I was watching Ricky Gervais, Chris Rock, Louis CK, and Jerry Seinfeld on HBO's Talking Funny and I was bitter that I didn't become a successful comedian. These are relevant human beings who construct pithy, well constructed jokes. And they do what I have wanted to do all my life: They make people laugh.
So I tried to come up with a joke in the car on the way to our family's for Easter. I told my wife Carrie the premise for a joke: A pompous professor who changes his students' lives, helping them become hugely successful, and to show their appreciation after they become rich they offer him expensive cars, all of which he rejects because he brags that his profession is a "spiritual calling," a "priesthood."
"Not funny," my wife said.
"But I haven't come up with the punchline," I said, even though I was still working on that part.
"Doesn't matter," she said. "No one can relate to the premise. Comedy works because people can relate to the premise. No one can relate to some supercilious professor who won't accept his former students' lavish gifts."
"So I'm not funny?" I asked. "You laugh at me every day."
"Yeah, but you're not trying to be funny. You're being . . ."
I said it for her. "Stupid."
And there's the difference between a comedian and a clown. A clown can't try to be funny. He simply is funny by living out his life.
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