Michael Karnjanaprakorn

I think Chris Rock is the funniest dude on the planet, period.  There’s a lot of things that I don’t find funny like #77 on Stuff White People Like – Musical Comedies.  Every now and then, I’ll pop in Bigger and Blacker, and I’ll be ROFL.  Seriously.  Laughing so hard I almost pull a muscle in my stomach.

“There are only three things women need in life: food, water, and compliments.”

Harvard Business Review just published an article titled “Innovate Like Chris Rock” which goes over the process and tactics of Chris Rock in becoming the most popular comedian in the world.

There is no doubt he’s got enormous talent, but 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.

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 told 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.”

Experimental innovators don’t overanalyze or put all of their hopes into one big bet – they quickly, creatively, and inexpensively use experiments to learn, gather insights, and identify unique opportunities – they then rapidly iterate, relearn, and refine to achieve success.

What’s your boxing training camp?  How do you test your ideas?  How do you know what will work?  When entrepreneurs generate ideas, I think it’s extremely important to test your ideas and get feedback on them as well.  Here’s some ideas on how to screen through your ideas.

1. Create a list. Capture all of your ideas and write a one-sentence blurb about them.
2. Share your ideas. Show the list to your friends, advisors, mentors, etc.  Publish the list on your blog.
3. Resonate. Ask your friends to pick their favorite ones and flush out the ideas that resonate.
4. Repeat. Take the short list back to your friends and ask them to poke holes in your idea.
5. Execute. Take action on the ones that make it through the ringer.  Throw the rest out or add them to your backburner.