Feel like you’re just treading water?

You aren’t!

We all know I have very pretentious feelings about comedy as an art form that doesn't often get the same care or caché as other ones. It also has a significant and tangible disadvantage compared to every other art form - there’s no private space in which to practice.

I think that feeds into a lot of people wrongly feeling like they aren’t “getting anywhere” when they are doing exactly what they should be!

I actually say that comedy is both an art and a sport. You can hear it in the language we use

“Crowdwork is a different muscle”

“Gonna work out these new jokes”

“The Comedy Store is my gym”

But athletes also have the opportunity to practice and scrimmage away from the bright Friday Night Lights. But for comedians, every time you get on stage you’re just forced to run your laps in a full stadium on game day.

Both athletes and artists are given numerous opportunities to work on their skills alone, in small groups and (most importantly) under the direction of a coach/mentor/master of the craft who can chart their progress and hand out assignments.

Be your own coach

So in the great pile of “Comedians are an entire company and you must do every single job” - here’s another. Be your own coach! But be a supportive coach.. And a realistic coach. If you’re on the road every weekend this month, you don’t need to fill every other second with other tasks! That’s a task! That’s a lot of big tasks!

Don’t just dog yourself because every time you’ve tried to tape that submission set something has gone wrong (it always does), take note of and acknowledge yourself for metaphorically going to the gym. It might feel like running on a treadmill, but treadmills still improve your stamina and strength!

On the practical side, here’s a new to-do list tracker I’ve been using that has the added benefit of reinforcing that you are doing something.

Now to the touchy feely stuff….

It’s ALL progress

Every time you go onstage, you're accomplishing something. Even when it feels like you didn’t.

Not only are you moving forward, but you are doing something for other people.

Here are a couple examples:

“They were such a tight crowd, I had to fall back on the solid bits and didn’t get to work on new jokes”

This just makes you stronger in those jokes. Yes, it's one step closer to their expiration date, but you're always going to be cycling in the new and washing out the old.
Even if you didn't add a new tag or find a slight word adjustment to make them better, you’re making your “fallback” stuff stronger… and think about that! You have fallbacks that are good!

“They were so rowdy, I only did half the jokes I wanted to and spent the rest of the time doing crowd work.”

This is part of the job and it’s an important skill you’ll need to use for the rest of your career. You get better every time you do it. And it’s not only helpful for bad crowds. These are skills you can use to help with segues, emceeing, and even reading a good crowd.

Every time

Your new stuff doesn't work
You discover your new stuff has legs
You say something off the cuff that becomes a joke or a tag
Run through your tight 5, that 15 that works or the hour you think you'll record some time next year
You say a joke out loud for the first time
You go up in front of an audience that behaves differently from any you've dealt with before
You have to improvise because you said something out of order or forgot a part
You sail through your set, doing so well you can't believe you already got the light…

You're accomplishing something!

And much like how the writers and actors strikes ripple through the lives of gaffers and caterers and movie theater owners, you are bringing (economic) value to a web of other people every time you take the stage.

Every time you show up, do the work and get at least some of the audience to have a good time, you're doing something really important. That's the bedrock of this industry. It's y'all showing up and doing the work that keeps bartenders and club managers employed; keeps venues in business; creates demand for tours and TV shows and online specials; makes MeUndies and Manscaped want to sponsor another podcast… you get it.

If you missed the livestream Q&A

What I should have said Livestream Replay

The recording is now available!

Some more random links

Y’all seemed to like it, so here’s a random assortment of things that caught my eye recently:

A Harvard astrophysicist says we’ve probably already interacted with aliens’ trash
Some actually affordable housing lottery locations
I’m genuinely obsessed with that show Taskmaster (sausage Arena from last time), and it’s led me to all kinds of UK comedy shenanigans - See if you can figure out the rules of the game by the end of the episode