Podcasts

One of my favourite things to do, besides performing stand-up comedy, and writing jokes, is to talk about stand-up comedy with other comedians. But it's hard to do when there are only a handful of comedians in your town. So the next best thing is to listen to podcasts. For the uninformed, a podcast is like a downloadable or streaming radio show. Some podcasts even include a video component, so it's more like a TV show.

When I was in university, one of my professors said we are now taking part in the 'big conversation'. He said every book written, every film made, every story told is a part of this 'big conversation' about ideas, whether they be politics or history or whatever. And as university students, we are now a part of this conversation. That's how I feel about podcasts. We get to listen in on other comedians discuss stand-up comedy or other worldly events. It's kind of a one-sided conversation in that we're mostly listening. But I look at it this way: stand-up comedy is also a conversation, a mostly one-sided conversation in that the comedian onstage is (ideally) the only person in the room talking. I say ideally because if he wasn't the only one talking, then that means there are hecklers or chatty people in the audience. And you don't want that. Just to go off on a tangent for a bit, but one way to cut down on the occurrence of hecklers, is to make the audience laugh. They're less likely to heckle if they're laughing. Simple. Anyways, like I was saying, podcasts are a great way to take part in the big conversation about stand-up comedy.

The very first podcast I listened to/watched was the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Dane Cook was the guest. It was like an informal (very informal) talk show, with Joe Rogan as the guest, Brian Redban as  the sidekick, and Dane Cook as the guest. And from what I remember, they talked a lot of comedy. Which I love. I just love hearing comedians talk shop. And what I love about the podcast, is there is no real format. It's just a couple chairs, a couple mics, maybe a camera, and go. It's very freeform, with little to no structure. And it's not like a TV talk show where you have a strict time limit, there's no commercial breaks (at least no in the infancy of podcasting, before sponsorship).

I used to love the David Letterman show because of the interviews, but they were too short. I also loved interview shows like Charlie Rose on PBS, which was a little more in-depth because the show was about 30 minutes, an hour if it was a special guest. One of my favourite shows was Inside The Actors Studio. Just two people talking. But what I love about podcasts is that it's, for the most part, two comedians talking. Charlie Rose is not a comedian, James Lipton (ITAS) is not a comedian. Comedians have a special connection. They know what it takes to get up on stage and try to make people laugh. They know the work involved in writing a joke.

When I listen to podcasts, I listening for a few things. I'm listening for words of wisdom, advice, and inspiration. There's more than one way up the comedy mountain, and I love hearing about the different approaches other comedian's take. I've gotten s much advice from listening to other comedians, that I've started cataloguing it. I even made some videos that you can find on youtube. Just search 'Comedy Words of Wisdom' and you should find it. The thumbnail is Patrice O'Neal pointing a finger to his head like a gun. In the video I included some words of advice from Aisha Tyler. You might know her as the voice of Lana Kane from the animated series 'Archer'. But she said, "You can't really be funny until you're kinda fully being yourself. No matter how flawed or off putting or strange or confusing that is to your audience. You have to fully inhabit who you are, and be brave and unabashed to present it." It seems like simple advice. "Be Yourself". But you how hard it is to just be yourself? It's not easy. When I first started comedy, I wanted to be Chris Rock. But if you've ever seen me, you know I'm nothing like Chris Rock. She also said, "I did not get funny until I stopped trying to be someone else."  I realized I could never be Chris Rock, I could only be me. I've heard some comedians say this, or something similar, "When I first started out, I wasn't really a comedian, I was playing the part of a comedian." You're onstage, you're telling jokes, but it's not really 'you'. When you first start out, you're trying to get laughs, that's it. You're learning how to write and tell jokes. But the longer you do it, you're able to put more of yourself in your material. You're getting more comfortable on stage. It gets easier to be yourself. And I think that's when you get truly funny.

Listening to other comedians, you soon realize that stand-up comedy is a process. Joe Rogan once said, "When you start off doing comedy, you never realize that you are on essentially a ten-year path to competence. You're not just learning jokes, you're learning (about) yourself, through life." It takes a long time to get good at comedy. I say this all the time about myself, "Where I am as a comedian and where I want to be as a comedian, are so far apart." I'm getting better, I think. But I feel like I can always improve. I feel like I'm improving when I write a joke that truly expresses how I think. And more importantly, I feel like I'm getting better when I have the balls (see Aisha Tyler quote above) to tell it onstage and be comfortable with it.

Simon Amstell, British comedian, gave me some words for me to think about when I write and tell jokes. When asked, "Do you ever worry that you're revealing too much of yourself?" And his reply, "No, the opposite. I always think "Have I really said the actual truth of this situation?". That's the thing about the type of comedy I do, which I mentioned in the earlier blog as being confessional comedy, is how much information is too much, and am I really stating the truth, the whole truth? And it goes back to Aisha Tyler's quote about being braved and unabashed about revealing yourself onstage. It's not an easy thing to do. I'm only telling you part of the story. There's a lot of stuff I'm not telling you. And is that being honest? I mean, what I'm telling you is the truth, but it's not the whole story.

I was asked recently by a new comedian which podcasts they should listen to, and I said just enter your favourite comedian's name into a search engine along with the word 'podcast' and surely something will pop up. Chances are they either have their own podcast, or they've been a guest on someone else's podcast.  There's so much content out right now, you're gonna find something to listen to, and hopefully their words will help shape and guide your career too.