Take Your Uneducated Opinion And SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS

Tags: The Stand-Up Diaries

Comedy, like the fields of athletics or music will have their fair share of opinionated people, thinking they know everything and have the answers necessary to make life better for you.  Some of these opinions actually hold some weight because the person giving the opinion is an expert in their field.

When it comes to comedy I’ve found that there are no shortage of opinions on how comedians can get better.  I don’t mind these opinions when I seek them out.  However, when you get opinions based on things a person knows absolutely nothing about, it’s quite laughable.

I will not mention this person by name, but there is one particular comic who I had been receiving tips while this person resides in Alberta as a headliner.  Did you see how I used the word had.  Yes, that’s right.  Another loud-mouthed windbag thinking their opinion is the end all to be all because they supposedly are a success.  

At first this person said that writing is the important thing to do, even if you aren’t getting stage time you’re still creating material.  Now, in an about face, I have been told that I should leave Saskatoon and go to a larger center to perform comedy because all I seem to do is bitch about the fact I don’t get stage time.  Then this dipstick has the nerve to bash my comedy coach, calling him a fraud.

EXCUSE ME?  

Let’s start with the FACTS which some people don’t have.  

1. I started stand-up comedy and continue to do so for my FRIENDS first and foremost.  I would never, ever have gotten involved in comedy if it weren’t for the unconditional love and support  that I knew I’d receive from the moment I stepped onto a comedy stage.  I know for a fact that some are proud of the way I have continued despite the bullying and lack of laughs at times.  Others are happy to see that I am finally getting laughs too.  As I’ve done more blog posts and added more likes to my comedy page, there is obvious interest now from people I don’t know that wasn’t present before.  I appreciate that support and the positive response I am receiving from audiences on a more consistent basis now, but the fact remains that the people closest to me are the ones who keep me going.
2. I am like some comics in Saskatoon that try to make it HERE while building their lives HERE.  Saskatoon is my grounding spot, my home base.  Sure, I could leave and go elsewhere.  With my ability to make friends easily and my easy going nature I am sure I’d create a new social circle for myself in short order.  However, the pattern of my life has appeared to be one where things go good for a while, then they go to shit.  They make the slow climb to good again, then they go to shit and seem to stay there for a prolonged period of time.  That’s the pattern I’ve seemingly had for years and years.  For anybody with two eyes and a brain, to read my previous posts you’d know that I never really complained about not having stage time for the last nine months.  I simply stated the fact that I couldn’t do comedy in Saskatoon for the foreseeable future, and I was looking forward to opportunities down the road to perform even though I had no clue what they would look like at the time.  My friends, and everything I know is here.  For me to pick up and start over again, that’s all I’ve done with the ups and downs of my life over the last several years.  I want no part of that anymore.

Then there is point #3, and this is one that really bothers me, a lot.  This person supposedly knows enough about comedy to tell me that my comedy coach is not only a bully who gladly takes my money and hasn’t got the heart to tell me I’m no good, but that my comedy coach is also a fraud.

This comes from a comic who doesn’t even do comedy full-time.  This person still has a day job in addition to doing comedy.  You can go to my comedy coach’s website and see the following facts that I will present to you about my coach:

• been in comedy for 30 years as his only job, not moonlighting as a comic, but solely doing stand up comedy as a job
• co-wrote a movie script that got produced for release later this year (hopefully)
• former writer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno where he’s crank out a couple hundred jokes in a day
• runs a stand-up comedy school in Los Angeles where his students get t.v. gigs, win comedy competitions and do tours early on in their comedy careers
• wrote an e-book on comedy writing that looks at more than just the writing aspect of comedy, talking about laugh triggers, audience psychology, the different comedy structures and how to write jokes on any subject

My comedy coach has been successful at comedy for over 30 years, and this guy is telling me my coach is a fraud when he’s not even doing comedy full time?

The problem I have with this is these opinions are uneducated.  I don’t know if the guy is jealous or if he thinks he’s smart enough to have it all figured out by now.  If that’s the case though, how come he isn’t a big star?

Watch my three videos on my home page of this blog. The first one (me in the cap) is when i first started.  That wasn’t too funny.  The second one of me in the pink shirt is the first time performing that I had material I wrote with my coach.  Then the most recent video (me in the red pants) from last week shows that I’m getting better.  If my coach was a fraud, I’d suck, get way fewer laughs than the few I got when I first started, and those closest to me would tell me things aren’t working considering the money I have spent.  

It’s typical of bullies or know-it-alls in general to spout off about something they know nothing about.  This person hasn’t read my coach’s book, nor has he taken a comedy class of his, let alone a Skype coaching session.  Yet he knows enough about comedy to tell me I’m wasting my money on a fraud.

Really?

Now you tell me who looks stupid in this equation?  

“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.” 
― Harlan Ellison