from Harvard Business Review Blog
Chris Rock has become the most popular comedian in the world and while there is no doubt he’s got enormous talent – his brilliance also comes from the fact that he’s an experimental innovator. The jokes he rolls out on his global tours are actually the output of thousands of small experiments – some of which worked, but many of which did not.
We can all create like Chris Rock. Consider his process and methods.
First, he picks small venues where he can do rapid, low-risk experiments with new material. In gearing up for his latest global tour, he made between 40 and 50 appearances at a small venue called the Stress Factory in New Brunswick, New Jersey, not far from where he lives. Rock says the Orange Country Register, “It’s like boxing training camp. I always pick a comedy club to work out in.”
In front of audiences of say 30 to 40 people, Rock will bring a yellow legal note pad with lots of joke ideas scribbled on it, according to fellow comedian Matt Ruby. In sets that run say 45 minutes, many of the jokes will fall flat, but according to Ruby, “There were 5-10 lines during the night that were just ridiculously good. Like lightning bolts. My sense is that he starts with these bolts and then writes around them.”
It’s all part of a process. When the material falls flat, Rock will even pause to say things like, “This needs to be fleshed out more if it’s gonna make it.”
Believe it or not, Chris Rock innovates like Amazon does. Amazon led by founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has continuously used experiments to identify unique growth opportunities beyond the company’s core book business – such as the Kindle, Amazon stores, and elastic cloud computing.
Rock doesn’t overanalyze or put all of his hopes into developing a routine in front of his bathroom mirror – he quickly, dynamically, and inexpensively uses experiments to learn, gather insights, and identify unique opportunities – then rapidly iterates, relearns, and refines to create a new show that brings people to tears around the world.
Chris Rock has become the king of comedy, but getting to his final product doesn’t happen in a vacuum – he’s an experimental innovator and we can all learn from his process.
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