Will Anderson is one of Australia's most experienced comedians and if you've ever seen him on TV or been to one of his stand up shows, he makes being funny seem effortless. But something Will has learned from performing comedy for over twenty five years is that his job isn't just to be funny. His job is to be funny when the red light comes on. So what is Will's approach to turning it on when he's having a bad day and how has he come to relish difficult times rather than dread them. My name is doctor amanthe Immer. I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium, and this is how I work a show about how to help you do your best work. On today's my Favorite Tip episode, will you go back to an interview from the past and I pick out my favorite tip from the interview. In today's show, I speak with Will Anderson about how he puts on a great show even when he's having a rough day. When you're well into a tour of a show and you're having a day or days where you are just not feeling like getting on stage and making people laugh for an hour. How how are you getting into the state that you need to be at.

Will Anderson is one of Australia's most experienced comedians and if you've ever seen him on TV or been to one of his stand up shows, he makes being funny seem effortless. But something Will has learned from performing comedy for over twenty five years is that his job isn't just to be funny. His job is to be funny when the red light comes on. So what is Will's approach to turning it on when he's having a bad day and how has he come to relish difficult times rather than dread them. My name is doctor amanthe Immer. I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium, and this is how I work a show about how to help you do your best work. On today's my Favorite Tip episode, will you go back to an interview from the past and I pick out my favorite tip from the interview. In today's show, I speak with Will Anderson about how he puts on a great show even when he's having a rough day. When you're well into a tour of a show and you're having a day or days where you are just not feeling like getting on stage and making people laugh for an hour. How how are you getting into the state that you need to be at.

I think it's we might sound weird to people, but it's actually the opposite. It's it's the easiest when you're not having a hard when you're not having a good time. They people think that, I mean, look that this is an oversimplification, of course, because but life is hard more often than it is easy. I think for everybody. Really, you know, if you can only perform in perfect conditions, whatever your job might be, then it's probably a hobby not a job. You know, Roy and HG. You know, I learned something from them very early on. They were telling me a story that said they would often have, you know, someone come up to me and say, my mates when they get together are funnier talking about sport than you guys are. And they said, yeah, that's probably true. We're just good at doing it when the red light comes on, And that is absolutely true. Everyone listening to this will have a friend who's funnier than me because they know all your stories and they can reference that time that you know, you got too drunk or you know, whatever happened, and they're hilarious. The job of the professional comedian is to be able to be funny when the red light comes on. And so I often think the job is it's not about creating perfect conditions, for it is about your capacity to do it when the conditions aren't perfect. That separates the people who are hobbyist from the people who are professionals. And so, if anything, I find it Barry Humphrey is it's a bit unfashionable, unfashionable to quote Barry Humphries these days, but I think this is a great insight. He was once asked about, you know, what's it like to walk out on stage in front of three thousand people? What thought is going through your mind? And he said, ah, alone at last? And I think that's right. It's not entirely true, but there is something about being on stage in that moment where you cannot be thinking about anything else, you know, the very nature of having to do your job. In that moment, you can get lost in the communication that you are having with the audience doing the show. You can't be thinking about whether you left the iron on, or the problems of your day, or what's going on in your life, or even the world. In a way, and it's such a safe space, you know, like Mark Marin quotes this that I don't think he was the person who originally says it, which is comedians become comedians so that they can control how people laugh at them. And I think that there is we all are aware that people are going to laugh at us, But when you're on stage, you're in control. I could be talking about the darkest things or the most desperate state of the world, but I'm in control of it, you know, for at least that hour, I am in control of it. And so the idea of whether you've had a bad day, or whether your life is falling apart or terrible, or whether the state of the world is particularly terrible. In some ways, they're my favorite times to do stand up and I think it's probably why I missed it so desperately when the world was going through such hard times, is that I didn't have that.

I think it's we might sound weird to people, but it's actually the opposite. It's it's the easiest when you're not having a hard when you're not having a good time. They people think that, I mean, look that this is an oversimplification, of course, because but life is hard more often than it is easy. I think for everybody. Really, you know, if you can only perform in perfect conditions, whatever your job might be, then it's probably a hobby not a job. You know, Roy and HG. You know, I learned something from them very early on. They were telling me a story that said they would often have, you know, someone come up to me and say, my mates when they get together are funnier talking about sport than you guys are. And they said, yeah, that's probably true. We're just good at doing it when the red light comes on, And that is absolutely true. Everyone listening to this will have a friend who's funnier than me because they know all your stories and they can reference that time that you know, you got too drunk or you know, whatever happened, and they're hilarious. The job of the professional comedian is to be able to be funny when the red light comes on. And so I often think the job is it's not about creating perfect conditions, for it is about your capacity to do it when the conditions aren't perfect. That separates the people who are hobbyist from the people who are professionals. And so, if anything, I find it Barry Humphrey is it's a bit unfashionable, unfashionable to quote Barry Humphries these days, but I think this is a great insight. He was once asked about, you know, what's it like to walk out on stage in front of three thousand people? What thought is going through your mind? And he said, ah, alone at last? And I think that's right. It's not entirely true, but there is something about being on stage in that moment where you cannot be thinking about anything else, you know, the very nature of having to do your job. In that moment, you can get lost in the communication that you are having with the audience doing the show. You can't be thinking about whether you left the iron on, or the problems of your day, or what's going on in your life, or even the world. In a way, and it's such a safe space, you know, like Mark Marin quotes this that I don't think he was the person who originally says it, which is comedians become comedians so that they can control how people laugh at them. And I think that there is we all are aware that people are going to laugh at us, But when you're on stage, you're in control. I could be talking about the darkest things or the most desperate state of the world, but I'm in control of it, you know, for at least that hour, I am in control of it. And so the idea of whether you've had a bad day, or whether your life is falling apart or terrible, or whether the state of the world is particularly terrible. In some ways, they're my favorite times to do stand up and I think it's probably why I missed it so desperately when the world was going through such hard times, is that I didn't have that.

If you enjoyed this excerpt of my chat with Well, then you might want to go and listen to the whole episode, which you can find a link to in the show notes. If you're looking for more tips to improve the way that you work. I write a short fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things that I've discovered that helped me work better, ranging from software and gadgets that I'm having three to interesting research findings. You can sign up for that at Howiwork dot co. That's how I Work dot co. Thank you for sharing part of your day with me by listening to How I Work. If you're keen for more tips on how to work better, connect with me via LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just search for Amantha Imba. How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of the Warrangery people, part of the Cool And Nation. I am so grateful for being able to work and live on this beautiful land, and I want to pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging. How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support from Dead Set Studios, and thank you to Martin Nimba who did the audio mix and makes everything sound better than it would have otherwise.

If you enjoyed this excerpt of my chat with Well, then you might want to go and listen to the whole episode, which you can find a link to in the show notes. If you're looking for more tips to improve the way that you work. I write a short fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things that I've discovered that helped me work better, ranging from software and gadgets that I'm having three to interesting research findings. You can sign up for that at Howiwork dot co. That's how I Work dot co. Thank you for sharing part of your day with me by listening to How I Work. If you're keen for more tips on how to work better, connect with me via LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just search for Amantha Imba. How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of the Warrangery people, part of the Cool And Nation. I am so grateful for being able to work and live on this beautiful land, and I want to pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging. How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support from Dead Set Studios, and thank you to Martin Nimba who did the audio mix and makes everything sound better than it would have otherwise.