Are You Creative?

Are you creative? Many reply quickly, "No!" But, creativity is something innately within you and within me. In Genesis 1 God tells us that he made us in His own image. And one thing for sure about God—the Creator is creative! Since we reflect him, obviously creative abilities reside in each of us.

Creativity is usually thought of in one specific category—the ability to come up with new original material. To be able to create new material certainly is creative, but creativity exists in many more categories.

Creativity is displayed by a chef when he combines ingredients in unique fashion to cook up a gourmet meal. Creativity is shown by a football coach as he studies the opposing team and then fashions a plan to offset the opposing teams strengths. Creativity includes the ability to see existing resources and find ways they may be utilized to achieve a goal.

You see, creativity includes analyzing our resources, and finding how to best use them.
Ever heard of "creative budgeting?" That doesn't mean that a person magically makes money appear in a bank account. It means that an individual has appropriated funds to specific purchases, and also found areas where spending may be curbed.

In your clowning, you may not be the one to immediately think of "on-the-spot" improvisational ideas. That doesn't mean you're uncreative. It simply means that your creativity may need to be "slow-cooked," rather than "microwaved." Take time to analyze your clown routines. Learn other aspects of good clowning. Combine these together to serve a "gourmet" routine to your audience. You were just creative!

A friend of mine once gave me this definition for creativity. "Creativity is selective copying." That means that I see things that I like while I observe others. This may be others that are clowning, or on television, or video, etc. I then selectively target the bits that seem to fit with my character. I play with them in practice. I constructively daydream about how my character would respond if he were in the same situation. I don't merely copy the other person's routine. I look for "ingredients" that will improve my presentations making them more humorous and more engaging. I'm not advocating stealing other's material, but I am encouraging you to watch others who are performing well and am encouraging you to learn from them.

Don't degrade your ability to be creative. Everyone, including you, have a creative gift inside of you. Simply, different people apply their creative gifts in different ways. If we all did it the same way, that wouldn't be very creative, would it?!

Here's some of the videos and shows I watch that inspire me because of their imaginative creativity:

The Wallace & Gromit Collection,
Chicken Run,
Cirque Du Soliel,
Red Skelton,
Buster Keaton,
Charlie Chaplin,
Bugs Bunny,
Dr. Seuss,
Disney's Alladin,
Toy Story 2,
Good Burger,
The Ed Sullivan Show,
Hook,
and Jumanji

The more you feed creative thoughts into your mind, the easier it will be for you to think creatively. There are days when I take just 15 or 20 minutes to walk through my favorite furniture store. It's an entire eclectic collection of antiques, lamps, modern angular furniture and even an antique confessional booth! The creative designs seem to refresh me and help me once again think outside of the prescribed thought-box in which I sometimes find myself trapped.

Reading clown ministry routines that others have developed helps me. Reading historical clown routines is inspiring. Allow creative clowning from the past to help feed your present day creativity.

God has created you in his creative image. Feed your creativity, and it will grow. God bless you as you creatively clown!