Super U Podcast | 7 Super Tips with Jason Sudeikis

Jason Sudeikis, an American actor, comedian, producer, and writer, gives us insights on how improv and comedy help shape ideas. In the 1990s, he began his career in improv comedy and performed with ComedySportz, iO Chicago (Improv Olympic), and The Second City. In 2003, Sudeikis was hired as a writer for Saturday Night Live and starred as a cast member from 2005 to 2013. In 2020, he co-created and began starring as the lead in the Apple TV+ sports comedy series Ted Lasso, which earned him four nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards, two wins for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a TV Comedy Series in 2021 and 2022 and for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series.

5x #1 Bestselling Author and Motivational Speaker Erik Qualman has performed in over 55 countries and reached over 50 million people this past decade. He was voted the 2nd Most Likable Author in the World behind Harry Potter’s J.K. Rowling. Qualman is also the inventor of the bestselling board game Kittycorn. 

Need a sneak peek? Below are the main takeaways from the episode.

Super U Podcast | 7 Super Tips with Jason Sudeikis

[1:41] Tip #1

“It reminds me of my high school girlfriend breaking up with me and you hear the platitude of there’s Jason there’s more fish, plenty of fish out there in the sea. That phrase isn’t that specific to romantic relationships or high school I think that in this day and age that’s across the board, whether it’s you know, a company or even a certain trade, like there’s a lot of opportunities out there to you know, self start things to pair up with someone you know, like-minded, you got to lean into it a little bit and find it and not wait for it to come to you friends, family loved ones, it’s the hard part. I mean, it’s hard and life, in general, is really about for me, like letting the sun allowing the sun to shine on your face. And that can literally mean getting out of bed, leaving the apartment. I mean, when I lived here in Las Vegas, you know, the sun was always out. But there are moments where Yeah, where the anxiety of the future or depression of the President could really just take the wind out from you and your legs out from underneath you. Luckily, I had you know this medicine that was showbiz that could be like, you know, the show must go on and I had to, you know, be at, you know, at the theater at, you know, 730 for an eight o’clock show, so I had to do it. And then again, being around like that energy of an audience laughing with you, that you and the friends making you laugh, can really, you know, make your frown turn upside down. As I said, not being afraid to ask for help, too. ”

[3:08] Tip #2

“There are two quotes that come to mind. One, I’m going to get them both a little bit wrong. There was said by smarter people than I, like Mark Twain quote of like every man or woman’s life is either a tragedy, a comedy and a drama. Like just the acceptance of that. And then and then a fellow that I worked with at 30 Rock that was a director there. He used to always say, you know, everybody’s fighting their own battle. And so you don’t really know if you’re dealing with someone’s true character intuition. Or maybe you’re dealing with their baggage and their baggage could be like, they just got a rough text from a spouse or you know, a kid or a parent or something. You never know what someone’s dealing with. And so if you have the opportunity to get to know people like to get to know them a little bit, and their highs and lows and their ups and downs and left’s and rights then and see beyond just, you know, whatever the what they’re presenting on social media or in real life, like then you can usually end up empathizing with them in a way that makes them a little less frustrating. But then you can, ultimately you can, then have a breakthrough, hopefully together if you try to get human with each other and try to get present.”

[4:26] Tip #3

“There’s value in people that say that or that say no but or it’s nice to have one of those people in the room? It’d be like, you know, when the Simpsons did that, you know, comedy rooms would be like, Isn’t that too similar to this? Or, or does it make sense like sort of a logic cop? I have a tendency to wear that hat and things that I do on occasion, just trying to make sense of the choices that we’re making dramatically or comedically? But then you, for the most part, need people just to run this crazy idea, whatever it is, this crazy product was crazy. You know the product name, whatever it is just run it up the flagpole and see what happens, and if everybody, you know, “yes, and’s” it then you’d be amazed at how far up that thing can go. I mean, I’ve seen it happen many, many times, there is a true opportunity for some new math when you’re working in that mind space that one plus one can equal three. And there’s like a little bit of magic and a little bit of love that can come out of the group mind. I mean, because there are timelines, there’s deadlines, budgets, there are plenty of rules set in there to, you know, play within, you know, every sport has as its set of rules and its boundaries, and you have to do then yet amazing things happen within those boundaries. So boundaries are good, I think the blank page is extremely, extremely daunting, as much as it is liberating having these structures and as you know, especially even a history of the way things are typically done, or the way things are typically sold or spoken about. If you can just, you know, shift a paradigm a little bit within yourself and then within your own, you know, circle.”

[6:40] Tip #4

“Yeah, I’ve only gravitated towards ensemble work. I think it comes from playing sports growing up, you know, you know, I play basketball was my big sport, you know, played, you know, growing up high school college for a little bit until I was like, I’m What am I doing, I love something else. And that was I bridged my world of sports to comedy through As Brandon mentioned, this thing called Comedy Sports. And so yeah, ensemble Arts is where it’s at. For me, I love having a common goal. And, you know, the collective mind is, is in the alchemy of such an ensemble. I know, I know, I never gravitated towards standup I think it’s an absolutely, you know, wonderful, you know, medium of comedy. I’m sure there’s part of me, that was scared. shitless you know, I prefer to succeed and fail, like side by side with someone. And because there’s always like, a level, like, I love sketch comedy is probably my favorite. Because, you know, when you do a live sketch show, and I don’t mean SNL, I mean, like in a theater or something like that. But some like Second City, you know, we’re Groundlings. I just love the blackout, as much as I love it when the lights come up because the blackout is absolute potential. Like you don’t know what’s going to come with the lights gonna come up on it’s gonna move to a different thing. And that happened in the stand-up, you know, I’m talking about this and I’m talking about that. Sure. But, but something about, this is what they thought it’s going to be now improv has that too, inherently by the fact that they’re making it up all the time? But, you know, you know, great, improv is great. You know, you know, good. Improv is improv and bad. Improv is also kind of great. But there’s something about putting up and shutting up like, this is what I think this is what I feel is why things are great. We bought this wig. We bought this hat, we bought this jacket, and we’re gonna play this guy. And we think this is funny, do you? Or Yes, great, you know, Blackout. Next one. All right. I think if you lead from that place, I mean, I got well, you know, Brendon, you know, between boom, Chicago, that’s a great place and repetitions of finding that group of people and find, you know, sometimes, sometimes it’s the building, you know, like, I got blessed by the group that I got to work with at SNL. Like, you know, there, we showed up and there were already pros there behind the scenes. And then there were pros are already in front of the camera, you know, Poehler and Tina, you know, et cetera, et cetera, then then you have, you know, the people that come in, and it’s like, yeah, you can, I mean, that’s the pro leagues of it. Because I mean, every single person from the set designer to the wardrobes to the hair and makeup, you know, guys and gals like they’re all remarkable, and they’ve all done it in so they’re just a fine oiled machine. Take it for granted as I think as viewers, you know, you’re just, but I, but, but then, when you’re in your small, like collective of your group, then you do find those people that you ping pong with even more naturally, and I wouldn’t say that it feels like and you can meet anyone, they can be any age, any gender, any race, any orientation does not matter. But you get that sense that like, oh, we would have had fun as eight-year-olds on a playground. Fashion is all about confidence. You know, if I didn’t have any confidence, I never would have worn pajamas to my prom and ended up in jail the rest of that night. But you don’t wanna hear those stories when I go and tell it and then.”

[10:18] Tip #5

“I’ve always been so lucky to be surrounded by funny people like my own family but then my friends growing up Terry ma her Ryan Landry, like Brett Becker, who I used to make videos with like just the funniest guys like I’ve watched videos that I made back then and they blow me out of the water like I’m just like any like proclivity or like instinct I have to be a straight man is from being friends with these guys and just letting them go and just sort of like setting them up. Like they’re just so clever. Such clever young men like their brains were just rapid fire and I just would just laugh a lot and try to make them laugh and you just sort of like an iron sharpening iron. Yeah, just I truly believe that in the back of my head they exist, and trying to make them laugh or the version of them that they are in my head. I’m still friendly with all of my still seem whenever I go back to Kansas, Ryan and Terry specifically, like if I’m doing something that that is made that would make them laugh, and I feel like I’m being you know, my, I’ve acquired people on the way certainly, you know, Mick Napier in Chicago, Lorne Michaels, Will Forte, you know, Kristen Wiig, you know, Olivia, my sisters, I’ve acquired all you know, I have a Greek chorus in my head, that I sort of respond to myself being you know, a version of myself being in there, sure, all these philosophies about following the follower, an improvisation that matched up perfectly with basketball. For me, the metaphor, the mayhem, the madness that is an ethereal art form an invisible art form where you’re making things up on the spot. It helped to have these sort of tenants that I knew from, you know, a sport again, that you could work on as an individual. I could read all about improvisation I could, you know, increase my reference level and taking all this information work on stuff alone, but at the end of the day, how I interact and how I buy with you in the scene, and how we pass the ball back and forth and when you’re hot V June when I’m hot know when I got to take it was all mapped from all these years playing basketball.”

[12:52] Tip #6

“Yeah, how do you handle it just for something you really want without becoming know that there’s always something else too. Just because you want that thing doesn’t mean you deserve it, it doesn’t mean it belongs to you, you know, I really, really want this, it’s like I really, really don’t give a shit. Like I’ve really, really wanted stuff to and it doesn’t work out is how you respond to that. That’s another theme of the show. It’s like it is evil in the world. There are losses in the world. How do you respond to that? You know, you know, the President does something silly. Are you going to spend your whole day tweeting about it? Or are you going to go make something, you know, you’re gonna go help, someone, you know, like, how are you gonna respond to it? What’s the proactive move? And so yeah, yeah, you gotta just build up that callus and just keep trucking go to a soup kitchen. I mean, feel like y’all are about to do some improv comedy or Tony, that you’re dating each other. Neither one’s cool with me, because your suggestion is Ally.”

[14:21] Tip #7

“It’s a weird thing, weird advice to give at this time. It breaks my heart that like people aren’t doing improv classes, you know, like I really believe you know, a joke around but I mean it fun the arts don’t give it all to the Sacklers like also go see shows that’s what I’ll say. No, like, like, I am a product of like, my mom taking me to see shows when I moved to Chicago when you get to intern at IO or, rest in peace, or Second City, you know, you get to go see shows for free. And I did that nonstop. Watch as much as you can, and have an opinion about it. Because we’re With the job is mostly about having an opinion, as I always say that we’re not being paid in the writers’ room to beat to type, you’re paid for your opinion. Like, what do you think about the world? What do you think is funny? What do you think is sad? What do you think about good people? How should you respond to the situation? And if you don’t offer your opinion, then you are not making a living, you are taking up space? Well, it’s kind of it’s like it’s so that’s, that’s two things haven’t been done that don’t feel you got to pontificate and you know, you know, but have an opinion about I think is, is an important thing. And that’s something I don’t know, I think my younger self did always have an opinion. Unfortunately, having an opinion looks better when you’re 45. And when you’re like, 25.

Connect with Jason Sudeikis:

Twitter: @JasonSudeikis

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The Super U Podcast is hosted by #1 bestselling author and Motivational Speaker Erik Qualman.