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I am a bad human being at heart. More often than not, when a friend sends me a Facebook invitation to an event for a comedy show, the first thing my mind goes to “Why’d they book him on the show? I should be on this show. Why not me?” I feel like I’m not alone in my bitter jealousy in this regard among comedians. The fact is that I have not been doing comedy long enough nor have I reached any sort of level of success to justify bitterness or a negative attitude. Not even a little. I’ve been doing comedy just under four years now. My position in the Philadelphia comedy scene or lack of one is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter what I’ve done to this point. No matter how much it pains me to admit it or how much I dislike confronting the fact, I am still in the position where I have to prove myself to people. The existence of my ego is poisonous to myself as a person and to my continued success in comedy I’m on the lowest end of the lowest totem pole, I have no right to believe I deserve anything in comedy in this point. No one owes me anything. I might sound like I’m beating myself up, but I feel like admitting this is a healthy first step. I have to remove the arrogant negativity and replace it with something positive. When I’m not booked on a show, there could be a lot of reasons for it. I might not be right for the line-up or the audience. The audience might not like the style of comedy that I do. I might have booked on that show already in a previous month. The host might be keeping me in mind for a future show. The host might have had a very specific line-up for the show when getting the idea for it. There are a hundred things I consider when I book a show myself that I should probably understand these things. There is also another possibility, and here’s the big one — there is a good chance that if I’m not getting booked as much as I would like, I should probably work harder on getting better so people would want to book me more often and pay me money. The easy thing is finding someone or something else to blame for my failures. The hard thing is taking ownership and making a point of getting better. Nobody is going to hand me anything. Nobody should hand me anything. The magic answer to every problem I have is “work harder, get better.” That’s all I or anyone can do. Instead of poisoning my mind and the comedy scene in general with my envy and negativity, I need to keep my head down and do the work. The sad fact that there are thousands and thousands of comedians across the country and the world who are equally as or more successful than I am at comedy. How far will I get by being lazy and negative and complaining? If you put the work in, you’ll create your own opportunities, just by the virtue of people that will see you more often. And you will only get better at your craft by working harder. It’s hard to admit to yourself that any lack of success or problems you might have are probably your own fault. Sure, I might not be the most mainstream comic in the world and that might eliminate some mainstream club and suburban opportunities. But that only means I have to work that much harder at getting better, exploring other opportunities, and creating other opportunities myself. I need to work on getting so good that I can’t be ignored. And until that point, I have no right to whine. Am I good enough right now not to be ignored by people who matter? No. So what right to I have to be negative? Meg Favreau, Kristen Schier, Amie Roe, Carolyn Busa, and Mary Radzinski are featured on the cover of Philadelphia Weekly today in a feature on women in comedy in Philly. Laughs on Fairmont. Like a Hollywood award show, or that time I was mugged — it was an epic event I will never forget. But when I try to recall what happened — now two weeks later — I realize it isn’t what they said that left the largest impression on me … it’s what they wore. Here is a brief, fair and balanced run-down on what each of the 30+ stand-ups wore: John Kensil — A straw-colored flannel rolled two inches above his elbows, a black watch, blue rubber band, blue jeans, and black dress shoes with a squared front. Mary Radzinski — A purple blouse with a comfortable-looking gray robe over, blue jeans, and silver hoop earrings. Luke Giordano — A gray bed-looking shirt, buttoned except for the top two buttons, blue jeans with three small holes, one larger hole, tucked into the back of his left sock. Carolyn Busa — Denim shirt, a torquoise charm necklace, a brown dress, and brown boots. Ryan Marley — A mostly white with darker striped bed shirt, black dress shoes with no laces, right pant leg tucked over the right shoe. LaTice — A purple blouse over a black shirt that covered to the wrists with 3 pearly buttons, blue jeans, and gold earrings that looked like little caterpillars. Jason Hazelwood — Gently worn jeans with a pocket chain, a black bowling shirt with black lettering that spelled “Motel” in a Ren-And-Stimpy-esque font, with tan and black Adidas. Scott Terry — Off-white t-shirt over a white t-shirt, black shoes, jeans. Paul Goodman on last week’s March Madness winners: “Jamil B, Ian Fidance, Brandon Ketchup Wilson, Jon DelCollo, Sean Quinn, Brendan Kennedy, Tim Butterly, and Dan Scully will compete in the March Madness Elite 8 Finals on Wednesday, April 6 at Mad River in Manyunk. Mark your calendars — it’s going to be an awesome show.” [Facebook Event] Meg & Rob‘s Meg Favreau is on the road to Los Angeles. Rob Baniewicz helped her drive down to Atlanta. She has a blog about it. [Blog] Improv group Fletcher is having a “Thing of Things” contest to win a free ticket to one of their shows. Check out the rules and the contest itself on their Facebook page. [Facebook Page] James Hesky wrote an article on It’s Always Funny in Philly about Tragedy + Time = Comedy. Or does it? [It's Always Funny in Philadelphia] The Gross Show hosted by Alex Gross is tomorrow night at Philly Improv Theater. To get a sense of what the show will be like, check out the video preview with footage from previous shows. [YouTube] Luke Giordano has started his list of The 100 Greatest Americans on Everything You Like Is Stupid. Number one hundred: Grover Cleveland. [Everything You Like Is Stupid]
How would you describe your style as a comedian? What influences and factors do you think contribute to that? Do you have a favorite show or venue you like to perform at? What about it makes it fun or special for you? Do you have a single favorite moment in Philly comedy or one that stands out? Do you have any sort of creative process that you use with your writing or your performance? What is it about improv that draws you to it? Do you have any favorite performers in the Philly scene? Why are they your favorites? Do you have any bad experiences doing comedy that you can share? A particularly bad bombing or even an entire show gone haywire? What do you think the Philly comedy scene needs to continue to grow? Do you have any personal goals for the future as you continue to perform comedy? Gregg Gethard sent us this:
More on what Rob plans on doing with the show to come. As we said a few times before, the Roast of Meg Favreau was on Monday and Philly Improv Theater was on the ball and got the whole thing uploaded yesterday. Here are all the parts:
We received this e-mail from Abigail Bruley at the local NBC HD channel. Here is what they’re looking for:
Meg and Rob are like Lucy and Desi if Desi wasn’t Latino and Lucy was a little bit prettier and funnier. Meg Favreau? More like Meg Favoritecomedianofmine, am I right? Meg’s moving to L.A. to do comedy — yeah, good luck with that! Seriously. Meg, let me give you some advice: The first thing you should do when you get to LA is go straight to a plastic surgeon, because a lot of actresses have been requesting, “that Favreau look,” and I bet the surgeon would pay you a lot of money if you let him make plaster casts of your nose and stuff. Meg is the second funniest comedian ever. (Sorry! Just kidding. It’s a roast.) Meg is so small and skinny that it’s hard to believe she can fit so much talent in such a small package. Oh wait, that joke was supposed to be about Rob’s dick. (Rob I’m just kidding!) Meg should take a comedy class and teach it. Some people say Meg looks like a 12 year old boy — these people are just jealous. Ignore them. Meg is a member of the improv troupe the Real Housewives of Philadelphia, which is ironic because she’s not a housewife and is moving away from Philadelphia. I guess she’ll have to join a new improv troupe called The Real Hard-Working and Extremely Talented Single Women who Don’t Feel Like Settling Down Just Yet Even Though They’re a Total Catch of Los Angeles. Meg already has one job lined up in LA, as a nude body double for Charlize Theron. Meg is also very smart though, and shouldn’t just be treated like a piece of meat. The objectification of women makes me sick. I think Rob is a lot funnier when Meg isn’t around, because when she’s on stage her beauty and talent eclipse everyone else. Meg’s so funny that sometimes I forget she’s a woman. The Roast is at 8PM tonight and will feature the all-star line-up of Chip Chantry, Darryl Charles, Aaron Hertzog, The Feeko Brothers, Emily McGraw, Paul Triggiani, Rob Baniewicz, Luke Giordano, Mike Rainey, Alli Soowal, Brendan Kennedy, Mary Radzinski, Carolyn Busa, and Doogie Horner. |
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How and why did you get into comedy?
The Roat of