Why Ruin Good Writing With A Title?

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

Some days it’s difficult to find something to write about, especially when this blog is over 2 years old with close to 120 postings thus far.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a single guy with far too much time on his hands, but at the same time I have better ways to expend my energy than to go back to my previous postings to see if I’ve duplicated any topics.

I have quite a few ideas for material rolling around in my head but I currently lack the motivation to get at it and write.  It’s a time of transition for me, as I have started with my new employer within the RV industry here in Saskatoon.  It’s a more positive working environment, along with a raise and a more focused job description for myself.  I also have a vehicle as of last Thursday, the first one in almost two years.  This means I can have a social life again, which is good because it will probably give me ideas for material as I get out into the city and see what I’ve missed.

It’s a bit of a transition also because summer is coming, and I dislike the summertime immensely.  Since summer bums me out it makes me less proactive to go and do the things that need to be done.  In addition to that I need to focus on my job and become an asset to the dealership so I can preposition myself for future success.  Over the next few weeks as I get a bit more comfortable in my new role, it may become easier to write as I ease into things at work.

The thing about my writing though is that my brain is always on and ready to find a comedic moment to write about, whether it be in the shower or as I’m walking down the street I’ll talk to myself and if I talk long enough eventually I stumble upon a good idea that’s worth developing.  I probably should write it down at that point, but lately I’ve been to lazy to do so.  I just write down a few key words about the idea, or shorten it to a key phrase that’s easy to remember so I can recall it to build a joke from later on.  I have several ideas like that on the shelf right now.  I also have a good several minutes at least of material I haven’t done yet that comes from previous writing sessions with my comedy coach.  Needless to say, I’m in a good position to have material that I know works because I know why it works.  I believe that for a comic to not know why something they say is funny and just go with the premise “it’s funny….because it’s funny”, is ignorant, lazy and it shows a serious lack of credibility with your audience.  I only say that last part because the audience (rightly so) should believe that you know what you’re doing when you are on stage.  If you do new material on stage and it doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean the joke should be scrapped.  It simply means that the way you communicated it to the audience needs to be redone so it can hit the proper laugh triggers to generate laughs.

There still are not any confirmed dates for future shows as of yet.  However, I am currently pursuing opportunities that are unique to me.  We will have to wait and see how these play themselves out.

In the meantime things are going alright.  I don’t mind the gap between sets for me, because it allows me time to really sit down and analyze what went right, and what went wrong and how to improve for the next time.  Learning how to make an audience laugh consistently is something that’s evolving day by day.  I do not take a comedy audience for granted, nor will I ever personally attack an audience member at the expense of getting an easy laugh.  Being a comedian is serious work.  In a recent interview comic Bill Burr said it would take him at least a year to have enough material to be able to go out on tour with.  Eddie Murphy said the same thing, that it takes a year to get enough material together and have worked it enough to know it’s good enough to go out on tour with.

Comedy success doesn’t happen overnight.  It takes a long time to get good, many hours of writing…..oh, shit!  I should stop here.  I think I’ve just found the next topic I’ll write about    🙂

Again, thank you all for following the blog and through the Facebook page.  I appreciate all the love and comments from each and every one of you.  Well, almost everyone.

Be blessed!