The Art of the Creative Tag-Team

When it comes to dynamic duos, the balance is often uneven: one member is the public face, the other, the behind-the-scenes executor; one is the creative genius, the other, the operations brainiac. Yet Current TV’s Max Lugavere and Jason Silva, the network’s founding hosts and anchor personalities, break the partnership mold, having risen through the ranks and grown fully as a pair on equal footing. Four years on from Current’s launch in 2005, and its impressive track record as the fastest growing TV network, Max and Jason continue to thrive as collaborators, hosting Current’s late-night show Still Up, acting as ambassadors for the network, and working on a multiplicity of socially-minded side projects. Originally handpicked out of 4,000 applicants to be Current’s first on-air personalities at the ripe old age of 23, Max and Jason quickly became the face(s) of the network, earning the nickname “Al Gore’s boys.” And just as Current is the first real 21st-century TV network, driven by user-generated content, Max and Jason are nothing less than 21st-century creatives. Which is to say, they believe strongly in the power of social media to effect change, they’re constantly juggling multiple major projects, and they see little difference between work and play.

In addition to being on-air personalities, representing the network publicly, and looping in organizations like Causecast and GQ’s Gentlemen’s Fund to work with Current, Max and Jason are simultaneously pursuing a number of other social entrepreneurial ventures. At the moment, they are in pre-production on a feature documentary about sustainability called Power – “a solutions-oriented film, rather than a doom and gloom sort of film,” says Jason – at the same time as they work on launching a concert series called Rock Drive to raise money for local communities.

We’ve written about the advantages of daylighting – allowing staff to work on outside projects at work – on 99% before, and Max and Jason’s work for Current and beyond typifies its benefits. Rather than viewing the duo’s external passion projects as something that detracts from their involvement with Current, the network totally supports them. As Jason puts it: “David [Neuman, President of Programming] said that he was here to encourage us to put our passions out in the forefront and that if we could use Current as a platform for all of this social good, and use our labels as these sort of TV personality/producer guys who have their feet in a lot of different projects to help... I think it only makes the network grow larger because all these people that are connected to us through all these projects become aware of Current.”

Being a dreamer is hugely important because it allows us to think beyond what is traditionally possible. But then the follow-up is equally important.

With regard to their unique partnership, they say it really is completely 50/50. “Everything we do is very much, we have an idea, and the rest of the year is devoted to making it come to fruition,” says Max. “I think we’re both really unique in that each of us embodies a bit of the dreamer and a bit of the executer. We both have big ideas, but we both have this big-picture foresight... When you think about the bajillion things that have to occur for the stars to align and to have a favorable outcome, you realize how complicated most occurrences are.”

Elaborating on the roles they each play creatively, Jason chimes in, “Being a dreamer is hugely important because it allows us to think beyond what is traditionally possible. It allows you to conceive of what might be. But then the follow-up is equally important. Just because you can imagine something, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. You have to go and put in the laborious effort that it’s going take to actualize that idea. And I think we both have a keen understanding of that. Somebody is always playing devil’s advocate… There is always a checklist guy, who says, well, what about this, what about that?”

When asked if they would recommend teaming up to others given their own success, Jason responds with an emphatic “yes” – but also an important caveat: “I think that [it works] if you can find a way to cooperate that does not mean that one of the people’s creative abilities are stifled or compromised. Find a way to collaborate so that both people feel fully expressed. If one person feels stifled that’s just a ticking time bomb.”

Beyond finding the right balance as creative partners, Max and Jason also stress the importance of finding the right work/play balance. Or rather, doing your best to ensure that there’s as little distinction between the two as possible. If you’re doing something that you love, “the difference between your work time and your play time is irrelevant. The more you can blur those things, the less you ever feel like you’re really working,” says Jason, adding with a laugh, “and also, the more time you’ll have to work.”

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Max and Jason’s show, Still Up, airs on Current TV nightly at 12am EST, 11pm CST, and 9pm PST. Check out past clips and get channel details online.