#effotless

Believe

Photo by Michelle

  There’s a fine line between making it look effortless and bombing. And yet there’s a fine line between killing and trying too hard. Being a good comedian is about knowing when to try and when not to try, and making it look like you’re not trying when you really are, and, to the government and other people, make it look like you are working, when you are really not.

This night I headlined Britannia Arms in Capitola. The Santa Cruz area has always been very interesting to me, and a favorable place to play, because people are really smart and liberal but love them some d*@k jokes. The place had a good amount of people in it, and they, for the most were a great crowd. But their attention span was diminishing over the course of the night, and by the end, each table was breaking into conversations at different times. For this I have to pull out some unifying tactics. Start by playing to those listening, and get them in. When a table is blatantly distracted, then you can attack them, now that you have half the crowd on your side. But you can’t try to hard or you’ll look like an asshole. It has to be seamless. And then when another table falls apart, make it look like you don’t care. When you really do. You hate them and yourself.

Eventually it just becomes natural. Not the hating yourself, that’s always been the case. But the unifying the crowd in an effortless manner. It takes a lot of effort, but it has to look natural. You know you are doing a good job when you convince others to be comedians because it looks so easy. Don’t mistake this for bombing and them thinking they can be funnier than you, that’s a different story.