I was listening to the WTF podcast interview with Louis CK (which btw if you havent checked out, you should) and it really made me wonder how much if anything talent has to do with making it big in the comedy world.
I feel like I should qualify that statement a little bit though.
Ultimately, in order to make it big, someone has to find you funny. As much as we (comics) will joke about the Ralphie Mays and Carlos Mencias of the world, the fact of the matter is that they have an audience that finds them very funny (I guess).
Listening to Louis CK talk about his early stand up career, and what it finally took to make him successful, has made me wonder though if talent has much to do with it. During the interview CK talks about an audition he had with SNL in the 90s. Now despite killing his audition and getting several of the cast's endorsement, he still didn't get a job.
Marc Maron the host noted how he often (and still does) feels jealous of CK and his comedy peers who, unlike him, were able to take their stand up success and make careers in film, TV and radio, even though Marc Maron is in my mind and others one of the better comics in the country.
In fact it's only been since starting this podcast that his name has really started entering public consciousness and even saying that is a stretch (next time you're at work, ask your coworkers if they have heard of WTF or Marc Maron).
Its just frustrating knowing that it will mostly take luck for me (if I were to choose doing stand up comedy as career which is a whole other blog post) to get even decently well known. Part of me wants to believe meritocracy exists in this world. I want to believe that if I just keep doing this stand up thing every Thursday and start getting shows, I will eventually get good enough to be noticed.
But if you look at the pool/amount of good comics in this country, comics who probably more often than not kill every time they go up, who have been in the biz for ages, you start to realize the chances of you or any one comic really blowing up to be the next CK or Seinfeld, or even just the next Daniel Tosh are really, really slim. I was looking at Live at Gotham's website at work today, and one of the comics the site boasts on having hosted is Colin Quinn. Never heard of him. This coming from a guy who literally eats and sleeps comedy. Point made?
cool post, I feel like its kinda like being caught between the two. Would I like to be famous like (CK, Seinfeld etc.) Yes. But I eventually become recognized if only by fellow comics I think that'd be fine with me (financial part aside for now). I can't speak to what your ultimate goal with standup is but I'll say that a career is something you do and you love to do (a job being something ya just do). My utimate goal (right now) is to become a paid comedian and paid well enuff to not have to sleep in my car in every city I travel to and what the hell a comedy central 30min special for good measure. Its realistic (in my mind) and if eventually if I geat tv/movie money that'd be epic. I'd buy a Ferrari like Curren$y n drive that bad b*tch everyday haha.
ReplyDelete