‘All of us are capable of enormous amounts of creativity and humor’

Jacquie Lowell was headed for the medical profession until she abruptly changed tracks to a career in humor and creativity. The 43-year-old Clairemont resident is the proprietor of Creativity Games, where she helps people rediscover their humorous vein. Lowell also directs Zero Gravity, a comedy troupe, and is a consultant for the Gifted and Talented Education program in San Diego city schools. Lowell spoke with Times staff writer Terry Rather in her home and was photographed by Barbara Martin Pinhero.

I was pre-med at Oberlin College and I passed up a lot of opportunities to laugh, play and be silly in order to get those A’s. I fell off that train in senior year. I wanted a break before going on to medical school.

Coincidentally, I was going to Long Island to visit some relatives and my last piece of dormitory mail was a notice about jobs at a creative arts school near where I was going to visit. So I stopped by and ended up working there for four years. It was there that I learned most of the principles I still use in teaching today, that all of us are capable of enormous amounts of creativity and humor. What stands in the way of the expression of those in adults is fear of being laughed at, making a fool of yourself.

To get the creativity and humor flowing is a two-step process: Remove the fear by creating a safe environment that is warm, that is friendly, that is playful where people can let down those safeguards against looking foolish and take off their mental shoes; and two, a series of exercises that will spark the creativity and humor flowing. You get people comfortable, relaxed and playful and you give them some really intriguing things to do and bam, out comes so much humor and creativity that it’s awe-inspiring.

First thing I want to do is get them comfortable so I’ll start with an icebreaker like “people bingo.” People come in the door and I give them an 8-by-10 piece of paper marked up like a bingo card. Instead of letters and numbers in each square, there are words. Things like, find someone with the same size thumb as yourself. Or, find someone who loves to hike. Or find a vegetarian. People are instantly so busy running around tapping total strangers on the shoulders they forget to be nervous.

Pretty soon we realize with icebreakers like that that we’re just all folks together and there’s nothing to be afraid of. We then play a whole variety of different games. Some are verbal, some involve movement and mime, some involve characters.

Someone once asked me if I had all money in the world, would I still do this? I would probably take a vacation and travel around the world, and yes, I’d come back to San Diego and do this again. I love it. I can’t imagine anything else I’d rather be doing.

Of course, it’s always amusing to be in a situation where one has to practice what one preaches. I was driving up to Anaheim for a 4:30 p.m. appointment at the “Laughter and Play” conference and I got stuck in Friday afternoon Los Angeles traffic. I decided to creatively find a new way to get to the hotel by getting off the totally bumper-to-bumper freeway and going on side roads. There was major construction going on every one of the side roads I tried. It was getting later and later and I was getting more and more frustrated. I could see the hotel I needed to go to. It was 15 minutes away. Then my car started to overheat and by now I was starting to overheat.

Finally I saw the freeway I was looking for, only according to my map I was supposed to go north on it and the freeway signs said east and west. I got on the wrong one and it’s bumper to bumper again. At this point there’s no way I’m going to make the appointment. I pulled over to the shoulder of the freeway and I burst into tears.

Suddenly, a little part of my brain said Jacquie, you do what for a living? I teach humor and creativity! Now isn’t crying a little silly? At that point I burst into laughter and relaxed.