It’s just a series of steps that take place haphazardly. The file cabinet contains most of the things that are sort of in waiting, ready to be transformed into a usable language, you know? That’s the holding pen. The observations keep coming and the comparisons that the observations represent that are, you know you have a world view and it’s like your matrix and so, when you see things happen, you’re comparing those things to what you already know and how you already feel. That produces your impression. So those are things I write down, those impressions that I get from the world. So, some of them are in half form states, some of them are just ideas, just highlight, the key words, patterns, ...
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Don’t be afraid to look like an idiot during the creative process - if you don’t look like an idiot, you’re not trying enough things out.
Often both... some ideas pop in out of nowhere and come easily and almost HAVE to exist... some ideas need love and care and work and attention.
I come up with a few bits on TEAS a lot of the time, those are my genuine reactions to what's happening. He does some weird stuff on that show and it throws me off sometimes.
Nick and I came up with Too Much Tuna in five seconds with Jessi Klein about ten years ago at a restaurant on 6th avenue called French Roast. We got a plate with too much tuna and we said "this is too much tuna."
You know, you’re very funny. But these people have no time for your cleverness. Just get to the point. (advice told to John by Ross Bennett)
Question: Peter and Nancy are my favorite characters on the show. What was the inspiration for Peter's pasta addiction and will they go anymore adventures like starting a B&B??
Answer: That came from a real dinner that Carrie and I had in Los Angeles. And we were looking at the menu, and we just thought "well obviously we can't order pasta, so I guess we have to order this." So we started talking about, why do we have to avoid pasta so much? So it was more that we were weighing the difference between the difference between enjoying life and really living, or ordering salmon.
All of my jokes happened to me. Sometimes I will change details (names or where I saw something happen - saying "someone I dated" instead of "my current boyfriend" etc) to protect people I have relationships with but the material is true.
Related posts tagged 'Honing your craft'
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Related posts tagged 'Honing your craft'
I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of getting out of my comfort zone. I think that’s what you should do. I understand the temptation if you’re an alternative comic to just do alternative rooms. Or if you were a club comic to just do club rooms. Or if you’re a white comic just to do white rooms. It’s because bombing is so humiliating that you want to avoid it. But humiliation is where the growth is. This is also like why I enjoy drinking and I don’t like pot. I feel like with drinking you have to earn it. You gotta get those drinks down.
I always record my sets at least on audio. A joke really evolves the more you do it which is why doing the road is so important. You need those reps to make something polished and perfect.
When I started out, I was doing more conceptual bits that were just kind of silly. And then gradually, I expanded my premises. Everyone when you start out, for the most part, your material is very brief. You don’t trust that you can stay on stage for that long and get laughs. You don’t want to overstay your welcome. So you tend not to flesh out your premises that much. As you get more confident and more relaxed, you’re able to give a premise the treatment that it deserves and really explore your ideas. That’s what happened with me—I gradually expanded, and my comedy slowly became more about me and less about high concepts.
There are subjects that I hope to figure out how to talk about. You know, different topics take time for me to figure out an angle into it. Whether it be something really dark, like on my last special I had a bunch of jokes about cancer, obviously not about someone having cancer, but about the shared human experience that we all have, it's touched everyone's life. So figuring out a way for some of these dark heavy topics to bring about humor and light surrounding them, if that makes sense? Because I certainly don't want my comedy to make anyone feel bad but I also do enjoy the challenge of making something humorous. Like being able to do a joke that is about religion that an atheists and an ...
i think i have way more patience now and can be funnier. as you get older you get more self esteem so you can get to the joke in a more graceful, artful way without rushing to the punchline in a desperate need for validation :) oh and I've accumulated way more mistakes to talk about which is always good. and I'm more humble now so can make fun of myself more because i now can tell how much of an idiot i am being :)
I think what's unique about stand up comedy is the overall commitment that you have to make to it, meaning you can't not do it for 6 months and then pick it up and expect to pick up where you left off. It's an ongoing preparation. That being said, the longer you do standup comedy, I believe the better you get at it. Obviously, stand up comedy is point of view driven, and having done it for 25 years I believe that I'm getting better at it. Also, finding newer ways to articulate my point of view.
I was slightly observational at first, going back to my early, early open mics. I was just writing any joke, because I wanted to be a real comedian. But my personality was always there and some of my material naturally became about me — about looking Jewish or hairy or whatever — and people liked that. Your voice and your persona will come out of that, the more you're comfortable with it. So when I tried to fit myself into a Seinfeld mold and I didn't get the laughs, that brought me out. And then comedians said, "Keep doing that." And then it was all about honing it and writing jokes for it. But if you ask me, honestly, I wish I could just go up and do jokes. Boom boom boom bing bing and I'm...
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