Beth Slazak – Teaching Creativity with Humor

Our twenty-second episode of the Creative Flow: Thinkers and Change Agents Podcast Series features Beth Slazak, MBA, MS, a certified humor professional, the Education and Events Manager at the Creative Education Foundation, and the conference manager of the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI). She has an MBA and a Master's in Creativity and Change Leadership from the Center for Applied Imagination, SUNY Buffalo State. Beth shares her work with teachers sharing tools such as empathy maps to make learning more engaging, and describes the experience of CPSI as so much more than a conference. This year is again in person, and there are opportunities to learn foundations in Creative Problem Solving or take advanced immersion classes that are deep dives into topics. One of the highlights will be Massimo Agostinelli from Cirque du Soleil, who explores the concept of bouffon characters with a sense of humor. Some people have attended 40 CPSIs, and they keep coming back for the campfires, networking, labyrinth as well as the learning. Beth describes her journey as self-actualization, where deliberate Creativity has given her more awareness and a deeper understanding. She studied improv at Second City and the Comedy Sport and a three-year program offered by the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. She uses improv in every training at CEF  and regularly experiences how games can help warm up the brain and help participants practice in a lower-risk way. Don't miss this lively discussion of what it is like to work in the field of creativity and be in the forefront of teaching at the highest level. We hope to see newbies and old friends in June at the CPSI Conference, where the community gathers to learn and laugh.