Recently at a corporate team building workshop, we were playing I AM A TREE. In this game we build a Tableau of scenes, one at a time. First player says, I AM A TREE. Next, I am the bird sitting in the tree. Eventually, we have a picture, a story filled with connected characters and things. This leads to another story and another.

After each initial offer, the formula is I AM THE (fill in the blanknwith a person or thing) THAT IS (fill in with how you connect to the story)

At some point the lady that hired me says, I AM THE TEA BAG. When folks don’t say how they connect, I say THAT IS WHAT…

We hear a couple chuckles. Perhaps you already have a few ideas. I have the mind of a 5yo so I know exactly what was going on. I was ready to move on. But the guy felt the need to explain himself. That is where he went wrong.

I have 20+ years experience as a comedian AND performing for families and k12 schools. I see this as going wrong in two ways.

1. From a comedy stand point. GO BIG OR GO HOME. If you are going to make a tea bagging joke. Go there. COMEDY 101, never explain yourself, unless that is part of the joke, the routine, the story. When jokes go bad, double down or move on. Comedians bomb all the time. Good comedians can bomb on a joke and still make the crowd love them. Own the good the bad and the ugly. Jack Benny and Johnny Carson were masters at telling bad jokes.
2. From a corporate HR point of view, he should followed my lead and just moved on. We cannot control how we think. Over time we can train ourselves to be more focused, be more positive, educate ourselves, etc. But we all have thoughts that catch us off guard. Too often, usually because of ego and insecurity, we get stuck on certain thoughts. A few too many have zero filter regardless the audience. But when there are kids around most curb sharing certain thoughts or jokes.

I don’t think of it as censoring myself. I frame it as presenting great theater, never bad comedy.

I also teach my comedy students, raunchy humor is popular in the clubs, but clubs usually don’t pay that great. Unless you are a top tier comic that can sell out theaters doing YOUR thing, your bank account is best when you work clean.

But I don’t work kiddie. I have a very successful family and k12 educational outreach program because of my style of comedy. I reach many middle school students because I play rock n roll over the top. I explain to teachers and parents, the “kids” FEEL like they are watching MTV or HBO, but the content is Disney and NICK.

My edgy rock n roll vibe makes the show fun for all. My success is the teachers and parents are not sitting through tedious kid stuff.

And, because I have certain style, very often I hear from the shadows at the club, “HA. I know what you are thinking!” Often times, I am not thinking anything double entendre. That one guy (usually a guy) went there in his head. That’s the beauty of improv. Like impressionist or most modern art, the final story is up to the imagination if the beholder. Our words and movements paint with broad strokes. The movie in everyone’s head varies.

No back to the above example.

1. If this is a comedy show for all adults GO THERE. Don’t have a side convo with your best buddy. Go loud and proud. In my style I would make the joke and then shrink. I do a lot of self deprecating humor, or playing inappropriate characters. I highlight bigotry to demonstrate how awful it is. I detest it so I play distasteful characters and make fools of them.
2. If this is a show with kids. I do one of two things. At a school, I simply smile at the joke in my head and move on (I have zero ego and insecurity about it. I dont need to fish for the laugh of others.) OR, I send a certain look out to the back of the room, a signal to all the adults in the room, there’s more potential to this moment but I am not going there.

Unlike this blog, theater and film are visual means. If a picture paints a 1000 words, a glance offers at least a few dozen. You can pack so much into that moment. The moment passes, but that audience member that catches it is now engaged on a other level.

The BIGGEST mistake the guy made in the moment was explaining the moment. From a place of ego and insecurity (to me, two sides of the same horrible destructive coin) he felt the need to explain himself. I merely admitted, “I would be lying if I said I didn’t think of the joke.”

But making that joke is going to make someone in the room uncomfortable. To an extent at 10pm at the comedy club, no problem. At 2pm at a work event, not good.

My #1 Rule is HAVE FUN but NEVER at another’s expense!

It’s not about worrying about offending someone. It’s not about being “WOKE”. It is not about being appropriate at the office. Not in my eye.

For me, I want to include all in the fun. Certain jokes alienate entire groups. I don’t even play many problematic characters anymore.

Many audiences don’t have the nuance to distinguish racism and playing a racist to show how horrible they are. In a scripted work, you can script the set up and payoff of the horribke characters. In Improv we don’t have the tools to guarentee getting it just right, especially when your scene partner doesn’t pick up on what you are trying to do. My goal is to showcase how horrible bigotry is. I detest it. On EVERY level, in EVERY form. Too many think I am trying to sneak in my own bigotry. So it just doesn’t pay to go there.

AND a simple glance without explanation in the moment will get the joke you want to tell across in a far more clever manor.

Imagine a lot of horror films. We have 100 yeara of jump scares, with axe murderers, demons and creepy kids behind the door, around the corner or creeping up behind us. We have an entore cataloged of Hitchcock and similar suspense films. In 2026, most horror directors/ editors never even need to show you some special effect. The audience is trained for them. The moment before, filled with a scared character, the proper film angles, lighting and mood settings sound track is all our imagination needs ot get hooked.

Trust your audiences to do their job.

So at work do what I do at k5 schools: HAVE FUN! Don’t tip toe. Focus on great story, great theater. Know that most of the jokes you hear at the bar or locker room have no place in the office. To be honest, they are all eye roller groaned, not great jokes. Don’t be driven by ego and insecurity. Focus on the work. Focus on making others look amazing. Focus on ACCEPTING and SUPPORTING (YES AND… The #1 rule in Improv). Focus on LISTENING (The #1 skill in comedy, leadership, team, sales, life…).

Never TRY to be funny. TRYING is a reflection of yiur ego and insecurity. Trying to be funny, clever, relevant, etc. A rare few skip the line leading with ego and arrogance. If you don’t have nepotism on your side, you are just a fool.

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Improv Theater LLC is a one stop edutainment center for corporate team building, office / holiday parties and more. Our comedy shows and workshops deliver high impact results. Clients include Cushman Wakefield, Google, Merck, Mercedes Benz, META /Facebook, TikTok, JP Morgan Chase, Accenture, Morgan Stanley, Twitter, Roblox, Rimowa, EI Digital, Accenture, Datadog HQ, Milbank, BING/Microsoft, Bank of America – Merrill Lynch, Home Depot, Ernst & Young, Johnson & Johnson, Louis Vuitton, Coach, UBS, BDO, AMEX, Master Card, Macy’s, 360i, IBM, GM, Kraft, UNILEAVER, HBO, Disney, American Express, WeWork, Prudential, Convene, Conference Board and many more including 1000s of public and private events in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska….