# (3) 04 Jul 2010, 05:25PM: On The Mic:
In fact, it is so ingrained in me to jest that sometimes I put service providers (waiters, doctors, dentists) in a tough spot when I joke with them; if they don't think a customer's joke is funny, and don't laugh, the customer might pout and be a jerk about it, so they feel pressured to laugh. So I should be more considerate about that. Was it the boss from The Office who called himself primarily an entertainer? Yeah, I shouldn't do that.
One is pragmatic: learning some stand-up improves one's public speaking abilities across the board.
Another is philosophical. You are human and nothing human should be alien to you! Specialization is for insects! Dilettantism as ideology!
So that's the last reason to learn stand-up. It's a safe refuge for the power-mad, so that we can keep ourselves from turning into control freaks and prima donnas in the rest of our lives.
I'll happily teach private lessons.
Today, when I was really glad to have made someone else laugh, I thought about how important that is to me. I think my values might go something like:
and then other stuff like patriotism, actual intelligence, tidiness, beauty, efficiency, health, justice, transparency, courage, and so on.
I started the workshop "You, Yes You, Can Do Standup Comedy" (notes, slides, more notes) with some reasons to learn and perform stand-up.
And another is rather more disturbing. Stand-up comedy is the most manipulative art I know. If I'm doing it right, you're enthralled. There's no conversation, just your helpless response feeding my hunger for power and control. It's tarted-up tickling. Don't you feel spent and high when it's over, when a really good comic has had her way with you?
- Comments:
Posted by Thomas Thurman at 04 Jul 2010, 07:15PM
(Hurrah! You hadn't blogged in a week and I was wondering whether everything was all right.)I'm too terrified even to do open-mic poetry; I can't imagine ever doing anything involving improvisation.
Posted by Susie at 04 Jul 2010, 09:49PM
Making people laugh is very important to me as well. I love making people happy.
Posted by Martin at 04 Jul 2010, 11:32PM
"Dilettantism as ideology" is the best one-sentence summation of what I hope to achieve in my life. Thank you!
