Ep 62: Colin Follenweider: One of Hollywood’s top stuntmen

Colin Follenweider is one of the top professional stuntmen in Hollywood. He has performed stunts in Spider-Man, Transformers, Iron Man, X-Men, Captain America, Avatar, and Die Hard and has 86 total stunt credits to his name.

 

Some interesting insights from this episode:

  • He is one of Hollywood’s top stuntmen and has performed stunts in dozens of blockbuster films.
  • It’s good to know the direction you’re heading, even if you’re not sure of the ultimate destination.
  • His motto was “Action, Inspiration”. If you always wait for inspiration to hit, you’re going to keep waiting.  But if you start doing something, you’re going to get inspired how to do it.
  • He wasn’t necessarily the best at every kind of stunt but he could do most stunts well enough and unlike many stunt people, he was really easy going. People enjoyed hanging around him which made them want to work with him again and again.
  • Stunt work is a highly collaborative effort. “Spiralling in” is when you start with lots of ideas around the outside and slowly tweak them on the way toward reaching a compromise that works for everyone.
  • Even if you’re very confident in something, when you lose your nervousness about it and you take it for granted, that’s when accidents are most likely to happen.
  • “The pursuit of excellence is more important than the accomplishment of saying ‘I’m excellent’. Being mildly disappointed helps the pursuit of excellence, as you’re always striving to get better.”

Ep 58: Alan Alda: Actor, Director, Author, Communications guru

Alan Alda is an actor, director, author, and communications guru.  He has received 6 Emmys and been nominated 34 times. He has also been nominated 3 times for a Tony and once for an Oscar. He is most known for playing Dr. Hawkeye Pierce on the TV series MASH and has been inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. He is also an accomplished author with a number of New York Times bestselling books, the latest one titled: If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating.  He is the co-founder of The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. And he is also the host of his own podcast called Clear and Vivid.

 

Some interesting insights from this episode:

  • The only kind of formal training Alan had was improvisation which is equally valuable in real life as it is in acting. If you’re able to connect with another person, things happen between you that would never happen otherwise.
  • “You have to get your brain so devoted to what you’re doing and to how you understand what you’re doing that the rest of your body comes along with it.”
  • In regards to acting, “it’s hard stuff but I’m ecstatic and I love it. There’s a wonderful feeling of flying when it goes well.”
  • “If we all thought a little bit more like scientists, we might make better decisions.”
  • “The most impressive scientists attack their own ideas before anybody else can.”
  • External awards like an Emmy aren’t nearly as motivating to him as the internal reward to getting better at his craft.
  • “Rather that strive for excellence, it’s better to strive for pretty damn good.”

Ep. 30: Josh Blue: Uber-talented comedian with cerebral palsy

Josh Blue is a comedian. He has cerebral palsy which forms the basis for much of his self-deprecating humor.  He won first place on NBC’s Last Comic Standing in its fourth season. He has appeared in a number of comedy specials on Comedy Central, Showtime, Bravo and Netflix and has been featured in several publications including People Magazine, The New York Times and NPR. His YouTube videos have been viewed millions of times. He was also a member of the US Paralympic Soccer Team.

 

Some interesting insights from this episode:

  • Learn how he didn’t try to run or hide from his cerebral palsy but rather, made it an integral part of his comedy early on.
  • A turning point in his life was spending a year in Senegal and coming to appreciate how fortunate he was to just have food, clothing and shelter.
  • Hear about his crazy experiment living in the gorilla exhibit at the zoo for a day.
  • It takes most comedians years to refine their material to get a good 10 minute act but Josh had that “it factor” (i.e. stage presence and likeability) from day one.
  • “A joke is just a story with all the extra words taken out.”
  • He is so talented and spontaneous on stage that he never has to write down any of his material. He tests new material “on the fly” during live performances.
  • “Excellence is being so in tune with what you’re doing that nobody can touch it.”