Stand-up Comedy

            I want to be a stand up comedian.  That’s one of the things I want to be.  I was voted wittiest in high school, so I guess I’m on the right track.  It took me until last week to realize that stand up comedy is a form of creative nonfiction.  I’ve spent all these weeks trying to write about pain and emotions, when I should have been writing about that thing at the end of your shoelace (what do you call that anyway?).

            I wouldn’t really do a bit on the thing at the end of your shoelace.  That’s a little too Jerry Seinfeld.  I wouldn’t put myself in the Jerry Seinfeld school of comedy.  I like observational comedy, but he gets a little too observational.  I have wondered what the thing at the end of my shoelaces is called about as many times as I’ve wondered about Justin Bieber’s flossing habits.

            I have a personal love for Robin Williams but could never pull off his style.  It’s too rapid fire.  He throws out a thousand little jokes and closes off the major sections with a big punch line.  It’s fast, clever, and beautiful, but that’s Robin Williams, not me.

            The king is definitely Richard Pryor.  Richard is the perfect mix between observation, characters, physicality, and meaning.  He was the first one to get in the grind.  Nothing was off limits including race, sex, and drugs.  Other comedians had used those topics in routines, but never with the flair or power that Richard did.  There’s everything to learn from his timing and his wide range of topics, but his voice was so original that copying it would be like trying to copy the Beatles. 

I guess the only way to get an original voice would be to get up and give it a try.  The real problem is that I cannot think of a worse audience for a first standup attempt than a bunch of serious writers.  I can already feel the silence of a failed joke.  What face would Emma give me?  Would I get the embarrassed this-is-so-bad-I-can’t-look smile?  Or would I get the dazed I-don’t-even-give-a-fuck stare?  I guess there is only one way to find out.