You have to be smart to be a standup comedian. Correction: you have to be intelligent to be a good standup comedian. Most specials start strong, have about ten minutes of interesting, original material and then never deepens, which is why I’ve never really fallen in love with standup. I have flirted with it, exchanged glances, but it never goes further. The whole concept of standup, to me, is it’s a presentation on your thesis of life. to you. Basically, you make your quirky point, your different way of looking at things, and then recite three examples of how your rule applies. And if it’s truly original, the jokes get progressively funnier. Each example elicits a harder laugh. (I have not studied standup. This is just what I glean from the comfort of my couch.) This comedian Michelle Wolf is pretty good the whole duration of her act. She is fun because she’s mega-liberal and quite scathing. She has one bit about abortion, how we’re supposed to feel about it. Even the most devoted pro-choicer says in a whisper full of reverence “But abortion is very serious. It’s a very intense choice.” Like it’s full of regret and sadness – very true. Wolf’s point is this is bogus, that women can feel any way they want about abortion. If you have one, you can feel devastated and sad, or maybe you feel nothing. You feel fine. It’s just a P.S. in your life.
That’s an amazing true point I have never heard articulated before.
She has this other joke about blogs – “blogs are the conversation no one wanted to have with you.”
This, of course, made me think of you.
Thank you.