“What was I thinking?” That is the phrase that I use every time I see footage of myself from more than a couple of months ago. (There are even times that I use that phrase while listening to my sets later the same night.) Judging my past work using my current level of knowledge and experience is an exercise in frustration. Of course I am not a fan of what I’ve done. It was poorly timed, poorly written, poorly performed, or some combination of all three. However, it got me to where I am today. And where I am today is standing at the beginning of a project that will, one day, leave me regretting the final product.

I don’t think I’m alone in this view of the path that I have walked. George Carlin shares a similar lament about his own work in Last Words (which I wrote about two weeks ago). Letting the knowledge that “I’ll regret this” control my decision making, however, is not an option. Instead it simply becomes a lesson in forgiving myself for my mistakes and remembering that I (hopefully) did my absolute best at the time. Easier said than done.

At the end of August (specifically August 26 to 28), I’ll be appearing at Calgary Yuk Yuk’s, and using those sets to create my first comedy album. I’m considering this a “beta project” – one to get my feet wet and help me to learn what works in this format and what doesn’t. The final product will be sold by donation (you could download it for free if you like) through my website and I’ll make up a couple of hard copies for my public shows. My personal goal is to reach a 30 minute long recording, which will allow me to keep some material for live-shows only.

Many details have to be taken care of before then. Not the least of which is selecting which material to perform and working to refine it in limited stage times between now and then (it’s a remarkably slow summer for comedy). My most recent challenge has been to put a structure and arc on the whole show/recording. So far, I’ve had some success with this and think that I’m close to getting that figured out. Then it will be on to the logistics which will include figuring out the recording equipment, getting some graphic design done, creating the pay-by-donation system and download site, and making sure that there is a good audience in the club each night.

I’ll have more posts online as the process continues. For now, put a note in your calendar for August 26 to 28 here in Calgary. I’m hoping to “stack” the audience a bit to get the best taping.

Finally, you may be wondering, “What will the album be called?” I could think of no title more fitting than: I’ll Regret This.

Tomorrow night is the sixth week of the summer amateur comedy program that I’ve helped to develop and present to Calgary’s new comedians. So far, it’s gone exceptionally well. Last week was the first of three summer shows meant to give everyone some stage time. I must say that almost all the performers had great sets and several showed a huge improvement since the last time I had seen them on stage.

Part of what I’ll be talking about with my new group tomorrow night (as the other instructor and I are switching groups) is my recommended reading list for all comedians (regardless of level in the industry). I figured that posting it on here as well would give the attendees easy access to the list, help those that can’t make the workshop, and give any random Internet searcher a good list of reference material.

It’s pretty much an industry-standard that all new comedians start with Stand-Up Comedy: The Book. It’s written by Judy Carter and is a truly exceptional way to begin reading about comedy. This book will cover many fundamentals as well as some more advanced topics. While it was written two decades ago, I believe that the fundamentals still hold true. However, if you’re looking for a more recent edition of this book I’ve heard that Carter’s, The Comedy Bible: From Stand-Up to Sitcom – The Comedy Writer’s Ultimate “How To” Guide, is basically an updated version (but can’t comment on that personally as I’ve only read the first “edition”).

Once you’ve read that book you’ll want to pick up Zen and the Art of Stand-Up Comedy by Jay Sankey. This publication is more philosophical in nature which makes it a great companion to Stand-Up Comedy: The Book. Where Carter focuses on a more scientific approach to the industry, Sankey shares a more emotional perspective while expanding on many of the same topics. This is a great book to read once you’ve been on stage more than a couple of times, because you’d probably get more out of the material covered.

Next on your reading list will be Comedy Writing Secrets by Mel Helitzer. This books covers a lot more writing styles than just stand-up comedy. There’s advice on how to create different types of humorous and funny content. If you’re not willing to take the time to do the recommended exercises in the book; don’t bother buying it. Just reading this one likely won’t help you out that much, but doing the recommended writing exercises will help you to become funnier on paper. (Hopefully this will also get you used to a more regular writing routine.)

Comedy Writing Secrets is also somewhat “scientific” in its approach, but that shouldn’t dissuade you. While stand-up comedy is an art form, there are many concrete things that you can do to get better. This book gives some great overviews of the types of comedy and also shines a light on some unexpected places where comedy writing is required. If stand-up isn’t for you, this book may have an example of another career you can pursue and still be funny.

Finally, while The Eight Characters of Comedy by Scott Sedita wasn’t intended for stand-up comedians, there is a lot of information that stand-ups can learn from it. This was written for sitcom actors and writers. The bulk of the book defines the eight character archetypes that exist in all successful sitcoms. It talks about how to act and write for each of these types of characters, but I’ve found it useful for new comedians to use as a way to simply define their own characters. Most stand-ups can easily be slated into one or two of these detailed archetypes. That’s not to say that everyone shouldn’t be unique, just that the basis of most characters is finite and, if Sedita is right, then there are only eight possibilities to form the basis of all comedy performers.

If you are interested in pursuing a career in stand-up comedy then these books could easily be the bulk of your “off-stage schooling.” You’ll still need to invest a lot of time in writing and performing (that’s the one way to really learn how to do it), but with this reading you’ll head in the right direction from the beginning.

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For bonus marks: I also highly recommend Born Standing Up, Steve Martin‘s autobiography, and Last Words by George Carlin and Tony Hendra. While Martin’s book doesn’t cover the “how” of comedy, it’s a great look into the mind of a master of the art. The same can be said for Carlin’s book (published posthumously), although at times it does answer the question of “how.” (Even though some of this thoughts on comedy are well beyond my understanding.)

When most people think about stand-up comedy they picture a comedy club. Something that runs on the weekends with drinks and a brick wall. While that image of stand-up is technically true, it’s really less than half of the industry. Most of my touring doesn’t happen in clubs that were built for comedy, but in bars, lounges, restaurants, and hotel meeting spaces, that just happen to have comedy (or a private show) on a night or two during the week. Those sorts of venues are not exclusive to the smaller centres that I visit. In fact, several local comedians are working hard to create and maintain the vibrant comedy scene that exists in Calgary.

There are four rooms that run in Calgary that are independent of any full-time comedy club. These are places where everyone can gather regardless of affiliation to any organization. It’s in rooms like these that new material and new comedians develop. Without such places comedy wouldn’t move forward. All of these rooms run on the local clubs’ “off nights” (Sunday through Wednesday) and each do a superb job of supporting local talent.

In looking at all the selfless work that many of these producers do, I decided that it was time to celebrate those contributions in one place online and make it easy for fans of the art to find the shows and get updates on comedy in the city. The easiest way to do this was to launch a new website, so that is what I did.  Check out:

www.CalgaryComedy.ca

Within the site you will find information on the four local comedy rooms as well as be able to join a “Calgary Comedy Newsletter” which will send out a monthly update about these venues (and which local, national, and international performers will be featured there).

I hope that you will take the time to check out the website and then the various comedy rooms that it details. So many amazing comedy performances happen in the city and we’d love for you to be able to see them all!

CalgaryComedy.ca Screenshot

Even before Egolution had wrapped up my friends were asking what I’d be doing “next.”  When I hear that question part of me thinks, “take a vacation,” but I think my friends know me too well and know that’s not really an option.  As of last Wednesday night I’ve taken on a project for the summer that will hopefully help the local comedy scene and teach me a whole bunch of new stuff along the way.

The thought process on this began last April when I was bumped from an “Amateur Workshop” that I was scheduled to present at The Calgary Yuk Yuk’s Club.  I was disappointed primarily because I was really looking forward to running the workshop.  After the one that I ran last November (and the good reviews that it got it), I had put a bunch of work into a new presentation and I didn’t want it to go to waste.  Rescheduling for another Wednesday night was not really going to work with my performance schedule and then the Amateur Nights were to go on hiatus for the summer.

Many of the local “up and coming” comics were also disappointed that they would be losing such a valuable learning tool over the next couple of months.  Turns out that I wasn’t the only one that felt bad about it.  Both my friends Marcus Beaubier (a comedian) and Scott Robertson (the Calgary Yuk Yuk’s club manager) wanted to keep it going, but it was clear that it wouldn’t work for these summer months the way that it had been running.  So the three of us got together and created a new structure for the evenings and agreed that we would work as a team to try and help make the whole “new comedian scene” even better.

Last Wednesday night we took the first step with a room full of comedians at Yuk’s Calgary.  Every amateur comic in attendance did a short three minute set and was given feedback from both myself and Marcus.  I think it’s reasonable to say that everyone learned something and had fun doing it (including Marcus and me). That’s really all the information that we needed to decide to keep it going.

We’re going to spend the next several Wednesday nights (possibly right through until September) running various workshops, coaching sessions, and the like, to help everyone become better performers and comedians. This coming Wednesday, June 2, we’ll split up the amateurs into groups based on what we think they need the most help with.  Marcus and I will each take a group to ensure that our feedback and suggestions are slightly more personalized than within the large group (click here for the Facebook event).

There will also be a couple of shows featuring the Amateurs throughout the summer.  The first such show will take place on June 23 and be hosted by myself (click here for the Facebook event). Should be a fun evening of getting to see these people take some of their first steps into comedy.

What’s in it for us?  While I’d like to claim altruism is our primary intention (and that is a part of it), I have always enjoyed sharing my knowledge and experience for the simple fact that it reinforces those lessons in my own head.  Just by the act of teaching, I learn, and that’s a pretty good way to spend the summer.

What an incredible five weeks it has been. Since I announced on my blog on April 20 that my new one-man show, Egolution, would be debuting, I’ve been busy with rehearsal and production schedules.  Learning lines, re-writing the script, blocking the show, and promoting the event, has taken the bulk of my time.  The run of the show wrapped up on Saturday night and I could not be more pleased with the outcome.

The majority of my thanks goes to Karen Goerzen for directing the show.  Her additions to the script and staging of Egolution are too numerous to count.  She forced me to take a script that was in a strange area between stand-up comedy and theatre, and turn it into theatre.  Thanks, Karen!

Another huge kudos and thanks goes to Cory Mack for being my “partner in crime” for the past weekend of workshopping our new shows.  We worked together to put the weekend on and her show, The Goose Queen of Kindersley, was a treat to watch every night.  It’s so great to work with talented, kind, and funny people like Cory.

Both Cory and I are hugely grateful to everyone that made it to the show and especially to those that took the time to write down some feedback for us.  (Well… almost everyone that wrote down feedback… sometimes it was unhelpful – even hurtful – or strange.) We’ve read all the comments and will be making changes to the scripts/performances in the comings months.  Thanks to our ability to add a fifth show, both of us will be submitting our performances for next year’s round of The Canadian Comedy Awards in the category of “One Person Show”.

There were a couple of people that were also at the performances every night helping to run the shows.  Our stage manager, Ian Wilson, did a stellar job, as did our Front of House Manager, Marcia Lane.

Continuing in the “no man is an island” theme of this post: I need to thank (once again) a few of my friends that helped make the show possible:

• Zoë Klintberg for posing as my girlfriend in front of a photographer for a few minutes
• Heather Schellenberg for being that photographer
• Russell Bowers for his help with the sound design
• and Andrew Delong for helping to hang lights during load-in

Several people have been asking when (and if) the show will be re-mounted… and it will in some fashion.  I’m going to ignore the script for about a month (maybe write the first draft of a completely different show) and then come back to it with fresh eyes.

A photo album was created for the show on my Facebook Page.  You don’t have to join the page or even have a Facebook account to see the album.

Ego-Maniacal Driving

My summer is slowly starting to fill up with various projects and I’ll continue to keep you posted on this blog with all of the updates. Until then; another a HUGE thanks to everyone that was involved with the debut of Egolution and to everyone that came to see what I’ve been working on.

A few weeks ago when I wrote about creating a lot of material on ego and narcissism, I alluded to the fact that there was a method to my madness.  Today, I’m very excited to share the project that I’ve been slowly building toward for the past six or seven months.  It can best be described as a one-person show; hopefully something that has merit in both theatres and stand-up comedy clubs.

The show is called Egolution and it’s all the work that I’ve done on the topic of ego assembled into one performance.  The first draft of the final script was submitted to my director yesterday (at over 4,300 words).  Now the hard part begins: revisions, changes, improvements (hopefully), and cuts, for the better part of a month.

Egolution will premiere in Calgary in Motel at The Epcor Centre For The Performing Arts from May 19 to 22, 2010. It will run as part of an event called Me, Myself & You; which will combine this show with Cory Mack’s one-woman show, The Goose Queen of Kindersley.  Each of us is at a point with our work where input from an audience is required to make it better so we’re holding these performances so that we can “workshop” the pieces.

Tickets are available online (through Eventbrite):
www.MeMyselfAndYou.ca

Tickets will be $15 each, but there is a special discount code for $5 off listed on my Facebook Fan Page.  That code will work until May 5 and then it will expire.

I’m also very excited to announce who that Karen Goerzen will be directing the debut of this piece.  She was my drama teacher in high school (mentioned in my post a few weeks ago), who has since retired from teaching and is working on a wide range of projects.  It’s very exciting for me to have her on board and to be working together again.  With her input I’m quite sure that the audiences are in for a great show.

The show only has a small number of seats available (about 50 each night), so reserve your tickets soon to guarantee your spot.

On one of my recent, lengthy road trips I was listening to the audio book version of Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, What The Dog Saw: And Other Adventures.  While each of the articles/essays included is a truly excellent read (or, in this case, “listen”) there was a line from the Preface which struck me so profoundly that I nearly pulled over.  That may have over-sold it, but here is the quote:

“…self-consciousness is the enemy of ‘interestingness.’”

Source: Gladwell, M.  (2009).  What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures.  New York, NY: Hackette Book Group.

Gladwell was referring to the fact that people at the top of organizations, companies, and governments have to be guarded with their responses to questions and with interviewers.  This is a form of self-consciousness.  When people are focused on what they are supposed to say, they rarely say anything of real value.  They censor themselves as they go.  It is an easy idea to agree with and one that, taken in a different context, has a great deal of meaning for my line of work.

Self-conscious performers rarely do well.  Audiences know when that is the case.  Focusing, as a performer, on how you’re doing instead of what you’re doing on stage leads to failure.  Being self-conscious has never created anything truly remarkable.  Case and point… here’s a YouTube video that wouldn’t have existed if those involved were overly self-conscious:

It would have been very easy for a “higher up” at The Cancer Foundation to kibosh this idea.  In fact, someone probably tried.  Any number of reasons could have been given; it won’t work, it doesn’t reach enough people, there’s no numbers on which to judge success.  All of those reasons are rooted in the fear that this concept would have reflected poorly upon someone.  That’s a self-conscious concern if I ever heard one.  It’s a concern that, if acted on, would have killed a marvellous idea and prevented reaching a new demographic through a medium that wasn’t being utilized.

When creating new ideas, entertaining an audience, or giving an interview, “…self-consciousness is the enemy of ‘interestingness’,” not to mention the enemy of creativity and advancement.

On Seth Godin’s blog on Sunday there was a post entitled “High praise indeed” which read as follows:

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that you should save some dates to come and see me open for one of Canada’s best-known comedians.  While I already sent out a message to my e-newsletter with all the details, it’s now time to share the exciting news on this blog.

I’ll be opening for Gerry Dee in both Calgary and Edmonton!

Gerry is coming through on a nation-wide tour and I have been selected to be his opening act at both Alberta venues.  I’m excited and honoured to have been selected.  On April 9 and 10 we’ll be performing at The Calgary Yuk Yuk’s and on April 16 and 17 we’ll be at The Edmonton Yuk Yuk’s.

Each night there will be two shows… one at 8:00pm and the other at 10:30pm.  These events are sure to sell-out so don’t hesitate to reserve your tickets;  in Calgary call (403) 258-2028 and in Edmonton call (780) 481-9857.

Those fours shows are just one part of a jam-packed April… there is another Red Carpet Comedy on April 7 (for which all the acts are being encouraged to write material on “over used” premises), and I’ll be hosting the Calgary Yuk Yuk’s Amateur Workshop on April 14.

You’d think that I had a high school reunion coming up in the next few weeks with the amount that I’ve been flashing back to those days.  Not the entire experience (reliving it would be as awkward as the first time through), just one particular part of those three years.  I have long considered the drama courses that I took to be my most beneficial education.  While I can no longer do calculus or intelligently debate the historical theory that “World Wars I and II were the same conflict”, I can easily recall which parts of the stage hold the most “power” and how to properly project my voice.  Recently one quote from those classes has been stuck in my mind: “Entertainment is never enough.”

Hearing that said at the time I can’t recall fully grasping the meaning.  Making people laugh or providing them a bit of amazement was something that I did every week (even in high school), and hearing that those reactions were “never enough” was unpalatable.  Add to this fact that I was being thanked on occasion for providing that sense of escapism and it was hard to understand my teacher’s intention.  It took two conversations with two of my favourite comedians late last year for me to start to realize that “entertainment” is really just a starting point.

Providing a laugh to someone who needs it is an admirable goal, but that result does not eliminate the ability to also share with an audience member a new and unique point of view.  It’s that potential shift in perspective that can hold the most value during a performance of any kind.  Most theatrical shows, while entertaining, also comment on larger issues.  Plays have been used to provide commentary on countless topics, from political to societal to economic.  Including such commentary means that you are no longer just entertaining.  What I’ve come to realize is that stand-up comedy (and, yes, even magic) can have the same depth. (Some stand-ups already have such an impact.)

This is why, if you’ve seen some of my new material over the past five months, you’ve heard me talk almost exclusively about ego and narcissism.  It’s my new “theme”.  It was not arbitrarily selected.  I had been writing about my own ego for some time before this conscious change in my perspective occurred.  Thankfully this topic is very current.  Egotism has become a cornerstone of our culture so much so that its effects can be felt almost every day.  Furthermore, one of the inside jokes amongst my group of friends is about my (potentially) inflated ego, so to borrow from an age-old adage; I’m writing what I know.

The goal will be to give my stand-up sets even more of a framework, structure, and objective.  The next time you hear me trying to make fun of my own ego or pointing out ego in others during my stand-up comedy sets, it’s not because I’m out of premises… it’s because entertainment is no longer enough.

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The “two of my favourite comedians” mentioned above are Bengt Washburn and David Crowe.  I’ve been honoured to work and converse with both of these performers and am grateful to them both for their time and advice.