10 Good Things: Joan Rivers vs. hecklers, Steven Wright’s rules for comedy, John Mulaney on telling stories, and more
Also: Finding your voice via your nemesis, bombing is data, etc.
🗣 “Comedy is an attempt to control why people laugh at you.”
-Harry Shearer
🗣 Know a successful comedian you hate? Make them your nemesis (in a good way).
Nemeses are not enemies. They aren’t necessarily objectionable people, or even bad artists; they’re just doing something that you very pointedly do not want to do…They can act as a whetstone against which to hone your own intentions and ethos, clarifying what you want (and don’t want) to be, and—maybe most importantly for anyone afflicted with ambition—what, if anything, matters more to you than success.
🗣 The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy. “From the Marx Brothers to The Simpsons, Richard Pryor to Amy Schumer: 100 bits, sketches, and one-liners that changed humor forever.”
🗣 Kyle Kinane (to Piffany) on what he did wrong at the HBO festival early in his career:
I didn't do well. I wasn't focused. I think I drank too much out of nerves before my set, because I thought that was part of my character or what have you. And I didn't know how to sell it under pressure. I didn't know how to look at a room of executives in a ski town. And I did not know how to relate to them with material about low self-esteem.
He says that provided him with valuable lessons about his standup.
Be free buddy. Just talk about what you want to talk about. Don't worry about if it's marketable. It wasn't like I was doing some elusive avant garde material. I'm just like, I'm gonna stop being worried about who might be in the room or anything. There's some people in this room that are here to see a good comedy show. I would like to do comedy for them.
🗣 When Joan Rivers was starting out, she planned her responses to hecklers.
🗣 John Mulaney: “I learned from [Mike Birbiglia] about crafting stories, and how it’s a story, but it’s also about 600 jokes as well.” Below, Jesse David Fox offers commentary on this Birbigs bit:
What late people don’t understand about us on-time people is that we hate you. And the reason why we hate you is that it’s so easy to be on time — you just have to be early. And early lasts for hours. And on time lasts a second. And then you’re late forever. Late people are always trying to rebrand being late. They say, “I’m fashionably late.” Which is like saying, “I’m stylishly racist.” Which is another thing about late people: A lot of them are racist. And the reason these late racists drive me crazy …
Fox: “That goes by in by about 30 seconds and includes roughly nine laugh lines. That is a Seinfeld-ian density, all while maintaining narrative momentum and effectively conveying what Birbiglia’s relationship is like with his wife.”
Up ahead: Steven Wright’s rules for his comedy, bombing is data, what not to put in a late night set, and Arby’s or Noma?
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