Creativity in Captivity

The founder of Accidental Creative, a company that helps creative people and teams be prolific, brilliant and healthy. Todd speaks, consults and advises regularly with companies about how to develop best practices that lead to everyday brilliance. He is the author of six books including Daily Creative, Herding Tigers, Die Empty, The Accidental Creative, Louder Than Words and The Motivation Code, which have been translated into more than a dozen languages. His podcast, The Accidental Creative, has been downloaded more than 15 million times and offers weekly tips and insights for being brilliant at a moment’s notice. 

A former network executive who oversaw emerging artists for HBO, HBO Max and Turner. Kelly transformed herself into a full-time author, writer and producer under her Edwardian Pictures banner. In her executive role, the pilots she produced through the HBOAccess Writing and Directing Fellowships have screened at major festivals including Tribeca and SXSW garnering multiple awards. Prior to HBO, Edwards was a key corporate diversity executive at Comcast/NBCUniversal for over five years where she oversaw 20 divisions, launched employee resource groups and introduced diverse creative talent to NBC, USA, Syfy, Bravo and Telemundo. In 2000, Edwards co-founded the non-profit organization Colour Entertainment, a networking group for diverse creative executives in TV, Film and Digital, as well as assistants, all designed to connect current and future industry executives with one another. 

Rosston Meyer is a designer, paper engineer and publisher who creates pop-up books, cards and prints with contemporary visual artists through his company Poposition Press. He’s gained a reputation among collectors for projects like Pop-Up Funk and The Pop-Up Art Book. Creating pop ups out of existing or new works, Rosston has released books from artists ranging from Andy Warhol, Junko Mizuno, Jim Mahfood, Kristen Liu-Wong, Mike Giant, Skinner, Dalek and Sandra Chevrier. On this episode, he explains that the greatest challenge in design is not making the art pop up but rather being able to get it to return into the page mechanically time after time. 

An outdoor journalist, bowhunter, forager and angler who founded Wildkind Academy with the desire to learn, share and grow in community with others drawn to expand and challenge themselves into a more integrated partnership with the natural world. A nature lover and professional rewilder in pursuit of a more joyful and adventurous life with a multi-disciplinary approach to optimal health. On this episode, Jess shares some of the essentials you should have when planning an outing and reveals the radical change in her own thinking when it comes to being ready for anything. 

A San Francisco-based designer who creates innovative drill, staging and artistic visual projects for marching bands, winter color guards and indoor percussion ensembles around the world. Michael performed with Pride of Cincinnati Winter Guard, won a WGI World Championship with State Street Review and performed with The Cavaliers Drum & Bugle Corps for four years in the color guard. He started an independent world class winter guard called Escapade and was on the design team of Bands of America National Champion Centerville HS. Michael attended the San Francisco Academy of Art University, earning a Fine Arts degree in Computer Arts/New Media. Michael was the drill designer and visual coordinator for The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps and served on the design team for all seven of their Drum Corps International World Championship titles. He currently writes for some of the top high school marching bands and winter color guards in the United States. His designs have been featured by several high school Bands of America National Champions, the most recent being the 2012 BOA Grand National Champion Carmel HS, as well as four-time WGI World Champion Pride of Cincinnati, and two-time WGI Scholastic World Champion Carmel High School. Michael’s international design experience includes two-time WGI Bronze Medalist Aimachi Color Guard, and three time WGI Bronze Medalist Aimachi Percussion Ensemble from Nagoya, Japan. In 2007, Michael was inducted into the WGI Hall of Fame, and in 2011 he was inducted into the Drum Corps International Hall of Fame.

A pianist, conductor, recording artist, composer, and arranger whose work as a music director and keyboardist led her to conduct and play with touring Broadway productions of Jersey Boys, Six & Motown: The Musical. Jo Ann Daugherty loves making all kinds of music. Her most recent jazz trio album Bring Joy earned a 4-star review from Downbeat Magazine and was listed as one of their “Best Albums of 2017.” Her work with jazz multireedist Victor Goines has included performing in beautiful spaces such as Dizzy’s Club and Smoke in NYC, Satchmo Summerfest in New Orleans, Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai, and most recently Havana, Cuba. Jo Ann music-supervised and played on the orchestral soundtrack of the wildlife documentary To The Ends of the Earth and provided music direction and played on tour with An Unforgettable Nat King Cole Christmas. 

Bob Blumer is a professional gastronaut with an adrenaline addiction. He has created and hosted three award-winning TV series that have aired in over 20 countries, written seven acclaimed cookbooks, including his latest “Flavorbomb: A Rogue Guide to Making Everything Taste Better”, and broken eight food-related Guinness World Records. In his books and appearances around the globe, Bob transforms ordinary ingredients into wow-inspiring dishes through simple cooking methods and whimsical presentations that have become his culinary trademark. Bob’s first series, Surreal Gourmet, was a pioneering Food Network instructional show. It featured his signature recipes and was anchored by his iconic Toastermobile—an Airstream trailer tricked out with a professional kitchen and topped with two eight-foot-long slices of toast. In his genre-pushing competition series, Glutton for Punishment, Bob had five days to train for a physically daunting, food-related challenge, then had to compete against highly trained professionals with his newfound skill. Bob is an ambassador for Second Harvest in Toronto. He has personally raised over $250,000 to help alleviate hunger for the perishable food bank, and several other noble causes. When he is not traveling for work or pleasure—which is most of the time—the transplanted Canadian cycles daily in the canyons near his home under the “D” of the Hollywood sign, doing his best to stay in shape for his next big adventure.

A Belgian born multi-media artist and designer residing in the Los Angeles Arts District.  Her design projects and artwork include numerous permanent and temporary murals and installations, as well as exhibiting in galleries.  She works on multiple pieces in various media simultaneously, fueling the velocity of her creativity as she sways between the commercial and fine arts worlds.  Her work focuses on the exploration of color, topography, geometry, nature’s phenomenons, architectural amalgamations, and optimism.  In 2017, after a 12 year career in marketing for architecture, interior design, and real estate firms, she ventured off to start Caroline Geys Design Studio.  She counts among her clients: Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Dunn-Edwards Paints, ROW DTLA, Reebok West Hollywood and Santa Monica Collectives, City of Los Angeles Parks and Recreation, Arts District Brewery, Global Inheritance in association with Coachella Music Festival, MASAYA, Uprooted Dance Company, and Infuse Wellness.  She shares the time and dedication that it takes from concept to execution with any mural and what working in a studio with three cats is like.

Puerto Rican born Rick Negron made his professional debut at age ten in a production of the musical The Me Nobody Knows in San Juan. By the time he graduated high school he had performed in musicals and danced on television with some of Puerto Rico’s top celebrities. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and briefly pursued a concert dance career before setting his sights on Broadway. His Broadway credits include: Leader of the Pack, Drood, Legs Diamond, Man of La Mancha, The Goodbye Girl, Ragtime (L.A.), Mamma Mia! (Sam Carmichael/LasVegas), In The Heights  (Kevin Rosario). National Tours: West Side Story (Action, Riff, Bernardo), Man of La Mancha with Robert Goulet. Rick also danced in Michael Jackson’s Bad video and Chicago the movie. Currently he plays King George III in the "And Peggy Tour" of Hamilton. He is a proud member of AEA & SAG/AFTRA. Follow him on Instagram @1stpuertoricanking and learn more at ricknegron.com 

One of the world’s greatest ventriloquists who also happens to be an extraordinary writer, comic, actor, cartoonist, poet and puppeteer. Jay considers his real job to be a tour guide on a journey into the imagination. He is best known for playing the schizophrenic role of Bob & Chuck Campbell on the classic television series Soap. His one man show Jay Johnson: The Two and Only! ran on Broadway and won the American Theatre Wing Tony Award for “Best Special Theatrical Event” in 2007. The show also won the Los Angeles Ovation Award for “Best Solo Show.” In high school he produced and starred in his own local television show sponsored by a car dealership that lead to summers performing in theme park shows at Six Flags over Texas, Astroworld and Six Flags over Georgia where he logged in 918 performances at the Crystal Pistol theater (that’s 10 shows a day for 13 weeks). Jay moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in television, landing over 30 national commercials, hosting three comedy specials, producing and performing in two network TV specials, two HBO specials, appearing as a guest on hundreds of variety shows and starring in four television series. On this episode of the podcast, Jay vents with Pat Hazell about creativity, theater and writing scenes where he plays all the characters.