Dance, Jokemonkey, DANCE!
It’s funny. Ever since I decided to do the competition I’ve found myself feeling extremely UNfunny. I usually walk around at home joking non-stop- and to the perfect audience, my wonderful wifey. She laughs at pretty much anything I do.
But lately I guess I’m just more self-conscious. Like I’m asking myself, “is that really funny?” before I say anything. I’m thinking about stuff like “what is my inspiration?” Not that I’m totally nervous- I’m just a bit off.
What helped a lot is that last night I rented Comedian. It’s a documentary Seinfeld did recently about being a stand-up. It was cool- like having someone take you backstage and de-mystify a lot of that stuff.
It reminded me of something about art or business or life or comedy. You aren’t always on. No one succeeds by being constantly on. It’s impossible. People fail because they count on being on, and sometimes it’s just a fluke.
What you can do is prepare. If you work hard, you can go from a sporadic fluke to a consistent performer. If you rely just on talent you are gambling- and you’re destined to fail.
So I’m tightening up the act. I’m going over the past posts here in the blog, which is prolly where most of it will come from, and try to see what was clicking when I’ve been on. I’m gonna make sure that enough of it is memorized, and I go over the bits with people to check their reactions- you can never really guess exactly what people laugh at. Then, whether I feel like a laugh riot on Sunday or not, it’ll be my best.
All hail the joke monkey.
April 2nd, 2004 at 9:44 pm
If you start with some of the questions in your FAQ I think you’ll do fine.