1man.10years.10000hours.

In February I took a stand-up workshop with Comedian and Late Show with David Letterman Talent Coordinator Eddie Brill. He talked about how he likes to write on stage. In other words, saying what comes to mind, seeing what works, then refining it show after show. I thought that was an interesting way to approach the craft. I decided to start doing the same thing because I find that no matter how much I write it often seems forced and unnatural.

I had a show on April Fools day, and instead of worrying about what I would say, or spending hours writing and refining jokes, I made a list in my head of what I wanted to talk about and let it happen. Sure I knew how I wanted to say some stuff, but I didn’t have punchlines, or parts I expected to work. I didn’t put anything down on paper. I wanted it to be organic and genuine. So I stepped on stage with no expectations and 7 minutes to fill. Was it 100% successful? No. Maybe 70%. The times without laughs were longer, but the times people did laugh, they laughed much harder. And it felt great. I wasn’t stuck in my head, I didn’t really worry about what happened next, I just existed on stage and talked to people and said “like” alot. This is how stand-up should be, except for the “like” parts. Another wonderful side effect to working this way is being able to stay 100% true to yourself and your character. When writing traditionally it’s easy to make up stuff you think is funny, and it may be, but why compromise your truth? Nothing is funnier than the truth. 

I’m really looking forward to doing more standup in this way and discovering new and wonderful things with the audience.

I often type out ideas for jokes into my phone. Unfortunately it’s not a smart phone and I don’t have a way to keep notes. So I start a text message to twitter, save it as a draft and usually copy the ideas to google docs at a later date. This usually works out well since I rarely tweet from my phone. This is an ass backwards way of keeping notes, but it works for me… scratch that worked for me.

A situation came up to where I needed to DM someone on twitter from my phone so I had to clear 4 pages of comedy ideas. I changed the recipient from twitter to my number and hit send. Unfortunately I got my own phone number wrong and ended up sending the entire rambling list of ideas to a stranger. And it was sent as 4 separate texts.

Here’s what I needed up sending, spelling errors and punctuation atrocities included.

Next time I go for a physical remind me not to wear the boxers with the crabs on them. Gravity waves. Travel universe over shrter sections of waves

(2/4) Use… to use over greater distances locks of love bikers drug test childrens unit hospital or child soldiers marriage fees go towards domestic violence

(3/4) raptors air quotes. True large print braille jonathan space. Rock. Guys who can sing may lead to you not having an asshole i pizza pizzabstoj rap615 

(4/4) wendies pray

The text started out strong, but quickly devolved to a stream of consciousness mess. Luckily I know what 95% of these ideas refer to.

As a comedian, it’s important to write ideas down constantly. I’ve found, though, being that guy at a party always tapping ideas into his phone can be pretty douchey.

Fellow comedians, how do you keep the spark of an idea fresh in your mind for later without writing it down? Or like me, have you resorted to going to the bathroom just so you can type your ideas in private to avoid seeming anti-social or jerky?

How do I calculate my hours?

Any time I rehearse, practice, or perform I log it. I was hoping I could include the hours I’ve spent over the years making people laugh but, according to wikipedia, that wouldn’t be fair.

expertise… comes about through long periods of deliberate practice.

So that’s what I will do. 

I will also record the hours I spend watching/analyzing comedy but I won’t include them in my countdown. 

I need to log 1000 hours a year or about 20hrs a week. I started in 2008, so I’ve got a ways to go. Obviously the amount of time I spend practicing/performing will pick up depending on if I get a job in the field or not. 

I’ve got lots of work to do, but I’ll get it done :)