Ari Shaffir Stand Up Advice
[Disclaimer: I don’t inherently agree with
everything Ari has to say; nor do I endorse reading these notes over listening
to the video. Go listen to the video, get the entire picture, and use this as
refresher material whenever you feel necessary.]
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Everyone gets famous or hits it big through
their own different ways. Look at Reggie Watts – completely outside.
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You really don’t need a manager.
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An agent just gets you auditions (writing,
personl, etc.).
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A manager deals with you overall. I.e. if you’ve
got an idea for a show, they’ll do their help.
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Having a manager doesn’t necessarily makes you
better. There are a lot of crappy managers.
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Just the idea of needing one to have one –
that’s not necessary.
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Most of the work you’re going to get, you’ll get
yourself.
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Your manager’s never going to do anything – if you’ve got an idea for
a show, you actually have to have done something with it. You have to have
written stuff, and so on.
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You need to be able to do the amount of time
you’re booked for.
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Writing tip – you should know 200-300% more than
what you’re talking about.
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At the beginning, you should build material for
the sake of building material. To enjoy it.
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Continue building material.
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Once you have a joke that doesn’t apply to you
any more – get rid of it.
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Write a lot.
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(Some guy) doesn’t use anything he wrote in his
first two years.
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Keep learning – not the jokes specifically. It’s
good to get jokes, but they’re not going to stay with you for a long time. The
technique stays.
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You’re probably not very good right now. Nobody
is good at something when they’re starting out at it.
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Just write jokes, and then categorise them
after.
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There are a lot of crappy comics on TV.
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TV standards are still ridiculous – they were
mostly written by standards of what was offensive in the 80s.
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The people in charge of deciding what is good
(mostly comedy central), are ridiculous.
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Van Gogh didn’t get discovered until he was
dead. Doesn’t mean he was bad.
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Don’t worry if you’re getting on TV or not yet.
Take it if you could, but don’t worry.
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Don’t have sex with somebody’s wife.
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Why do people do comedy? Money (not really),
Some notoriety (not really), just do it.
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What you really want to do is have a long
career, and not having a real job – don’t lose site of that. Don’t worry about “get TV”, “get a manger” – screw that! If
you don’t get that thing, that doesn’t matter. There are other ways around.
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What you want in a manager is… you don’t want to
cold call somebody. You want someone who is into
you.
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The people who are going to help you (at any
stage of your career) are other comedians and your friends.
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If you become friendly with a manager, or whatever,
they’ll like you, and then they’ll help you.
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The more comics you see the better you get. Good
comics and bad comics.
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Get up and go do the other work. Go be someone
people wanna hang out with. You want people to know you’re super talented.
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If Ari Shaffir doesn’t know you, he’d rather
bring a friend who’s less funny, when it comes to bringing someone on the road.
(Badly worded sentence)
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Don’t ask managers for help. Just be cool and be
around them.
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Don’t ask someone “manage me”. You want a
manager to help you do specific things
you have in mind. They can help you with them, but they’re not going to do
things for you.
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Oh my goodness, he keeps going on this. It must
be important.
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It’s not always about doing hard work and
getting up.
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What can you gather from crappy guys getting
ahead? They’re clearly doing something right.
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Some people have horrendous work ethics.
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Do rotations of people on Facebook. Not kissing
up, but being friendly.
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Maybe they won’t even be your first manager.
They’ll be your fourth.
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Just be friendly with everybody, and know you’re
planting seeds for way, way later.
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Watch a bunch of comedians, learn from them.
Most things, you need to learn yourself.
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Until you’ve been in a situation and you’ve had
a heckler, you’re not going to internalise tips.
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“Let hecklers hang themselves a bit, and then do
something about it”
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This stuff, it’s all kinda like muscle memory.
You do it over and over until it becomes internalised.
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You can tell a basketball player how to deal
with a situation, but they’re only going to know what they’re doing after
they’ve been in that situation 50 times.
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Being
“not good”, doesn’t mean “not funny”. You don’t know the technical sides of it.
That’s what these stages are.
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For the first few years, there’s really not much
to do. It’s all just about writing a good joke.
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Just be
free. Enjoy yourself and learn stuff.
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“You can fake forget” so that it’s not
repetitive or wrote. Your comedy can’t come out yet, if that makes sense.
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Don’t try
to be anyone.
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The advice Mitch Hedburg would’ve given you is
completely different to the advice Robin Williams would.
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It was a mistake for Ari to start in LA. It was
a really un-nurturing environments.
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Stay in your city until you’re a couple years
in, where you’re comfortable on stage, and you’ve got your base.
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When Hedburg was MCing, a lot of people disliked
him. A lot of people were like “who is
this guy?”
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Whatever city you start in, you’ll never get
respect. They’ll always look at you as an open mic’er.
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Be careful of who you go up in front of, because
they will always have that thought of you. If you go up and do a mediocre
performance, that’ll stay with them forever.
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Pro bookers are going to know if it’s a bad
performance, or a bad room.
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With jokes that you’re working on, always try to
perform them the best you can.
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Be friends with the people who’re going to help
you seven years from now.
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Talk to other comics. Make friends with the
people who will help you out in seven years.
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Don’t bother people.
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When people say “this is how I did it?” –
remember that EVERYTHING (stand up, Hollywood, etc.) is changing.
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I.e. Ari’s advice is from his time. It’ll be
different now.
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When Ari became a non-paid regular, he felt
untouchable at open mics as in “you can’t touch me, I’m a non-paid regular”.
Then he became a paid regular and realised it was stupid.
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One guy went to an open mic and he was like
“yeah, it was just an open mic”. There were 75 important people there.
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Constantly look at what comics are doing on
stage.
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If you have some sort of story bit, watch those
guys. See how the come full circle on it, and that sort of thing. Look at how
other story teller comics do it.
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It doesn’t matter if you don’t get on TV – the
whole time you’re improving on stage
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Don’t put all your eggs in stand up. There
aren’t a lot of people who make their money on *just* stand up.
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Comics are all your friends.
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Some comic getting ahead when he’s not good?
That just helps you. Your comics are your colleagues. You’re all together. If
you want to be enemies with somebody, be enemies with somebody who isn’t a
comic.
·
David Taylor was writing in coffee shops for
like 5 years before getting noticed.
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Some people have said that doing loads of
podcasts or youtube stuff – if you expose yourself too early, people will get
that perception of you.
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But if you’re only getting like 50 views on
youtube, you can’t be that good, and if you’re getting a few hundred k? You’re
clearly doing something right.
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It’s not going to make you better to say “what I
do is already the best thing” – focus on your bad parts. Improve on them.
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A story is a really great way to get the
audience’s attention – they’re interested.
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Ralphie May once said “you guys are a B- crowd,
I’m not going to give you A+ material”.
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You can do whatever the heck you want on stage.
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Keep doing story telling on stage, and
eventually it won’t be crap any more.
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The more shows you run, the more enemies you
make. People will get mad because you can’t book everyone. (Maybe less true in The UK)
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You need to be friends with your managers, you
don’t need to be friends with your agent. They just need to sort of like you.
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Whenever you audition for a commercial and they
say “don’t try to be funny…”, they’re not talking to you. They’re talking to
actors who are so silly and dumb that their funny is offensive.
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“Slate” means just say your name.
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The entire time make sure your face is forward
in the correct angle (useless for an audio file).
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The best way to get an agent is through
referral.
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Just say to your pals “do you like your agent,
I’m looking for one?” – let them think about getting you an agent. Give them the idea.
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Contact 200 places for representation, like 10
of them will get back to you, like 1 of them will hire you.
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Lie on your resume a little bit. Tell them
you’re a legit comedian; don’t tell them you can do accents you can’t.
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No one’s going to find you and pluck you out.
You have to do a little work-work.
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At your stage, there is no competition. You’re
all on the lowest rung. You all get bet together. It’s more like a candle – if
you light another candle with your candle, the flame doesn’t go out.
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If you get booked to do a lot of festivals or TV
shows or whatever, people will think you’re good. Nobody watches Conan, they
just know who’s been on there.
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There are a bunch of people who are just bad at
their jobs, and you’ll work with them.
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At the early stages, you don’t want a manager. You want anybody who can help
you to be helping you.
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Your ideas now are probably not going to be as
good as you think they are.
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Adversary is going to happen. There’s always
going to be someone who gets it easier than you. Do not compare yourself to
them.
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Do not compare yourself to who’s funnier
onstage.
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It’s not about who’s been here for the longest.
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There are going to be hurdles. Yeah, so it’s
harder for you? You gonna quit? That’s not a reason to stop doing it.
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Complain about it, yeah, but move forward with
it.
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Everyone has their own hurdles. When Ari had his
day job, he’d never be able to do Wednesdays. He’d just be too exhausted. He’d
finish work at 6 and go to sleep.
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Yeah, some guys have had it easier, but that
doesn’t do anything for you.
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Keep moving forward.
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Don’t complain about every single thing that
holds you back.
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Be the guy people want to invite to a Christmas
party.
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The more comfortable you can get yourself
onstage, the less nervous you are.
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Only experience will get you there. Anything
that limits the amount of nerves you are is better.
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Zack Galifianakis knows himself and trusts
himself because he’s not nervous any more.
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As you start getting better, at some point,
people will start taking you seriously.
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“You were an arsehole for five years, you’ve
only been cool for two weeks”. After a few years of being nice, new people will
come in and see you as nice, people’ll start to change their opinions.
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There’s no such thing as “make it”.
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In between what you’re making between your first
and second commercial (Etc.) you either have to make that last, or spend it all
and get a job.
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If you can get paid for cash and avoid all
paperwork, do that every time.
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You can write off so much as tax deductible from
stand up. Phone, travel, etc.
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Ari’s never done corporates.
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Aziz sold 3 scripts to some great guy, and
everyone was complaining that he got that done but they didn’t. You know what
he did that you didn’t? Write a script.
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Comedy is so easy in terms of a job. Legitimately
how much do you write? Nobody is working hard at all, if you put the work in,
you’ll get far ahead.
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Nobody’s going to help you out along the way.
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Every morning, take ten minutes out of you day,
before you drink coffee or whatever it is, and just write. At the end of the 10
minutes go do your job or whatever. Almost everyone can spare ten minutes. More
importantly, it’ll get your mind moving to something. Like, if you have a
thought that’s not completed, it’ll get you at least going. Mentally all day.
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Go get onstage, and you’ll get there.
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“The first draft of anything is terrible”
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Tiger Woods was terrible when he picked up a
golf club. He was 2. He didn’t go on tour until he was 20.
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If you do a joke about black people, everyone’s
automatically like “uh-oh. Where’s he going to go with this?” so if all your T’s
and I’s aren’t crossed and dotted, it’ll bomb way harder.
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If you keep it funny, people will listen.
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Flower up a story. Put a stupid metaphor or
something in there.
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If Tarantino likes you and wants you in his
move, he’ll put you in. Even if everyone else dislikes you. They’re just some
guy.
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So if some guy doesn’t like you, that’s okay.
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If you have a youtube video and 95% of people
like you, that’s 5 people out of 100 who dislike you. That’s okay!
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2 years after you do a half hour, nobody will
even remember who you are.
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Why should club owners book you just because you’re
funny? *everyone* is funny who’s applying is funny. What sets you apart?
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Try to let your material own you. Let yourself
tell a joke, and let go of that joke. Don’t writing a joke 18 months into your
career and still keep doing it after 6 years. Nobody puts a painting in a
gallery and then carries it with them forever. Let it go.
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Anything you do in life, the more you do, the
better you get at it.
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Robert Redford – even after learning how to act
and getting Oscars, he said “I’m just starting to get it…”
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People on podcasts – an audience will get a
natural sense of you being funny, and they’ll want to come and see you.
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You probably aren’t going to sell your first
script. But if you’ve never written a first script – how can you sell a second?
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Barack Obama killed the speech at the senatorial
place where he finally got noticed, but that was after 10 years of knowing how
to kill speeches.
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Take acting classes when you have some money.
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You’re not a good actor – you’ve never done it.
Why would someone give you a sitcom deal if you’ve never acted?
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The better you get, as you get better at
expressing your thoughts, the more you’ll draw away from gimmicks (overboard
dirty jokes, jew jokes, etc.)
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Everyone has their own weak points
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All of you are going to have thousands of more
sets, so you can go up and try something four or five times and see if it works
– it doesn’t matter! If you take yourself out of your comfort zone and start
attacking what you did wrong, then you’ll perform.
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If you break up with a comedian, from then on,
do your best about staying cool with them. After a few months you’ll be cool
and you don’t want to have any bridges burned.
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You don’t really need to worry till you’ve got a
full hour and you’re killing with that hour.
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Nothing is your final break. If you do a bad set
in front of a bunch of big names – they are
going to think you’re bad for a while.
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If you’re in a bill with a bunch of comedians
who have been doing it for 7-8 years and you’re in there after 2 years in, it
won’t bode well for you.
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Comedy Central: No rape jokes, no AIDS jokes, no
using the word “bitch”. If you go up for an audition and do that – what could
you possibly gain? What would you get from it? Is it worth that risk? (no.)
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Commercials: coming in second doesn’t do anything
for you. Anyone from second to last loses. Try your joke.
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Be sensible with that though. Don’t get your
penis out.
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Talent and heart do not matter. Get over that.
Just do what you do and love it. Have fun getting on stage and learning to be
better as a comic. The rest is just networking and so on.
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Don’t rush the early years. Just enjoy it.
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If you aren’t getting paid, you are only doing
it for the beauty of the art form. So really enjoy this time.
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There is no making it – it’s just about
maximising what you want to do, and making money from it. Doug Stanhope isn’t
going to make money on the same level as Larry The Cable Guy.
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There are situations you cannot express onstage
as a comedian, but that you can express through other avenues, like sketch and
film.
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Jim Carrey stopped doing stand up and started
doing movies because he knew he could make 5 million people laugh instead of
5,000.
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The more you put out there – the more people get
used to your style or aesthetic, the more people will like you.
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Most of the smart guys start writing when they
realise they’re not going to become one of the 7-10 stand ups that make money
from just doing stand up and nothing else. It’s still a way of expressing
yourself.
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If you’re writing all the time, you will get
better at writing jokes. If you have a podcast, you’re building a presence.
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A big head is the worst thing you can have for
stand up.
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Continue to know that you have room to improve.
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When you start getting on festivals people start
thinking “ah, you’re doing stuff right!” – they have no idea, and only do it
based on perceived hype…but so what? Everyone bombs on Kimmel (apparently).
They won’t see the set. Even if they do, they’ll forget it later. But people
will think of you as the guy who was on X, Y, or Z – they’ll think you’re doing
stuff.
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If you go
do showcases or whatever, and a bunch of comedians look at you and think
you’re hacky… word gets out.
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If you have four friends on a sitcom, they’re
all going to get you to guest you on the sitcom. Don’t hoard this information.
Share it.
Great advice, this would be great to incorporate into any comedians business plan, except not doing corporate. Corporate pays a lot of money, why not do corporate.
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