Thinking inside the box

A few years into writing comedy for a living I discovered something amazing. The more restrictions you have on what you can write, the more creative you become. Forget blue sky thinking, the best way to write a great joke is to be told it has to be about a llama, and can’t use the letter E, and has to rhyme, and can’t mention any aspect of the llama.

Back to the Intercontinental

I used to work in an office, in Wellington, with a boss who’d read one too many yet one too few self help books about how to be a great manager. The office was going to hell in a handcart but he’d been appointed recently and was convinced he could turn things around. One day he held an internal competition where you had to come up with the best idea for improving the business. He told us he wanted ‘out of the box thinking’. Ironically, we had to write our idea down on a piece of paper and drop it into a box.

Guest blogger Ben Hurley visits Tauranga

I'm delighted to introduce Ben Hurley as guest blogger this week. He's a bloody good cook and as a touring comedian eats very widely, not just the stuff that gets trapped in his beard over the course of the day. Enjoy his thoughts on the dining out scene in Tauranga: