Aged with Structured Comedy

I aged. I am 34 now. I take 40 mg of fluoxetine daily and am living out of my mom's Prius in Los Angeles. I love it.

But enough about all that.

I went to a standup show last night, and the show featured a number of comics, one of whom was Maria Bamford. Incredible comic. Just incredible. The only time that laughter stopped was when she was talking, and when she did a brief crowdwork bit, but she even had a punchline ready for that.

Most of the comics talked about dating and sex. When you have like eight comics in a row, those topics can become boring. Maria Bamford instead talked about her own mental health issues and how she navigates them in the world.

I also listened to The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast, and this week, they talked about some of their older work, and whether having children has influenced whether they prefer their old content to have a different tone. Less adult jokes, etc., and Akiva said that he just disliked when the comedy was otherwise clean, but then had one dirty joke or profanity in it that need not have been there.

These have been good reminders to me to keep my comedy clean, and let the dirty stuff just be exceptions for shows that specifically want more adult humor.

I have learned that the rewrites in standup are boring to do, and I therefore avoid them unless I have a deadline like a show. I had such a deadline a few weeks ago, so I did this act that was very physical. Annoyingly, the video I have of the performance demonstrated to me that although it is very promising, I really mostly figured out blocking. So I need to tighten up all the jokes around the physical bits. It is like choreographing a dance routine, except that I have to talk too. Very annoying.

A downside to the fluoxetine's effects with regard to the decrease in anxiety is that my work ethic is a little compromised. No longer do I lay awake at night, overstimulated thoughts racing, unable to sleep because the brain wants to work. Occasionally, I was able to use that restlessness to figure out jokes. They are fascinating little puzzles that can work if you put in the time with patience, but oh how I lack the patience. This is part of why I like to have so many projects going on at once. But of course, I have a standup show next month, which means that I have another deadline. And the last such show I did, I had fifteen minutes to fill. The last show I did well, I had eight minutes.

I met with a friend who works in branding and is fairly well-connected in the comedy world, and he noted that me having lots of one-liners is a good problem to have. He also pointed out that my comedy sets will need to have a focus on structure. The problem with my being so diversified in my talents and comedic sensibilities is that I have to line them up properly. After I talk about dissecting cadavers, do I say some one-liners about seeing patients? Or about death? Or should I save that for after I do a silly cartoonish one? These questions demand some answers, and it might require multiple adderall-fueled sessions for me to make real progress on them. My supply on that end is unfortunately quite limited.