RichardPryor.com Forums

Ok, this is supposed to be a forum for comics so here goes......

What was the motiviation for the comedians in here to become (amateur / semi / professional) funny 'people'?

Was it a lust for fame, rejection at an early age or just pure chance?

C'mon, tell Uncle Freud.....

garfy1974,

I've found a majority of comics to be generally depressing people. The brilliance, and perhaps curse of their talent derides out of a hyper awareness of the pain of reality. Great comics can tap into that pain and extract the humor and irony from it. This painful reality is either from the world itself as a whole or from their own personal horrors. Look at all the great ones, they, all had fucked up lives, or have somewhat pessimistic world views. The rest use props and smash fruit.

Anditsdeeptoo,
Hold on now. I saw E! True Hollywood Story: Gallagher...his life wasn't peaches and cream. Maybe not as rough as some, but still goes to show even an uneven life isn't enough to put you over the top

Seriously, E! did a THS on Gallagher!
...I watch too much shit, man. I got to get a life...

Furious D,
Have they done one on Carrot Top yet?

Furious D,

"his life wasn't peaches and cream."

I'm thinking it was more along the lines of watermellon & paper towels...

Well...I guess I do comedy because one of my best friends always encouraged me to do it, or at least something close to it, and I generally take her advice. Beyond that, I love hilarity and have such an odd take on things that I felt like sharing my sense of humour with others who might appreciate it.
The motivation is to reach as many people as I possibly can and make them laugh, to try and universalize the personal.
Fame is fine, but I'd much rather be admired in my field and making a living than be Bennifer/Cruise famous...
Moving on, my life hasn't been that fucked up, but somehow my worldview is.
Oh, and at this point I'd guess that I'm 'semi'.

JTF,

You have one of the greatest avatars in the history of Al Gore's internet invention.

Anditsdeeptoo,
Some of the funniest people alive work in Washington D.C.

I wanna be on comic veiw so I can show up at open mics with tha same out dated jokes and act like I'm hot shit


I want to be able to refer to myself in the third person. I want let greed take me over and I want to be in a postion where all I worrie about is money and the art has to take a back seat to my wallet.

I want a trophy wife and and more sports cars then Jay Leno.

I want to loose all my comedy respect and pump out shitty "PG" movies and use the whole "I wanted to do movies my kids could watch" excuse.

I want to apeal to mainstream crowds cuz I only worrie about what people think of me and I'm just a comedy whore who trys to please everybody cuz I have no vision and I'm in it for the fame cuz it helps me forget what a souless asshole I really am. Shit I'll suck your dick aslong as your laughing at me while I'm doing it.




Ok all joking aside my motivation is the fact that I want to do what I love and be myself and yes its that simple.

garfy1974,

I [/i]want[/i] to because 1) I'm an attention whore and need instant acceptance all the time--laughs are the best way to show positive approval.-- definitely some childhood issues that go with that. 2) I have the potential to be better than other people at it. I could be something like a doctor, but I wouldn't be *good* at it. And doing stand up, no one is gonna die or large sums of money won't go to waste if you screw up. 3) Travel. 4) Night shift. 5) The potential of loving my work...even if I'm struggling... 6) The chance of success is to shove it in the faces of all those people who fucked with me in the past for no reason and thought I was nothing.

I've thought long and hard about motivation and everything... and the question was to be a "funny person"...hell, I'm already one of those...moderately so.

Jane