Thursday, December 3, 2009

No Crying in the French Toast...

Welp, I said that I wanted to keep updating this blog frequently, so here I am. As I sit here and log in, I only have one problem, I have no idea what I want to blog about.

I will say tho, that I have been out here in NJ/NYC for about a year now and I have to admit, I couldn't be happier. Over the last year I have learned so much about comedy and myself and have met some really talented and really great comedians/comrades/friends.

What amazes me the most is that out of all the comedians that I've met out here, everyone's path is different. Some comedians do comedy for therapy, some do it for money, some do it because their mommy didn't hug them enough as a kid. Whatever the reason, I love the fact that there are so many different comedians with their own date with destiny.

My dad use to often ask me when I would do a show, "was there anyone funnier than you?" and my response is always "shut up, Dad." I truly believe that every comedian, male, female, black, white, straight, gay, whatever, all brings something different to the table. I don't see some comedians being funnier than others. All comedians have their own niche, own material, and all do something different with it when it comes to taking it to the stage. There was an interview with one of my biggest influences, Brian Regan, and he talks about working clean. He says that he likes to see comedy in the same category as music. There are all these different types of music under this huge umbrella, and musicians choose to explore a certain aspect under that umbrella, and the same goes for comedy.

One thing that I have been constantly doing since I've been out here is seeing as many professional comedians as possible, and then sticking around after the shows to just ask them for one tip. Most of the time, the comedian says to just stay true to yourself and do what you want to do. Brian Regan told me after a show that he still doesn't know what he's doing and said that it takes awhile to find "your voice," but that voice comes a lot more naturally when you are on stage talking about the things that you care about and want to talk about.

I feel like I'm about to name drop a lot in this blog, so I will apologize now.

Brian Regan and Lewis Black are two of my biggest influences when it comes to comedy. Talk about being on two completely different ends of the spectrum, huh? Brian talks about the stupid things in life, and does it clean, and is very physical with his facial expressions and entire body. Lewis Black on the other hand is extremely angry, bitter, vulgar and is also really physical when it comes to the stage. I've seen Lewis Black twice and met him both times. The first time I met him, he told me to "perform at any shit hole you can. You'll learn a lot more when you're performing at the shit hole, compared to an actual comedy club." When I met him the second time, I told him about the problem that I was having about trying to be more personal onstage and he seemed a bit irritated, as if he has heard something like that before and said, "Fuck 'em, you do what you want to do. You talk about whatever you want to talk about and the rest will come from your heart. Don't listen to anyone when it comes to your material. When I started people told me that I shouldn't cuss...well that would have been a big fucking disaster."

Patton Oswalt said something similar to me when it came to being personal. He said that you shouldn't ask people to critique your work because it's yours and you have to do what you find is funny and what is true to yourself.

I don't really know where to go with this blog, and I have no idea why I chose to call it No Crying in the French Toast, because the title actually has to do with a friend of mine being drunk and crying in his French toast at a diner after a night of drinking. So I have no idea how comedian advice and French toast can be tied together...so come up with your own metaphor with it and pretend that I said it...

Soooo....(insert your metaphor here)......And remember, no crying in the French toast.