I was talking with my one friend from Iowa, and for years people have been telling her she should be a stand-up comic, and finally after her (teenage) daughter told her she's "a female Louis C.K.", she went and took a stand-up comedy class.
Her instructor had a visceral dislike of her, and yet said she's been one of his most talented students...
For a timed exercise they did, they had to come up an unexpected rewrite of a punchline to a kid's joke, for example, and for the joke "Q: What's the worst ship? - A: A hardship!", she said, "Q: What's the worst ship? - A: The one where the Somali pirates rape you and send a video to your mom."
She said the guy was an ass, but she appreciated his praise more because of it; she said it made it easier to believe he meant what he said.
The night she did stand-up for the 1st time, she was all awkward and soft-spoken and kind of hunched over the microphone and spoke in her low, even voice.
Even before she said anything, people started laughing, and she was like, "Please, don't laugh; that happened enough in high school."
Afterwards, people lavished praise on her and said they had never laughed so hard, and some complimented her on her persona.
"And I had to tell them that that was actually me," she was like.
At her second stand-up night, she took 2nd place out of a contest of 25 people, and the bartender at the place told her afterwards that she had "been robbed" out of 1st.
I told her that her intelligence and her authenticity would be her assets, and if she ever developed meaningful material - e.g. about being bullied in high school, how everyone has a bully in them, etc. - she could actually move people's lives.
She said she's not sure what she's in it for, but it makes her nervous, about the laughs and worth it, and that keeps her going.
"I'm not sure that's a good thing to chase after," I was like. "Laughs can dry up, and there's nothing you can do about it. You'd be better to chase after money or ass, it's an easier goal to achieve and know when you've got it."
That worried her.
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3 comments:
Were you trying to ruin her confidence? If you can make people laugh, that is gift enough.
Bad advice, el blogador.
No, I was trying to keep her from depending on the rush that comes from making people laugh! I don't want her to end up like those stars whose memoirs I read, who live for the moment of applause. They start chasing drugs to re-capture the high.
I explained that to her, too, how if I consistently expected applause like the one time I sang "One Two Step" at krunk karaoke, I'd chase after drugs trying to always regain it.
I agree with Anonymous. It's not her job as a comedian to help people find meaning in their life. If she does from time to time, that's a bonus. But there are few things less funny than do-gooder comedians, unless their last names are Pryor or Chappelle.
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