"Comedy Book" author Jesse David Fox' advice for aspiring comedians
"It's more interesting when you don’t know the rhythm of the jokes and a comic’s not just playing the rhythm of the audience."
There’s a really solid episode of Good One: A Podcast About Jokes where Vulture critic Jesse David Fox discusses Comedy Book with guest host Gary Gulman. At the end, Fox discusses advice he’d give to an aspiring comedian. (Lightly edited excerpts below.)
Don’t move to LA or NYC before you’re ready.
You don't have to move to LA just when your friends are moving to LA. Scenes come and go. Someone gets a gig and everyone gets itchy because you now have a friend who's rich and you are not rich at all and you're working your day job. Don't be seen until you're ready. You will not be able to get up as much. You can't work on your stuff or just, at a minimum, you didn't totally get who you were yet. And then you're now becoming just who the city is telling you who you are. Have a vision that is distinct and clearly articulate it. And you can more likely do that in New York.
Don’t just play to the rhythm of the crowd.
Not everyone has to be Janeane Garofalo, but some people need to be Janeane. There needs to be people who just go up there and give you themselves. I think, just on a basic formal level, it's more interesting when you don’t know the rhythm of the jokes and a comic’s not just playing the rhythm of the audience. Of the many things that lead to hackery, besides topic, is literally just like you're confident and you say jokes in a rhythm and the audience laughs 'cause they know what it is. Steve Martin fought that fight 50 years ago to change the rhythm of it. It's hard because it's scarier, but expand things out. Do different rhythms of things, talk longer.
Many comedians are just doing it 'cause they're like, “That's what jokes sound like and young people like the sound of it.” Unless you're somehow doing it like classical revival in painting, you're just protecting yourself. You're creating more shields away from you and the audience and, as far as I can tell, the most interesting work that's ever happened in comedies is when that doesn't happen.
Don’t just sign up with the first manager who comes around.
Get a good manager. You don't need to get your first manager just 'cause they asked you. Get a person who's invested you as you as an artist and wants you to have a long-term career.
Comedy doesn’t have to be your job.
If you are a person who is aspiring to be a comedian, but doesn't really care about being famous, then comedy doesn't have to be your job. It's allowed to have hobbyists just like every other art form has. That does not mean what you're doing is not worthwhile to your soul, it's just you're not depending on it to live. And in many ways, that's more sophisticated. It's good for your life and that's enough. You don't need to be famous. This idea that your career has to be the thing that your number one dream is, it's a modern trick that capitalism
Not a new comedian by a long shot, but I still love reading (and writing) comedy advice. Thanks for this!