My niece is an actress. She has her theatrical arts degree and has decided to make acting her career.
Last weekend I traveled to Chicago and saw her in a play.
A huge festive family dinner followed. At some point, her father, my brother in law, was telling a story, and at some point he sort of shifted to a new story.
His daughter interrupted, “Dad, what is the button? You need to have a button.”
“What‘s a button?,” I asked.
“A button is the point of the story, the punch line. It is the reason for the story.” My niece had taken Improvisational classes. She even interned at The Second City, the storied acting and improvisational school. “Every story has to have a button”, she explained.
Yes, there are times when I have started a story and completely lost the flow. Ever since she told me that I needed to have my button, I have consciously not started a story unless I had the button firmly in mind. Not just a beginning, middle and end to a story but a succinct, memorable way to wrap it up.
And that is my button.
