Picking the brains of professional funny people to find out how we can all be as creative as comedians

Hi, I’m Tim Reid. I write comedy and coach teams in creativity and innovation. And I think we can all learn how to be more creative by finding out how comedians and comedy writers think, behave and the methods they use for coming up with a steady stream of new material. So I’m getting inside their funny minds to see where their ideas come from.

Today I’m talking to the very funny stand up comedian Nina Gilligan. Nina is getting rave reviews and taking stand up comedy competitions by storm… a finalist in Reality Bites 2013, Kill For A Seat 2014 and winner of Liverpool Hotwater Comedian of the Year 2014. And when she’s not gigging, Nina hosts her own radio show, Gilligan’s Island, on Fab Radio in Manchester.

Here are three brilliant creative exercises you’ll hear about from Nina…

• The washing machine of influence – all those voices in your head, people you know, experts in the field, spin them round then see how they’d approach your problem, issue, theme…
• Leave the problem alone – have a bath, go for a run, sleep on it… let the programme run in the back of your head and see what unexpected connections your brain makes when you leave it to it
• Panic as a catalyst – going off script – you can create, manufacture moments of panic – pretend the chief exec has burst in on you and wants an answer now!!! What do you say?