Comedy With No Deadline

I have at least two jokes that are relatively complete and very much in the vein of ones that I would love to be known for, along with another one that has the right punchline but needs a lot of work on the setup. Perhaps because of my weekly improvised comedy, I am hesitant to actually perform these before there is significant reason to do so. With no deadline, I have just been editing and tweaking what I have. Most standups seem to require stage time to know what is funny, to gauge a response. For whatever reason, I am pretty sure about whether and to what degree my written jokes are funny without requiring an audience's laughter. Furthermore, as I learned from Steve Martin, even when your material is at its best, the rule of thirds applies. A third of the time, the crowd will be great, a third terrible, and a third okay. In my mind, that releases me from having to worry about how they will react, and instead trust my own writing and ability to perform.

I recently received an update from my friend who was on the casting team for that comedy show. The update that she relayed from the head of casting is that there has been no news whatsoever regarding that show. Was it a failed pitch? Are they just finalizing details before letting us know that it's officially going to happen? Both possibilities appear to be equally likely.

As far as the standup goes, the vague goal that I have in mind is something like the 45 minutes that Steve Martin did at the peak of his standup. Granted, he said in his book that he had four hours of material in total, but given how hard it is to come up with a few minutes, and the fact that performing standup is in my mind more of a stepping stone than an actual goal, 45 minutes is what I am hoping to put together. Steve Martin's act also consisted primarily of a whole lot of small bits and physicalities rather than anything prolonged, and a lot of that was dependent upon the audience buying into the character that he was doing. I recently went to see Tim Heidecker's show, which consisted of 25 minutes of him doing a character that is a bad standup, then basically a small concert with his more genuine music. He too was heavily reliant upon the audience buying into and joining in with his character. People who likely lean very far left in their politics but for the sake of the show would yell out angrily about cancel culture and such. This allowed the audience to become a part of the show. The character was funny, but a significant amount of the reason why it worked so well was because the audience was thoroughly a part of it. In my mind, I much prefer the idea of just doing the show regardless of who or what the audience is, but should I be thinking more in that alternative way? It is certainly something worth a ponder, or possibly two.

Short Hair & Revisiting Jokes

I got a significantly shorter haircut and it rained today. Some of my simpler yet prevailing excuses for not attempting standup comedy at this point is the point are that neither my choice of attire nor my hair were appropriate for the present times. It has been too hot to begin to fathom the notion of sleeves upon my body, much less the addition of a blazer, despite the fact that these open mics have, in my experience thus far, had their climate well under control. And as for the hair, I did not like the thought of such a thing continue to carry inertia after I do a physical bit. In my mind, this would become something requiring potential manual correction, which I imagine would have an undesired impact on my delivery.

Despite his many deliberate pushes toward cancellation, I greatly admire John Mulaney's tendency toward being well-dressed for his performances. I appreciated this about Steve Martin as well. In Steve's case, he wore the three-piece suit because the vest prevented his shirt from becoming noticeably untucked. In my case, I want to be well-dressed enough that it will be that much more surprising when I throw my body around for a slapstick gag. And though Steve Martin began with longer hair, his most successful look adapted to the times with a fairly conservative cut.

I had not thoroughly gone through my fully written joke notes for a month or two because I wanted to see them with fresh eyes, and sure enough, I revisited them today and was very pleased. I made some additional edits, but I think that it is about time to work on memorization. So the process will be memorization, then performing on video with a microphone in hand, then revising as needed until I feel good about doing it on stage.

Hope Upon Return

Shortly after I made the journey back to the States from that Costa Rican journey, I ran across an advertisement for donating plasma. This reminded me of a friend I had known in high school and college who had boasted about how much money he had been making through such donations, so I drove to the donation center and made $125 by donating to a good cause of manufacturing life-saving medications as well as to further line the pockets of great profits of big pharma. As I write this, I have recently made my second donation, which took roughly an hour of my time and caused me to drive into town. Prior to the discovery of giving plasma, I had ruled out the possibility of visiting the big standup comedy club's open mic anymore. But with this budget increase, I can make these visits once again. Furthermore, I can also consider attending the weekend ones that come with a price tag and more tried and true performers.

Also upon my return to this country, I asked my friend in casting about that comedy show. It turns out that rather than simply being a show audition, I was one of around 30 comics who helped to serve as a pitch to try to get a show on the air. The host that they have attached is a big enough deal that it certainly stands a good chance of making it, but these things can take time.

Because of this and because of the perspective granted from time spent away, my current goals have switched toward putting together my own comedy show to enter into festivals, and also to read and learn for fun just like I always promised myself I would back when I graduated from college. I have already been making good on this pledge by dedicating my plasma donation time to reading Born Standing Up by Steve Martin. And may I say, it is so nice to just be reading again. No medical texts, no vague pressure or guilt regarding time not spent studying for a giant exam looming someday in the future. Just reading book to learn and enjoy.

The Costa Rican Reset

I am nearing the end of this trip to Costa Rica. Despite how much it feels like God intervened on my behalf at the last minute to give me this wonderful gift of a visit to Central America and exposure to these impressive rainforests, along with having my teeth made into beautiful specimens that are ready for 4k television cameras, I am hesitant to become too hopeful. It is nearing on two months since I applied to be on that comedy show, and I have yet to hear back. And despite how lovely this trip has been, it has also drained my wallet, though it is perhaps debatable whether I would have spent more at home. So when I get back to the States, I will be asking my friend if no news from the show means good news, bad news, or no news. Because beyond that board review gig that added a little recent padding to my bank account, I am lacking in new opportunities to make money.

That being said, I am reinvigorated in the writing process. I realized today that since I am unsure about how I would deliver some of my preferred jokes in a standup comedy form, I should endeavor to write those into a song. I view songs as cheat codes to beat the exchange rate of "honesty dollars", which is important for me as someone who absolutely does not wish to pay up when I am on stage. Steve Martin beat the exchange rate by simply being a made up caricature of himself, something quite fake but still endearing to the audience.

This waiting period has also allowed me to work on my show pitches. A dream show would involve my tour guide character doing a tour of the world, but I am still having to think through how to fill that out as a concept. The podcast could translate into a parody on the Dr. Oz show, with the funniest underlying part being that unlike on his show, mine would have a real medical lesson.

Travel has given my mind a healthy reset, perhaps even more so because my schedule revolved around making sure that my grandma fared well throughout our time here. Between her medications and her need to have her American food fix, she can be a tad demanding, but this is obviously a small price to pay for a free trip such as this. And although this prevented me from working on reflecting like I normally have in the past during a trip, I am also not sure that I would have done so at this point. After all, my future employment is very much in question. I do not know what I will be doing with my life. Until March of this year, I had subconsciously held out hope that I could still make it in medicine, but for a myriad of reasons, I do not see that happening. With that in mind, I recognize that if I do not land this show, or find some other work through old acting connections, I may need to compromise after giving up my 20s for this education. I am hoping to stop or at least delay this eventuality, but we will just have to see.

A couple months ago, I was basically vomiting anecdotes and joke ideas. Now I can come back from this trip and begin the more precise and specific work of fine-tuning my wording, along with working out segues and transitions between different parts of the act. Because even if my plan is not to perform standup comedy in a traditional way, it is always smart to have something ready if an opportunity presents itself.

Putting It Away For The Moment

Yesterday, I was hit by the memory of doing some of my weird body tricks with kiddos in some rural parts of developing nations. It was sad because I realize that if I give up on the dream of being a medical missionary, that aspect of my skillset would be used less frequently. But I need to hear the advice that I have given to others, that that dream is not necessarily dead; it is put away for now. Some people do not practice medicine until they are middle-aged.

It is just scary for the moment because I find myself with limited funds, which of course gives me a sort of deadline. If the comedy show does happen, I will presumably be okay in the short term, and perhaps also in the long term. If the comedy show does not happen, I will have to go back to writing my comedy routine to enter it into festivals and competitions. But in that case, money will likely run out and I will have to simultaneously attempt to find work.

When I graduated from college almost a decade ago, I told myself that with my newfound time and freedom, I would get back to reading and writing for fun, and to study and work on improving and expanding my dance routine. But then I got caught up with studying for the MCAT, and then with work, and then with trying to prepare myself for medical school. Then after graduating, I still felt singularly focused on trying to pass that Step 2 exam, which in my mind required an exclusion of other pursuits. However, I recently opened up my YouTube account that is filled with dancing video recommendations. And I am once again studying dance moves that I would like to try to incorporate into some sort of a routine. For the comedy things, I am having to dig back into my more free-feeling self, the version of me in college that dealt with social anxiety by being so quirky that it gave people around me some degree of anxiety. That version of myself has barely had a chance to breathe since I committed so hard to this medical professional character, but what if it could have another chance?

People talk about doing what makes them happy. I have never believed in this as a goal. Happiness is fleeting and only one doctor I know sounded genuinely happy about his job. Yet when I did that teaching job, I was genuinely about as happy and fulfilled as I know how to be with a piece of work. I had some guidance, but also a lot of creative control, a great many chances to make it my own in an engaging manner. The months of preparation were terrible, but the week of performing, writing, and editing on repeat every day was incredibly satisfying on a number of levels. After all, what other doctors would incorporate sketches into a lecture series? All that to say that if I cannot practice medicine, I might as well attempt to find that feeling again. The more of my talents and skill that are put to use, the better I feel.

Burnt Out To Costa Rica

My efforts at writing have burnt out a little bit. For a time, it was like I was taking amphetamines every day, just so excited to try this new medium. And I do think that I have some very good original material now. But then I checked my bank account and found that I am poor, and I have yet to hear back about that show, so that initial direction of being prepared for anything feels a bit too broad to generate real discipline.

Fortunately, my mother called me last week to tell me that my grandmother had just been horrified at the price quoted to her by her dentist for some work they want to do. So my mother recommended that I meet up with said grandmother and see if I can use her air miles to get both of us to join my mother on a trip that she already had planned to Costa Rica for some less expensive dental work. We booked the flight and then grandmother's passport had been expired for nine years, so we had to try to get the passport expedited for this flight that would leave in 13 days. Unfortunately, this is the high season, so the earliest available appointments were for the day of our flight, and it would take ten days from that to get the passport. This led to one night of being very unsure about how and whether we would be able to do the trip, but the following day, I called in directly and the passport office happened to have an appointment available a week before our flight. Of course, the appointment was in Colorado, but it ended up being realistic. 

All that to say that I will be in Costa Rica next week. Hopefully I will also have news of that show by then, but either way, at least I have something to show for my upcoming birthday.

Finding One's (Comedic) Voice

Still waiting to hear back about that casting call, but I also know that these things take time. As I wait to hear back about that, my focus is on finding my voice for open mic nights. I have attended each of these livestreamed standup comedy workshops that I could thus far, absorbing everything I could, but I now have the more arduous task of transforming these jokes into my own style of storytelling. This is in part because I do not care for the traditional standup comedy format. Every instinct in me wants to parody this, to somehow satirize it. Additionally, there is my physicality that I just have not used for so long. In my undergraduate days, I did slapstick comedy constantly, trained myself to do the types of physical bits that might have been performed on a Vaudeville stage, but I did for no particular audience aside from whoever may be nearby.

These comedy workshops have been great for brainstorming and for coming up with bits to mix in, but I am ultimately thinking that the standard style of doing joke after joke after joke is boring to me. Comedic storytelling with underlying physical bits and odd mannerisms is far closer to what I am looking to do. Today's study was of these types of bits, where the comedian in question does not say a word. I like (and have practiced) the approach of being surprised and confused by my various body parts and their movements and actions. Hands, feet, arms, and legs, torso, all of these can go in unexpected directions that, by my facial expression, apparently take me off guard.

The other element that I have been looking into is guitar. My grandma gave me hers. I only know a few chords, but that may be enough for comedic use of the guitar. Write a simple song or just play a few background notes to set the mood.

Tomorrow, I plan to go and see more standup comedy after attending a happy hour aimed at those like myself who are academically advanced health professionals.