Kelly connects with old friend Peter Murrieta, an esteemed Emmy-winning writer and Deputy Director at the Sidney Poitier New American Film School at Arizona State University. He is the mastermind behind two highly successful and beloved shows, “Mr. Iglesias” on Netflix and “Wizards of Waverly Place” on Disney. The latter, in particular, played a pivotal role in catapulting the young and talented Selena Gomez into the global spotlight, setting the stage for her rise to superstardom. Peter cut his teeth at The Second City where he is a member of their artistic advisory board. 

You have never operated to industry standards. I don’t recall you asking to get jobs, for example. 

“I was working on a show for a fairly well-known producer, and he had another show that got announced. And it was about baseball. And everybody in the room and all my friends were like, ‘You gotta talk to him.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I work with him every day. He knows where I am at the end of the table. If he wants to talk to me, he’ll talk to me.’ And then I flew to Chicago to see my youngest Dan at Northwestern, in the marching band. And while I’m sitting in the stands, I get a text. And thn text is like, ‘Hey, should you do this baseball show with me?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And he’s like, ‘Can you start on Monday?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And then when I told my other friends that were the ones pestering me about talking to him, they couldn’t believe it. And in their mind, they’re like, you’ve lost so much money in your career because you haven’t done that. But I think probably because I’m the son of an immigrant, I’m biracial, I think I’ve always sought foundational places where I could sit and know that I was there because someone wanted me.” 

In Second City’s work with behavioral scientists, we’ve been leaning into the fact that self-disclosure is an easy way to build connection between people – just by sharing small truths. 

“I am in rooms and spaces with so many people every day, both now as an academic and in my writing world. There’s a moment when people want to relate. Humans want to relate. I love that you’re talking to behavioral scientists, and I’m curious what you think of this. When somebody says to me, I come from a big Korean family, and my mom didn’t show love, but there was always food on the table. That’s how she showed love. Now, I could say, because I’m a human that wants to relate, my gosh, that culture has a lot to do with where I come from. That’s an easy way to respond. What I found is more valuable is to let that person shine. Just go, my gosh, that’s great. That’s great that you told me that truth about your family. And now let’s work. You don’t need to eke out a victory by connecting there thing to your thing. You’re relating to them by being there and listening. So I think these small individual acts will give people celebrations instead of diminishments.” 

One of your oldest truisms was that rather than getting mad at everyone, you just picked one person to be mad at at Second City.

“That’s right. Cause you know you can do a lot more when you focus that anger on one person, you can get a lot more done.” 

Photo Credit: Hudson French