It’s About The Journey, NOT The Destination!

Tags: amateur comedians, Saskatoon, stand-up comedy, The Stand-Up Diaries, trevor dean

There is something I started to do when I first got into comedy, that was the sole reason I finished first the night of the comedy competition for newer comics, when we had our smallest audience performing for a dozen people!  I know you might think that’s no excuse to not remember to do what I am referring to, and you’re right.  Although life has gotten in the way lately, and it’s affected my results onstage somewhat.  But it all goes back to something a headliner told me when I first started.  It’s one of those golden nuggets of advice you get early on that you don’t fully understand or appreciate until later on down the road.

stand-up comedy is one of those pursuits in life that you need to go all in on….. you can’t do it half-heartedly if you expect to get better because the audience and other comics will see that, then you won’t get their attention or respect

Anyhow, back to what the headliner told me last night.  It’s about the journey you take the audience on.  I think it’s obvious you want to reach the destination of getting laughs, that’s kind of a given.  But if you follow the journey, the destination becomes much easier to arrive at.

So what do I mean by the journey?  I remember back to what I did when I first started, that I have gotten away from a bit.  You need to be a story teller.  The material should have a beginning, a middle and an ending.  It should also have some flow, or a logical sequence of events (segue). You should be able to tie together your material so the flow makes sense, because it then becomes more credible and easier for the audience to follow.

I took the audience on a journey that night, with logical flow to my material too.  Last night I got back to that story telling element and was rewarded with laughs.  Comedy has to get in the way of life for it to work, meaning that I need to give this its due diligence.  I think on Wednesday I will take the whole day and get back to the story telling and use my new material to build stories and to take the audience on a journey.

That is the good thing about writing this blog for me, as I’ve stated in the past.  It allows me to keep myself accountable to you, the comedy audience.  Plus, it shows that I am human, I make mistakes, I am not perfect and I’m also not one of those people to whom comedy just comes naturally to.  It requires you to think onstage, planning ahead and reading the audience.  Admittedly I have to work at it more than some, and that’s okay.  My life has been far from perfect with its share of challenges.  But I am at the point in my life where I don’t have an ego, I don’t take myself too seriously.  I mean, some people I know have their Facebook pages more tightly controlled than an NDP election campaign.  They do not allow anyone to make funny or cute comments about the person otherwise they will be ridiculed.  Really now….