Groove Theory #8 - Three Timetables and a Microphone

There's something about New York and comedy.

The locals' naturally acerbic wit. A city where cracking jokes lubricates the daily grind.

A place where both pro and amateur standups can hit five gigs a night without breaking stride.

Because NYC teems with comedy spots. These venues share a rhythm - comedian walks out, tells jokes, gets laughs (hopefully), walks off. Next comic, next venue, next gig. All the way from open mic to UCB and SNL.

But this edition of Groove Theory isn't about Rhythm. It’s not about Structure, or even Presence. It's about flipping the script entirely. Speaking of which, let's flip from NYC to Los Angeles.

It's 2012. Two LA comedians, Brandie Posey and Sam Varela, stare at a problem that's plagued live comedy forever: how do you make the same old stand-up format feel alive again?

Their answer: Picture This!

Comedians perform while animators draw their jokes live, in real time, projected behind them. The comedians don't know what the animators are drawing. The animators don't know how the comedians - or the audience - will react.

Over a decade later, Picture This! brings dozens of animators and comedians together for something that didn't exist before.

And back in NYC, a recent Saturday evening found me at Brooklyn’s Union Hall for their latest edition.

The Tension

Animators aren’t performers. They’re used to creating alone, in private, with time to refine and perfect. But suddenly they're on stage, drawing live, with hundreds of people watching every stroke.

They don't know if they'll be funny. They don’t know what’s coming. And the comedian's punchline is on the way whether their drawing is ready or not.

Meanwhile, the comedians lose their usual control. Their timing shifts. Their pacing changes. That guaranteed laugh might not work because people might love the drawing more than the joke.

It's visual artists becoming both heckler and creative partner. It's comedians surrendering their material to someone else's interpretation. As co-founder Sam says, both pen and mic have anxiety. Egos have to shunt off-stage.

Step Into It

You're presenting some work. Team meeting, client pitch, conference talk - whatever.

You're explaining your ideas when someone starts building on them in real time. A colleague jumps in with their interpretation. A client takes your concept somewhere you never imagined. Someone riffs an alternate version in Figma or Claude while you’re still explaining the original.

Your careful plan just got bent out of shape. You can either fight it or flow with it.

The Groove: Modality

Modality → Choose the vessel

At Wavetable we're big believers in the value of Format Innovation: mixing two proven formats to create a third thing that neither could achieve alone. Hot Ones, Masterclass, Peloton - all rooted in innovating on a format.

We even built a DJ mixdown game to help you create your own (yes, the game itself is a format innovation).

The Picture This! combo of comedy + illustration is definitely format innovation. But their real modality breakthrough isn't just what they mix - it's how they play with time.

Most creative experiences ask people to follow one timeline - your presentation, your story, your agenda. But this show runs three timetables at once. Your brain processes:

• the joke timeline (setup, punchline, rhythm)
• the drawing timeline (sketch emerging, details added, reveal)
• the audience timeline (when to laugh, when to gasp, when to wonder).

Three timetables make time fly.

Plus, as co-founder Sam explained to me, it opens the door to audiences who find traditional stand-up polarizing or unwelcoming. Comedy usually means mainstream crowds - date nights, tourists. Picture This! multi-modal format attracts clowns, jugglers, animators, LGBTQ folks, alt topics. It's a portal into comedy for people who'd never set foot in a regular comedy club.

The show has grown from an LA experiment to franchises in New York, Portland, San Francisco, and appearances at festivals worldwide - including two runs at the Kennedy Center.

Modality is one of the five elements of Groove Theory. Learn more →

The Release

Picture This! proves that time is a format you can innovate on. They didn't just mix comedy with illustration - they created three timetables where most experiences have one. Different timelines shift how people perceive and understand what's happening.

Your next project can play not just with content, but with time and perception.

Speaking of play, what’s your favorite joke right now? And yes, you're welcome to add a doodle.

Howard

P.S Picture This! are currently seeking animators - contact them via IG if you know someone.

Extended Mix: Groove Tools

• Replit + Figma: we’ve been using this to build our suite of games, with two of us coding/building at the same time.
• Ojisan magic: a unique card game that revived a Japanese town
• 3D Mapping a conversation: a blast from my blog past. I must have consumed some potent herbal tea that day…