#345 - Art vs. Popularity: The Creative Battle, Between Creativity & Consistency in Comedy.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You know, you know how you would like hear a song on the radio and if you were to actually buy the person's whole album, it's pretty much garbage, it's trash. You know what I mean and that's kind of a big thing to say, but I mean it's very accurate. That's why they call it singles, because in the music industry one song is what's really hot. So you're really kind of just going to a concert to watch or listen, hear, etc. One song when the rest of the album is kind of garbage. And it didn't used to be like that Back in the day. You used to make music and every song had to be a hit and it may take longer. It may take longer, okay, to have more music, but it's also business. So you're left with a dichotomy of having continual music every year, or better music less often. Point is this and recently I just finished doing a one-hour stand-up comedy Okay, and it is. You know how people in like the comedy industry always say like it's a special, like a comedy special, but similar to the music industry nowadays. It's a special like a comedy special, but similar to the music industry nowadays it's not really that special. You know, there might be a lot of really good jokes. But again and this is, in my opinion, similar to music, unfortunately the artist, when they are making a bigger quantity of material, if they try to have it be once a year, it may be less good. Then again, that is depending on how much you work on it, um, and it's if it's less often, hopefully, usually it's better because they've worked on it more. Now, is it possible just to go through some basic numbers, to do twice as much work in one year and you get two years work, absolutely 100 it is, but usually, uh, based off of what you see, it isn't just like music, no different, right? Um, I don't even have a reference for an artist that now, when they have an album come out, every single one is a single and comedy, every joke has to be a hit or it's a miss. No different than music, right, and uh, to have that achievement, to have that be every single thing that they're saying is successfully funny. Uh, it's very, very hard and, um, I recently just got finished working on and completing a one hour and to me this thing is special, and I don't mean like new age special, like new music special, I mean special, I mean old school special, like every single joke is absolute fire and, um, it was. It's so funny Like it. It actually was like making me laugh, uh, as I was, um, going through a lot of different jokes and a lot like.

Speaker 1: 3:20

Right now I'm reading and rereading and editing and we're not really editing but just sort of just making sure that everything is correct and I'm polishing up some jokes and stuff, right, but it is so good and I'm so happy about it and, um, you know, in comedy, for the longest time, I uh, I wanted to have that benchmark, of course, of having an hour. Then I had so much material is way, way over an hour. I have multiple different hours worth of comedy that I haven't even um edited and work, but they're all pretty much completed, um, but my point is this is that, um, whenever I would edit something or change something or take something out, because maybe it didn't, it was like a different topic compared to what I was talking about. It might be great material, but not for this one hour, right, and I recently just got it finished and I'm thinking I don't really like it when someone compliments themselves, but if I were to, it's brilliant. And how do I do that twice? I know the answer. It's just like I did the first time. But it's weird because the more people again in the music industry, if you notice, the more successful they are, the worse their music gets right.

Speaker 1: 4:46

And I'm kind of paranoid in that aspect, that of course I want everything to always improve and get better, sell tickets and so forth and so on. But I don't really want to change my surroundings or my environment or anything like that. I really just want to kind of keep my mental structure where it is. Even if I were to get like a bigger house which I don't really care about, or a different car which I don't really care about I already have a nice car don't really care about. Or a different car which I don't really care about, I already have a nice car. But anyway, um, I, I, I want to stay in this artistic, um realm, you know? Um, somebody was telling me something about having a dream home and all like a pool and all this stuff. Listen, this stuff, listen.

Speaker 1: 5:28

I have one room in my home. It's my creative studio. It's one room and to me it's used for nothing but that purpose and it means everything to me. It has my inspirations in it, it's where I do all my writing, and I don't care if I had a hundred rooms or just two or one, that is the most important room in my entire home because that is what that is like. My you know how guys might have like a man cave or whatever. You know, that is my creative studio, that's where I go and I spend more hours from before I start working my day job. I still have one Reno to after I'm done that day job work, to work on writing. Even this morning I was working on writing and now I'm on my way to a wrestling and jujitsu.

Speaker 1: 6:19

But, uh, it just means so much to me to have that one room and, uh, after I got finished this, uh, this last couple of jokes and I have everything like time stamped by the minute and also like different second marks. So I, I know where I am, systematically, technically, scientifically, like down to the second for each joke. And in my opinion, as a professional, uh, you, you have to know that information to not go over your time. But also in my opinion, as a professional, uh, you, you have to know that information to not go over your time. But also, in my opinion, again, it helps me with my pacing to not to know that, even if I go a little too fast, a little too slow, which I shouldn't do, that I should always pace myself. Um, but here's where I'll be All right.

Speaker 1: 7:05

And um, uh, after I got it finished just yesterday, really putting these last few jokes in, I was so impressed. It made me slightly paranoid, as I always am a little bit thinking. I want to keep this mental structure that I'm at right, so that I can continue to come up with this kind of stuff. I don't want anything to change again. It doesn't have to be on my exterior, but mentally, because I don't want to fall into any traps, of course, right. Or my uh music, metaphorically right, my comedy, my writing, uh, becomes worse because my living standards become better.

Speaker 1: 7:47

I just booked another show. I'm super excited about it, very thankful, and you know, someone once said there's a big difference between being the best known and the best product, and there's a big difference between being the best product and best known. It sounds like I'm saying things in reverse, and I kind of am, but not really. So you might have the best product, but if it isn't known, you're not going to sell it. And you might have the best known product and it might not be the best. It might not be the best as far as the quality goes, but you are going to sell it Right. So the point is is that I know I have the quality.

Speaker 1: 8:25

I just need to get known, and that is my biggest goal, which I'm going to force to happen, not just this year, but last year and always. That's always the biggest goal, and it sounds like it's not more than quality, but at face value, it is to my, my audience. Being known to my audience indirectly, subconsciously, is more important than being the funniest, because they have to know who I am, to even hear what I'm saying. And with any YouTube video or podcast episode or something like that, it's kind of like just like a drop in a bucket compared to everybody else or whatever's going on in their life. But let's just say hypothetically that I'm the best comedian in the world. Hypothetically, okay. Now let's just say this hypothetical is reality, okay. And let me also just say, uh, hypothetically, if nobody knew, would that change my quality? No, but you have to get known. So you know, I want to keep my quality and I'm really forcing and pushing in a lot of different directions. I'm not going to get into right now to getting known through multiple platforms and on national and international stages, which is in the works. So, uh, I'm super thankful.

Speaker 1: 9:56

I just, you know, um, I've really just started thinking about all of this, all these different problems that I wanted to avoid and how to sidestep them for the future days and writing and so forth and so on, because reaching an hour, you know, or more than an hour or whatever, getting an hour, was kind of a goal. But having an hour, if it's not quality, just like a new age CD album or something like that for music, it's not as important compared to having, um, the quality there. But when we go back to that whole dichotomy of it's a business, well, I would rather work twice as hard to have. You know, one of my favorite comedians, bill Burr. He made a comment once. He said if you just come up with one great minute a week, essentially in the course of one year, 52 weeks in a year, you'll have a brand new hour every year. And he's right. One minute a week, okay, but yeah, you still really got to bust your ass to have one quality minute. So that's my goal Is just to continue to have the highest of quality and the quantity of a new hour every year, but for now, as I'm still building my base audience and stuff like that, I'm um, I'm fortunately I have this great, great material that I will be able to repeat for multiple years.

Speaker 1: 11:27

Right, and it's exciting. It's exciting, it really is amazing, and I want to duplicate brilliance, brilliance, twice. Coming to my original point. So, anyway, I hope you all have a beautiful day. Thank you so much for your time. I'm binge. Well done, check me out, and hopefully you'll see me at a venue, online or in person or wherever near you very soon. Thank you again. I'm Benji. Well done, check me out. Peace.