In case you forgot...I am not in the States right now. I don't have cable, or a television for that matter. I can't get my daily netflix movies. I can't use Pandora for music. Most of the internet sources of entertainment are blocked from users outside of the US. But not all of them.
A few items that we have been able to access are full episodes of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as well as NPR radio. For those that don't know, The Daily Show is a satire political news program and NPR is a highly political news radio station.
The two crossed paths today for me as I listened to an interview of Jon Stewart on NPR. Most of it was, surprise surprise, politically related. But he made some interesting comments on the creative process as well. He was speaking on how his show's team come up with the comedy for each episode when he said,
"I am a real believer in that creativity comes from limits, not freedom. With freedom I think you don't know what to do with yourself, but when you have a structure, then you can improvise off it and feel confident enough to come back to that."
Jon Stewart
Interview on Fresh Air from WHYY
Oct 04, 2010
Aired on NPR
We have all heard the discussion of artists and creativity when combined with either structure or a loose working schedule. There are some that say they cannot force creativity, so they just wait for the "moment" of creativity to hit them. Others say that if you are a true professional artist, you cannot simply wait for creativity to come, you must foster it with discipline.
I align myself more with those that value structure and discipline. It's never fun to take those first steps into "forcing" creativity, but you have to take them in order to regularly create. I found it very interesting to hear from a person who has a completely different type of creative product (comedy), but that he feels the same way about the creative process.
You can listen to the entire interview of Jon Stewart, here.
Photo Courtesy
Related Articles
My Forever Love - creativity and inspiration go hand in hand, this is a story of an inspiration of mine
Unfinished Idea - and when creativity fails you, just ask others what to do
Buying Art Supplies in Europe - having a ready stock of supplies always helps me with creativity
I 100% agree with you! Discipline as a very valuable place in the creative process, as well as character building in general.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more about structure and making ourselves work even when we don't feel that creative spark. I read recently that creativity comes when we're working. Telling ourselves we're waiting for it is just giving power to resistance and in the end you'll always be waiting. I've been listening to NPR too! And now I'm also addicted to Radio Lab, affiliated with NPR but more on science than politics.
ReplyDeleteSo true...I also think that restrictions on materials creates more creativity too. John Stewart has many great things to say. I listen a lot to Air America which may stream on the web...
ReplyDeleteIf I have materials around I can always find something creative to do. I also believe that creativity is driven by discipline. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree - it's really important to have some structure and discipline otherwise you'll never get anything accomplished. I admit that sometimes ideas just don't come together when I'm not in the mood, but if I put it aside and come back to it later, it at least serves as an exercise of what I don't want it to look like and I move forward from there.
ReplyDeleteI've been a huge fan of Jon Stewart for many years - love him! :)