About Matt McDonald Expertise I DO NOT FULFILL REQUESTS TO TELL JOKES! PLEASE DON'T ASK. I can answer questions regarding getting started in stand-up comedy: what to expect, what to do before, during and after your first show, pushing past stage fright and associated pants-wetting fears and so on. I am also reasonably comfortable talking about the basic business aspects of stand-up where beginners are concerned.
Experience I DO NOT FULFILL REQUESTS TO TELL JOKES! PLEASE DON'T ASK. Experience in the area I "worked" for nine years as a stand-up comic in Ohio. Most of my experience comes from open mics, local competitions and the like but I do have some familiarity with "the road" as it pertains to beginners. I have counseled/coached/mentored several people who wanted to get into stand up and wanted the full lowdown on what to expect once they started to pursue it in earnest. In 1994, I made more money from winning local open mic night contests than I did at my actual job. I also performed in improv comedy for a couple of years, though I never considered myself very good at it - I can answer general questions re: improv as well.
Due to a volatile temper and abysmal luck, I never managed to make it to the next rung of the ladder. Middle age has mellowed me and now you can learn from my mistakes.
Question Over the past year I have been working hard to find a break as a comic/comedic writer (I would prefer the later). I have told stand-up for about 8 months, taken sketch writing classes, improv classes, produced stage shows (comedic), you name it. I feel as though I am doing fairly well considering the amount of opportunities I'm getting are continuously growing, but I'm starting to feel stuck. I left my job because they told me to chose comedy or work, and as you probably well know comedy doesn't pay well. I'm now trying to find a way to make even a modest living in the comic world, but don't know what my next step is. Should I freelance, get an agent, move to NY or LA (I live in Chicago now)? I'm 23 so my luxuries are youth and time, but I am close to going back to the professional world which is not what I want to do.
Answer Thanks for the question.
One of the things I really don't like about being on AllExperts are questions about what to do with your life. Not because they're annoying questions or out of bounds - in many ways, they're really the most important question to be asked when you try to get into stand-up. But I don't like them because I'm simply not qualified to answer them.
Look, one thing I have never been accused of is chutzpah. Whatever my strengths are, courage and risk-taking are not among them. When I was faced with the same choice you have, I decided to stay in Columbus, OH and be a big fish in a small pond. And I did that largely out of fear - fear of moving to a city where I didn't know anybody, fear of being just another comic, fear of the unknown, etc. Now, what did that cost me? What could I have been if I made my choices out of hope rather than fear?
I'll never know, but the one thing I do know is this: not a day goes by that I don't regret what I didn't do or try. Not a day, and that's the truth. It's a worn platitude, but it's absolutely true: the things we regret most in life are the things we didn't do, not the things we did.
I've come to think of it like this: let's say you come to Frost's proverbial fork in the road. We tend to view that as two choices. Either we take the left fork, or the right. And we can't know which fork gets us where we want. Maybe neither does. We just don't know. But in reality, there are three choices in front of us when we reach that fork: go left, go right or stand still. Which of those are most likely to get you somewhere?
I can't tell you to move or not, to get a real job or not. You're the only one who really knows why one decision or another works for you. But what I can say is be honest with yourself. If you're deciding to go back to the 9-5, make sure you know WHY you made that decision and understand why it's the right one for you.
But whatever decision you make, don't make it because it's the easiest or least frightening.
Thus ends the metaphysical portion of my response.
In terms of actual, concrete things you can do, I'll give you some advice I gave a friend a long time ago: Pick. Your. Horse.
You're trying too hard. You're doing all of these different routes into comedy - stand-up, improv, producing stage shows, etc. and yet the first thing you told me was that you'd prefer to be a writer. So why are you wasting your time diverting your attention with anything other than writing? Why are you doing stand-up? Why are you producing?
You're a writer. Write. Don't do all these other things because you think of yourself as a comic and all of them are comedic outlets. "Comic" is a meaningless word. Think of all the people you'd consider comics and there's probably a vast disparity in terms of how they express their nature as a comic: from stand-up comics to sketch comics to comedic writers, comic actors, etc. "Comic" means nothing in and of itself. It just means a person who's funny, but it doesn't have anything to do with how.
There's always a modifier that comes with the word comic, and it's that modifier that's most important because it defines the "how" and the "how" is the most important part. If you're a stand-up comic, then you need to go learn to do stand-up. If you're a comedic writer, then you need to write comedies. See how easy that is? You're a writer, first and foremost, by your own defintition. Now go, be that. And if "comic" is a part of that, great. But if not, no problem: you're still a writer.
Think of it like this: let's say your ultimate goal in life was to be a great. What exactly does that mean? One can be great for a myriad of reasons. You could cure cancer and be great, or you could win 8 Stanley Cups and be great. If you never decided on how you'd be great, you'd spend a lot of time trying to do many things - "I'll go to med school and play hockey and write plays and spend weekends helping lepers get free bus passes". What are the odds you'd do any of those things really well, really memorably, really greatly? "Great" in an of itself is a meaningless aspiration. You must define the path, the type, the "how" of your greatness.
Just as there are many routes to greatness, there are many routes to being a successful comic. The most important is deciding which route is best suited to you. It's a very simple thing, but very overlooked. I've seen the same problem over and over and over again: desperation for success. It's not a bad thing, and in artists it can be very productive. But it tends to make you manic, you try anything to get the success you want and in the process you never give yourself time to become good at one thing. You just end up decent at many.
You know, a good friend of mine has a movie coming out in January that he wrote. And I'm talking a studio movie, like a real deal type of movie. Now, this guy has done stand-up, improv, was even a state poetry slam champion once. But what he always was, first and foremost, was a writer. Anytime one of his hobbies started to interfere with writing, what do you think he did? He dropped that hobby like it was radioactive and he kept writing. And writing. And writing. That's what he wanted to do and he pursued it to the ends of the earth. And now, he's grabbed the brass ring. There's no secret to it, and he's told me as much. What seperates him from me and all the other failures he passed along the way is that he never got distracted.
That is the key. You've got to pick your direction - what you like or are best at among all the things you've tried - and ride it till it gets you home or dies along the way. "Dabbling" doesn't work very well for comics.
And the great thing for you is that you are truly blessed. You're in Chicago. An American hotbed of sketch comedy and comedic theater. That's your ticket. Find out how to get in with a local sketch group and start banging away at it. Now, you might have to start the group on your own or you might have to suffer the ignominy of being a junior cast member even though you've got more experience than some others, etc. Whatever. It doesn't matter as long as you're writing and moving forward with your chosen path.
And of course, write anything and everything you can. Don't limit yourself to sketches and don't limit yourself to comedy.
