In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Candace “Candy” Campbell - nurse, actor, filmmaker, and international speaker - to talk about improv, healthcare, and what it really takes to communicate courageously in high-stakes environments.
Candy’s journey is wild and inspiring. She started with a degree in acting and was headed for New York… until a disturbing “casting couch” moment made her walk away from the profession for over a decade. That detour led her to Pan Am, where she spent years as a flight attendant, discovered how naturally she ran toward people in crisis, and eventually found her way to nursing.
From there, Candy blended her performance background and clinical experience into improv, stand-up, and applied theatre. A chance comment from a tech CEO led to her first applied improv workshop with a room full of skeptical engineers—and that workshop became the seed that led to decades of work helping professionals communicate better, build trust, and navigate conflict.
We talk about:
Why listening, presence, and reflection are non-negotiable skills in healthcare and leadership
How miscommunication contributes to medical error—and what improv principles can do about it
How Candy went back to school for her doctorate to research improv in healthcare communication and build an evidence base for the work she was already doing
The story behind her one-woman show, “An Evening with Florence Nightingale: The Reluctant Celebrity,” and how art and history can open conversations about today’s healthcare challenges
Simple exercises leaders can use to help teams connect, build psychological safety, and rediscover their creativity
If you lead people, work in healthcare, or simply want to become a better communicator, this episode will give you both inspiration and practical ideas you can put into action right away.
Key Takeaways
How an early “casting couch” experience pushed Candy off the acting path and eventually into nursing, improv, and speaking
What she learned about running toward crisis as a flight attendant and how that shaped her identity as a nurse and leader
The moment she realized her improv skills could help a room full of feuding engineers communicate and collaborate better
Why traditional “top-down” leadership advice (like “shut your office door”) damages trust—and what to do instead
How miscommunication and poor handoffs contribute to medical errors, and why improv-based communication training matters in healthcare
Why Candy went back for a doctoral degree to research improv’s impact on healthcare communication and build a solid evidence base
How her one-woman show as Florence Nightingale helps audiences explore modern healthcare issues through the lens of history and storytelling
Simple exercises like “Sound Ball,” the name game, and the “what do we have in common?” drill that help teams connect quickly and practice listening
How the arts—music, movement, writing, and theatre—can all be used to unlock creativity and emotional intelligence at work
The one small behavior Candy believes would make the world better: adopting a positive mindset, truly listening, and reflecting back what we hear
Links
Dr. Candy Campbell’s main site (improv, coaching, consulting): CandyCampbell.com CandyCampbell.com
Florence Nightingale show: FlorenceNightingaleLive.com FlorenceNightingaleLive
Unedited Transcript
Avish
Hello, Candy and welcome to the podcast. How are you, my friend?
Candy
I am doing great. Thanks for having me on, Avash. I'm looking forward to this conversation.
Avish
I am too. I always very much enjoy whenever I get improv comedian, improv comedy type people on here. It kind of gives us a whole new range of things to talk about. So I'm really looking forward to that. But first, for people who are unfamiliar with you and your work, could you just give us a one minute overview of who you are and what you do?
Candy
I am a recovering academic, but my first degree is in acting. And all along the way, I have now morphed into being a speaker, a consultant, and I work with people to distinguish themselves as great communicators and to help their teams do the same thing.
Avish
Well, that's fascinating. And I always find the journeys of professional speakers interesting, 'cause you got someone who's been on stage, and when you find out what they did in their previous speaking life, it's always this weird mishmash. You're like, oh, really?
You did that? So let's talk about that a little bit. So you started out as an actor, is that correct?
Candy
I did. That's my first bachelor's degree. And I was headed to New York, I thought, and I got cast in a summer stock show right out of college. And to my shock and chagrin, I was basically accosted by the director one night when we were alone and had, they used to call it a casting couch experience. I shoved him across the room and said, what are you doing? And he said, but you're going to New York. This is the way the game is played.
And I said, not for me. And quit the show. And I quit acting for over a decade.
Avish
So that was your, was that like your first acting experience after graduated with an acting degree?
Candy
Yeah.
Avish
Oh my God, that's, that's, yeah. Terrible experience, but my understanding probably not that uncommon, especially back then.
Candy
You know, I, I look back on it now and think, you know, in a way, I suppose I could thank that person for that because it pushed me onto a totally different path. And then actually, I think the joke within my family is that I then landed my longest running acting job as a flight attendant with Pan Am gone but not forgotten.
Avish
Okay, so you quit acting and then so the next thing you did after that was you became a flight attendant.
Candy
Exactly. So we used to say, okay, costumes, makeup, improv script and, yeah, and, you know, Penham was the international flag carrier for the United States. And so we've, well, I lived in five different countries in six years, and two of those years were in London, so I, I I personally thought I would just take the time and study dialects because although I speak, I'm pretty conversational in French and German, which is why they hired me.
I'm not, you know, Barbie. I had never been tall and all of that. But, so that was my personal sort of mission while I was doing that. And then the funny thing is that I don't know if you're aware, but people sometimes get sick on airplanes.
Avish
Oh, I did not know that. Shocking.
Candy
They do. And I found out that there's two kinds of people in the world. There's the kind that run to help, the kind of run to hide. And I always ran to help. And a lot of the other, well, not a lot, but some of the other flight attendants assumed because I was doing that, that I had nurse training. I didn't, but one of my signature stories is about the day that that I did get what we call the call to be a nurse. So.
Avish
Oh, interesting. So is that how you transitioned out of being a flight attendant? Did you then become a nurse?
Candy
Yeah. Yeah, I did. I did.
And that was, you know, I'm not in my family, the reaction was, you're gonna do what? Study science?
Avish
You? Wow.
Candy
It was a big leap for me. But now that I do residencies in art and health, I have credibility and experience in both realms. So it makes more sense. And again, looking back, I never would have taken this path had it not been for that accidental or whatever you want to call it happening.
Avish
I wouldn't necessarily say accidental, but unfortunate.
Candy
Unfortunate events, yeah.
Avish
All right, so now at this point in life, you have now been an actor, a flight attendant, and a nurse. When did the transition into speaking and training and working with professionals and executives and things come in?
Candy
You know, everything I can say is kind of a morphing and evolution here. Well, what happened was that after I was divorced in 1992 and moved from Southern California to Northern California to be near family, and I just needed to laugh again. I mean, it was a difficult time. And I was sole support of the three children who were 8, 11 and 14 at the time. And thank God I am a nurse because that's the only way I could afford to keep food on the table. So, but knowing I needed to laugh, and usually, you know, as an actor, I did comic characters anyway. I've always been a writer, a comedy writer and things like that.
So when I saw a little ad in the paper for Clean Comedy Company, I signed up and started doing stand-up comedy. And you know, the funniest thing is, Avash, and I know because you're an improv actor too. And I don't know about you, Avash, but as an improv actor, you know that it's like flying without a net in most cases, right?
Avish
Well, real quick, my first improv comedy group in college, the college group's name was Without a Net.
Candy
Oh, yeah.
Avish
So, yes, I completely relate to what you're saying.
Candy
Exactly. Well, here I was studying Set Up Punch, which is the format for stand-up comedy. And the first session, there's like eight people in the class. And I noticed that then she said, okay, now we're going to loosen up. We're going to play some improv games. Well, I had a degree in acting, but I'm older. We did other things that I guess you could call improv, but it wasn't the Keith Johnstone.
It wasn't set with principles that were learned with exercises that were malleable that you could build on. And all of the other people in the class were doing improv. And I thought to myself, None of them has an acting degree. Why am I so fearful and stuck inside myself? And then they said, oh, well, we are all doing improv. So that's how that started. I got doing, I got taking classes in improv.
Avish
Okay, so you've been doing improv since like 1992 then?
Candy
Yes, yes, exactly. And then right after that, I mean, it wasn't more, it was less than a year later, four of us in that class decided, you know what? We're a lot funnier than this teacher. We could do this. So we co-founded an improv standup comedy company. And we just started playing, we're in the San Francisco area. So there were a lot of stages to be had on dark times, weekends when they didn't have a show up or something like that.
And we were together for about three years until Well, I don't know. You've been in improv groups. I think they're kind of amorphous at times, don't you?
Avish
Yeah, it's, I've been in improv groups, but I've mostly just sort of run them. So they're amorphous. I see a lot of people come and go, but since I was one running it, I was this one constant pillar there. But it's funny, after I decided to move back, my group dissolved. I, you know, stayed in touch with the performers and that's where the more, that's where I saw the amorphosis from the outside of it. Oh, we started this new group. And then a year later, it's like that went away.
Oh, now we started this new group. And there is a transition and changes.
Candy
Exactly. So what happened with our group is one fella moved away. Another person.
Oh, I don't know. They just had reasons for, like, ah, I'm done with this. It was three years. We all made enough money to keep going, but there were two guys and two gals, and between the two gals, we had seven children, and we're basically doing all the admin, all the running of everything. And the other guys were very funny coming along and part of the group, of course.
Avish
But.
Candy
So anyway, what happened was that all of this just came to a head in, I think it was February or March, something like that. And we had only one gig scheduled, and it was in December, and it was for one of my nursing associations. And so they said, well, no problem. Just give the deposit back. And I'm like, oh, no, it's my group.
Avish
Yeah.
Candy
I don't want to disappoint them. So I literally threw my face to the floor when they said, and we don't want you to use any of the sketch comedy or anything that we had prepared as a group, because, you know, that would. That's our intellectual property. So I threw myself on the ground and literally prayed to God. I didn't know what to do. And within three weeks, I had my first one person show.
Avish
Wow. Well, I love this. I mean, your story is so interesting, but I also like to try to pull things the audience could take away from it. And I just love this example of, you know, the group's dissolving. We only got one gig. All right. Just give the deposit back and wrap it up, which is kind of the, well, yeah, but let's just move on.
And I love how instead of looking at just the two options, like we all stay together as a group through this December show, or we don't do it all, you like said, no, I'm gonna figure this out. And even though there's some, I'm sure despair at first, and stress, you figure it out. So, I'm gonna want to get deeper into this, if not now, later. But was that first show the Florence Nightingale one, or did that come later?
Candy
Oh, no, no. Florence is the third show.
Avish
Oh, so what was the first show?
Candy
It was basically a bunch of comic monologues. It was a trunk show. I had literally a trunk behind me, and I'd bring out a scarf or a hat or something like that. And I'd do these silly characters. They all had to do with the theme of nursing. And it was a good thing in that I was also, during that time, I was also doing theater. I was doing musical comedy. Such. And I used a lot of that work as original audition pieces, which worked very well for me because nobody, you know, I, I immediately got the attention of the, of the director and whoever else was, was casting because they had never heard anything like it, so.
And, you know, they were funny. So that's great.
Avish
And so that I assume that went well. And did that then launch into like the whole new, like, is that what you're speaking or one woman show business sort of started?
Candy
I'm like my third solo show is called Florence Nightingale, the Reluctant Celebrity. And I'm also the reluctant one person show person. I honestly, I was busy. I doing these other musicals and things, I found other things to do. Plus, you know, I was already a SAG actor and I was doing commercials. I was doing little film bits, whatever was in San Francisco. So I was not in a hurry.
It was a lot of work. And that particular one person, first solo show was for that conference for nurses and it wrapped. And like I said, I sort of used use that work, but I never did it again.
That was it. I was never gonna do another show. No, it was too much.
Avish
So you put that effort in preparing this one-person show, which I know is a tremendous amount of work to perform it one time and then just said, nope, not gonna do it again.
Candy
Yeah, I didn't. I. I was busy. You know, I had three kids, and they were all in Middle School. One was in high school, and. It was just too much. I was trying to do everything.
Avish
Yeah.
Candy
Well, but like I said, because I had these other side gigs that were bringing in the cash that I needed. I mean, one person shows do not bring in that much money. So, I mean, those didn't.
Avish
So. So what did you do then?
The improv group close. So then you were just doing acting. Oh, well, were you also nursing at this point?
Candy
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I had to put it on the table.
Avish
You were nursing, doing a bunch of acting and performing gigs, and had three kids all in that sort of middle school age, all at the same time, as a single mom.
Candy
Yeah, yeah. So I was very busy.
During the time, just before we as a group folded, just about six months before, in 1995, there was a guy who came up after, we always, the four of us, you know, invited audience up for questions or what have you. And we were just, you know, schmoozing with people. And this one fellow, there were people always asked the same thing. That one scene or whatever, you must have had a plant, you know, you must have a still. And we say no. Anyway, this one guy came up, he was listening, then he came up and he said, okay, I believe you, you didn't have a plant, but what I saw was that in a very short span of time, you took a problem and you transitioned that problem into a solution. And I'm wondering if you could come and teach my very intelligent Engineers how to park their egos and play nice.
And so in 1995, the other three, I don't can't remember exactly what happened, but I was the one who wound up. Going ahead. And that was my first, I will say, applied improv Workshop. And that launched the whole next section because I learned that although I had been taking, I had never taught it before, but I had been taking a lot of improv classes in various places, and we were always going for the funny. You know, we were always going for performance. But this was a whole different reason application. And for me, I right away could see, since the people in the room were a little hostile to each other and some to me, that it would take a different approach.
And there was a lot of learning and, but very successful. They got subsumed by another company and, they still teach improv. Anyway, that was, that was the beginning of teaching improv.
Avish
Oh, wow. And so then that is kind of the, and so you've been doing the speaking training all the way since then.
Candy
Well, yeah, I didn't actually get my first professional speaking gig where they paid me anything more than, you know, a chicken dinner or something like that. I was flown to Nashville for a convention in 2003 by one of those random, you know, things where I knew somebody who called me up and said, you know, I've got this particular conference that I think you'd be good at. So I, that was the beginning. That was the beginning, 2003. But I didn't even know about National Speakers Association. I didn't know existed.
Avish
Yeah, well, it's funny how the timetables are very similar for you and I because I started doing improv in 1992. You know, I was like my freshman year in college. That's when I auditioned for my improv group in college. I got in and, you know, that changed my life. 2003 is the year I started my speaking business. After I graduated college, I started improv group. And ran it all the way to the end of 2002.
And that's when I decided it was time to close it up. And then I'm like, all right, so in 2003, I'm like, I didn't know what to do now, but I'd done a few like team building workshops and stuff. So I didn't like officially start my business till 2003. So it's just interesting about a similar sort of journey that was.
Candy
Oh my.
Avish
So let's talk a little bit about your approach. I'm very curious about this. So when you're working with professionals or companies, kind of what is your approach to bringing them them improv. Do you have any kind of main overarching philosophies you try to get out of the things you like to always start with?
Candy
I do. I think because of that first experience where people were just, in fact, I'll tell you a funny story. The fellow who hired me was the CEO and it was a startup at the time. Like I said, Salesforce bought it. So it was, I don't know if you remember, it was called PeopleSoft.
Avish
Yeah, yeah, my best friend's wife used to work for PeopleSoft. Then I thought they got acquired by Oracle and then they're all very upset about that.
Candy
Well, I thought it was Salesforce, but well, lately I think, well, anyway, someone.
Avish
May have acquired something else. But yeah, I do remember the name.
I do remember PeopleSoft. Maybe I might have gotten confused with who.
Candy
And it was in Silicon Valley. It was a small start, I mean, smallish startup. They didn't have a big building or anything like that.
They were in a building. And there was, oh, I don't think there was even 12 guys. They were all guys. I was the only girl in the room. And they were all told by the fella who hired me. I changed his name in the book. I think his name was Don.
Anyway, it doesn't matter. He came in, introduced me and started leaving and he said, tough room, but you'll be great. I said, wait a minute. And then I took a little vote. How many of you think that it would be great if everyone in this room, including him, had better communication skills? And, of course, all the hands went up, so he was sort of pulled into it. And that.
That's the first principle, I think, that I always. I don't take it for granted that anybody's in the room because they want to be. There's always some people who say, oh, can I just watch? And the answer is no. And you won't want to watch soon because it's going to be very involving. But then, you know, so I, the first thing is to explain. And there's a process that I have for involving everybody so that it's really fun and getting out.
One of the first things I do before we go into any of the quench the inner editor exercises, which are in some of the first principles. It's, you know, allow yourself to be here. Accept the fact that it, whatever happens, this room is going to stay in this room, and it's not going to be embarrassing to everybody, anybody, you know, it's all for one and one for all. We're here to learn and the most the most frequent fear, I guess, or hesitation, I guess, is because when I work with risk averse Industries like Healthcare, that's my biggest market, they're afraid that I'm going to tell them when I say, say anything that comes out of your mouth, you know, stifle the inner editor, that this is going to reflect badly on their work as a professional. But the most important thing is just like an athlete or a dancer or somebody goes to class and exercises. This is just the exercise so that you'll be better on your feet, you'll be more adaptable and, and, and have some real skills, relationship building skills.
Avish
Oh, yeah, I agree. I get that as well. You know, I do same exercise, you know, teach people to blurt and just kind of get the, and, yeah, I get that feedback, too. Like, well, I can't do this in front of, like, my boss or in front of a customer. It's like, no, you're right. That's not. It's not what we're doing here.
This is the development stage. And if I, because I don't know if you get this, I've definitely had in the past where when I'm going to work with a company, they'll want the interaction, human improv, but they'll suggest or they'll say, oh, can we, for your improv games, can the suggestions for those games be around, like, our issues? And I'm like, no, no.
Candy
Maybe later.
Avish
In the beginning they can't, because if you do it in the beginning, it's going to completely, you know, the internet is going to come up, they're going to come up with the right answers. Like, You got to start with the silliness because that's what frees up the creativity so people can experience, like most of these people, I just feel like most adults, I'm not trying to judge people, but we all sort of lose touch with our creativity as we grow up. And so most people in my audience is just they haven't tapped into that creative joy in like 10, 20, 40 years. And so it's like you got to start with the fun just to let them experience it again.
Candy
Oh, absolutely. So that people let their guard down. And the other interesting difference between studying improv for performance, going for the funny, and doing the team building is the importance of debriefing, preparing what's coming up, and then assimilating it, I guess, in a way. And I don't know if you do this, but I always tell people, because of my background too, I'm gonna introduce all the arts.
Not just theater. A lot of people that I've heard talk about theater arts for improv. It's not just theater.
I use music, dance, art, writing. We use it all.
Avish
Well, that is great. I do not stick with improv comedy, so it's good.
See, we're different. You have a. They're bringing more variety of disciplines. I do agree that it applies in all those things. I have no expertise or skill in any of those areas, so I. Keep my focus.
Candy
Well, we can talk. I mean, the exercises are fun. And the reason I did it was certainly not. Well, no, the reason I did it is because I recognized, like myself, when I first started doing, I did not do theater in, in high school per se, just musicals because I'm a singer. But in, in high school, I thought they were all a bunch of egotists and I didn't want to be around. Them, except for my best friend who was into theater. You know, I forgave her for that.
But I I I also thought, you know, there's some people who are so. They're so talented, or they like doing the other parts of it. So I I find exercises that tap into all of the different creative elements that.
That could be. And the interesting part is the feedback of people who say something like, you know, oh, I'm so glad you, we got to journal because, you know, certain things came up for me that, that allowed me to do go deeper or, oh, my goodness, I'm not a dancer, but, oh, my gosh, that was so much fun. I just loved, you know, driving to the music and all that kind of stuff, so.
Avish
Oh, it's great. No, it is nice that, like, because, you know, I'll sometimes get some, you know, you know, that, like, one negative feedback, and sometimes it'll just be someone saying, I don't like improv comedy. So, like, there's literally nothing I could do. So by having a variety of Arts, you know, if you got someone who doesn't, they like improv, they might Vibe with something else. So. All right, so let's talk application then. What's kind of your sort of favorite or let's just say you got a leader listening to this.
Well, let's kick it to high level first, because I might be taking some things for granted because I know kind of my objectives when I go in. But what do you primarily work with groups on? Is it leadership? Is it teamwork? Is it sales? Like what is your kind of primary usually? I mean obviously you could apply in a variety of areas.
Candy
Right, right. I typically I don't do sales training at all. I do train the trainer. I have a whole series of train the trainer, but some, you know, it's all malleable. It's all, It can be whatever they need. But I like to get the leaders so that we go through emotional intelligence things, things I call from what I call the Actors Toolbox, about listening and noticing, and hopefully by the end of those leadership lessons, we'll get them to promise to leave their door open once in a while and walk around not just with their phone, But, you know, it's funny, old school pen and paper, the physical act of observing a boss or somebody who's your supervisor at work, listening to your comment, writing it down has a profound effect on the person who has the beef. They think, oh, good.
And, you know, hopefully that piece of paper won't just get thrown in the trash. It will get handed to, you know, a secretary or somebody who can put it on the calendar who can, you know, it's, it's step one in showing as a leader that you care, you're present, that you really want to, in most cases, I'm brought in to heal. Psychologically difficult culture that you really want to change it.
Avish
Well, it's fine. I literally just talked with the person on my last podcast interview about how so many of these conversations I have and both on the podcast and also I'm coming out with a new book as well. And I've been interviewing leaders to get some more background on that. And so many of the so many of the issues could be solved or reduced or headed off before they even happen. If leaders would just, like you said, just be present and ask and listen to the answers. And obviously there's processes involved and there's, you know, things you got to do. But that first step, like you said, is just, just, just listen.
Which, for improv comedy, is something you learn, like, right away. It's like, you got to be in the moment. And if you're thinking ahead while your partner's giving you an offer, you're gonna miss it. It's like, And to be fair, I still mess it up, but because it's so natural for like to get in your own head. And so do you see that as well? Like it really starts with just like being in the moment and listening.
Candy
Oh, absolutely. And you know, here's another story I draw from as a nurse in the hospital. You know, as of about the year 2000, right around when computers were in, they were in the homes. And we were Gathering data in a way that we have never gathered data before. Right. The, this Millennium is totally different than the 1900s. And what happened is that within Healthcare, the data started coming in about the problem that so many people were dying in a hospital, not from their diseases.
I mean, that happens, but because of medical errors or they, they, then they started these research studies into what are all the variables that come into making an error that caused somebody to actually die because they were, you know, missed. Nobody saw what was happening or it was the wrong drug or whatever it was. Interestingly enough, Depending upon the research, either the first, the second, or the third variable right there on the top five was miscommunication. I thought he said this or, oh, I didn't know that because that person didn't tell me or go on and on and on. And then when you boiled that down, it comes down to the fact that in healthcare, especially because in a hospital, you're dealing with 365 days a year, 24 hours, seven days a week. You've got different people coming in to the equation, bringing whatever. And we have from the military handoff, there's been a template on how you tell the oncoming clinician, this is what's up, and this is what you need to look for and all of those things.
That said, that could be not done well very often. But also there's the fact that in order to solve this problem, the researchers and academics and other people in in charge of training people have naturally looked back in the history of other risk averse industries and said, what has worked for that industry? So one of my favorite examples is that they did a thing in the 90s, I think, or in the early 2000s called Crew Resource Technology or Crew Resource, whatever it was, Crew Resource. And because it was based on aviation, Now, having been in that industry, I knew exactly why applying solution A to problem B is not going to necessarily be a perfect fit. Because as I said, my supervisor when we were getting this training, this is not going to fit because I will tell you in the real world what happens. Before a flight takes off. First of all, the crew members are there two hours early and we're in operations.
We're learning everything about, I mean, if you're a pilot, it's about the physical part, but if you're a crew member, a flight attendant, you're working, you're talking about the meal service, who's on, things to be concerned with about timing, all of this stuff. And we, FDA regulations or FAA regulations say that we can't even take off.
Unless we're staffed correctly. Well, guess what? The hospital takes off no matter what. You could be short five people in your shift and you gotta improv.
Avish
Yeah.
Candy
And make it up.
Avish
The impendence is not going to unburst because you don't have enough staff on hand.
Candy
Exactly. So all of that to say, when we talk about getting back to the real point about leaders listening and leading with intention, things like that, We can't assume that everybody has had the same training. And a lot of people who get into supervisory positions, I know it happened with me. I was told immediately, All right, now, the people you were friends with, you can't be friends with anymore. And you should shut the door to your office because if it's open, people will wander in and they'll eat up your time.
Well, that's a way to have a barrier between you and your people. Yeah. Be afraid of them.
Avish
It's amazing how things just get propagated down too. It's not like you came in and learned those lessons yourself. Like someone's telling you like, all right, here's, and they're doing it from a well-intentioned place. Like they're trying to help you, but ultimately just kind of making the whole situation worse. All right, well, I got another question for you then so like I said almost everyone I talked to talks about the importance of listening being the moment connecting you and I both agree communication so let's go to the other end of the spectrum.
What is something that? You see or that you address that you think a lot of other speakers or experts Miss or leave out like Not to like get into your secret sauce but like is there something that like you work with groups on that?
Is a little different. Like, not just, all right, let's how to be a good listener, but, like, oh, here's this thing that most people don't even realize how important this is, but this is what you really got to work on.
Candy
Okay. Yeah. I think within improv, we know the importance of not just telling somebody how to do something, but interactively doing it. And so I roll out several exercises that allow people to. Actually listen, you know, giving them that task. And another part is usually, I'll say the substrate of this, usually when we're brought in to do this kind of work, there are people who who work together, but they don't really know each other.
You know what I mean? So again, because we're not dealing with work issues here, we're just exercising. I give them a topic that maybe they don't really know much about with this other person. And then they're tasked with standing up and telling what they heard without, without taking notes. That's not allowed. Yeah. You know, and there's another, other exercises that I love to begin with, which are things that work with any group, depending upon how much time you have and how many people.
I did it last night when I was coaching some children's theater. There were some children there who are different grades, and so they're reticent to speak up because they don't know each other. And the young ones look up to the middle school ones.
And you know what I mean? Yeah, but, but it doesn't matter.
I did this. I do this always with all kinds of groups, and that is, you can just give them two minutes is, is. Is plenty for this exercise. And you make sure that you bring them into pairs, or worst case, threes, but pairs if possible. And you give them only two minutes and say you can't write anything down. You just need to listen. And you have to find as many things that you have in common as possible that have nothing to do with what brought you here today. And Amazing.
When I first did this exercise years ago, I remember I had a group of nurses from various hospitals and two ladies in two minutes found 28 things in common.
Avish
Wow.
Candy
And they could name them. Oh, my God. They talked fast.
Avish
I like that. Let me use that on a future.
Candy
Oh, do. It's a wonderful.
Avish
I like it because I do think, I mean, I feel like we pay so much attention to the things that separate us. My opinion here, here's how I like to do things. Here's what my background's this, your background's that. But just understanding that there's actually so many things we have in common and it's kind of where does your focus go? And just to break the ice, get people connected, I think is so powerful.
Candy
Oh, yeah.
Avish
There's a couple things I want to make sure we get to before I go to my final questions and with our schedule here. This is great. Appreciate all that great information. But I do want to talk about two other things. First off, I read in your bio that you had been doing this for a while, but you realized you were talking about stuff, but there wasn't a lot of evidence. So you just decided to go and enter a doctor program so you could get the evidence yourself. Sort of correct.
And could you tell, take us a little bit through that?
Candy
It's sort of what happened was that I've been, you know, my minor in, in college was education from the get-go and so, and because I've always, I was a, you know, award-winning speaker as a high school student. So I think that sort of gift has been following me. And I think because also I came into nursing, having been in corporate America, having all already been an actor, I was tapped. Right away, every single hospital I've ever been at, to be an educator. So that's fine. And because I was working full time as a nurse and also doing this side gig, teaching improv, I right away saw the benefit and went right away to my director and said, oh, please, you know, this would be so good in healthcare. We so need this training and same pious reply.
Well, you know, in healthcare, we only teach anything that has evidence to support it. I said, Google it. There's 10,000 hits on the benefit of improv. Oh, yes, but those are in arts, not healthcare. So as it turned out, in 2003, I had between 2003 and 2004, I had five foot surgeries.
Avish
Wow.
Candy
And that eliminated my standing for 12 or 16 hours as a clinician. But it got me my first administrative post for the state of California. I was certifying 120 hospitals. Wishing somebody just fall over so I could do something I knew how to do. But. But then it was clear to me I was gonna go nowhere without a masters. So I got the masters in public health policy.
And because I was already a speaker by then, this was like 2005 when I started that. And then I got head hunted, if you will. I was teaching at the University of California.
Sorry, Cal State. And I got headhunted by the University of San Francisco. And so I, I went for an interview, and they said, well, we want to hire you. The committee said, we'd like to hire you. By this time, I already had some books, and I had an award-winning film, and I was a professional speaker on Healthcare topics, so, and have been on the radio. You know, they'd heard me. They knew who I was.
So I had to have an interview with the dean, and she said, we'd love to hire you, but we can't because you don't have a doctorate. I'm like, Why am I here?
Avish
You can't be.
Candy
And she said, we want to fix that. And so she said, how about if we pay you like you already have the doctorate while you get the doctorate? I'm like, all right, now we're talking.
That's an offer. So she said, but you got to do research. You don't do a doctorate just for fun of it. You got to do research. So don't worry, I got lots of teams.
I could plug you right in. And I said, what if I have an idea? And that's where she said, I can help you make that happen. We went over to Stanford, which has, you probably understand, it's a big conglomerate organization. And so we brought in a group of people, some who were already in the hospital at loggerheads and some who were, worked in ancillary facilities and did the research. The first research and then three and six months out. And it was so successful that Stanford School of Medicine still teaches improv in their communication module.
Avish
Wow. Yeah. And so this is research essentially on, like, the efficacy of improv comedy in healthcare.
Candy
Yeah, it was. It exactly that.
Avish
Okay, so is this something I can refer to in sight? Because, you know, absolutely. Yeah, I would like.
Candy
Absolutely. I'll send you the doctorate.
Avish
Yeah, I would love that. Thank you. That's fantastic.
So that is great. It's funny because I know you had a healthcare background. So when I saw your title is Dr. Candy Cam, I assumed it was an MD. It wasn't until I started researching preparing for this podcast. I'm like, oh, this is PhD doctor.
Candy
Oh, I know, Dr. Nurse.
Avish
That's great. I love it. That's so good. Which brings me sort of to my second question before kind of moving to our close here. So to combine the nursing and healthcare with the acting performance and improvisation, you've got this other arm of your business where you do a one-woman show as Florence Nightingale.
So how does that happen? And is that like, and how big a piece of, because I think when I first learned about you, I think we first met at NSA conference, I kind of, I just thought that's what you did, because there are people whose entire business is just like the impersonator thing. So I'm like, oh, she's a speaker whose entire business is being Florence Nightingale, but that is not the case. So I'd like to just learn kind of how you got into that and kind of how big a piece of your business that is.
Candy
Okay. It's 50.
And the way I got into it. Oh, yeah. And, and it's, it's a funny NSA story.
Avish
So.
Candy
As a, as a professor there in 2010, I started at University of San Francisco, our librarian came in one day to a faculty meeting and said, did you know 2010 is the 100th year anniversary of the death of Florence Nightingale? We're all like, Okay, big whoop. And she said, oh, but it's notable because lots of people around the world have collated all of her work and digitized it in her honor this year. And I have it and you can read it. And I think all of us looked at each other and went, we all read her book. Thanks, you know. And she said, yes, but have you read all 200 books and articles and over 10,000 of her lectures?
Letters that we have?
Avish
Like what?
Candy
I couldn't believe it. None of us could believe it. Well, anyway, here's the thing. I lived an hour away in good traffic and three days a week, my classes lit out at 4 pm. Not a good time to get on the freeway. So for three years, I started reading. And then after the first week, I got one of those 13 column pads and I started writing.
Themes that I noticed because I thought, no, I get an article, at least out of this. And then I finished in 2013 and at an NSA holiday party. I don't know if you know Barry Wishner. He's a great guy. Oh, okay. In San Francisco, International speaker, one of my mentor friends. He heard me talking about all this stuff, and he said, okay, I gotta.
Question for you. You are a nurse. You've had two solo shows. Why isn't this your third?
And I'm like, very pleased. It's a lot of work. You don't get that much money. And I am busy. This little three day a week gig is keeping me. I'm working, like, 60 hours a week. It's. Ah, he goes, okay, what would happen?
What would have to happen? To make you do it would be like a million dollars.
I'm like, no, no. He goes, what would have to happen? I said, Barry God himself would have to tell me. He goes, okay, I get it. I get it. So the next morning, 9 30, this is God. I'm telling you.
Avish
So.
Candy
And he docked me. He called me once a month, and I got the show up, and then I still didn't know. You know, I'm taking the notes and improving the different scenes with my director at the time, and. I still didn't know. But March, April, something like that, after church, having coffee, talking with some ladies, you know, shooting this, whatever. One lady said to me, stay right there. She brings over a gentleman who happened at the time to be.
It was a pretty big church, the pastor for seniors. And I was not at the time a senior, although now I qualify. And they said, oh, wasn't she a woman of faith? And I said, oh, yeah, certainly. That was, you know, she said, God told her to go and help the helpless and all of this. He said, well, when are we going to see the show? I don't know.
He said, well, how about if we hire you, then you'll have to finish the show. So my first iteration of the show was in 2014 for 250 seniors at this church.
Avish
Wow. And it went well. And then as opposed to your first show, you didn't say, I'm never doing that one again.
Candy
You just exactly.
Avish
So do you find that the Florence Nightingale show drives business to your kind of improv training and communication business?
Candy
Well, yes, and yes. Because when people learn, you know, I have, I have at this point, seven books.
I'm writing the eighth. And so, you know, I'll have a book signing time afterwards and people learn about it. But also because I've been doing these residencies, it's now kind of a thing. NEA, the National Endowment for the Arts, has recognized that. I mean, after all these years of not solving the communication problem within health care, people are still dying from this. Yeah, there. It's. It's a.
A thing they call art plus health. And so I fall into that category. So I was just in New York State a few weeks ago where they pulled in the largest Healthcare organization for that area. And I did a workshop one night and then the show the next. And anyway, that's the way it's going.
Avish
That's fantastic. Where in New York State?
Candy
Johnson City. You know where that is? By Binghamton University.
Avish
Oh, okay. I grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York. I had a lot of friends went to Binghamton, so. Oh, okay. Yeah, I was in Poughkeepsie. I'm like, ah, I'm gonna be there this weekend to see my parents.
Candy
Oh. All right.
Avish
Well, this is fascinating and fantastic and thank you for sharing so much of your background and your approach. I'm gonna finish up here in a couple minutes with three quick questions. Before I get to that, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to share with our listeners anyone who wants to learn more about you, connect with you, hire you, whether it's as a speaker, trainer, coach or as Florence Nightingale wants to get your books, what are the best ways they should find you and connect with you?
Candy
Oh, thank you. Well, I do have a couple of websites. The first one is for the show, the Florence Nightingale show. It's called Florence Nightingale Live, L I V E. And that was made mostly for performing arts directors, people who hire, you know, for that or whoever, whoever wants to hire for that. And then the other one is candycampbell.com for all things improv related and those coaching and Consulting and so forth like that. Okay.
Avish
And as you said, you have seven books you're working on.
Candy
Yeah. Yeah.
Avish
Yeah.
Candy
The eighth book, I'm, I don't even know if I want to go into it. That's a, you know, I, I want. Well, okay, let me just say I have an award-winning documentary film. It's called Micro Premature Babies: How Low Can youn Go. I went to film school just to do this because when I pitched it to different producers that I knew in the San Francisco area about how to bring attention to the problem that there was, which is people who have really small premature babies who have their child in the hospital for months on end. This is not just a medical problem. It impacts their whole life.
So nobody would tackle this problem. So I, I did. And during that time, I had to go to, I had to take a screenwriting class. And that particular screenplay that I wrote, I finally dusted it off during COVID because it's all done from interviews with people who served in the Vietnam War, either as medical people or as infantry and my own personal experience as a flight attendant being during the Vietnam War with that. And so now that's winning screenwriting awards. I'm happy to say I've won two already. And I'm writing the book to match the screenplay because I'm told I need to do that.
Avish
Oh, fantastic. Well, stay, keep it on the radar for that. Get on Candy's list for that and go check our website and books. Thank you so much, Candy.
I got three quick questions. Oh, normally I only end with one quick question, but for you, I've got three because you're an improviser. So first, quick hit question. What is your favorite improv comedy game to play just as a performer?
Candy
Oh, favorite. Oh, my goodness.
Avish
One of your favorites.
Candy
Oh, as a performer?
Avish
Yeah, just as a performer.
Candy
Oh, sure. I love the one where, what do we call it? The Olympics one where we're playing a game, but it's like iron throwing.
Avish
Yes.
Candy
Or, you know, something weird.
Avish
And you have, do you have people commenting while you're, yes, we used to call that slow motion. I don't know what slow motion.
Candy
Yeah.
Avish
Yeah.
Candy
I love that one.
Avish
That's fantastic. All right, second question. What's your favorite improv exercise to run a professional group through?
Candy
Well, so many, I told you of one that I'd begin. Another one is just either sound ball. To loosen them up or the name game to get everybody to know each other. Those are beginning exercises.
Avish
Yeah, they're almost like warm-ups and real quick because a lot of people may not be experienced improvisers. Sound ball is where you make a sound, throw it to someone, they have to repeat the sound you make and then throw it to someone else to make a new sound and continues. And it's an imaginary ball, not a real ball. I don't know if you use a real ball.
Candy
I was like, oh no.
Avish
What is your version of the name game?
Candy
That's when we are in a circle and we've done it with up to 40 people. And we start, I start with my name and an alliteration, Curious Candy or something like that. And we go around and you have to repeat it. And when this is the whole thing, when somebody goofs up, we applaud them uproariously. I screwed up and they get to run around the circle and say, oh, I love it.
Avish
I haven't done it with that version. I've done the name thing with the adjective. I haven't done the running around. I like that addition to it.
Candy
Oh, it's a good improvement on it.
Avish
No, I love it. All right, final question. And this is the last question I ask all my guests is, you know, I do what I do. I talk about Yes and because I believe the world would be a better place if everyone just started with the default mindset of Yes and instead of Yes but. So my question to you is what is one small thing that you believe if everyone did, it would make the world a better place?
Candy
Oh, I think that if everyone had a positive mindset and was willing to listen and be and be and reflect what they heard. It would be a. The world would be a better place.
Avish
I love it. Positive mindset. Listen and reflect what you heard. That is fantastic.
And I agree. Candy, thank you. This was a wonderful conversation. I feel like there's a bunch of stuff we didn't even get to, so maybe. Maybe we'll do it again sometime.
Candy
Okay, thanks so much, Avish.
Avish
All right, thank you.