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298: Using Your Creative Fire with Angel Ocasio

What can a lifetime in comedy teach us about creativity, connection, and using our intensity?

In this episode of Embracing Intensity, I talk with longtime friend, performer, and comedy teacher Angel Ocasio about his more than 40 years in physical comedy and clowning. Angel shares how an early love of comedy grew into a career in performance and teaching, and what he's learned along the way about creativity, experimentation, connecting with an audience, and finding your own way of doing things.

We also talk about having many different creative interests, learning from things that don't work, slowing down enough to notice what's happening around you, and bringing your own personality and experiences into your creative work instead of trying to perform like someone else.

Angel will also be joining the Embracing Intensity community for our upcoming call, Finding Humor in the Mundane, where we'll explore more of how he finds comedy in everyday experiences.

About Angel Ocasio

Angel Ocasio is a physical comedian, clown, comedy educator, and entertainer who has been performing professionally for more than four decades.

His path into professional comedy included clown workshops and attending Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in the class of 1984. He later spent 20 years with the Portland Rose Festival, including many years as its official mascot, the Clown Prince. During that time, he developed and taught a clown program that brought more than 200 people through training and performance.

Beyond comedy, Angel has a wide range of creative interests, including music, writing, poetry, and storytelling. His approach to performance centers on being real, approachable, and present with an audience, and creating connection rather than simply trying to impress people. Angel Angel

In This Episode:

How watching classic comedians like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and the Three Stooges influenced Angel's love of comedy
Angel's journey from taking a clown workshop to attending Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College
What more than 40 years of performing has taught him about connecting with an audience
Growing up in a passionate Puerto Rican family and the influence of his grandmother's humor
Finding comedy in ordinary moments and experiences people immediately recognize
Why slowing an everyday action down can reveal the humor already inside it
The importance of reading an audience and recognizing when it's time to move on
Treating an idea that doesn't work as information rather than simply as failure
Angel's many interests in comedy, music, writing, teaching, and performance
The challenge of wanting to pursue many creative paths
Taking your craft seriously without taking yourself too seriously
Why nervousness before a performance can be a sign that you care about what you're doing
Learning to wait, breathe, and trust that the audience is with you
How rushing can keep other people from having enough time to understand what you're trying to communicate
Finding inspiration by observing the people and moments around you
The advice to "be interested, not interesting"
Why technical skill alone doesn't necessarily create connection
Bringing yourself into your creative work instead of trying to imitate someone else
How Angel helps students draw on their own personalities, histories, and experiences
Using improvisation and physical comedy to build connection and teamwork
Why live, person-to-person experiences still matter
Remembering that an audience generally wants you to succeed Angel

Creativity, Experimentation, and Learning What Works

One of my favorite ideas from this conversation is Angel's perspective on things that don't work.

Creative work involves experimenting. Sometimes an idea gets the response you hoped for, and sometimes it doesn't. After decades of performing, Angel has learned to pay attention to those responses and adjust.

As he puts it, doing something that doesn't work means you've learned something. You can take what happened, figure out what you might do differently, and bring that information into the next attempt.

That perspective leaves room for experimentation without requiring every attempt to succeed. It also connects with Angel's experience teaching new performers: developing your craft means learning to slow down, trust the process, notice what's happening, and give yourself enough experience to discover what works for you. Angel

Many Interests and a Creative Life

Angel's creativity has never been limited to comedy. Throughout his life he's been drawn to music, writing, poetry, teaching, acting, and other possibilities.

We talk about the experience of having many things you're interested in and the feeling that you might have been able to master one particular thing if you'd focused exclusively on it. At the same time, those different interests have all become part of Angel's creative life.

Comedy eventually became the work he made a living from, but his interest in writing and music never disappeared. That range of interests gives us another way to think about creativity—not only as a particular skill or career, but as something that can find expression through many different parts of our lives. Angel

Taking the Work Seriously Without Taking Yourself Too Seriously

For Angel, comedy requires genuinely believing in what you're doing. Even something as simple as dropping an object becomes real within the world of the performance.

At the same time, taking the craft seriously doesn't require taking yourself seriously.

Angel talks about the patience involved in learning to perform: waiting for the audience, allowing a moment to develop, breathing through nervousness, and trusting that the people watching are willing to come along with you.

When performers rush because they already know where a routine is going, the audience may not have enough time to follow. Slowing down creates room for people to see what's happening and become part of the moment. Angel

Be Interested, Not Interesting

One piece of advice that has stayed with Angel throughout his career is to "be interested, not interesting."

For him, that means becoming genuinely invested in what you're doing rather than concentrating on how impressive you appear.

He shares the example of a talented juggler whose technical skills were impressive but didn't initially feel funny. Years later, Angel saw the same performer again and found himself laughing because the performance had become more connected, alive, and personal.

Angel encourages the people he teaches to bring their own history and personality into their work. You can learn from the people who came before you without trying to become them.

Finding Inspiration in Everyday Life

Angel has built much of his comedy around moments most of us would normally overlook.

Drop your keys once and it's an ordinary inconvenience. Drop them again, slow down, look at them, and wonder what just happened, and suddenly there's the beginning of a comedy routine.

That attention extends beyond performance. Angel talks about observing people throughout his life and remembering small interactions that reveal something funny, recognizable, or deeply human. Rather than constantly searching for something extraordinary, he pays attention to what's already happening around him.

We'll explore more of this in Angel's upcoming Embracing Intensity community call, Finding Humor in the Mundane.

Helping Others Find Their Own Creative Voice

Teaching has become an important part of Angel's work. During his years with the Portland Rose Festival, he helped train more than 200 people through the clown program he developed.

Many of those participants already had careers in completely different fields. Angel's goal wasn't to teach them to imitate famous clowns or put on a costume and become someone else. He encouraged them to draw from their own personalities, experiences, histories, and strengths.

He brings that same approach to workshops with performers, organizations, and people who simply want to explore comedy. Improvisation, physical comedy, and play become ways to experiment, connect with other people, and discover something about how you naturally express yourself.

Celebrating 10 Years of Embracing Intensity

October marks the 10-year anniversary of the Embracing Intensity podcast, and I'm gathering voices from listeners, community members, friends, and past guests for a special anniversary episode.

I'd love to hear your answer to the question:

What does embracing intensity mean to you?

If you'd like to be part of the anniversary episode, send me a recording or video sharing what Embracing Intensity has meant to you or how your relationship with your own intensity has changed over the years.

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