10 Good Things: Judd Apatow on Gary Gulman, Mike Birbiglia, Gloria Steinem, Ronny Chieng, etc.

Outthinking your audience, conversational laughter, empathy, and more.

💥 Mike Birbiglia on creating his one-man shows:

“You have to outthink your audience, and then make it seem like you’re not outthinking your audience, and then deliver it as if it’s this thing you just thought of. That’s sort of the magic trick of it.”

💥 The actual hard part of comedy, according to Paul Oddo.

Performing standup comedy is not the hard part of standup comedy. The actual hard part is being allowed to perform as often as you would like to in front of quality audiences. This never occurs to people who aren’t involved in standup, but it’s 90% of the challenge.

💥 The Comedy of Survival. Includes Gloria Steinem when asked why she’s lasted so long:

If I had to pick one reason, it’s because I have a sense of humor. That’s crucial. It allows you to laugh at yourself and say when you’re wrong. One of the things that Native American culture understands and we probably don’t is that laughter is the only emotion you can’t compel. You can’t make anybody laugh unless they want to. I suspect that the people who last the longest, who continue to be trustworthy, are people with a sense of humor.

💥 Offended by Comedy? [video]

Ahead:

• The difference between good/bad jokes about trans people (according to a trans activist)

• How poet Sharon Olds organizes a finished notebook

• What laughter means for a conversation

• Judd Apatow on Gary Gulman

• …and more