I watched a lot of “Home Improvement” when I was a kid. Tim Allen, Jonathan Taylor Thomas (“JTT” to the girls in my class) and the rest of the cast were downright hilarious, and I rarely missed an episode, including the daily reruns after school. Strangely, I always looked forward to the end of the show. Why? Because that’s when they ran the bloopers reel.

As funny as they were when they got it right, Allen and company were gut-busting when they goofed up – and now I understand why.

Recently, the staff of FLW Outdoors Magazine began production of an interactive digital edition of the print publication. This is more than just a digitized version of the original. The digital book comes complete with videos, audio recordings, slide shows, hyperlinks and all kinds of other good stuff that literally cannot go into a print publication.

Part of developing this new product is creating the video. Naturally, we want to showcase FLW Outdoors pros as often as we can. But there will be times, and there have been times, when we staff members speak on camera. Let me just say, “Let the blooper reels begin.”

Honestly, we’re not all that bad. We’re having fun with it, and we’re creating a professional product. But if you’ve never had a camera stuck in your face, a script to stick to and a goofball co-worker making faces in the back of the boat, then you don’t realize the pressure that can be put on you when trying to create a video.

What I’ve learned is the easiest way to get over a mistake is to poke a little fun at your own temporary ineptitude. It relieves pressure. And when you’re nervous, maybe a bit anxious and feeling the heat of the spotlight, naturally you get a bit flustered. That brings on a case of the giggles anyway, so I just don’t fight it. Plus, the bloopers we’ve come up with comprise some of the funniest material we’ve logged to date.

We’ve even created a nickname for Creative Director Brian Lindberg as a result of this new endeavor. You can now refer to him as 12-Take Lindberg. I’m sure you can figure out why.