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The Comedy Lifestyle Or, The Post in Which I Wax Poetically and Verbosely About the Pros and Cons of Being a Comedian

I have to apologize for the lack of blogging. It's not for lack of subjects - actually, I have a kind of reverse writer's block. There are so many things I'd like to write about that I have trouble picking one subject - there are tons of ideas fighting to be written about and I find it difficult to make one the victor over any other. Starting tonight, however, I'm going to try to tackle at least one topic a day and wrestle through this thicket of things about which I would like to be writing.

Let's start with this "comedy lifestyle" I'm still adjusting to.

The decision to devote my life to performing comedy was about passion; the decision to immediately make the move towards performing comedy full time was about pragmatism. I realized that spending 100% of my time on comedy was the best way to make comedy my job: I could work on more material, do more shows, and spend more time on my career with comedy as my full focus. There's also benefit of the push that comes from realizing that your welfare and ability to eat and pay rent is dependent on the quantity and quality of comedy that you do. On top of all of that, I knew that I wanted to make comedy my life, so why delay the inevitable? Why not just jump with both feet and pursue the thing I'm most passionate about with all the passion I have?

I'm proud to say that I'm a professional comedian. I make my living doing what I love. I'm most happy when I'm on stage performing comedy in front of an audience and I get to do that several times a day - what more could I ask for? The lifestyle is not without difficulty, however. The fact that I can't predict what will happen on any given day, that there will always be a surprise or something unexpected, is both a blessing and a curse. It makes things fun and exciting, but it's also tough to plan things in advance (which the "real world" requires you to do) and hard to feel or have any kind of security. There's also the negative side to the comedy industry - the constant rejection, the mistreatment of performers, the competitiveness (whether intentional or not), the drama and politics of working in such a relatively small community of professionals - all can be harmful to one's positive outlook. Add to that the unusual hours (I'm essentially nocturnal and practically don't see the sun at all in the winter), which has left me vampire pale (no sun) and unable to hang out with my friends who have "normal" jobs (as an entertainer, I work when everyone else isn't). My love life (not to get too personal) is also in shambles because, as I've told a few of my comedian friends, when I'm spending time on anything but my art (like with a girl, for example), I honestly feel like I'm cheating on comedy.

But that analogy also illuminates why I'm still doing what I'm doing. Comedy is my love, my passion, my reason for being. As a result, I can't imagine doing anything else. (Okay, I can imagine what it would be like to do something else, but I definitely wouldn't want to be doing anything else.)

That's why I - no matter how hard it's been or how hard it will be - will keep on truckin'. I'm excited to see where the road will lead, but - more importantly - already happy and fulfilled by the journey itself.

Comedian as Jester-Philosopher-Poet

"The jester makes jokes, he’s funny, he makes fun, he ridicules. But if his ridicules are based on sound ideas and thinking, then he can proceed to the second panel, which is the thinker—he called it the philosopher. The jester becomes the philosopher, and if he does these things with dazzling language that we marvel at, then he becomes a poet too. Then the jester can be a thinking jester who thinks poetically."

-- George Carlin on Arthur Koestler

Haikus

Tonight, I performed on "Haiku...a comedy show" at Jelloato in the East Village (for more information on the show click here). Each comic had to include at least one haiku in their set, but I decided to challenge myself and write an entire 10 minute set in which every joke either ended with a haiku or was a haiku itself. (I even re-wrote the "baby trick" I close most sets with to include several haikus.)

Here are a few of the haikus I wrote for the show:

AWKWARD CONVERSATION WITH MOM

(Adapted from a joke I regularly do in my act)

"I hooked up with my

girlfriends." "But that means make-out."

"I thought it meant 'fuck.'"

MICHAEL JACKSON AND BILLY MAYS TEAM UP IN HEAVEN

Jacko, Billy Mays:

"Oxiclean: when it matters

if it's black or white."

BREVITY

"Brevity is the

soul of wit," Shakespeare wrote, but

He'd still hate Twitter.

META HAIKU

Suppose the last line

Had six syllables, not five.

Would you notice it?

Comedians and/vs. Strippers

Last night, I was having a conversation with an audience member after a comedy show I was featured in and found out that she was an exotic dancer.  In talking about our careers, I realized that exotic dancing/stripping may be closer to stand-up than any other entertainment career.

From a practical and business perspective, the two are very similar.  Each week, both comedians and strippers call the clubs they work at, give their availabilities for the week ("avails"), and hope to get scheduled.  Comedians and strippers also work the same hours - at night, busiest on weekends - essentially, when "normal" people are looking for entertainment - in similar environments, performing in dark rooms for patrons who are drunk or drinking.  The clubs (both comedy clubs and strip clubs) make the majority of their money through alcohol sales, so both comedians and strippers are essentially conduits for these places to sell drinks (not that there is anything wrong with that!).

From a more philosophical perspective, the two also overlap.  Both professions are about revealing yourself on stage.  In the case of comedy, you get emotionally naked; in the case of stripping, physically.  In both cases, you are exposed in a way "normal" people are not, pushing you out of the mainstream of what is acceptable in society.

You might also consider that both jobs involve doing something "normal" people do already (make others laugh, take your clothes off), which sometimes causes others to conclude that they can do what you do for a living without any of the training through which you have gone.  These people don't realize how hard it is to do what you do - not only to just do it, but to do it well.

On the face of it, I think what seems like a glaring difference might also be a commonality.  The comedian is fueled by honesty - he/she creates comedy by revealing the truth about the world and/or ourselves.  The stripper, on the other hand, often hides behind a persona: he/she uses a fake name, wears a costume, partitions his/her "stripper self" from her "real self."  I think, though, that a comedian is different onstage than offstage - the comedian is a larger version of himself on stage.  You're not "you" but "YOU" - a distilled, magnified, highly focused rendering of who you are.  I think a stripper does the same thing, highlighting the sexual and physical components of themselves in a focused reflection of their underlying selves.  In both cases, the comedian and the stripper bring to focus important components of humanity that we often hide.

What do you think?  Do you think this comparison holds?  Do you think there are any other jobs with such similarities to comedy (comedians as doctors bringing truth medicine to the masses?  comedians as firefighters saving society from the flames of self-destruction?  comedians as mimes who talk?)?

New Jokes: Swine Flu

I promised a while back to start posting new jokes as I write them, so here goes (keep in mind that this is a work in progress):

"Swine flu isn't all bad.  I haven't seen a mariachi band on the subway in two weeks."

I'm Featured on The Apiary!

The Apiary, a legendary comedy blog, just published a lengthy interview with me on their home page!  I read the blog every day, so it really means a lot to me to actually be featured by them.

Check out the whole interview here!