10 Good Things: The advice Chris Rock gave Kevin Hart
Also: Nikki Glaser, Jimmy Carr, Marlon Wayans, Padma Lakshmi, and more.
This weekend, I’m telling iokes in Colorado. Jun 14-15 at Denver Comedy Lounge and Jun 16 at Boulder Comedy Show. Ticket info here. (Arlington, VA on June 21 too.)
💥 Did a bar show a couple years ago. Comedian before me got furious everyone was on their phones. Left the stage before his allotted time was up. I went onstage next and talked to 'em. Turns out the place only had QR code menus. They weren’t disrespecting the show, they were just ordering drinks the only way they could. I feel like this is some kinda Zen proverb but for comedy.
💥 When Chris Rock Gave Kevin Hart Advice: "They are not your peers. You're better than all of them. But you need to get out of their circle and develop your own voice." (via JS)
💥 Nikki Glaser’s Jokes Need No Disclaimers
It’s a testament to the unsparing nature of Glaser’s comedy that, even as she’s needling comedians for not having the courage to stand behind their harder-to-stomach material, she can’t help but double down on hard-to-stomach material herself. There’s nothing inherently wrong with holding an audience’s hand by delicately prefacing a joke, just as there is nothing inherently wrong with content warnings in general. But as Glaser demonstrates in Someday You’ll Die, if a joke is well-written enough, these caveats are little more than trimmable fat.
💥 On having more interesting ideas at
:I get ideas in communion with others—by reading and by talking, and by thinking about what I read and talk about. If you look at people who have been fountains of ideas they often had a dinner crew of witty people they met every day and whom they would try to entertain with interesting observations.
💥 Jimmy Carr does a great job using facial expressions to convey a playful attitude while he’s doing jokes that could be considered cruel.
Related: Give 'em something to look at
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on the algorithm rabbit hole of Netflix specials:They can make an unknown a little hot with their assortment packet fifteen minute Young Comedian type specials, but if you’re not steaming ahead full speed already with a couple killer Youtube specials or a hot podcast or podcast appearances first, (Matt Reeves, Leanne Morgan, Shane Gillis, etc) you can sadly have a dynamite one hour Netflix special and drop straight into the algorithm rabbit hole of Netflix's custom made abyss. (Paul Virzi, Red Ollero, Brian Simpson, Donell) and I dare you to find Speshy Weshy or whatever that was called up there . A funny but a ‘not yet known stand up’ can see his dream of a Netflix special come true, only to come to feel he was better off projecting it to the neighbors on the broad side of his parents garage. The need to today get on Netflix feels similar to a comic ten years ago longing for a sitcom pilot or a tonight show spot. She needed it because it was what the people coming up before her had and did. The trail that was taken earlier, but it wasn’t the necessarily best way one to grow or to bloom on.
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