#NerdsUnite: I can haz funny (one nerds journey around the comedic circuit)
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Brandon. We started talking on the Facebook not too long ago, and lemme tell you, this guy can throw in quite the few kneeslappers in his emails. Yep, see Brandon is a comedian who is here today to tell you the real deal on what it's like being "on the circuit." I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT BRANDON!!! </editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @BrandonComedy
I’m bomb proof, I don’t think it’s possible for me to have a bad set!” -- Me, November 2010
When I tell people I am a comedian, about 50% of people will say some variation of “I would love to do stand up, but I’m afraid of bombing.” I tell them, you’re going to bomb, your going to bomb often, and it is going to suck, but you’ve been bombing at things your entire life. When you were a kid, you couldn’t drive a car, and any attempts to do so would be a tragedy but as you got older, you got behind the wheel, and eventually you figured it out, and got it together. Now you can drive (unless you can’t, at which point you need to stop reading comedy blogs and figure out your life) but if you were asked to drive cross country the first time you got behind a wheel, you couldn’t have done it.
Bombing is just active learning. An audience wants you to succeed (maybe not some urban audiences, but that’s another blog), and by bombing, the audience is telling you, “Hey, we don’t like the thing you’re doing. We want you to figure out what we want, and if you are incapable of doing what we want we will respond negatively. (This would be the most polite heckle you could get)”
I used to be so afraid of bombing, that I would deny it’s very existence. My early sets are so forgettable, and I was worrying about so many other things that I couldn’t even process that I was mostly bombing. Just like when I was learning to drive, I was so focused on making sure I had a good CD in, my mirrors were in place, and a bunch of other irrelevant shit. I was so busy worrying about nonsense, I didn’t worry about how bad a driver I was. And trust me, I was terrible, I totaled my car jamming to ABBA less than a month after getting my license.
Look, this is getting weird, and I’m on muscle relaxers and not really committed to the writing process, let’s just end with this. You’re going to bomb a lot. Not just in comedy, but in life. You’re going to be really bad at stuff, and sometimes people will question whether or not you should even be attempting the thing you’re doing. Just be happy, and confident in whatever you’re doing. Because once you get done bombing, and you start to get good enough to make things look effortless, you kill, and killing is awesome.
You’re awesome. (probably)
“Bombing is going to happen, it is inevitable. The best advice I can give you is to try not to bomb twice in the same way.” -- Me, three days ago
#nerdsunite
click here to follow Brandon on twitter & don't miss his blog over yonder!