Getting in touch with the roots - Absurdism

Heya folks! I played with fire yesterday and got BURNED. Aka I only scheduled one open mic, and it got cancelled. So, I'm feeling a bit sheepish.

Fortunately, the free time did give me an opportunity to reconnect with some comedic roots. I'm talking absurdism. Early Louis, Ernie Kovacs, Rory Scovel, Reggie Watts #CornishRepresent, the weird shit. It's the  kind of comedy that acknowledges that it's  comedy, and does things arbitrarily to build tension.

Especially in a world where EVERY COMEDIAN IS A SKINNY WHITE GUY TALKING ABOUT HIS LIFE, it's important for me to remember that my story is unique, authentic, and full of dignity. But also nobody gives a fuck about it. You know, artistically.

But can I play with the form? Can I generate legitimate surprises? Can I create original thought? Absolutely. I'm starting to think that the way forward for me in this is absurdism.

Short post today, but I've got some cool things planned! See you tomorrow!

-Jon

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Standup Comedy on the Sidewalk I had a successful open mic last night! Hooray!!!!! It was a weird one. The space where the open mic usually takes place is a restaurant a few blocks from my airbnb. But the restaurant's back room was booked last minute by a group of 25 paying customers, so the comedians were promptly kicked the fuck out. Never to be kept down, the intrepid comedians set up the microphone and amplifier on the sidewalk, where we proceeded to accost total strangers and passersby with our dick-jokes, embarrassing stories, and racial observations.  But, in spite of all that, and going up very last, I actually had a decent set? One joke in particular went over well, in which I talk about how a subway patron started throwing up on the platform, but he had strangely wise-looking face.  The biggest take away form that success was that I did a big, but simple and fully fleshed out act-out (sort of). It only lasted a couple seconds, but it was unexpected and
Read more

"Here we are again" - tricking yourself into being good at Art

Here we are again. That's an old clowning phrase. Back in the OG days of European clowning, the French government briefly outlawed popular performance mediums. Professional, stuffy shit only for the French People. Rebellious clowns would announce their presence as they walked onto the street-stage by saying, "here we are again." To me, it's a lot like Waiting for Godot . It speaks to the eternal return of the idiotic. And that's how I feel a lot of the time when I'm writing. Today, I am tapping into the eternal return of the idiotic . Often times, you can trick yourself into writing something good by first writing something bad. Trick yourself into writing something creative by first writing something prescriptive. Trick yourself into competence by starting with idiocy. It applies to writing, but also to rehearsing. Also for any kind of improvising. Start with idiocy, advance to competence. Rinse and repeat for 10 years to get to mastery. I hope you li
Read more

Free-Writing, Louis CK, and the First Principles of Standup

Just put some words on the page. You have an open mic coming up tonight, and you damn well better have done at least some freewriting before you stand up there and deign to disperse the unstructured shenanigans of your thoughts upon the unwilling crowd of bitter comedians below. Two thoughts then: Louis CK doing hell rooms/bitter comedians, and the freewriting. Freewriting is a little motor that powers me toward the direction of writing in my own voice. Or at least that’s what I would like it to be. And we have determined to do things more simply, with more writing than performing, and with more consideration than determination (it’s not enough to be a disciplined workhorse pushing your way through the human gruel of stand-up comedy - you have to know which direction you’re moving, otherwise you’re just wiggling in the trenchmud). Thinking about Ray Dalio/Tim Ferriss and the concept of deconstructing a craft so that you can discover First Principles - the core concepts of a thing
Read more