Writer's Block 9/4/17

As you may or may not know, my favourite comedian of all time is Jerry Seinfeld. I love the show, and I really enjoy his stand up. Being my favourite comic, I'm always on the look out for any little tidbits of wisdom or advice he offers up for aspiring comedians. One thing he's said in the past that I really took to heart after I started getting on stage myself is:

 "Writer's block doesn't actually exist. It's just an excuse for people that don't want to do their work."

That statement has really hit home with me over the past couple months or so. I'm in the midst of the worst joke "drought" I've experienced since I started stand up. I've had lots of nights where I've taken a new bit on stage and it hasn't worked. But it feels like over the past 6 or 8 weeks, other than a few small tags and tweaks to my pre-existing material, nothing I'm writing is working. I've been desperately trying to get a new premise work on stage, and it just doesn't seem to be taking. And I don't mean a singular new premise. I mean pretty well every new idea I've come up with lately. Throwing everything I can against the wall, and just praying SOMETHING sticks. Unfortunately, it all seems to be ending up sliding down the wall and landing at my feet.

And it isn't the bombing that's getting to me. Telling jokes to silence isn't fun, but I know it's part of the learning curve. It's the idea that night after night, I'm sitting down at my notebook, and filling page after page with garbage. I don't fish, but I can imagine this is how it would feel to sit in your boat casting hour after hour, and going home with nothing but a sunburn and a cooler full of empties.

Going back to the Seinfeld quote, I truly feel like I'm experiencing writer's block. But I love the way he has it worded. He calls joke writing, "work". And it is. I could totally chalk it up to writer's block, walk away for a while and just tell my old jokes. But the only way I'm going to break out of this slump is to keep doing the work. Write, re-write, test. And when I fall, I have to get up again and keep trying. A bad writing session that you get nothing out of is INFINITELY more productive than simply blaming "writer's block" and not trying at all.

In my short career, I've been quite vocal in stating that the thing that irritates me most is when comics waste stage time. They go up there and tell the same old jokes over and over again. Don't get me wrong, it's incredibly important to tell jokes over and over, but you should be tweaking. Tightening. Polishing. Add a tag, remove a line. Workshopping doesn't irritate anyone. But to go up there and read the same script over and over again isn't helping you at all. It's like bench pressing the same amount of weight. You'll never get any stronger.

The point of this blog was to vent about the writing slump I've been in this Summer. I did that. I'll get out of it. Fuck writer's block.

Or I can always do crowd work.

Adam

You Call The Shots 8/27/17

*This is a post I made on Facebook last year, a couple months before I walked out of my job at Uline. I haven't changed a word of it, because I still agree with all of it. I'm also very proud of the fact that I stuck to my word; Uline was trying to overtake things I had higher on my list of priorities, and I did exactly what I promised I would do if that day came. I hope you guys like it*

One of the guys I work with, probably the dude I like the most there, had his first child this week. Wednesday, his wife went into labour. And he was still working. I told him to get the hell out of there and get to the hospital, and he said we were too busy, and he'd go when he could. That's exactly what's wrong with society today.

Everyone has their own priorities. And if someone disagrees with yours, to hell with them. I think you probably spend the first 25 years of your life laying the foundation of that list, and then you tweak it as life goes on. I know for a fact that my buddies family was a much higher priority to him than his work, but he felt obligated to stay. That's not being honest to yourself. Do what you want, what makes you happy. 

A few years ago, I wasn't doing that well. Shay and I had just bought our house, we had some money. Health. No worries. But I didn't feel right. Like I was just going through the motions, wasting time. I made a very conscious decision to start eliminating things/people that I weren't making me happy, and to start cramming as much positivity into my life as possible every day. I quit a very good paying sales job to go do something that I thought would be more fun (and it was), and I started phasing some people out of my life. I just decided I didn't want to be around them anymore. If anyone ever feels that way about me, I would hope they'd do the same. And it worked. I feel much better about life these days. I'm very happy.

I read something around that time that said "there is endless power in giving zero fucks." It's not the classiest sentiment ever, but it's spot on. I used to want everyone to like me. Now, there's a very small group of friends and family whose opinions matter to me very much, and if you're not in that circle, I don't really give a damn what you think. If I'm not hurting you, just let me do what I want. 

My current job demands a lot of hours from me, I work 55 or so in a 5 day a week, plus some weekends. I don't like it, but as of now, I've accepted the trade off, they get my time, and I'm happy with the money they give me for it. But if that job ever tries to overtake something that I feel is a higher priority (and there are a lot of them), then they'll quickly find out I won't be there anymore. It's a humble brag, but anyone that has worked with me would be quick to say that I'm a pretty hard worker (I think, anyways), and I do my best to help the team and pull my weight. But I've also switched jobs 4 times in about 12 years. Once because I felt they were trying to become to work their way to the top of my priority ladder, once because I just wasn't happy anymore, and once mostly for financial reasons. And even though the job I have now is very secure and well paying, I have no hesitation to quit, and no worry of getting fired, if it ever isn't a fit anymore. Because I just don't enjoy working. I like things that I find fun. And I wasn't out here just to let someone else tell me what to do all my life.

The moral of this ridiculously long post is that your life is a dictatorship. You call the shots. The only people that can get into your board of directors are your family, and your close friends. And that's only if you deem them worthy of a chair at the table. If someone doesn't like how you're running your business, then don't do business with them anymore. You have 24 hours a day to spend on anything you want. Don't let anyone spend even one minute of them for you.

*WWYD - What Will You Do?

Thanks for reading.

-Adam*

Watching yourself....ugh..... 8/10/17

Listening back to yourself, and watching video of your performances as a comedian is a fantastic way to get better. And it fucking.....sucks.

I have hours of voice recordings of my act on my phone, and quite a few videos of various sets recorded on my computer. I've only listened/watched about 1/4 of them. When you think you bombed on a show, and then listen back to it, you usually realize that you bombed even worse than you thought you did. When you think you did well on any given night, and then listen back to your set, you don't even notice what worked. But you can't help but pick out and focus on every little word that wasn't perfect. It's ridiculously humbling. 

That said, almost every time I've listened back to a set, I've found a way to improve on it. Sometimes it's a new tag or joke altogether. Maybe you notice that a joke might work better told slightly different. You may hear a couple words that are just dead weight, and can be trimmed out of a joke altogether, thus tightening up your act. It's one of those "no pain, no gain" situations. With a LOT of pain...

The inspiration for this blog wasn't to talk about listening back to my sets, though. I have (had) several video clips of my stand up on Youtube. After watching some of them back today, I decided to take them all down. Because frankly, I don't think they're very good anymore. I thought they were at the time, but I'm happy to say that as I've gotten on stage more and more, my standards have gotten higher and higher. And I don't feel they're up to that standard. 

I read early on that you should be careful about what you put online. Some people put their first ever set on the internet, and then keep pumping videos out. It's easy to understand why, they're (rightfully) proud of their act, and want to share it with people. The ego stroke from friends and family supporting you is a nice perk, too. But the reason people said be careful about what you upload is because if a booker searches your name, and the first video they come across is of your 3rd ever set, they aren't going to contact you. You might have thought it was good at the time, but if you're working hard at getting better, you should be able to watch it a couple months later, and realize how much you were doing wrong. 

I always keep a 5-7 minute clip uploaded and available to share, should someone ask for it. But every couple months, when I know I have a good show (in front of a good audience) coming up, I bring my camera along with the intention of updating my "demo" vid. It's worth it. If you're working hard, every new video should be better than the last. Not always by leaps and bounds, but one step at a time :)

So as an 18 month comic, if I could give any comedy advice, it would be to be careful about what you upload. You never know who's watching. 

Thanks for reading. Go Rays!

Adam

July in a nutshell 7/29/17

Week 2 of my "attempt" at blogging weekly. Here goes!

I didn't really touch on what's been happening in my life with the blog last week, so if you're sitting on the toilet, or waiting in line at the bank, or in the middle of some other mundane thing where you have a few minutes to kill, I got your back.

We're almost settled into our new house. We love it, but there's still a few more things we need to cross off the list before I would say we're officially moving in. We won't have blinds for a few more weeks (I'm sure our new neighbours love the garbage bags we have hanging over our bedroom window right now). A few unpacked boxes are still laying around, tempting me to build a fort every time I come home. And we still don't have internet or tv. Telus came the day we moved in, and they said some fiberoptic something or other wasn't set up, and after waiting a couple weeks, they got back to us and said it would be October. So we called Shaw. They came yesterday, and weren't able to hook us up either. They're coming back today, so fingers crossed.

It's probably the most first world complaint I've ever complained, but my God do I miss having internet. I could take or leave tv, but how in the fuck did we ever live without the internet? I'll be posting this thing with my phone, eating up valuable data. So if you're reading this using YOUR data, just know that we're both making sacrifices here.

I also have a podcast loaded and ready to go, the first one recorded in the new "studio" that is our spare bedroom. It was a good conversation with Brett Forte, that I think those of you that listen to the podcast will really like. I'm holding off uploading it in the hopes that Shaw will come through and get me back online today. If not, I'll be one of those hipsters with his macbook sitting at Starbucks tomorrow, milking the wifi and sucking on an overpriced crappy coffee. But come hell or high water, I guarantee the Comedy Odyssey returns tomorrow*!

*Not a guarantee

As far as comedy goes, I've spent some time on the road this month. James Uloth, Alex Fortin and I spent a weekend in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, more specifically Swift Current, The Pas, and Carrot River, and had a really good time. Then we came home, only to find my Jeep, that had been parked at Alex's apartment all weekend, had been towed. It cost me exactly $3 more than I got paid for the weekend of shows to get it back. So after food and expenses for the trip, I basically paid to tell jokes for 5 days. That story goes right up there with some of my best "I'll look back on this and laugh someday" moments from my short career in comedy thus far. Sigh....

The show in Swift Current was at a golf course. We got there early, and they gave us a cooler of Pilsner and a couple golf carts and told us to go have fun. Chase your dreams, kids!

Front page! Granted, there isn't a lot of competition in The Pas, MB.....

Outside of the adventures in the Prairies, I had a really fun show this past Wednesday in Grande Prairie with my buddy Ben Proulx. The house was PACKED, and red hot right from the start. It was so much fun, one of those audiences that makes it hard to stick to your time, because you want to stay up there and keep going.

Ryan Short was out of town for a week, and was gracious enough to give me the keys to his Monday night Battle to the Funny Bone show at the Comic Strip last week as well. Another really fun crowd, and the comics brought the heat. I'm really starting to get a taste for hosting. I know some comedians hate doing it, but learning how to MC properly is a pretty valuable skill, and personally, I think it's fun to change it up once and a while instead of just going up there and doing material. It's also steroids for trying to get better at crowd work, which is something I really enjoy.

Speaking of material, I've been trying really hard to push myself to write new jokes and experiment with them on stage a little more. The problem with new jokes is that they come with a higher risk of bombing. I've had my share of bombs lately, but it's not really bothering me. I would rather go to an open mic and bomb with new material, then go up there in cruise control mode and tell my same old jokes that I know work. That's like lifting the same amount of weight at the gym every day, you're never going to get any stronger. It's no secret that a majority of my material focuses on me, my girlfriend, and my parents. It's stuff I enjoy telling, but I want to get better at observational humour, and based on the last couple months of writing/trying new jokes, I can see that I have a long way to go. Many of my favourite jokes I've heard other people tell are ones where I think to myself "I've thought that before" after I hear it. I'm envious of people that can write that kind of material, and I'm determined to figure out how to do it myself.

My day job is shut down for Summer holidays next week, so I'm going to take advantage of not having to go to work in the mornings and head down to Calgary for a few days. Monday night, I'll be performing for the first time at Comedy Monday Night, an open mic run by uber-nie guy, James Moore. It's considered by many one of, if not the best, comedy open mic in Canada, and I can't wait to finally check it out in person. Tuesday night, I'll be doing my first spot at The Comedy Cave in Calgary as well. I'm coming home for a couple days, and then heading back down Friday to do a weekend at Yuk Yuks Calgary. It's always fun to be on the road and get in front of new audiences, so I'm really excited to get down there for a few days and check out some new clubs.

This turned into a lot more rambling than I thought, and if you're in line at the bank, the teller is probably about to call you up, so I think I'm going to end it here. I got some great feedback on the "WWYD - What Would You Do?" blog last week, so if you read it, thank you very much. I'm really going to try to stick to churning these things out weekly now, as long as I can come up with stuff to talk about. And like I almost guaranteed, there should be a podcast tomorrow as well *fingers crossed*

Thanks as always for reading, and supporting me. Have a great weekend!

- Adam _____

WWYD?

WWYD - What Would You Do? 7/20/17

Chester Bennington from Linkin Park took his own life this morning, weeks after his friend Chris Cornell did the same. A pair of very sad stories, they got me thinking about how you can have fame, fortune, fans, all the stuff normal people dream of, and at the end of the day, it might not make you happy.

I had about half of a blog finished talking about that exact thing, but then decided to delete it and start over. Primarily because I don't have any idea if they were happy or not. I can assume they weren't, based on how their lives ended. But I think it's possible that they were indeed content with their day to day lives, and simply had something inside of them that they couldn't overcome. I'm not even going to attempt to pretend I know enough about mental health to provide any level of credible opinion. 

At the end of the day, I didn't start this blog entry to debate why these men did what they did. The events of today just got me thinking about life, and how you don't know when it's going to end. You might (and hopefully do) have 50, 60, 70 years left on this planet. You might have a week. To spend the time you have left doing anything other than what you want to is nothing short of a tragedy. It's a lesson that has taken me years to learn, but I feel like I finally understand that. 

People spend their entire adult lives working at jobs they hate, doing things they don't want to do. This ideology, at least for many of us, is learned at a young age. You go to school, then you get a job, work until you're old, and then retire and chill out until it's over. I've never completely subscribed to that theory. My parents instilled me with a great work ethic, and I've had a job since I was 14. But I've never been super happy about it. I could tell whatever I was doing wasn't what I wanted to be doing, and while I'd find short term happiness at a new job, over time, I would get back to the same point I'd reached before. I hated getting up and going to work every morning, and I wasn't happy with the thought of someone else telling me what to do for 1/3 of my day.

Luckily, I (eventually), found comedy. I just realized as I type this that tomorrow (July 21) is the 18 month anniversary of the first time I took a mic out of a stand and tried to make people laugh. There's been ups and downs over the last year and a half, but I've taken more steps toward being happy and excited about life over that time than I think I did in the 15 years prior that I'd been out of High School. I'm doing what I want to do with my life, and I'm in a spot mentally where I finally feel like I'm at peace with myself. I don't have any interest at all in getting rich or famous, I just want to be happy day to day. And I am. 

(I'm also RIDICULOUSLY lucky to have a girlfriend that understands and supports me).

The point I'm trying to make, is that you don't have forever. If you're at a job you hate, or in a relationship that doesn't make you happy, you owe it to yourself to do something about it. And you can always do something about it. I've heard many times that a lot of people work their entire lives, and then on their death beds, have a list a mile long of regrets over things they wish they had done. Personally, I think there's anything group of people that die content. Not happy. Content. They never thought about the possibility of doing anything other than what they were told to do with their life, and auto-piloted though the entire thing. Frankly, I don't know which option scares me more.

Do what you want to do with your life. Be positive, be happy. If something has a negative effect on your life experience, see if you can cut them/it out. Kevin Smith said it best:

"The world is full of 'why?' 'Why do you want to do that? Why would you do that?' Fuck that. Surround yourself with 'why not?' 'You want to do that? Why not? Let's try it!'"

Write a book, paint a picture, learn something new, make a Youtube video. Fuck what other people think. At the end of the day, this life is yours, and nobody else's, and you owe it to yourself, and the million other sperm that didn't make it this far, to do something cool with it.

WWYD - What Would You Do?

Thanks for reading my rambling blog. New podcasts are coming in the next few days as well. Because why not?

- Adam

What's next? 6/15/17

It's been a busy month. I didn't really feel a need to write this, because pretty well everyone that cares what's going on in my life already knows what's going on in my life, but I feel like writing.

Since the last blog, a bunch of cool stuff has happened. First and foremost, we sold our house! We've been working on it for a while, and were really excited about the prospect of a new place, downsizing a little, and leaving ourselves more money to travel and do the things we want to do. We move out of our current place in about a week and a half, and while we've had some great times here, I can't wait for a fresh start. Shay and I aren't the same people we were when we bought this place 5 years ago, professionally or personally. I think our new place signifies that. It's a new chapter for both of us, and we're pretty excited!

Obviously, a big part of getting ready to move, is packing. Ugh. You don't realize how much stuff you have until you need to pack it all up and move it. But that's been another thing about this move that has me excited. I've gotten rid of a TON of stuff. A vast majority of my memorabilia collection, old video games, all kinds of stuff. There's nothing wrong with any of it, it just isn't where my priorities lie anymore. I feel like my life is getting decluttered, like a desk that was covered in paperwork getting cleaned up, and now I have more time, and room, to focus on what I want to focus on. And the list of stuff I want to focus on has shrunk to pretty well just consist of people I like (and a certain dog), and comedy.

As far as the comedy thing goes, it's been a fun month or so since I checked in on this thing. Funniest Person With a Day Job has come and gone, and while the result wasn't exactly what I wanted it to be, it was a great experience. I got to perform in front of some fantastic crowds, and I really feel like prepping for each round of that competition helped me find another gear as a comedy writer. I hadn't focused that hard on listening back to my sets, and trying to find ways to improve every joke before. I put so much pressure on myself to win that comp....I lost sleep, listened to sets and watched videos over and over again, and at the end of the day, I saw what could happen if I just focus and work hard. I've been doing my best to take that approach to my art ever since; I play my sets back while I drive home from shows now, instead of recording them just to never listen to them, and try to find openings to squeeze in an extra laugh or two everywhere I can. I'm fully aware that I have a long way to go, but I feel like I keep moving forward. That's all you can do.

(Side note: Brett Forte won Funniest Person. He's from Calgary, and if you're down there, I can't recommend checking out one of his shows enough. Funny, funny dude. He was actually gracious enough to reach out to me a couple days after the contest ended and ask if I'd like a chance to come down and close out one of the monthly shows he books/runs. So I'll be down there myself this Sunday, June 18th, if anyone is looking for something fun to do!)

Other than the contest, I got my first opportunity to work a full weekend at The Comic Strip. I emcee'd for Alex Fortin, and our headliner, Derek Sequin. It was cool getting to work a weekend at a club I used to go to just to watch comedy and think about how cool it would be do be able to do that for a living. I have a weekend coming up at Yuk Yuks here in Edmonton, too, so that's pretty exciting.  I think my favourite thing about stand up is not knowing what's going to happen next. Just keep hitting open mic and writing, and eventually hard work pays off.

I guess that's it for now. I have some really cool stuff scheduled for the Fall, but I'll post more about that as the time gets closer. For now, life is good. Except packing. Packing fucking sucks.

Thanks for reading.

- Adam

It's been a while! 5/8/17

I like to read a lot of blogs. Wrestlers, musicians, comedians. I think it's really cool to get a glimpse into someone's life and thought process when they're away from work, or the pubic or whatever. And it used to really bug me when someone wouldn't blog for a long period of time. "I've been too busy to sit down and hammer one of these out." How can you possibly be too busy to take 15 minutes and write a blog?

I've been too busy to take 15 minutes and write a blog.

Well, probably not. But between comedy, work, the podcast (which I've also struggled to keep up with), and selling our house (which potentially sold last week!), the blog has just fallen down the depth chart. I'm sure all 15 of you that read it have survived, and maybe even thrived, in it's absence.

It has been a busy couple months. On a personal note, Shay and I just got back from a vacation in Florida, which was awesome, outside of the sunburns we both brought home with us. My end goal is to be a full time comedian, and there were a few instances during our trip where I left guilty about taking time off from stand up to go on a trip like that. But finding a balance between transitioning into a new career at thirty-three, with maintaining a long term relationship, means splitting your attention between both sides. Life is about having fun, after all. And I don't get to see a ton of Shay during a normal week anymore, she leaves for work before I get up, and I'm usually out at a show in the evening, with her in bed before I get home. So it was really nice to get away and actually hang out together for a few days.

Speaking of me and Shay, we finally sold our house! Pending a couple things this week, we'll have until the end of June to find a new place to live. We're excited to start a new chapter, but both a little sad to be leaving these place. When we bought it 5 years ago, we thought we might never move again. Priorities change, though. I'm sure we'll be happy wherever we end up, and we'll find something that fits with our current lifestyle a little better.

As far as comedy goes, things have been going pretty good as well. I've been part of some fantastic shows, in front of some great audiences. I got offered my first opportunity to middle at the Comic Strip a couple weeks ago, working with Kathleen McGee and Josh Wolf. Unfortunately, we ran into an Oilers playoff game, so our late show had a smaller crowd, but they were still fun nevertheless. I'm legit happy for SOME of my Oiler loving friends, but the Oilers playing hockey in May for the first time in 11 years doesn't do stand up comedy any favours...

Speaking of the Comic Strip, I also took part in one of the prelim weeks of their annual "Funniest Person With a Day Job" competition a few weeks ago. I got into the semis, and have a shot at moving on to the Finals on May 16th. This is the biggest comedy competition in Edmonton, and almost every comic that has won it in the past has used it to help take the next step in their career. I'm really excited for the opportunity, it's something I've been looking forward to since I started telling jokes last January.

I've had more and more opportunity to get on the road as well, primarily with Mike Dambra. I really can't thank the guy enough for taking me under his wing and showing me the ropes. I feel like I've gotten much better at transitioning in and out of my usual material, and joking around with the crowd,  and a large part of that has been working with Mike. The guy makes it look so god damned easy! I've set my camera up to record a few of my sets lately, and while I still see a TON of stuff I need to improve, I feel like there's a pretty big gap between video I took last fall, and my sets now. That's all I'm asking of myself, is to just keep improving. Frankly, I never want to watch one of my sets and just be happy with everything. I think the moment you don't think you can get any better at this, you should quit. Why keep going to the gym, if you don't think you can get any stronger?

I also finally got some professional head shots done, so I don't have to just use cell phone pictures of me on stage for promotional material anymore. I learned that Photoshop can do a lot of things, including help a man see straight, but it can't make a stupid looking man look less stupid :)

My whole wheat side...

...and my frosted side.

All in all, life is pretty good. I have big plans for comedy over the next year, things on the business side of the industry, that I think/hope will help me get ready to try and make the leap into becoming a full time comedian. I hope to be ready to post about them on here in the upcoming months. In the mean time, I just want to stay focused on getting better on stage, and writing more jokes. I have a goal of having an hour + of material by my 2 year anniversary in January, and I'm comfortable hitting the 35 minute mark right now. I think I could push for 40, if the opportunity presented itself. I'm not 100% happy with everything I have right now, but I know it keeps improving, and that's all I can ask from myself.

Thanks for reading, and supporting me, as always. It really means a lot to me.

Adam