We discuss both a method of interviewing about an individual's creative thinking and a method of recording an interviewer's behavior. From the viewpoint of scientific examination, interviewing is supposed to be an act of retrieving an interviewee's thoughts in a raw manner without being influenced by the interviewer's viewpoints or intentions. An individual's thoughts are, however, mostly tacit knowledge. Even the individual himself is not necessarily able to externalize it by himself. We argue, rather, that interviewing should be an act of generating a narrative in a constructive manner through active interactions between an interviewer and an interviewee. Based on this paradigm change, we have devised a method of interviewing using a memo tool so that the interaction becomes active. Moreover we have developed a method of recording an interviewer's behavior situated in the interaction in order to examine what kind of behaviors make the interaction active.

How can we make communication active? Although we participate in and contribute to various conversations everyday, we are not necessarily self-aware of what skills we employ to activate conversations. A good example of experts who are very good at activating conversations is comedians. They quickly grasp what kind of roles they are supposed to play in any changing circumstances in a TV variety show and behave so that the whole atmosphere is enjoyable. In this paper, focusing on Mr. Kendo Kobayashi, a popular Japanese comedian, we examine skills to activate and direct conversations toward an enjoyable atmosphere.