Comedy is salvation. It’s the magic that converts your pain, neediness, and loneliness into a triumph over your melancholy disposition. And sometimes, like all people, you are funny. And usually when you’re funny, you’re just being you. You’re not even trying to be funny. And the dilemma is that as soon as you try to chronicle your funniness, you’re “playing to the camera,” as it were and the charm and the humor is gone.
Another thing to consider is that the good comedians, the ones that you like—Louis C.K. Dave Attell, Patton Owalt—to name a few, sit down and craft jokes and observations and they create enough material to compel thousands of people to show up to their performances.
Can you do that? No, you cannot. So you’re not funny for two reasons. You’re too self-conscious, trying to capture your funny moments, which is just self-centered and obnoxious, and you don’t have the talent and intelligence to sit down and craft a comedy routine that commands an audience.
We can add one more thing into the mix. You’re fifty-one now. What? Considering a new career in standup? Think about it. If you’re not funny by now, you will never be. And now I know you’re hearing that song by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. Just change the lyrics so that the word is “funny,” not “know” and you’ll be fine.
Don’t cry. I know it’s not fair. You’re saying, “I share the comedian’s misery and neurosis but I don’t have any of the talent and intelligence to console me the way do.”
Precisely.
Some people are a lot funnier than they think they are. And others, a lot less. It is important to recognize into which category one falls.
Posted by: Marilyn Armstrong | 07/08/2013 at 11:21 AM