Colin Quinn on the job of the comedian

Should a comic evolve with their audience?

Love this Colin Quinn clip:

🅼🅰🆃🆃 💎 🆁🆄🅱🆈 @mattruby

🧠 @iamcolinquinn on the job of the comedian

“It’s been really fun watching comedy become woke. Bloggers tell me all the time ‘Don’t you know you’re supposed to evolve with your audience?’ And that’s true. That’s exactly why I got into comedy, so I could march in lockstep with society’s contemporary conventions. I wanted to conform to the status quo. They said Colin ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ I said ‘I don’t care as long as I get to reinforce mainstream opinion’. They were like ‘You sound like you’d be a good comedian.’”

Love the sarcasm. That’s from Colin Quinn: Red State Blue State (it’s great, as are all his specials).

Obviously, he’s kidding around, but there are some good do-the-opposite lessons for comedians to be had there too:

• You should upset some people.

• Mock society’s contemporary conventions.

• Don’t conform to the status quo.

• Avoid mindlessly reinforcing mainstream opinion.

I’d add in 1) don’t be a jerk while you’re doing all that, 2) make them happy you dragged them across any lines (see George Carlin on this), and 3) remember to get laughs. Ultimately, that’s the main job.

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