What are you lookin at?

So I'm almost done a run of shows...six to be exact. It is great to be headlining again after a stint of MC'ing. Being able to stretch and do an hour is fun and I am able to work on new bits while extending stories.

One thing I can never understand in comedy is that some comics don't write any new material. They just stick to their 45 or 30. To me that is so boring just cranking out the same thing night after night. I love it when a new joke works and I also like tooling and retooling it to make it better. That to me is the high I get from standup. Knowing that I have just replaced three minutes so I don't have to do that lame story one more fucking time.

Then I remembered why they do the same jokes over and over....it's because they don't want to bomb. Of course that is it....if they bomb they will not get booked back in the venue...if they bomb they will not be able to fuck any waitresses...if they bomb they will be in a bad mood and will wreck their high they took before getting on stage. I am not saying I like to bomb. Hey if I could write and kill with everything that would be fine but that is not the way it goes. You have to work and work and work. Being a young mans game you have to have the experience of an elder but the mindset of that amateur. Must work on stuff ...must work on stuff.

The comics I have always admired were those that were more writers then performers. Guys that are not just sitting there cashing cheques but out there swinging the new stuff. Tonight in my 55 minute set at least 20 minutes is less then five months old and seven was less then two weeks old. I am trying to write my second set to record for a future dvd and I am almost half way there. Now compared to some that is quite impressive but compared to the comics I aspire to be like that is barely passable. I am ok with that cause this is a race with myself only.

A body of work is something that can sit on a shelf and can be defined by age and experience. I have my 20's headlining funny pants happy clappy fun boy set. I have my early 30's angry at the world cliche set. Now I am just trying to chase that new cliche that can keep the fire alive.