and claim it as 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:18.920 our own. And if you ever take a break and 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:21.480 you want to throw one of our episodes in just 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.920 to mix things up a little bit, feel free. You're well, 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.440 I would love to, it would be great. I'd love 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:31.240 to have you on our series in any way possible. Well, 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.559 I'd love to come and talk to you personally, because 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:35.800 as you know, I'm a huge fan and a huge 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:41.680 longtime admirer of yours. And anyway, all the best, Alan, Hope, 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:45.600 I'll see you around town and h thank you so much, 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.560 thank you, Thanks, thank you to Brian the Senator, thank 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.200 you very much for coming on. Really appreciate it. Oh 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:56.480 my god, it's always about politics with this one. I'm 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.920 wearing my bathing suit. I'm not wearing a senator. That's 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.120 good to know. We'll go back into the pool. Okay, 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:08.920 talk to you later. Bye bye. Bryant. Isn't Alan all 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:12.040 the nicest person on the planet. He seems like it. 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:14.320 I mean, maybe he's an AX murderer in his private life, 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:17.440 but he seems really, really nice. I think he's nice 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.520 all the time. Anyway, Listeners will be back next week 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.360 with one more Summer Break podcast from the Vaults, but 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:27.520 for now, without further ado, here's Allen's conversation with the 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:37.000 one and only Tina Faye. Enjoy everyone, I'm Alan Alda 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:42.440 and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating. 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:51.080 This conversation is with actor, writer, and producer and amazingly 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:54.880 talented person Tina Fay. You know teen of course, and 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.720 we're work on Saturday Night Live or best selling book 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.440 or movies and also for creating, starring and thirty Rock. 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:04.760 My conversation with Tina took place in front of a 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.840 live audience at the two thousand seventeen World Science Festival. 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:18.360 Good eating, Hi everybody, Hi Allen, how are you? It's 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:20.800 nice to be here on such a Great Day for 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:30.440 science A. Tina was supposed to be interviewing me about 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:34.920 my new book, but like many interviews, many many good interviews, 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.560 it turned out to be just a conversation between the 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:40.480 two of us. I think one of the key attributes 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:44.440 of good communication is people paying attention to each other. 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:48.200 But I mean really paying attention, really listening, not just 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:52.600 having dueling monologues. I'm kind of fascinated by the idea 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.959 that a fundamental tool used by actors, a kind of 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.480 deep listening, can be used by anyone. The way I 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:03.880 learned to was by studying improvisation, and although anyone can 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.640 apply these principles, it's always fun to run into someone 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.200 who learned it the way I did. It turns out 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.840 that Tinea Fa and I both began our careers in 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.360 the field of improvisation, and in fact with the same company, 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.800 the Second City. Tina worked in the Chicago company of 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.760 Second City and I worked in the New York company, 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.400 and we were both trained in improvisation by the great 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:28.240 Violas Boland. But Viola's improv training was not to teach 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.959 us how to be funny. Instead, it was all about 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:35.720 relating and connecting, which, of course is the subject of 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:40.160 these podcasts. At one point in our conversation, I told 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:44.040 Tina what a profound effect Violas Boland's improv training had 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:46.680 had on me, and not just as an actor, but 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.920 in my whole life, and I wondered if she'd felt 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.280 the same way I did. I felt that it was 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:58.479 completely transformatively. The one of the core ideas in improvisation 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.840 is is to agree to say yes, and right to 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.920 agree is the yes, and then the and is to 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.440 contribute something of your own. And it's something that once 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.480 you get in the habit of doing it as an improviser, 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:12.240 I don't know if you find the same thing that 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.079 it's just the way you think about things. And if 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.080 you meet someone in in a work situation or someone 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.079 who who's starting from a place of no, like, well, 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:21.360 I don't think we're going to be able to do 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:23.880 that right, You're just like, oh, why would you? Why 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:28.120 would you start there? So I feel like it really sticks. 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.600 Did you feel the same, Oh? Very much so. Except 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:32.400 once in a while I think about this and I'm 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:36.839 I yes, and comes to mind often when I'm talking 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.880 to somebody. But if I'm talking to somebody who's saying 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:44.480 to me, you know, I was wearing my tinfoil hat 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.920 and it really helps. I want to be able to 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.600 say yes, and then I want to say and you're 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:59.040 completely crazy yes, and he's like yes and goodbye? Yes, 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.200 and oh come is my bus? Yeah, it's my bus 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.880 and we're not even on the street corn, So what 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:09.120 how do you handle that? Well? How do you? How 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:12.520 do you? What do you say yes too? I'm trying 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.520 to think of examples that, you know, for people are working, 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.120 Mostly it's sort of a production question where they'll say like, oh, 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.520 we couldn't possibly you know, we like your idea, but 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.120 we couldn't possibly get that done in time, and this 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:25.880 is not and it was to pause and say, well, 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:28.800 what if we let's just take a minute, and what 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.040 if we did that? You know, you just open your 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:35.360 mind up to being able to get things done. I 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.240 guess I guess it's possible to agree with some underlying 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:42.400 premise to like, yes, that's right, we gotta worry about time. 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:45.320 That's that's so important. Yes, how about if we do 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:48.480 this that we should save some time? Right right? Trying 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.840 to to to be to and to add because in 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.760 so many of us, and I hear myself saying I go, 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:58.200 I get the yes part, and then I say, but yes, 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:04.720 And that's a good substitute for no. Tina asked me 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:06.720 about the work we do with the Older Center for 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:10.720 Communicating Science, because improv is a key part of how 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.600 we trained scientists to talk to the rest of us 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:17.200 clearly and vividly. By now, the team at the Older 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:24.920 Center has trained over twelve thousand scientists. Have any of 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:28.400 the scientists left their careers to pursue improv full time? 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:32.840 You know our in our first in our first group, yes, 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:38.160 we had somebody, but he doesn't do it full time. 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:40.560 And I know a scientist in Israel who is a 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:44.800 great uh computer biologist what do you call it? Computational 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:51.880 biologists who improvises? What is a computational biologist? You stick 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:53.640 your hand in the computer, it tells you what's wrong, 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:59.080 something like that. I don't know. I didn't want to 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:01.240 show off, but I did sort of know that a 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:07.760 computational biologist uses computer algorithms to find patterns in biological systems. 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:09.680 But I wanted to get back to how my friend 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:14.000 the Israeli science is uses improv to help his team communicate. 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:19.400 So he improvises with an improvising troop every week, and 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:23.680 he uses improvising techniques to keep his team in the 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:27.720 in the lab, doing good teamwork and and helping them 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.920 motivate themselves. It's he uses improv the same way we 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.440 teach scientists to do it in our in our courses. Yeah, 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:38.080 you know, I I believe improv can really work miracles. 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:41.520 It can connect people who cannot connect in any other way. 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.720 It uh, it keeps you tethered, It keeps you present, 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.520 and at a time when it's very increasingly difficult for 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.960 us all to be present with each other. Um So, 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.640 I think, my god, you're so smart to to figure 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.320 out that it came out of me. You know. It's 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.000 it's the process of improv is nation. What comes to 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.200 the surface is going to be good no matter what 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.320 it is. And if it turns out to really land 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:09.119 on people and you realize you're doing something, value will 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.840 when you do more of it. Yeah, that's all it is. 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.800 It's just following my nose. I had had to have 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:18.080 a daughter who when she was eight, she used to say, 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:20.920 I would say, I'm cold. My nose is so called 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.280 just sure your nose is cold. The circulation can't get 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:27.000 out that far. Don't you love it when kids are smart? 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:31.280 And why you like that? Yeah, it's not so long 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.840 you you you have an eleven year old, have an 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:36.520 eleven year old and a five year old to daughter, 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.359 and the eleven year old is doing something. Yes, I 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.520 tried to actually was applying a technique from Olen's book 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.359 last night on my eleven year old because she has 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:50.440 a very very large and serious presentation tomorrow about Finland 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:56.080 and I you would think she was trying to pass 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.399 the bar tomorrow, and so she has given eight minute 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:03.000 presentation in and so she she didn't want to do 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.040 it for us again. So anyway, so we we used 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:06.880 the technique in the book and asked her to give 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.000 us the presentation in gibberish, but for us to try 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.679 to still understand it. You know what gibberish is, right, 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:16.720 It sounds like a real language, but it's total nonsense. 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:25.600 I guess most people know what gibberish is, but I 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:28.920 wanted to make sure the audience understood how we use 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:33.159 it in improv Gibberish helps you use your whole body. 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.560 It gets it gets you out of the thing where 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.920 you you communicate. You feel so many of us think 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:44.439 that communication is getting the message right and saying the 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:48.800 exact right words and somehow that communicates what we want 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.719 to communter. In fact, it's everything. It's the tone of voice, 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:55.720 it's the look on our face, it's the body language 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.600 we use. All of that is really contributing an enormous 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:03.000 amount to what we're communicating and it can help the 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:07.160 people get it better. So what you want to do 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.920 a little like, well, we could do a little scene 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:13.800 and and do it in gibberish and make it a game, 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:15.919 because usually these are all in the form of games, 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.439 and you all could try to figure out what the 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:24.119 situation is, Well, who are these two people and what 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:27.000 what's happening between them? You may never get It depends 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:28.800 on how lucky we are. This is what we said 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:32.399 that we're going to do, right, Yeah, this is we have, 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:36.040 like our relationship and a situation which we have not rehearsed. 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:50.159 Because what did you get, George, Nick, you and your 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:56.240 border into the audience is having a little trouble figuring 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.720 out what our relationship is because we're basically just standing 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:05.200 there talking at each other. Our tone of voice isn't 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:09.040 yet communicating what's under the gibberish, and neither is our 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:14.080 body language. I just need. I seem to be imploring 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:19.639 her to do something, but it's not clear what the 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:25.760 list listen to delosophy. Finally, Tina follows a basic rule 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:30.640 in improv. When you're stuck, go to the place. Use 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:35.639 the place what violas Boland calls the where. So Tina 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.480 crosses the stage and does something with what seems to 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:41.080 be some sort of equipment, but I can't tell what 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:44.120 it is because her back is to me. I'm watching 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:47.680 her carefully, and I see her arms moving. I'm trying 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:50.320 to get as much information by observing as I can. 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:54.439 She comes back and she holds out her arms as 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:58.840 if to dance with me. I think she's been turning 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:03.800 on a record player over there, and now we're dancing. Yeah, 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:25.399 Blue Corret, you were for now. We were pretty Russian. 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:30.119 Our our show brush is pretty never know what you 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:33.120 never know? Where was any idea what was going on there? 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.240 Did anyone have any idea who those two people were 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:43.280 to each other, what their relationship might have been? An 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:48.320 old man whipped dementia. I think that was no, not 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:58.560 at all, man, But just keep guessing, neighbors. I want 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:08.800 to go to date teacher. Yes, it was the teacher right, Yes, yes, 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:11.639 wants to go on a date with the students. Was 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:16.280 asking the teacher to go to prom good see. Yeah, 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:19.320 But what's what's fun about this? Regardless of how many 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:22.320 people we conveyed to, what's fun is it was a 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:25.200 very hard thing to do. So we had to find 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:29.399 ways to physicalize it, to communicate it not only to 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:32.359 you watching, but to each other so we could move 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.880 through this encounter that we didn't know where it came 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:38.359 from or where it would go. That was a pretty 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:40.639 hard one. I never did one that hard. That was 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:50.120 a It was a very specific relationship. Sometimes when we're 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:53.600 trying to communicate something difficult, we seem to be speaking 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:57.240 gibberish without even knowing it. That's when we're using some 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:01.720 incomprehensible jargon. We started to talk about that and then 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:04.879 drifted away, but Tina brought us back. Let's talk some 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:08.600 more about jargon. Yeah, and how do you believe it 0:23:08.680 --> 0:23:12.480 to be a curse? In some ways, every day you 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:15.520 run across some kind of jargon, and it makes sense 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:18.359 because if it takes five pages to say something you 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:20.919 can say in one word, then it makes sense to 0:23:21.000 --> 0:23:23.080 use that word as long as you're talking to somebody 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:32.280 who knows what the word means. Yeah, well, thank goodness, 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.520 there's a small group of people who know what that means. 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:44.560 There is scuse. I was like, wow, you go into 0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:46.840 the mat on that one. Do you? How do you 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:54.120 do when you hear scientific jargon? Do terribly? I am? 0:23:54.160 --> 0:23:56.760 I wouldn't. I am do not think of myself as 0:23:56.760 --> 0:23:59.679 a science person. I try not to even say that 0:23:59.720 --> 0:24:02.320 out loud around my daughters because they like science and 0:24:02.320 --> 0:24:04.960 I want them to continue. I take a science took 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:07.639 a science class with both of my daughters. It's like 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:12.080 across the street at the Natural History and I'm I'm 0:24:12.119 --> 0:24:14.280 always wrong, I'm always answering in my head, and I'm 0:24:14.280 --> 0:24:20.160 like Arthur pot Now I'm terrible with her, like I'm 0:24:20.160 --> 0:24:23.600 the Converson. I can't memorize the names of flowers. Oh, 0:24:23.640 --> 0:24:26.040 I'm bad at that too. Wife Arlene is so good 0:24:26.080 --> 0:24:29.639 at that. So I make up names. Wow, look at 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:34.720 that great hydrofloxy. She knows I don't know anything, and 0:24:34.760 --> 0:24:40.359 she just laughs at me. When we come back after 0:24:40.440 --> 0:24:43.119 the break, Tina and I have a little surprise for 0:24:43.200 --> 0:24:46.800 the audience. It's a special guest. I invite up from 0:24:46.800 --> 0:24:50.720 the front growth Brian Green, the well known physicist and 0:24:50.800 --> 0:24:54.200 best settling author. We're going to put him to a test. 0:24:55.040 --> 0:24:57.040 We're going to see if he can explain some pretty 0:24:57.119 --> 0:25:02.320 tough physics to Tina without ever lapsing into jargon and 0:25:02.400 --> 0:25:05.359 the catches. Tina is going to have to actually know 0:25:05.400 --> 0:25:19.120 what he's talking about. This was fun. Stay tuned, you're 0:25:19.119 --> 0:25:22.040 listening to clear and Vivid and now back to my 0:25:22.119 --> 0:25:27.480 conversation with Tina Faye. I bet if we worked on it, 0:25:28.840 --> 0:25:31.879 If we worked on this, we could get somebody to 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:35.200 help you understand something really complicated. You could try. I 0:25:35.240 --> 0:25:37.639 would be a really of a tough customer on it, 0:25:37.680 --> 0:25:39.480 because I'm well be as tough as you tell me. 0:25:39.560 --> 0:25:42.560 I'm gonna just pick somebody who looks like a scientist 0:25:42.560 --> 0:25:50.359