My First Comedy Competition
I was fortunate enough to participate in Absolute Comedy's Prove You're a Comic Competition. I can honestly say that it was the most rewarding and stressful experience of my comedy career, to date. Although I have only been doing comedy for 11 months, I have learned so much and met so many amazing individuals. I stress the importance of the word individual because as a comedian it's just you, a mic, and your personal opinions on stage.
No two comics were alike in this contest which is why I would like to make a point to say that comedy is a subjective thing and to compare one person's art to another is silly. Ultimately what it comes down to is who did you engage with the most based on the comic's material. Now don't get me wrong I do believe there are bad comics but I think that's usually from a lack of experience and poor writing skills (i.e. things that can be improved). From what I noticed in this particular contest, there was not one comic that I thought was terrible. There were some that could use refinement but we could ALL use some.
I did not win the competition (Adrian Cronk did WOO!!) and I could honestly care less. I had so much fun competing and just hanging out with the comics all week. In a contest of 36 people there can only be 1 winner. Odds are: you're probably not going to win, so just have fun. If you don't have fun, it will show and if it shows it will affect your performance. There was a lot of criticism about the contest and about my fellow competitors. People complaining about where they should have placed and where others should not have. I thought that was incredibly childish as you shouldn't merit your success based on a competition. If you're going to complain about something, don't do it in an open forum where you know the people you're bitching about can read it. Bitch to your friends, bitch to your family, bitch to your cat. I don't care but try and remain professional as this technically is a job.
There have even been some individuals who have gone so far as to quit comedy all together as a result of not winning. That is a complete joke. You should be doing comedy because you love it, not because you're trying to see where you'll place in a contest. Comedy is SO subjective and what you find hilarious may be COMPLETELY different from what I find funny. So just because a couple judges one night didn't agree with your AIDS joke doesn't mean it's not funny, it just means it wasn't for them. If there is one thing I have learned from doing stand-up is that it's a very tough business. If you're going to crack under the first sign of struggle, this probably isn't the job for you.
My week at Absolute has taught me many things. The first one being that in order for the audience to laugh, they need to care about what you're saying. I think that if I could do it again, I would have tried to make my material more universal and less gay. It's not that what I was saying wasn't funny it's just that when you make it to the top 5, what is comes down to with the audience is: who do I engage with the most? In order to engage with someone you must relate to what they're saying. My 'being gay' jokes are less relatable than a joke about driving (for example). I think my next goal as a comedian will be to become more universal. Being universal opens a lot more doors. More open doors = more opportunity.
All that being said I want to thank every single person for coming out to see me. A special thanks to Josh Williams, Jay, Aaron Power, Brendan McKeigan, Jimmy Cassidy, Adrian Cronk, Jenn Hayward, Rebecca Reeds, and Jenn Labelle. I learned so much from you guys and had so much fun getting to know you over the entire week!
- The 5 Finalists of Absolute Comedy's Prove You're a Comic Contest 2013 -
vaporwave
titsay
romaincrisis
pixelskylines