Chris Fleming: "They're smelling the freshness"

On Mike Birbiglia's podcast, Chris Fleming talks about doubling down, posting first takes, and why feeling beats language.

Chris Fleming had a great convo with Mike Birbiglia:

Some quotes from Fleming below…

How did he go from struggling to being successful?

Doubling down, I think. And I think just tuning out other trends also, I think is really good. Keeping your head down. And kind of just really, really being like: I need to say this. And also doing things that are really frightening and really feel like pushing yourself and counterintuitive. Destructive sometimes. Self-destructive. In terms of saying things where people are like, “Whoa.” Talking sh*t in certain ways. Just kind of letting it out and truly trying to get honest with them. You can talk to your audience the way that you talk to your high school friends.

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Feeling can be more important than the words:

I’ll get closer and closer to truly entertaining myself on stage and being amazed that people are with me on something. It’s always shocking. And I think that after enough time, comedy often — language is really limiting and things that don’t make sense. But if there’s a feeling behind it, or if it represents something, then the words aren’t even as important as the feeling.

Why he sometimes films first versions of jokes and posts them on Instagram:

There’s something so animal about an audience, and that’s what’s terrifying. They’re, like, smelling the freshness. The first time you do something. That’s why, at Largo, I filmed the first bit. The first time I’m doing a bit and put it out. Because sometimes like the second through seventh time, it’s like terrible.

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On prioritizing clarity:

Chris: [Rick Jenkins] was like, ‘Well, yeah, you can get as crazy as you want up there, Chris. But you know what you’re talking about. But if they don’t know what you’re talking about... all you got to do is let them in and be really clear. And then you can get as crazy as you want.’”

Mike: “That’s super smart...I got a similar piece of advice when I was starting out... where he goes, ‘A lot of times you’re not conveying the thing that’s in your head exactly, and that’s why they’re not laughing. You just need to explain it better.’”

Chris: “Yeah... they simply don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

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