Work, Write, Wrepeat: Getting The Balance Right
As you develop as a performer you’ll want to see more and more of your time devoted to being on stage than being at work. However there’s an important balance that needs to be constantly accessed as you progress in your career in comedy to ensure you’re being sensible with your time whilst continuously honing your craft on a budget. It’s entirely common for comedians to talk about being poor or not being able to afford luxuries which many take as a point of pride. Whilst this is a reality for a large amount of comedians living in dense metropolitan areas like New York, Toronto or Melbourne it doesn’t have to be something actively sort out to be part of a scene.
The balance between work and comedy will change as you change and in my own personal life I’ve gone through a variety of phases ranging from completely broke to slightly less so. However there’s a common idea in stand up that you need to completely devote yourself to comedy and stop working all together in order to get better which many new acts are embracing although it is completely untrue.
The promise of totally free days and 5-10 minutes of “work” a night is tempting and many of us will be lured into thinking that our productivity will go through the roof once our time is totally ours. The reality is not as simple. When we have our days completely to ourselves the majority of creatives will waste that time. The bottom line is creativity requires structure and in removing that from our lives we let the animal loose. This seems all well and good but without a means to wrangle ourselves to a a natural work state and level of attentiveness we’ll see a huge dip in our time not only put into comedy but in that times effectiveness. Furthermore, when we remove ourselves from positions of work we lose a valuable opportunity to gain life experience and maintain our social skills. All which are hugely important aspects of our day to day that feed into our unconscious which is the site for spontaneous creation that we crave for comedy.
Those 5-10 hours a day we have at work are far more important to our own well being and creative process than many comics realize. When we have our time taken up valuable things happen for our comedic processes internally. For one, with a job you have some financial security. The amount of pressure that finances place on performers is, for some, a source of fuel to continue to push ahead as comic. However for many of us it’s just another anxiety and worry that is completely detrimental to coming up with new content and performing at our best. That pressure to do well added to financial concerns means you are taking up important space in the front of your mind that should be focus on your comedy with concerns of bills, travel and any number of expenses that will distract from your stand up.
Secondly when you have part of your day taken up with busy work for however many hours you work, you’re brain is able to sift through and process all the minutia of your life and find the nuggets that will become great material. When I’m at my most productive I’ll set an intent before a work shift to let ideas come and make notes on a scrap of paper of those that I like.Knowing I’m only able to write short ideas and concepts down allows your mind to take the brake pads off your thoughts because you only write ideas as they come naturally over multiple hours as opposed to sitting down for one or two when focused on writing content. You’re far more likely to generate creative and more conversation material that more accurately reflects how you’d naturally talk this way than through constructed material which are ideal inclusions to comedy sets.
Some of the best performers and MC’s I’ve worked with have gone so far as to volunteer in new areas of go out of their way to do new activities in new places to ensure that they can get the most out of their experiences. A completely underrated aspect of your performing is how well you relate to other people which, from a work perspective, is something a large amount of jobs will allow you to get. Meaningful or even general interactions with others is vital for our every mental health an our ability to maintain and work on our overall demeanor with others. You’ll gain new material, new ways of thinking, news about the day or even just positive banter which all work to create a more well rounded performer.
Finally when your day is taken up with work and you have less time to write, the time you do dedicate to creating content will usually generate more than if you were to sit down and take an hour in a day filled with zero activity. When I’m working a shift knowing that I’ll have a gig to perform at that night I’m far more likely to have the hour I can dedicate to writing be productive simple because it has to be. I only have that hour and I have the entire days thoughts and experiences to influence what I write. You’ll find a residual momentum in a day filled with doing tasks that will often translate into your writing. Even if you structure you’re writing as a journal or diary entry, those every day experiences can turn into terrific material to build crowd rapport.
There’s a lot to be said, on the other hand, for working too long. A 9-5 job might be necessary to maintain fiscal stability but after enough time in stand up will burn you out. When you begin to perform more regularly you’ll begetting home late and the early starts of an office job will take their toll. The advice I would offer would be to look for a casual roster in a small business during the day to offer you flexibility with shifts, daytime hours and an early start to keep your sleep cycle regular. You’ll drink less on the night you know you have work in the morning and if you can lock in Sunday shifts you’ll have extra money to play with for the week. I’d also diversify your income streams as much as possible. Working the door at comedy shows,putting up posters, Mc-ing events, quiz hosting or running your own event are all avenues to pursue. Anything you can that’s in line with performing for cash in hand will make a huge difference for both your finances and your contacts for later on in your career when you make the transition to full time comedy.Looking for government or community arts grants whilst you’re in a stable financial position will also help and there are a lot of services designed to offer advice, training or funding for small business’s. If you want to treat stand up as a career these are the things you need to be considering.
To finish off, it’s far too often I will hear new comics espouse ideas of living off the government to finance their comedy career. It's a complete delusion. For one the idea that you will be able to survive financially on welfare is ridiculous. If you’re in a metropolitan area there is no way you can do this with any amount of comfort. As for the, “it’ll make great stand up” argument. That can be applied to anything in life that is difficult but it takes a great comic to make great stand up so even if you have a huge amount of material on hard financial times, bad jobs, relationships or anything else that you’ve willingly put yourself in for the sake of “a story” you still need to have the skills to turn it into something. There is no point in putting yourself through strain that stifles creativity for the loose promise of content that you’ll be in no position to work with later on due to the creative blocks they impose. I’ve heard people speak about how Will Anderson was on welfare for a while and the few months and how it made him the comic that he is today. But if one comic, no matter how good or renowned is all it takes to influence you then surely you’d look to all the comics who are living like that and not progressing or even more, to all the comics who actually worked and have made it to paid careers. The evidence is far heavier for the argument or a healthy middle ground between work and comedy until you can combine both.
But until the...
get a job and take a shower you bloody leftie.
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