Comedy is Weird

thecomedybureau:

We’re not going to tell you to drop what you’re doing and watch the very first episode of the highly anticipated IFC series ‘Maron’ based around the life of comedian/podcast kingpin Marc Maron, but are you really not going to do that?

Watch it now (you know that you’re going to).

also for adults.

I recently tried giving advice to a first-time comedian and this is what I thought to say:

First of all, just do it.  Write and perform as often as you can and more. (That’s the advice that I hear most often from professionals)

But I’d like to add something that I think helped me out a lot, too. Expose yourself to the world of comedy by listening to comedy podcasts and other comedy media.

If you’ve been listening to WTF with Marc Maron, you’re doing it right. The reason is because it’s important to hear the process of “making it” from 200+ comics. You’ll find that you’re able to envision each step of the comedy path much easier by hearing how it’s done every week from the ones that do it best. It definitely provides consistent inspiration to work harder.

I listen to comedy albums as often as I can, and not just the ones by my favorite comics. I’ll listen to most anything. Even comics I know I don’t like. Why?

I want to hear what EVERYONE is doing. Every comic, good or bad in your eyes, brings something valuable to their performance and it’s usually the reason that they’re famous. If you can approach an album with a critical ear, you’ll walk away from it enlightened on some aspect of their performance.

So basically you should write, perform, and submerge yourself in the comedy world.

Or you can disregard this whole thing. There is no unified “comedy advice” that produces a surefire success story, but writing and performing often is definitely the only advice that can’t be challenged.