Last month I celebrated another comedy anniversary. When that time of the month arrives, I examine my state of well being and my life goals. This process is different from the comedy goals that I create for myself each year. When creating comedy goals, it’s the simple process of creating projects, and managing the sub-projects within it. For example, let’s say my goal is to learn more about comedy writing. I will start gathering information, begin reading books and blogs, interviewing comedy writers, document my progress, and measure the results.
My process of self discovery helped reveal my biggest problem – time management. Some people have limitations on how much time they can commit each day working on their comedy agenda. Not me. My existing lifestyle permits me to spend as much time as necessary to learning everything I feel is important about comedy. I started becoming obsessed with all of my projects, and it did not allow me to balance my life.
In the film Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock documented the effects of what happens when consuming too much of one thing. The product can become harmful to your body without the proper knowledge, self control, and guidance. The example he used was McDonald’s. What if you took that principle and applied it to comedy? Imagine you’re a kid in a candy store, and you have access to all the candy in the world and no time limit to consume it. I promise you will get sick of it faster than you can blink. In my case, I called it a comedy burnout.
Using that same analogy, I discovered my obsession was taking a toll on my health and well being. There are too many nights when I sleep in my car, eat fast food, and live an unhealthy lifestyle. When you hear “road hell” stories from other comedians, they are usually outside of their hometown doing road gigs. “Just a small price to pay” is what I tell myself, because I decided to accept the situation as a form of paying my comedy dues in my own town. However: there are two things I will never take for granted again:
- The privilege to sleep horizontally.
- The ability to take a shower whenever I want.
I acknowledged my comedy obsession during a recent job interview for temporary employment. After winning the approval of the management team, I was asked to complete the job application forms. The second question stumped me: Enter your address. This was difficult to answer, because I don’t physically own a house key to anywhere. It’s rare if I stay in the same location for two days in a row. By anyone’s standard, technically that makes me homeless. Imagine my surprise.
Another issue I identified was my obsession with juggling too many projects simultaneously. Multitasking is a skill that is appreciated in other occupations. Comedy is not one of those professions. It wasn’t long before my writing lacked direction, my stage performances became lackluster, and anxiety became a constant companion. As a self-help book junkie, I created my own formula to help me resolve some of my issues. Here are two examples where I identify a problem, and create a solution for them:
- Problem: Transcribing interviews became time consuming.
- Solution: Create a podcast, and continue sharing information that I’ve learned from others.
- Risk: Losing newly acquired fans of the podcast, by not keeping it updated on a regular basis.
- Reward: Finding a new way to share content and a new audience.
- Problem: Missing my Addicted To Comedy publishing deadlines.
- Solution: Modify the publishing frequency from weekly to twice a month.
- Risk: Losing some possible readers due to the format change.
- Reward: By eliminating 50 percent of my writing deadlines, I can focus on keeping the quality of the column’s content high. With the reduction of deadlines, my anxiety attacks will reduce itself.
In a nutshell, remember to “stop and smell the roses.” This is a crazy business, and we’re going to make some bad decisions at times. Finding a mentor or coach will prevent you from making bad mistakes. Learn from those errors and keep developing your career. There will be hardships, disappointments, and there is no guarantee if you’ll ever make it. Learn to accept each little victory in your career and continue working on your comedy vision. Discuss your career options and ask for advice from industry veterans. The best advice I ever received came from Tom Dreesen:
“If this is your dream, if this is one you want…don’t let anyone step on that dream or get in that way of the dream. There are people in show business that didn’t have the common sense to quit. The best is yet to come! Don’t ever give up your dream!”
Never give up!
© 2013 Wayne Manigo
