David Cross is my Hero
Kinda nervous right now, at 8:02, Thursday night, June 5th, 2008. It's my night off, I'm at my parents' house alone, relaxing and working occasionally on comedy plans.
Nervous for no particular reason that I can think of.
But. David Cross's "It's Not Funny" is giving me the full, screaming (literally screaming) belly laughter that I've been craving for this past week. I think when you're a comic and you have a bunch of shows that don't go over very well... because at first the crowd wasn't into you and that made you nervous so it made you try to tell your jokes differently and all that did was make them not as funny so then the crowd REALLY wasn't into you... when you have four nights in a row where you just feel like you BOMBED... you start to think to yourself, "God, am I actually even funny? Because before this week I was just about positive that I was funny."
But I have to accept that I'm not funny to a lot of people. But I am also funny to a different lot of people. And even though many of my fellow comics will tell me that I should care about being funny to as many people as possible... my gut instinct is to say, "Fuck that, I want to talk about stuff that I want to talk about, stuff that makes ME laugh. Why do I care about towing the line for a bunch of people who cream all over for Larry The Cable Guy and George Lopez when THOSE are the types of assholes who my JOKES are centered around?"
So, yeah. Bombing sucks, but I don't usually bomb, honestly. I have to stop over-thinking my shit and just say it.
I suppose it's like being a musician and you play a bunch of venues where the people were just NOT receptive and it makes you re-evaluate your style (and also your life, albeit unnecessarily) to the point where you get so turned around you don't know which way is up anymore and then you listen to someone who really inspires you and then you write some shit that you KNOW is good and you KNOW is clever and you feel better.
But you also have to know-- and accept-- that there are a fuck-ton of people who just aren't going to get it or care to try to get it.
Penny Arcade. Something Awful. Starslip Crisis. If I showed these things to the masses... the masses that I am most familiar with, at any rate, they wouldn't give two shits. But that doesn't mean that these things aren't screamingly hysterical and entertaining to me and to many others.
Maintaining my integrity is more important to me than being accepted. I emphasize "to me," but come on. All we have in this life is what we truly believe is important and worthwhile, and, after the appropriate level of empirical testing to make sure that what you truly believe isn't some crazy, whacked-out bullshit that will end up hindering the progress of mankind, then you should try, with everything you have in you, to pursue and fulfill what you truly believe in.
Nervous for no particular reason that I can think of.
But. David Cross's "It's Not Funny" is giving me the full, screaming (literally screaming) belly laughter that I've been craving for this past week. I think when you're a comic and you have a bunch of shows that don't go over very well... because at first the crowd wasn't into you and that made you nervous so it made you try to tell your jokes differently and all that did was make them not as funny so then the crowd REALLY wasn't into you... when you have four nights in a row where you just feel like you BOMBED... you start to think to yourself, "God, am I actually even funny? Because before this week I was just about positive that I was funny."
But I have to accept that I'm not funny to a lot of people. But I am also funny to a different lot of people. And even though many of my fellow comics will tell me that I should care about being funny to as many people as possible... my gut instinct is to say, "Fuck that, I want to talk about stuff that I want to talk about, stuff that makes ME laugh. Why do I care about towing the line for a bunch of people who cream all over for Larry The Cable Guy and George Lopez when THOSE are the types of assholes who my JOKES are centered around?"
So, yeah. Bombing sucks, but I don't usually bomb, honestly. I have to stop over-thinking my shit and just say it.
I suppose it's like being a musician and you play a bunch of venues where the people were just NOT receptive and it makes you re-evaluate your style (and also your life, albeit unnecessarily) to the point where you get so turned around you don't know which way is up anymore and then you listen to someone who really inspires you and then you write some shit that you KNOW is good and you KNOW is clever and you feel better.
But you also have to know-- and accept-- that there are a fuck-ton of people who just aren't going to get it or care to try to get it.
Penny Arcade. Something Awful. Starslip Crisis. If I showed these things to the masses... the masses that I am most familiar with, at any rate, they wouldn't give two shits. But that doesn't mean that these things aren't screamingly hysterical and entertaining to me and to many others.
Maintaining my integrity is more important to me than being accepted. I emphasize "to me," but come on. All we have in this life is what we truly believe is important and worthwhile, and, after the appropriate level of empirical testing to make sure that what you truly believe isn't some crazy, whacked-out bullshit that will end up hindering the progress of mankind, then you should try, with everything you have in you, to pursue and fulfill what you truly believe in.