- You know, like James Brown said, if you stay ready,
you ain't got to get ready.
So when they said, "Hey, you want audition for who's line?"
I said, sure.
Can you do this?
Yes.
Can you do that?
Yes.
Can you do this?
Yes.
Okay, hired.
(upbeat music)
- What were those early years like for you kind of
honing your craft?
Like once you really, put your flag in the ground
and said, I want to do this, how did you start
really building that foundation to grow from?
- You are only as good an actor
as you are filled with knowledge.
Whether it be life knowledge
or whether it be book knowledge that you've gleaned
and things that you absorbed.
And I say that because you have to be a student
of psychology.
I have to be able to look at characters.
I have to be able to look at people,
especially doing comedy.
I have to be able to look at someone
and go, oh, I can do that guy that I saw
in line at the grocery store, because it'd be funny.
So I'm gonna do the hunchback
and then my glasses, the whole thing.
So I kind of absorbed those things.
Then because I could sing, I could hear voices.
And so I could start doing impressions.
I could turn those into characters.
So I worked at Disney.
I worked at Universal.
I was a character.
I started off as Goofy and Tigger
I was a singer dancer there
and did singing, dancing shows at Universal.
And I was a Ghostbuster when the park first opened
up in the Ghostbuster show.
I was a percussionist.
And I was a break dancer in a street crew.
- We're talking range.
This is range to go from (laughing).
- It is range but also survival because I'm on my own.
I got a gig.
I have to learn to do all these things,
but it's absorbing all that stuff.
I never said no to a gig because I didn't know what
the gig was gonna give me.
Whatever they asked of me I wanted to be able to do.
And so I embodied that yes and of the improvisational space.
So I really attribute any success that I've had now
in the subsequent years with everything that I did
in Orlando for the first few years,
because that set the stage.
- Really breaking down the science behind how
improvisation is great for creativity.
There are parts of your brain like where your inhibition
is lowered, and that just makes you feel less
self-aware less conscious of something
and you you're allowed to just let go.
From that experience of improv,
like what would you say you walked away with?
- I walked away with a super power that I didn't know
that I had to the degree that I had.
- So let's hear the astronaut hoedown.
- The audience is waiting for you to not succeed.
The audience goes, Oh my God Margaret
because I don't know how they aren't going to do it.
♪ Let me tell you something my girlfriend now was a slob ♪
♪ But now look who's laughing ♪
♪ Astronaut is my job ♪
♪ Flying around the universe ♪
♪ That is my duty ♪
♪ I even made a pit stop in Mars and got some Martian booty. ♪
In that split second, you have to be able to pull
up your computer screen in your head
and go space shuttle, space, troposphere, gravity,
centrifuge, space suit, Tang, boots.
John Glenn, all of that has got to hit you in that second.
And now we start doing the scene
and now I've got to listen to you.
- Smoke would be coming out of my ears at that point,
cause I feel like my brain can not process like that.
- As that show went on,
I gained a confidence and a skill level that I'd never had
because I never invested in it.
Then once I started investing in it
then I started going, okay, well
if I'm going to be doing this show and I'm going to be known
for this thing, I just don't want to be a guy that does it.
I want to be the benchmark that, Oh, improv music or improv.
You need to mention my name.
(soft music)
There's a certain thing that I have that I know.
If you throw me into any situation
something will come out of my mouth.
I'm not always going to promise
that it'll be the most brilliant thing
but something will come out of my mouth.
And the best thing is I now have a confidence
that maybe the first thing won't be the best thing,
but that second and third thing.
Oh yeah.
So those are life skills.
Being able to do improvisation has taught me life skills.
It's taught me to walk in my own skin.
Being one of the improvisers of color
that has a notoriety has taught me to walk
in my own skin.
To claim something.
At the end of the day, it is a skill.
It is a hard earned skill.
It is a creative muscle that has to be worked and nurtured.
And it's valued by some people
because not everyone can do it.
So if I have to impart one word of advice
to anyone watching, you have to let yourself have fun.
You can't wait for the creative police
to come knocking at your door
and tell you that you can.
You are free citizen.
Go.