• jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    I was at a birthday party the other night, and I spoke in passing about how I had performed a brand new comedy set the previous night (I’m an amateur stand-up comedian). I’ve been doing it for a few years and I’ve gotten pretty good at it, to the point I don’t even try out my new stuff at lesser mics, I know what’s funny, I write a brand new set every couple of weeks and then go perform it at the one good show my city consistently has. I’m proud of my art, and like I said, I’ve gotten pretty good at it. like, I consistently have to slow down my set so people can finish laughing at the previous jokes.

    Well at the birthday party were a couple of other guys that fancied themselves comedians, but only one of them had ever actually done it, and from what I heard, that single time wasn’t the best. It’s a karaoke party, so these guys grab the mic, and start reading jokes from their phone… and… Yeah, just lame, hacky, border-line offensive material. Like one guy just straight up googled a joke website and was reading from it. Then the next guy went on to perform and… Man I recognized half the jokes from reddit 🫥 But hey, his girlfriend was laughing so…

    Anyway, they wanted me to go up, but… man, a party of like 6 people in a living room isn’t a stand-up venue. Every comedian knows this, stand-up doesn’t work outside of stand-up. Like, some stuff can, but for the most part, it just doesn’t. Especially for my comedy, I use different mannerisms and affectations to lure the crowd into thinking I’m A, then hit’em with B. So I’m essentially playing a character. If you already know who I am, then it doesn’t work as well. I did not perform for them.

    I dunno, All that to say sometimes I feel like I’m a dummy who over the course of three years of regular stand-up has only amassed around 45 minutes of solid jokes… but then I saw these guys, and… I dunno man, I think I might be really fucking funny. I’ll have a chance to prove it to them soon, as I’m inching closer and closer to recording a full special. Hopefully it goes well, or else the real joke will be me writing this circlejerk fluff piece immediately before crashing/burning

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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      14 days ago

      Very vaguely reminiscent of the dietician I know whose dietary advice tends to be something along the lines of “if you’re happy with your weight and you’re surviving, your diet is probably fine” vs the nutritionist who insists that everyone drink raw milk and avoid seed oils

      Sometimes professionals know to keep their profession at their profession