Working It Out

There's A Lot To Stand-Up Comedy

There’s a lot to work out in stand-up. Jokes, for sure. The writing, the rhythm, the economy of words—that’s all part of it, too. But there’s also the bigger stuff—character, voice, persona. And there’s the super practical stuff—the way you hold the mic, the way you stand, the way you command a room, adjusting to different venues, figuring out why one joke kills in one place and barely gets a chuckle somewhere else. At any given time, there’s a lot to work out. And at any given time in any given place one or more of these things might be the focus of what I’m working on. Sometimes what I’m working on isn’t even something another comedian cares about. And sometimes they’ll let you know.

That’s an odd thing about stand-up. What’s important to me might not even register to someone else. They might not care that I’m working on a cleaner delivery, trying to eliminate filler words, or experimenting with different ways to engage with the audience. Sometimes they might actively dislike that I’m working on such things. But hey, that’s part of the process. And the only way to figure it out is to keep doing it, regardless of what someone else thinks or says.

I saw a quote recently that hit me: “Stick to the plan, not your mood.” That’s it. Simple. Direct. Accurate. Because in comedy (and in life), my mood will tell me all kinds of things. It’ll tell me the audience wasn’t great, or the venue sucked, or maybe I’m just not cut out for this. The plan, though? The plan doesn’t care how I feel. The plan is get up, write, perform, review, adjust, repeat. The plan doesn’t take a night off because a set bombed or because someone was a prick.

I came across another quote recently, too, one from Michael Jordan. He said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 200 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.”

It’s funny how comedy and sports have a lot in common. There’s no way to get better without working out and putting in reps. I can sit on the sidelines, analyze, tweak, and refine all you want, but at some point, I just have to get in the game, take the shot, and realize that if I have opponents, oh well. Just like shots in basketball, not all my of jokes will land. What is key is owning up to the fact that missing is part of the game.

So, I’m working it out. Working out jokes, stage presence, mic control, persona, and everything else. Some nights it clicks, some nights it doesn’t. Some things take longer to figure out than I’d like. But there’s only one way forward, and that’s through the reps. Stick to the plan, not the mood. Take the shot. Work it out. That’s what’s on my mind today.

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