#cjhunt

An ad for “Urban Outfiter’s” new We Are All Natives collection - “Indian wear for the rest of us.” Filmed by sketch comedy group Stupid Time Machine, this is a parody of everybody’s favorite controversial retailer. This Thanksgiving, let us all embrace the coy charm and original hipster style of the indigenous people our country displaced and killed by the millions.

I'm a comedian.  By that, I mean I write comedy - sketches, web series, standup - that I put it up in front of people in hopes that they will like it and tell their friends "hey, you should check out CJ Hunt." At some point, I hope to get so good and have so many people like my work that I can get paid for it. I think about the things I want: a TV writing job, a spot on SNL, my own show. And these things feel so far away. I wonder if the life of a comedian is one spent constantly on your way. Constantly reaching. Chasing. Coveting the things you don't yet have. Lamenting the things you left behind in your haste. Obsessing about the next level. Whatever that is.  

I'm starting The Early Draft as a study of comedians on their way. Perhaps it's an effort to speed myself along or the opposite: to slow myself down and enjoy the ride.  Whatever the case, I'm interested in the thousands of dummies who have purposely chosen a career spent in-progress. I want to know about the chipping away. The little steps comedians take every day to get better at their craft. I want to know about the giant leaps, the falls, and the happy accidents. I want to know about the many messy drafts of oneself that a comedian goes through before finding his or her "thing."  I want to know how comedians are made.  

So that's The Early Draft: interviews with comedians in-the-making. Some of these will be stars, some of them will be names you haven't heard of... yet.  This started as a weekly column on NOLAvie.com, and will grow into a blog, podcast, and who knows what.  

Sitting in a quiet corner of a coffee shop, in front of the fireplace, during a thunderstorm.