Went to a comedy show in town, first time in quite a few months, and while it wasn’t bad, it was the okay kind of pandering that you often get at these shows. Nothing super offensive, but more like hanging with a funny guy you knew from back in the day tell some stories.
Which is okay, but I’ve seen better
Case in point: Anthony Jeselnik.
We saw him here on like the second or third date of a tour, where he was just working out some new material, which, unbeknownst to us at the time, would end up being a Netflix special in about 18 months.
He was up there, working through the material in his notebook, testing out jokes, sometimes for the first time, and seeing how they would land. There was a lot of attention to the craft of telling jokes, of writing one, and then working on it, editing it, telling it over and over so you had it down, so when you had to do it in front of a huge crowd, on camera, every joke would hit.
This is what I’m not seeing (usually) with these local shows, even in front of a small crowd on a weekday.
It’s a good reminder too, of putting in the work, and getting in your reps.
To that end, maybe I start need to counting my reps: not just working out, but also words typed, minutes recorded, posts made, something like that.
Just to record the progress.
I’ll think about this, see how I can incorporate them.