05/29/2026
The World Is Ending – Let’s Get Weird and Hilarious
By WILLIAM J. O’BRIEN .j.obrien
Each year for the past fifteen years, I’ve taught a class called Getting Weird and Hilarious in the ceramics department at the art school where I work. At first glance, you might think it’s a class for people naturally drawn to the absurd. And in some ways, it is. But what I’ve learned is that pairing improvisation with discipline is what’s required to make great artists, musicians, athletes, or anyone pursuing a dedicated practice. It’s also an essential skill for all of us now. It helps balance difficulty with the lighter skill of humor to offset the darkness.
Although discipline produces results, improvisation, both structured and intuitive, builds the most resilient artists and creates the most compelling work. Most creative practitioners would agree that mastery or great art is never a one-off. It’s the product of structured training that develops skill, and then, when the right moment comes, like a good magician or cook, the ability to improvise produces something greater than the sum of its parts.
As a kid, I was part of a unicycle drill team in Northeast Ohio. That’s a longer story for another essay; however, looking back, it taught me how to train in something both ridiculous and difficult, like balancing on a single wheel, and how true performance comes from relaxation after repetition. It’s similar to when we first learn to drive a car. Every turn signal, stop, and yield requires full attention. But over time, once the body absorbs the training, we can relax, turn on the radio, and still stay on the road. That kind of embodied skill-building comes in handy during crisis. The ability to ground oneself first and then allow improvisation, or intuition, to guide the next move might be one of the most important skills we have.
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