How to Work with a Comedian

5 lessons I’ve learned from 2 years working with Willy

When we started Com4Com back in 2018 I didn’t really think about what it’d be like to work with a comedian.

Me and Willy were just pals, not yet colleagues. We conconcted this company over a tasty Thai lunch in the Berlin summer. I wasn’t thinking rationally.

I’d started companies with friends before. I’d been working as an independent contractor and (kind of) entrepreneur for 10 years. I knew what I had in store for me.

But did I…?

What happened?

It’s been 2 years since we did our first round of comedy workshops for companies. We’ve spent hundreds of hours together and exchanged millions of messages.

What have I learned from all that time spent with this stupid bastard? 👇👇👇

Finding the Funny

I’ve never laughed so much doing work in all my life.

This one is inevitable I think. We work to help people find the funny in their everyday work and lives. That inevitably leads to a whole pile of lols every time we do a session.

It’s sometimes hard to find the funny at work. But Willy has taught me that it’s often an essential antidote to dry workplace nonsense.

Pushing Beyond My Boundaries

Prior to Com4Com I’d not really designed workshops that aimed to take a subject so disconnected from business/design/tech and help people to learn something from that.

It’s been tough work. To bring the connections and flow between comedy and companies at every stage. To find the balance between the two. To dial up one or the other at different times.

It’s really pushed me to be a better learning designer and facilitator. And I now bring a lot more levity and creativity into my normal work.

Taking Work Less Seriously

I love my day-to-day work and I have a lot of fun doing it. But I think I was stuck in a bit of a rut. Taking things quite seriously and not laughing at myself much.

At Com4Com we make sure to take the piss out of everything all the time. We aim to undermine the ridiculous and inhuman nonsenses that pervade most modern organisations.

By deflating these things with comedy, it removes their power over us, and hopefully enables us to do better work.

Having My Ass Regularly Kicked

There’s something about work that started as a side project that just makes it hard for me to focus on. In my normal work life I’m really on it.

But on Com4Com I always feel like I’m behind. I’m overpromising and underdelivering. I do great work when I put my mind to it but Willy is always having to kick my ass to get stuff done.

I’ve learned that Willy’s great at kicking people’s asses to get stuff done. And in fact, that role in a team is also super useful sometimes. Jenny Theolin, CEO at the Toolbox Toolbox is also a big ass kicker of mine.

Sometimes people like me just need people like them to pull us in line.

Building Something New and Unique

This is the thing I’m most proud of about our collaboration.

We’ve made something that I think is pretty unique in the world. Whether it’s our workshops with companies or the comedy night we run for Sanctus, we’re doing great stuff that is getting people excited.

If you want to get in on our vibe. Give Willy a shout on arnold@com4com.website