Chili Challis
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My Blog
Blog
COMEDY GOALS CHANGE, IT'S A GOOD THING
| Posted on April 7, 2017 at 10:04 AM |
comments (17)
|
.I've had a recent realization (say that 5x fast). Anyway, I believe my comedy goals lately involve science. Yep, science of the how to's and whys of stand up comedy and comedy writing. I'm down to be a tinkerer of all things funny. Gone are the days of competing for spots at clubs or trying to get in with a mega chain comedy club. Thank you, I've seen Iowa, Illinois and Missouri many times. Gone are the days of fighting for a network writing job or network or studio anything. LA was good and bad to me, what can I say? That's the way LA is. I snagged a credit or two and a few bucks, allowed them to extract their commissions and called it a positive experim Oh I'm still working plenty. I do many stand up shows in one nighter and private type settings. A few of these shows are of my own making and some from friends and acquaintances that still own venues and of course I do many fundraisers etc. I'm still competing with comedy writers in at least a couple writer's groups that farm out (crowd source) material. In other words, I still get paid for comedy writing. Occasionally I get hired for a special writing project and so it goes. Currently I'm developing a talk/variety show for a middle america market in Michigan. I write much of the monologue and create desk bits etc., book comedians for the show. I'm co-executive producer, bam! 'Ann Arbor Tonight'! In short, mucho going on comedywise. Throw in the fact I coach comics and comedy writers in workshops, I stay busy and relevant, and who doesn't want to do that. Relevancy is not the need it's the by-product of loving all things comedy. The ability, magic and yes science behind it all has been as addicting as any drug could be in my life. Comedy is not just something I got into because my friends invited me on stage somewhere and magic happened. Comedy was needed in my life, it saved me, protected me and help put me back together. This is why even this minute, after nearly 40 yrs of actively doing stand up and comedy writing and after 60 years of loving it, I STILL study it with a passion that is obessively driven to get the most out of it, which for me IS the message it has for me. Hippies (people in the 1960's) were famous for looking for themselves. In so, I think comedy chose me to help find myself. For the most part it has worked. I don't know what I would have done without the comedy boom and the need for laughter in this country. I gained a career from a need. It doesn't get much better. Not to mention having a million honest theraputic laughs along the way That helped, 'nuff said. No question the whole process STILL was not easy, there is sacrifice in every mile I've traveled; but that time was needed, to think and experiment with thoughts that ran deep. Not all thoughts turned to jokes, some simply churned the fires for the need to laugh and so to continue my journey. I was in search of happiness I suppose. Currently the facination with comedy science is where I'm at as much as anything. This I'm doing for me, but of course I pass along much to talents in my 'Comedy Dojo' groups. The ones that have the lightning get it and it helps them, end of story. For me I'm still looking to improve, and in that improvement find a little bit more of myself and hook it in at just the right spot. I'm a starchild looking to gather in all my star dust. ;) I know there's more comedy that way, funnier and better material and most important, more insight into, well everything. It probably will all come to me on my death bed and I really will die laughing. See what I did there? |