I got started in comedy writing because i would write serious things and people laughed. My advice is growing up exactly like me with my brain and body.
Related posts tagged 'Advice for aspiring comedians'
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Related posts tagged 'Advice for aspiring comedians'
That guy, when I was in my early 20s, he’s not listening to advice…. [There’s] this story I’ve told before: I might have been about 18, and I was playing the Fort Lauderdale Comic Strip, and Rodney Dangerfield shows up. And he bumps everybody. So I go, “Mr. Dangerfield, can you stay and watch my act?” He’s like, “Uh, yeah, sure, kid.” So he does his show [and] I go up after Dangerfield—everybody’s scared to go up. And I fucking killed after Dangerfield, right? Then I came backstage and was like, “Hey, what did you think?” And Rodney was like, “Eh, I don’t know, kid, you talk that language, where are you going to go with that, talking about race stuff?” I was just shattered! Rodney had just s...
This is something I get asked a lot. My answer is to just set a date, maybe a month out or 3 months out. Whatever. Find an open mic and set yourself a date when that open mic is happening. And then tell people that you'll be doing an open mic on that date if that'll help drive you. You don't (and shouldn't) tell anybody to come. Just set that date and stick to it. You will be nervous. But once it's done you'll have already started standup.
I can't help you at all. The only road to good shows is bad ones. Just go start having a bad time and if you don't give up you will get better.
If you want to do stand up, just do it.
Broad City is fun and I'm excited for the second season.
Eric Andre is weird and talented and the show is insane and not for everyone .
Chozen is one of the easiest jobs that I have in my life.
I developed my delivery through trial and error and performing over and over.
I will destroy you in NBA 2k14
All is Lost Starring Robert Redford is not a good movie
Good comedians to check out Lil B, Don Rickles Michael Che, Jerrod Carmichael, Sean Patton, W. Kamau Bell, Bridget Everett, Nick Vatterott, Jon Laster, Kara Klenk
To all of you that didn't have a question and just wanted to say something nice, thank you.
I think moving to LA was huge for my career. For those young people, eventually you go to either NY or LA. Listen to your gut. If you're in NY and think it's where you should be, you should be there. Don't believe the crap about NY. LA isn't full of plastic or phony people. I've met some of the best people in LA. If you hang in and work your ass off, you'll one day pick your head up and have made progress.
Alright. Here would be my advice. Ok, I don't know how comedians start nowadays , right?
But what I would suggest is just start.
And once you start, you can't really stop, no matter what happens. No matter how bad it gets, no matter what people say. you know what I mean? Because comedy is weird like that.
You know why I hate watching other comedians do comedy? Not because I hate other comedians, but because I love comedy so much. Its like watching somebody else fuck your girl. And I say 'I fuck her better than that'.
This is a very common problem for most comedians. Lemme ask you this - How bad was your childhood? If it was really bad, chances are you're already comfortable with feeling like a failure. So you're actually ahead of the game!
Stand up is You vs You so tell that scared little bitch to calm down. You aren't fighting in Afghanistan or battling cancer. You're just telling shit jokes to strangers. Good luck and godspeed. Go for it!
I started when i was 17. I got a good head start, skill-building wise, but I sometimes think I missed out on a lot of “Life” that I could be drawing from now. Try to go to college and get some knowlege. If you don’t do that, make a deliberate attempt to read a lot and educate yourself, so that you don’t just become a siv for American pop culture.
If you spend all your time on stage talking about the cover of People magazine, you won’t go far, you won’t last, and you’ll be bored before you get good. Take advantage of the head start you’re giving yourself by stopping as often as possible to live your life, explore America and grow as a person.
When you go to some shit town to do a one-nighte...
Related posts tagged 'Writing'
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Related posts tagged 'Writing'
They were all fun for different reasons. Sometimes when writing the history of UCB or the times at SNL were fun, because they reminded me of all those stories, and I would start laughing thinking of all the ridiculous people I surrounded myself with. I was just texting with Fred Armisen, and telling him that i wrote nice things about him int he book, and he was very touched, and then I reminded him that his lawyers made me do it, and I said "His lawyers will sue you if you don't write nice things about him in your book."
I just find the more personal and brutally honest you are, the more people connect with your material - be it standup or narrative.
Writing a script is different because you have to write from different perspectives other than your own. I had to write lines for my fictional wife, Leif, Artie [characters in his HBO show Crashing]... you have to imagine more than just your own opinions. A very good excercise just in general!
I've been run ragged with press for the special lately, but when I'm home and in a routine, I make coffee, eggs, etc and try to write. Treat it like a job.
9am. Wake up, turn on some music I like, put on a pot of coffee, and sit down to start writing! A few productive hours and then a break for lunch, and then a couple of more hours if possible: sounds like a plan! 9:15am-4:30pm: Read, text, look up stuff on the internet, read, text, look up stuff on the internet, in a trance cycle 4:30pm: Think "Jesus Christ, have I really done NOTHING all day?!? The day is almost fucking over! I am really fucking worthless." 4:30pm-7:30pm: Write like a maniac. 7:30pm: Decide, "okay, at least I got SOMETHING done today. Tomorrow, I'm going wake up early, be at my desk by 9, and really make up for lost time. REPEAT
The more you can do the better. Always write your own stuff. Most people aren't interested in writing for you. Beeleedat.
I always try to write from what it is that I’m thinking about at the time that I’m writing. I always try to centre it on that, because that’s the sort of lack of perspective thing that I was trying to talk about before. There are too many safeguards when you put yourself out of it, and say you’re going to write about this.
The best way for me to find that place where I’ve got a lot of emotion and a lot of agitation and a lot of fear or whatever, is to make that what the story is or what the movie is. And not try to hide it.
Q: The greatest comedic novels (Don Quixote, Tristram Shandy, Pale Fire, Based on a True Story) all make heavy use of metafictional elements. I'm leaving out A Confederacy of Dunces because I hated that book. Anyway, were you consciously drawing upon that tradition in BoaTS? Or did the story you wanted to tell naturally take you in the direction of metafiction? I ask because you have claimed to hate meta.
A: I love all those books. I do hate meta but I was forced into by the scriptures of convention. I was hired to write a memoir, but secretly wrote a novel so I had to use the techniques of meta to mask it. I did it so well the New York Times called it a nonfiction.
Question: how do you organize and develop your material and various jokes? Do you have notebooks full of detailed notes and jokes, or do you just sketch them out and wing it on stage?
Answer: I believe in detailed notes and jokes, and also winging it onstage. But, not for your first open mic. For your first open mic, my advice to you would be to make sure you have what you're gonna do memorized, to the point that one of your friends can gently slap you across the face, and you'll still be able to get it out of your mouth.
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