Years ago, too many for me to comfortably tell you, I studied at Second City in Chicago with Del Close. Del was the master!  We were his students and we hung on every word that came out of his mouth… or most of them. He was struggling at the time with substance abuse and there were moments when we had no idea what the heck he was talking about. It did not matter to us, we listened knowing that bits of his genius would come through at points in his rants and we did not want to miss them.

It was from Del and later from George Todisco, the visionary that founded Chicago City Limits, that I learned the wonders of improvisation. Creating something from nothing is a high better than any substance can bring. Continue reading →

This is how Wikipedia defines mojo:
“Mojo refers to a magical charm bag used in hoodoo, and in modern usage may also refer to sexual potency.”

Welcome to my blog. Today I am discussing mojo. My definition is broader than Wikipedia’s. I define mojo as our urge to create and be innovative. It is that spark that makes us vibrant, that charm that makes us appealing – call it charisma, call it presence, call it dynamic it makes us sparkle, smart, exciting and desirable. When our mojo is in swing, we are smokin’. And when it is not, we’re average. You may even say boring. So when I talk about mojo, I’m talking about the charm of life itself. Continue reading →