My improv team was supposed to have a popup show next week.
Through the blessings of fate, I learned that the same venue had booked a friend’s stand-up show simultaneously.
Oops.
Now, I have two options:
- Pitch an absolute fit! Blow up relationships with everyone and demand that the person who screwed this up FIX IT RIGHT NOW.
- Laugh and move on, grateful it wasn’t worse
Just FYI, there’s no good way to fix two shows that are expecting to be on the stage simultaneously.
So I asked my friend what was going on, and she confirmed that she had a stand-up show on that date and that they had already sold tickets. Our show was a free, unticketed show– we practiced new materials at these pop-ups and we don’t charge for untested material.
The answer was clear: We would step back and support the stand-up show, and we’d run our pop-up in April.
And do you know about the venue booker? Well, before I could even reach out to them, they reached out to me and apologized profusely. Asked what they could do to help.
And I just said, “I understand. Snafus happen. We’ll do the pop-up in April, and don’t worry about it.”
Why? Because mix-ups happen. They do! And we’re just so happy we found out about it before we all showed up at the venue and had to fight each other for the stage.
Failing with joy is a key principle in Improv comedy and allowing others to fail with joy as well is a key principle in life.
It would not benefit me to be angry over a calendar error. Making this person feel worse than they already do would not fix the problem.
The best thing to do was simply to laugh, be grateful we learned now and not then. And move foward with life.
If mistakes stress you out, join HRLearns and Neelie Verlinden tomorrow for When There Is No HR for HR: How to Prevent Burnout and Improve Your Well-Being Starting Today.