I've really learned a lot about comedy from working at the DC improv comedy club. I’ve been a door guy here forever (3 years) and over that time I’ve had the opportunity to see many excellent stand-ups perform. One thing I learned from seeing so many different comedians is there isn't one right-way to be a comedian. A comedian is as unique as any fluffy cloud, wintery snowflake, or booger in your nostril.
One of the coolest things about working here was getting an opportunity to see a professional comedian work on their craft over an entire weekend. To see how their sets change from show to show is really intriguing. Another interesting thing is seeing what’s the same about them. Obviously they’re all hilariously engaging for an entire hour, have excellent delivery, great energy, and can captivate a whole crowd. They also all seem at home onstage. They can all improvise, many of them can sing and dance, do accents, and some of them even play musical instruments.
I’m focused on being a professional comedian, not on being famous. That is how it should be otherwise problems will arise. Besides focusing on being a professional is more satisfying than just being “famous”. I can't even imagine being famous if it wasn’t because I was really good at something. I would feel so empty if I was famous just for being “famous” or on some piece of shit reality show.
I’ve listened to over a thousand comedy podcasts and there’s surprisingly little information about their individual creative process. I often wonder what the average day looks like for a national headliner. It’s so weird because I even work at a club, and I never hear about it from comics. I assume they all have their own individual process, but I’d love to witness their processes. Just knowing how other people do their due diligence can be very reassuring… “Oh, that’s how you do that? Okay, well that’s what I do too. Cool. My process isn’t idiotic after all”. I imagine that they're writing, rehearsing, and editing all the time. I mean, how could they not be rehearsing that all the time?
Part of my process is focusing on improving my act a little bit each day. Whether I add a joke, physicality, or cut a word out I want some sort of improvement. I listen to my material everyday and I will keep it fresh in my mind. I strive to rehearse my material for a half an hour everyday. As long as we keep improving eventually we’ll become something we’re proud of and be able to kill the crowd. A lot of times onstage I’ll jump around with my material. I’m kind of over doing that because I’m not truly locking any of it down very well and getting it really nice and tight.
I’m starting to watch my sets too, I figure if I really want my audience to respond well to my comedy I have to see what they're seeing. I have to give the audience exactly what I know my best is. If I can consistently give them my best I’ll build up my network, and get more people to like me online.
Your comedy should be funny enough that someone would want to come up to you to talk to you about your set afterwards. You never want to be embarrassed after a set, if that’s happening something is wrong. You want people to say that it was hilarious and that they really enjoyed themselves. That is what I want, I want everybody to really enjoy themselves and to think of me as a professional stand-up comedian.