EDIT: I WILL get around to continuing the story, I have just been very busy lately, doing jigsaw puzzles and other important slacker type things :).
Comedians in Cars contains all you need to know, it really does. I usually play it on a loop while doing Jigsaw puzzles of rockstars. I have an older post where I ranked every episode you can click this text to go to it, I have changed it many times. I haven’t looked at it in a while and will probably change it some more.
I remember when it first came out, and it was an inside glimpse of what being a comedian was all about. It was the same things we did when we toured, except on a much much bigger scale.
I thought I would write a bit about comedians, and what I have learned from doing standup for years. I mentioned I may have done a bit of standup in the post about, how normal peeps bore me. I will tell you how I started and some other things that filter in and out of my brain. This might become a two or three, maybe more, part, ongoing story.
First off I will echo what most of the comedians say in Cars (I’ll just call it cars to save time, because I’m a slacker and writing it all out is so not a slacker thing to do :)). You have to be inherently funny to start with, to have any chance of doing anything in comedy.
It sounds so obvious, but if you ain’t be funny, and see things differently than normal folk, it doesn’t matter how many open mics you go to, you really won’t progress.
I have seen people try, and it’s painful to watch. They inevitably (it usually only takes two or three times, of doing a set to a totally quiet room), quit, But I admire them, at least they gave it a shot, and you never know if you can do it, until you try.
So how I started was when a girl at work told me I should go to an open mic because I was so funny. I have always been a little off, and I never really knew why. I used to drive around in my car, talking out loud to myself, in different voices, having whole conversations and actually making my self laugh, and a lot of other dumb shit. I was/am a weirdo lol.
Some backstory before we get into comedy:
All through Junior high and high school and university, I would make peeps laugh in class. I used to feed my best friend in high school lines, that he would blurt out, and get sent to the principles office for disrupting the class, because the class was all laughing at what he had said. I fed him the lines, because I had done it so many times myself, I didn’t want to get expelled lol.
I can honestly say I never even tried, in junior high or high school, or university for that matter. I somehow passed everything, I really don’t know how lol. My life was about playing guitar and being funny. Even then I didn’t want to be normal and fit in, I remember this one time, that stands out in my brain, me and another guy got sent to the principals office. I think from physics class, because we were being idiots.
I forget what exactly for, I guess disrupting the class. But I had been there so many times, I really didn’t care anymore. And to be honest, I don’t think the principal did anymore either. He knew I would be graduating soon and be out of his hair lol. He asked my buddy what he wanted to do when he graduated, my buddy said he was going to be a petroleum engineer. The principal thought that was a very good idea, and was good to hear.
Then, of course, he had to ask me what I was going to do, without hesitation I said “I’m gonna be a fucking rockstar man!!!” My buddy almost fell out of his fucking chair, laughing, and the principal was holding it in I could tell.
He went on to tell me that would be a pretty tough road, I would probably have to spend years in smoky clubs and bars, and if I got lucky I might be able to make a living at it someday (I had played at some of the schools variety shows, so he knew I could play), I said “that sounds fucking awesome to me man!! Again my buddy fucking lost it.
Even at that age, I really didn’t care what the principal thought, I didn’t care what anyone thought. I get focused on something, and it’s like I OCD in on it, and don’t care about anything else. At that time I never even thought of standup, I wanted to be a rockstar!!!
I hated wasting time going to university, but my older brother was such a rebel, much more so than me, and never went, and my parents desperately wanted me to go. So I guess I did care about some other things, I went for them, not for me. I was a total slacker there too. All I learned was how to party harder. But the whole time I was there, I wish I was in LA, trying to make it.
Me and a buddy recorded songs together. He was way better on guitar than me, so he played lead and I played rhythm and wrote the lyrics. we had a part time drummer, but usually used a drum machine, because we jammed all the time. Neither one of us wanted to sing, but I grudgingly did. I still have those tapes, and I think together we could have done something great.
The plan was after we graduated uni, and since we are Canadian, we figured we would try and make it in Toronto, where the scene was pretty big. But to me it was more of a stepping stone to LA. He ended up meeting a girl in our last year, and bailed on the plan, fuck I was pissed.
This will definitely be a multipart story, as I haven’t even talked about Comedy yet lol. But I’m having fun thinking about all this shit, I hope I’m not boring you? At least it gives you something to read :). You can let me know in the comments if you like, or hit me up on chat sometime.
So, I was still determined to go, so I applied to an arts college in TO, I went, and lived in a dorm, met a drummer who was going to the same school, the very first day I was there. And we quit school after like 2 or 3 days!!! You could imagine how thrilled my parents were, but I didn’t really care.
We would Jam all day while pretty much everyone else was at school. Then I saw Motley Crue for the first time…after that we were ready to sell our souls for rock n roll. But it fizzled out, like many things do, and at Christmas break we both went home and didn’t go back.
Now what was I gonna do?
I think I’ll stop here. I’m really liking this idea of writing an on going story. I hope you feel the same way.
I’ll really try to write up a post on this everyday. Peace out for now…and remember, you are all fucking rockstars baby!!!!