Fresh Challenge PART ONE

It's been a week of fresh ideas, and stirring up some old.  Last night, I challenged myself to bring 100% new material to the stage for Morty's "Great Indiana Mic Off."  I enjoyed the challenge, but wish I had put more time into it.  Firstly, having "scripted" my entire set on paper and them promptly NOT memorizing it, was a mistake.  Of course, if I had taken the time to commit it to memory better, I probably would have tossed out most of the material.  HERE is where the fresh ideas come in...

I wasn't displeased because it didn't get the laughs I wanted.  I was displeased because I was not happy with the content.  It crossed some subtle lines that I didn't want to cross, relying on negativity and material that I should have handled more cleverly.  On the bright side, it was truthful; an element that makes comedy a holy temple for me.  Comedy can't avoid truth.  It can satire, exaggerate, juxtapose and illuminate it, but comedy cannot and does not hide from truth. Rather, it relies on it. The magic, for me, is to use truth to amuse and illuminate.  There are many truths out there, and the fact is they don't always follow our sense of logic.  When we have to confront the contradictions of truth with logic, truth always wins and we walk away changed and challenged.  This is my passion for humor, because it has such a great potential to effect us.

If I had memorized my set and delivered it flawlessly, it still would have been sub-par and I still would be disappointed.  If the crowd had laughed their brains out, it still would not have been the kind of set I want to be known for.  So, what do I do?  After the show I had a great conversation with the evening's headliner, an absolutely hilarious comic whose humor and lifestyle is notably different from my own, but whose mastery of the craft is one I admire.  His influence was such that I could find myself laughing and relating to experiences I have not had, thoughts that were not mine, and situations and moral decisions I have not encountered.  A good comic can do this, and you walk away from his show feeling like you've walked a mile or two in his shoes, and enjoyed it immensely.  You take a look at life through his eyes (or hers) and challenge some of your own point of view.   So there is where the lesson came from last night. Not just being disappointed with my own material, but to be able to appreciate another comic's talent without embracing his material.  After all the truth we bring to the set comes from our own perspective.  I am constantly being pulled back to my own center, which is as unique as it is difficult to find.  My challenge is to go there and stay there.