>> This episode of the Modern Rogue
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>> Yeah, you'll look good.
[clicking and static]
How do we explain to everybody that this is going to sound
like we're doing a bunch of kids games,
but secretly this how you become a master communicator?
>> Okay, this is going to sound like were doing
a bunch of kids games, but secretly it's going to help you
become a master communicator.
>> Nailed it.
This guy is good. >> That was good.
[TV static]
>> We're back again with Brian Govatos,
master communications specialist, facilitator,
to the stars. >> I love it.
I love it all, >> Juggler.
>> Yes, yes. [laughing]
>> That's the way I'm going to get.
So your job is to teach people
how to effectively communicate >> Yes.
>> And you've got some games for us that
anybody could play that sound like they're kids games,
but you could do them what, at lunch meetings,
with anybody? >> Oh,
oh yes we've all been in the dreariest of dreary
work place meetings and lunches
and stuff where someone says "lets go have some fun tonight"
with Charles, and Tiffany, oh my god,
we can't have fun with them they're not fun people.
You can have fun with them,
you can make them fun people, with games.
>> So these are secret structures
to keep in your back pocket that the moment you smell
a party that's going nowhere. >> Yes!
>> Sorry that almost looked really weird.
But then you could be like, "why don't we try this?"
>> Yes! Exactly, and they're simple, they are easy,
and they are actually fun, like, for real fun,
no irony at all.
And they help build the skill of
that rapid fire communication without stalling and stumbling
and they help you feel confident in your choice of words.
>> So like improvise explosives, who pooped in the corner.
>> Ted. [laughing]
>> Green Goblin impressions [laughing]
>> That's a good one!
>> Can we please play these dumb games now.
[all laughing]
>> The first one is called Six Categories.
>> Okay. >> This just makes you
go outside of yourself.
This just forces you, I love games that force you,
to think creatively. >> Astral projection,
right on. >> Yes, yes,
>> What am I doing? [laughing]
>> The chakras. [all laughing]
>> Brian, why don't you give me six cars
that have never existed, and we're going to add some
tension to it so come on. >> Okay.
[drumming on legs] >> Oh, remember the Turtle,
>> One!
>> There was, uh, the the Sassy Venezuelan.
>> Two! [laughing]
>> There was the Matador.
>> [Jason and Govatos] Three!
>> There was the Original God.
[laughing] >> The Original God. Four!
>> That would be an amazing car.
>> Coming to you from Chevy, the Original God.
>> There was the >> God Part Two was cool car,
but Original God. [laughing]
>> There was the Robotic Apocalypse
and, >> Oh, five.
>> And there was the Sadness.
>> Six. [laughing]
>> The Sadness? >> That is,
that is harder than you would expect.
>> It is! You get your first three out there
you're like I'm good at this,
my brain runeth empty, I'm going to say God.
>> Oh man, the Sassy Venezuelan was recalled by the way,
it was only a prototype. >> Oh, that's fine,
you play to what you know, play to what you know.
>> So where does that come from?
I couldn't tell you for the life of me
where those came from. >> No!
But I tell you, when you play these games a lot,
your conversations just become a little bit more
interesting all the time. >> Yeah.
>> Because you're able to throw in those kind of,
those frosting on the cake elements
that seem to come from nowhere,
but your brain is starting to wire itself to be
creative and improvisational.
>> I know that one of the core tenets of comedy
is the call back, but you need something to call back to.
>> That's just what changeling would say.
[laughing]
[loud gurgling] [people screaming]
>> Shut up, cyborg. [laughing]
>> I'm a modern cyborg.
>> Callbacks, callbacks.
>> Yeah I love it. [all laughing]
No, this helps you get to those,
generate those amongst coworkers,
amongst family members at the dinner table,
that you can be calling back too later on.
They help build that, tighten that community.
>> Okay, what's another game?
>> Last Five, this is so easy,
and this is so much about proper communication.
Let's just have a conversation about any topic,
let's pick a topic.
From the crew, what's something you'd find in a kitchen?
>> BRUSHWOOD: I heard dentist.
>> Cheese! [laughing]
>> Cheese! >> Cheese.
>> All right, cheese, so guys have a conversation
about cheese real quick just back and forth, normal,
but before you answer, everything you must say,
has to start with the last five words,
the other one ended with.
>> Okay, my favorite cheese are those
super sharp, bitter bastards.
>> So about the last five words or so.
>> Those super sharp bitter, bastards,
are the most delicious thing that you can find,
but sometimes, they smell like feet.
[clears throat]
>> I wonder if anybody >> Sometimes they,
sometimes this. >> Oh sorry.
Sometimes they smell like feet,
which makes me wonder if anybody has accidentally,
nibbled on toes, thinking they were cheese.
[laughing]
>> People nibbling on toes.
>> People nibbling on toes and thinking they're cheese,
is a common problem. >> This is,
>> Among the cannibals. >> Okay.
Okay, okay, okay, gentlemen. [laughing]
>> Sorry.
>> But did you see where that was going,
and how it was building in a way that
other wise it >> It was getting dark,
is where it was going. >> would not have gone, yes.
>> Well it's almost as though, deep in us,
at some kind of subconscious level,
is a bunch of wacky stuff bubbling all around
and by giving your conscious mind,
the restrictive job of focusing on this one task,
>> You have to. >> You have to say something
and that bubbles up from a different part of your brain.
>> And it feels weird to have someone
confirm what you just said.
It feels really strange to hear someone say,
repeat the last thing, you confirmed that you heard me.
>> Yes! Yeah. >> That's the game,
forces you to confirm that we hear each other,
and I'm building on top of it.
>> Yeah, it makes sure that you are actually listening,
>> It really does! >> To what the other person
is saying, rather than just waiting for your turn to speak.
>> So if you have coworkers
or children that struggle with not listening,
I swear to you, this works, and its fun.
>> Really? >> I feel like that's great.
>> Yes. >> Because it's objective,
like yes you've, >> You have a pen?
>> You've failed on your turn, you didn't say
the thing that I just said. >> Yes!
Like which happened, I said, "oh remember he said this."
>> That's right. >> And then you changed
what you were going to say. >> And I corrected, yeah.
>> It was awesome.
>> All right, what else?
>> Okay next, we have Three Line Characters.
So this is, okay, give me an adjective?
>> Morose.
>> Give me a noun.
>> Pineapple.
>> Okay so, just give me three things
a morose pineapple might say.
>> I wish SpongeBob didn't live in me.
>> One! [laughing]
>> I don't know that's basically one and done.
[all laughing]
>> That's, I mean, that's it, and I say three
because that's what we practice on stage with performers,
but honestly, one is enough
when you have workplace people,
and they don't want, you don't want to
make them uncomfortable.
If you can just get one like that, that's so funny,
that's awesome! >> This is great this is great!
All right, what's another?
>> A joke telling game.
Groaners bond people together.
The most bonding, comedic element are the popsicle jokes.
because we can all hate them together.
When someone says I have this great joke,
you're worried what if I don't get it,
what if it, or what if I hate it,
do I have to laugh?
But if we know it sucks, we can all hate it together.
This is a joke telling game,
that's all about groaners. >> Oh like, watching an episode
of The Modern Rogue! [all laughing]
>> Sorry.
>> You know what Mario's overalls are made of?
>> There it is. >> No, what are they made of?
>> Denim, denim, denim.
No, no, no, no, no, no, also recycled, not as good.
>> A mushroom walks into a bar,
and the bartender says, "we don't serve your kind here"
and he says "eh, come on, I'm a fungi."
>> First of all that's exactly the joke telling
game I was going to go for. >> All right, a neutron
walks into a bar, orders a beer, drinks the beer,
bartender says, "for you, no charge."
>> Ah, nerd!
>> So you guys have played this game?
>> Well we've lived it.
>> So, it, you're doing it perfectly, its called 185.
185 blanks walk into a bar,
the bartender says, "we don't serve blanks here,"
and the blanks say.
>> Well why did you make it racist, Brian?
>> Wait, what? [all laughing]
>> That took a hard turn!
I'm sorry to any blankish people watching,
I didn't mean offend the blank community.
[laughing]
>> Well, and that structure is so familiar,
that all you need to do is a thing that something is,
the structure of walking into a bar,
a thing they say that >> Yeah, being turned away
>> Somehow refers to their, the original thing.
>> Yes, so again, an item from the kitchen,
again from the crew please, any item from the kitchen.
>> A knife! >> A knife.
>> 185 knives walk into the bar,
a bartender begins to,
oh I got nothing.
[laughing] Wait, wait, wait.
What do you do when you fail?
>> So, the structure, that's fine, you applaud,
you applaud failure,
because that's the only way this this works,
is by people feeling comfortable failing.
185 knives walk into bar,
bartender says, "we don't serve knives here,"
and the knives say, "ah, fork you."
Okay so whatever, they're supposed to be groaners,
so they're, oh okay, next up is ya know,
the general manager is going to say one,
or the kid's going to say one.
We all are comfortable making them groaners
as long as you know the structure.
>> What's interesting is in a group setting,
as people are either winning or failing,
everybody is in their own head, thinking like oh,
I've got to come up, and so. >> Yes, yes,
and that will start happening like popcorn,
people will say, "I got one for knives!
I've got one for knives!"
They want to, they want to shine.
>> And you're invested in what people say,
whether they lose or win.
>> Yes, there's no losing and winning about it,
it's perfect, it's all-- >> 185 knives walk into a bar!
>> Wow, okay. >> The bartender says,
"well hello to yee old Renaissance Festival,
I see you're all, oh no get out."
"Wait, what, whats wrong," says the knives,
and he says, I thought you were knaves.
[soft clapping]
>> No? No.
>> That's bad, oh. >> That's exactly the design.
We can put, I think-- >> I landed it!
>> That one plays better at the
Austin Historical Weapons Guild.
>> How about a simple, simple, simple, simple one okay?
Dinner table, doesn't matter how old your kids are,
alphabet, okay let's just say the topic is
wood working, and all we need to do
is each continue telling sentences
one letter of the alphabet at a time.
>> Okay >> So let's start,
we'll start with D, okay?
Darn it, I broke the shed again. E,
>> Except, I discovered that there were
a bunch of dead bodies in there.
>> Naturally. F,
>> Freaking smelly bunch they were.
>> Goo, goo, gaga! [laughing]
>> How in the hell do you get that corpses,
in that small of a square footage?
>> I handled this once, let me make a call, I know a guy.
>> Jokes on you, I already did.
>> Oh!
>> Killing's my business. >> All right,
before we admit to something we don't want to.
>> Suddenly we're at the police station,
police are playing, they're like,
"then I administered brutality."
>> Oh!
>> No, L is the next one.
>> Oh, sorry. [laughing]
>> Stickler for the rules. This is easy.
It's just the alphabet game,
around any kind of party table, any dinner table, it works.
>> And I guess it always ends with zebras, am I right?
>> Yes, well yeah or you can start at m, and then go
all the way back around to m, something like that, yeah.
>> Do we have anymore?
>> Okay I have one more, it's going to be
a little bit more difficult to achieve in this space,
but I know you're nothing if not adventurous.
>> It's called Hot Spot.
This one will make people a little bit more uncomfortable,
because it involves singing.
You start singing anything you like, anything,
I don't care if it's the ABCs,
or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
The moment we are triggered by a word in that song,
or a theme or a melody, we rescue him from that hot spot.
He's in the hot spot right now, singing a song.
And we rescue him by, we start singing,
It's really team building,
So we need to rescue you before you've run out.
>> So it's a song that exists.
>> Yes, a real song >> Do I have to,
do I make up the words for it?
>> Yeah, no, you can sing a real song,
one, your favorite song.
>> All right, [Clears throat]
♪ You're wondering who I am secret secret ♪
♪ I've got a secret machine or man it can secret secret ♪
♪ I've got a secret with parts made in japan ♪
♪ Secret secret I've got a secret ♪
♪ I am the modern man, dun dun ts ♪
♪ Now's a good time for someone to save me ♪
♪ I've got a secret ♪ >> See, this is exactly
what you should be doing.
♪ I've been hiding under my skin ♪
>> Hiding, skin, skin, hiding, skin.
♪ My heart is human ♪ >> Machines, Japan even Japan
♪ My blood is boiling ♪
♪ My brain IBM ♪
♪ If I only had a brain, oh I could tell you why ♪
♪ The ocean's near the shore ♪
♪ I could think of things I never thunk before ♪
♪ and then I'd sit [blows raspberry] and think some more ♪
♪ My head, oh ♪ ♪ Think, ♪
♪ think about what you're trying to do to me ♪
♪ You better save, save me really fast because you see ♪
♪ I don't really know the words to this Aretha Franklin song ♪
♪ but I watched "The Blues Brothers" once a long time ago ♪
>> I'm terrible at this!
[ all laughing]
>> That, we saved that one for the end,
That's the end of the party for the people
who are really sticking it out can play Hot Spot.
>> Can I? >> You're great at this!
>> That was hard, [laughing]
I'm sweating now!
>> I know how nervous are you, like we're just,
cause you're watching the matrix of opportunities
float by as he says words,
and there's like, I wanted, no that's gone,
oh no that's gone. >> Yep, yeah.
But I've heard songs before. >> And I will say,
its very hard with just three people.
When you have eight people in a circle,
>> Oh, and more people are thinking
and make more connections. >> More people are thinking
and it just happens, yeah.
>> Also booze.
>> Can I give you a gift that I discovered,
and I didn't mean for this to be
part of this episode. >> Say no, say no.
>> But it is so good, I just want to share it with the world.
There is a website called talktotransformer.com
>> You showed me this. >> Yes!
>> What was my reaction, I think I nearly fainted.
>> Well I think you were upset because you realized
that improv actors can be replaced by robots.
>> Instantly, and better!
>> So its a neural net AI,
and you feed it pretty much anything,
and it just keeps on going,
it just tries to figure out the rest.
Takes some hard left turns, but here's the thing,
last week I figured out
that if you put in the beginning of a song,
it just fills up these insane other lyrics.
It's like, I haven't laughed this hard
since Mad Libs when I was in second grade.
I put it out on Twitter,
people started sending me some of their favorites.
I need you to sing this song.
♪ A little ditty 'bout Jack and Diane ♪
♪ Two American kids grownin' up in the heartland ♪
♪ Jack's going to be a football star ♪
♪ Diane debutante in the back seat of Jacky's car ♪
♪ Diane want to kiss the kid ♪
♪ Jack stops her ♪
♪ Hey Diane once not right for me ♪
♪ Then Jacky says sorry do you know Diane drops down ♪
♪ Come on Jenny ♪
♪ I can introduce to the ever friendly Diane and her romeo ♪
♪ You'll fall in love ♪
Some kissing.
♪ Diane getting her twine ♪
♪ That's why there's so much sex in there ♪
♪ Ah much better ♪
Smiley face?
[laughing]
♪ And that's my young love scenes in French ♪
♪ Oh yeah life goes on ♪
>> I don't know how Australia's national anthem goes,
but somebody put the first four lines
of Australia's national anthem,
this how we ride it out,
all of us have to sing what we think
the national anthem is. >> Triumphantly.
>> The first four lines are real,
everything else is computer generated,
but it's important, I want you to imagine
this before a soccer game,
10,000 Australians all gathered together to sing.
[clears throat]
>> JASON: Oh, apologies in advance.
♪ Australians all let us rejoice ♪
♪ For we are young and free ♪
♪ We've golden soil and wealth for toil ♪
♪ Our home is girt by sea ♪
♪ We will die today ♪
♪ But our fighting hearts will die ♪
♪ The sky is now red ♪
♪ The fires in the skies burn hot ♪
♪ We dream of valor ♪
♪ We dream of war ♪
♪ We dream of killing the enemy ♪
♪ We dream of defeating the gods ♪
♪ Destroying the antichrist ♪
♪ We plan to die on the field ♪
♪ We plan to die on the battlefield ♪
♪ In the Empire of Light ♪
♪ In our own way we rise ♪
♪ Lead us in your battles ♪
♪ Our world is yours to control ♪
♪ Now the universe has come to rest ♪
♪ The vortex has thundered down ♪
♪ The heroes have won ♪
♪ Now we pray ♪
>> I'm moving at Australia because that is bad ass!
[laughing]
>> Oh my god, these have been fantastic.
Brian, where can people learn more about all of your stuff?
>> So uh, methodologycoaching.com
or follow me on Twitter @briangovatos.
This is ridiculous.
>> All right there we go,
boom, boom, boom. >> Boom!
>> Metal!
>> All right.
Hey Jason, ya know what a whole bunch of people
are doing right now?
>> Sitting at home?
>> Yes, but, >> Watching Modern Rogue?
>> Yeah well, yes, and, a few of these people
are finally making their dreams come true.
They suddenly have a little bit of free time,
they have a message that they want to give the world,
and what they lack is the ability to know
how to do the html, all the fancy web stuff.
What they need is a service
that will let them share their message to the world
with a beautiful award winning design,
scalable infrastructure, and the ability for anybody
to get the word out and look awesome doing it.
Name one service that can do that?
>> Jimmy Nunchucks Online, nunchuck distributors.
The greatest wholesale nunchuck distributor
in the western hemisphere.
>> I am absolutely certain that it is all of those things,
I noticed that you didn't mention it's ability to create
beautiful award winning designed websites,
that can reach the entire world.
>> Okay, we don't quite have that ability yet,
yes this is my little side gig,
but we're getting there.
Maybe, we should probably use Squarespace.
>> Jason, tell the truth, all of this secretly
a re-skinning of the service from Squarespace.
You went to squarespace.com/rogue,
you signed up for a free trial,
you used promo code ROGUE at checkout
to get 10% off your first order,
and now you're just reselling it
under this weird nunchuck thing.
>> Everybody needs some nunchucks in states where it's legal.
>> Eh, I got this.
If you want beautiful websites without the nunchucks,
head on over to squarespace.com/rogue
sign up for a free trial, use promo code ROUGE at checkout,
get 10% off, keep us in business.
>> And buy some nunchucks, we've got them in a bundle,
We got buy six get one free right now.
You pick the colors!
Except for blue, we're out of blue.
>> Go to Australia. >> We die today.
[all laughing]
>> And defeat the gods, and the antichrist.
>> In the fields, and the battlefields
>> Man, its like the other team just leaves,
they're all like, too much! Too much!
>> Too much. I think they meant it.
>> We don't want to mess with the Australians.
>> Wow.
[wind blowing]