The biggest compliment anyone can pay me is a genuine laugh. I grew up onstage, so I've always loved applause and hugs and roses and the tangible energy that is the lifeblood of all theater kids, but there is something so truly encouraging about laughter.
I grew up surrounded by comedy. My father would perform SNL's Olympia Restaurant whenever I asked him for a tuna fish sandwich, and Steve Martin's old stand-up routines worked their way into our everyday conversation. If it's been on NBC in the past 18 years (holy shit, Friends premiered 18 years ago...), I was watching it. I recently set out to watch the entirety of SNL (well, aside from all copyrighted material, so half of SNL) on Netflix. I avoid making plans on Thursday and Saturday nights because of the comedies that have given me a safe haven during the screwed-up mess called being a 20-something.
I don't actively share this obsession with many people in my "real" life, only because I've felt I needed to protect MY comedies somehow. Of course, if you follow me on Twitter, you've seen my feed become overrun with SNL livetweeting, but that's beside the point. The friends that do realize that comedy is the one thing that truly keeps me going have been telling me for a few years now that I should pursue comedy for myself, since it's what makes me happy.
That thought fucking TERRIFIES me.
Which is why I hope to someday do it.
The idea of attempting stand-up makes me absolutely sick to my stomach... which probably means it'd be the best thing for me to try first, let's be real. But really, I don't think I could ever see myself captivating the audience for an extended period of time, by myself. I've never taken any sort of improv class and I am absolutely dying to, since the majority of my comedy heroes got their start at beautiful places like Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade. I LOVE watching improv and it seems like it'd be hilarious to do, once I got the technique down. Of course, living in a tiny, conservative city makes that sort of thing hard to accomplish (but that leads to my I-need-to-move-to-New-York rant and let's not get into that).
What I'd really like to do with comedy would be something along the lines of Weekend Update. Delivering little one-liners that comment on the news and pop culture, with some guests and maybe a co-anchor? That'd be awesome.
...how does one get a job like that?
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