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Anyone read any good books lately or get any good advice on how to be funny and how-to do this and how-not-to do that and do that but don't do this but look this way and don't look that way and on and on and on? Well, I haven't and there's good reason for it. It totally saps any originality that you may have had right out of you and it blurs your vision of who you are, sometimes to the point of no return. Monkey see, monkey do... It's like the guy selling the kit showing you how easy it is putting ads in newspapers around the country that has made him a millionaire many times over yet he seems to be the only one that the program really worked for. It works for him because he's making his millions selling his idea to everyone else and they're working their asses off trying to duplicate his success, which they'll never be able to do. There are always exceptions to the rule in everything of course, but they are few and far in between.

"You're unique, just like everybody else..." Ever hear that saying? Of course you have. Well, it's basically true. We are all unique but just like everyone else we all generally talk with our mouths (deaf folks talk with their hands), walk with our feet (those in Richard's situation are sometimes in need of assisted movement), fart with our assholes and bite at those fart bubbles that we made with our assholes in the bathtub. Or am I the only one here who does that? Anyhow... Being like everyone else essentially ends right there. After the basics it's all just you and only you.

Here's how I see comedy and performance art or anything else in life. If you're good at something, we are all always improving at our craft and never really master it of course as life is a journey and not a destination, then you are just good at it and it tends to come to you quite naturally and you build on it from there and then better yourself and your craft towards your own level of near perfection. It's like a job interview for me, I always get the job, always, but I also always end up getting fired from that job too and I know that's always going to be the end-product for me is to be standing in the unemployment line at the end of the day offering handjobs to passing motorists for rent money or maybe just to kill the boredom. I always do really, really well in the job itself and I'm very reliable. I just don't do well in getting along with management of any kind. Ever. I'm always a rebel and a fucking nightmare for these people to deal with and in my mind I'm just trying to do my job and nothing more. If you are a manager or a supervisor and I come to work for you we're not going to get along. I refuse to compromise right for wrong or my principals and morals and I'm willing to give it all up and go broke time-after-time and then move on until the next big thing comes along and I'm fired from that as well. I always get the cake I just need to make sure that I can ice the fucking thing. Then to top it all off, it would be nice to be able to eat my cake once-in-a-while too.

I don't really see myself as a stand-up comic but more as a storyteller and performance artist with a comic side to me. People have always asked me for years if I'm a stand-up comic and I say no not really and when I tell them what I do they think theatre or play. When they see me perform they're not sure what to think. The critics always want to put a label on everything too. All art and artistic expression requires a label or we wouldn't recognize it, right? We're all already labeled with a name at birth and from then on out it's like that so it's all we know...

When I stand at the side of a mountain with everybody else I don't wait my turn and sit around watching and waiting for the next guy or gal ahead of me to take that same beaten path up the mountain like all those before them did, I blaze my own trail in my own unique way and when I get to the top I stretch out a hand to help someone else to the peak if he or she is struggling. By blazing your own trail you will have your moments of sheer brilliance and also your endless moments of learning the hard way and falling flat on your face, as well as every asshole out there taking shots at you, but I'll take this approach any day over being the bitch of someone who told me to never again ask on stage "Does anyone else besides me get off on scat?" No one has ever gotten anywhere in this world without the help of another. To help is to give of yourself with nothing expected in return. If you "borrow" that person the help to the top of the mountain only then can you expect to, maybe, be paid back for your show, or borrow, of kindness and generosity.

It's never about how they did it it's about how you do it and no one but you has the answer to that...

Inkblot

Inkblot.com

If you need a book to be funny theres a good chance your not cut out for comedy.

smjmcomic,

[Font size=4 face=v color=purple]AMEN![/font]

smjmcomic,

You said it as right as anything ever was wrong. I didn't need a book as the writing was already on the wall. But that's not to say that I'm really all that funny myself or have any clue what the fuck I'm talking about. Life still has so much more yet to teach to me.

I would say that if you gathered a thousand people of all races, ages, tastes etc. into a theatre and told them that they were going to see a show and I walked out onto the stage and did my thing a good half would probably get up and walk out the door, which is fine by me, and the other half would stay perhaps and in the end, maybe, 15 or 20 folks would have really enjoyed the show. Another 40 or 50 would have said it was OK, 2 or 3 of the real psychos would threaten me face-to-face and the rest who didn't have the nuts to get up and speak their minds, "Hey, Fuck You Inkblot!", would leave wondering where that hour or so of their lives went to.

There's always a little more to learn in this life and living it is the best teacher you've got.

But, as goes this life, to each their own...

Inkblot

Heres a tip

Don't worrie about what other comics/people want to hear


Take all the things in your life/world that bother you write them down then put them in your own words. You may not strike gold the first time but if you keep at it you might shock yourself.

smjmcomic,
you just gave a very good piece of advice-write write write-richard

A busy comic is a good comic

Inkblot,

Ah but there is another side to this. Can any book make you funny? No. Can it teach you timing and give you a swagger on stage? No. Are books on comedy useful? Absolutely.

Comics all too often think that they have to be trailblazers. Just because we are solo poerformers doesn't mean that we have to go everything alone. I'm of the opinion you should read everything on comedy you can get your hands on. See all the tricks, shortcuts, and rituals that other writers and performers use, then adapt what works in their process to yours.

It's pure hubris to think that there's nothing to learn from a book. There's an "On Comedy" series of interviews with Carlin, Carson, Seinfeld and Woody Allen -- are you saying there's nothing to learn there?

Soak up the advice of the people who came before you. Learn what they have to offer, then disregard what isn't relevant to your process.

No, no comedy wook will ever teach you 100% what will work for you, but don't dismiss them all just because a comic learns more by doing then by reading. One good nuget of advice might just help you unlock a door you need to open.

Jim,

I was a little wired when I started this thread as I'd just found out that an old friend of mine was murdered the day before who's murderer then took his own life so I may have come across in a not-so-direct way trying to get what I had inside my mind out here on the boards. No book or advice is ever going to be able to explain that one to me and life itself in general is the cornerstone of all comedy so that, I think, is where I was coming from with what I had to say here.

After reading it again though, murder/suicide aside, I still hold quite firm with what I had to say above. I do agree with you in a sense that there is always something more to learn from a book, advice or what-have-you and anyone who wants to should acquire as much knowledge as possible from any and all resources available to them. I do use certain resources myself such as visualization and thought, more of the senses, for these purposes.

Reading a book or taking advice on this subject is generally not a bad thing I suppose, unless you think like me. And this is with no disrespect intended towards anyone who thinks that I, or another, could benefit from their hard-earned advice or from the mistakes that they've made themselves.

I just feel that it clouds my mind and takes more away from me than it could ever give in return and I try to steer clear of it even though, I'm sure, over the years I've conciously, and even subconciously, picked up on more than I could ever imagine without even realizing it from these types of avenues. I still will try and steer clear of a majority of it, or take it with a grain of salt, concerning myself anyhow.

That's as best as I can put it...

Inkblot