"Only through imitation do we develop toward originality." - John Steinbeck
 
Some performers refuse to imitate anyone in their attempt to be original.  However, when they do that they are skipping an important tool in developing original material.
 
Ralph Huntzinger suggested that I try a magic effect titled Zone Zero invented by Jerry Andrus.  Zone Zero consists of a plastic board with a hole in the center.  During the routine you repeatedly show both sides of the board and yet when you reach through the hole you are able to produce a ball.  The ball vanishes when you push it back through the hole.  The premise of the routine is that the hole is a portal into another dimension called Zone Zero.  When the ball passes through the hole it moves back and forth between our world and the world of Zone Zero.
 
I purchased Zone Zero from a magic dealer and learned how to do it exactly according to the directions.  It got good audience response.  What I did was an imitation of Jerry Andrus performing the routine.  That was a necessary step in learning the technical skill to perform the routine.  I was able to make changes only after I had mastered the mechanics well enough that I could do them without having to think about it.  That gave me the freedom to think something else.
 
The first thing that I did was redecorate the board so that it looked like a bean bag game target.  I painted a clown face on the board with the hole forming the clown's nose.  That inspired the idea of somebody trying to throw a ball through the hole.  So I paired Zone Zero with an old clown bit called the Invisible Ball.  In the Invisible Ball you use a paper bag to catch an imaginary ball thrown by an audience member.  The sound of the ball landing in the bag can be heard because you secretly snap the fingers of the hand holding the bag.  In my new routine I remove the invisible ball from the bag and play catch with members of the audience.  Then I have somebody try to throw the invisible ball through the hole in the bean bag target.  When I reach inside to retrieve it, the ball becomes visible to my amazement.  The ball switches back and forth between visible and invisible as it passes through the hole in the target.  Finally the ball remains visible and I use it in a juggling routine with two other balls.  The combined routine gets great audience response because the sudden transformation of the invisible ball is completely unexpected yet it logically makes sense within the magical world of my character.  I would not have arrived at my version of the routine without first imitating the original routine as developed by Jerry Andrus.
 
(Disclaimer:  I believe in respecting the intellectual property of others.  I did not watch Jerry Andrus perform the routine and imitate it without permission.  I purchased the effect which gave me the right to perform it.)
 
Early in my career I was greatly influenced by Emmett Kelly and Otto Griebling.  I did not do a literal impersonation of their appearance, but many of my first routines were based on routines they had performed.  During the 1977 season of Circus Kirk I even impersonated Emmett Kelly smashing a peanut in one of my routines.  (The entire routine is described on page 309 of Creativity For Entertainers Volume Two.)  Otto Griebling would warm up circus audiences by seeing which portion of the audience would applaud him the loudest when he juggled pie pans.  When I performed in circuses I performed a similar routine while juggling balls or clubs.  I still sometimes use that routine in theater performances.  However, most of the routines that were derivative of theirs are not currently part of my repertoire.  They were an important step in the development of my character because they gave me something to perform.  Then audience response guided me in discovering what worked best for me.  I used the skills that I developed while performing those imitative routines to create more original routines that were an expression of my own personality.
 
When I wrote Creativity For Entertainers Volume Three I included many of my routines with permission for the purchaser to perform them as published.  That is the imitative phase.  However, you should not be content to remain an imitation.  So, each routine in that book is followed by idea starting questions to help you think about changes you could make to my routines in creating your own versions.  I have heard from some readers that their final version was very different from the starting place I had given them.  At Clown Camp, Greg Chalmers showed me a great juggling routine using a tin cup and two juggling balls that he said was inspired by my Creativity books.  It was something that I had not thought of doing myself.  To me that proved that I succeeded in what I was trying to do when I wrote the books.
 
What skills would you like to add to your repertoire?  What could you imitate to learn those skills?  Then once you learn those skills, how can you move beyond simply imitating?  What can you add to the initial idea or what changes can you make to turn it into an expression of your own personality?