Yes Way No Way

Why I do it

The only thing that have kept me from finishing this, is wanting to write something after each chapter. Just something. Anything. I have no plan to become a full-time writer, I just admire people who write well. And that makes me want to too.

One chapter I read today made me think about, why I do the things I do. The music, the comedy, the numerous blogs that have come and most of them gone. I want to make money, but that’s just because money is needed to have a place to live and Coke cans in the fridge. And neither the blogs nor the music have made me any more than a little money, so that’s far from enough to justify all those hours spent if money was the case.

I want to make stuff that people like while impressing people I admire. One good thing about the comedy scene in Denmark is that once you’re in, you’re quick to be friends with everyone — and impressing my friends that I admire is one of the things that make me the most happy.

Which is a thing; being happy. I’m not talking about it in a fluffy feelings kind of way. I’m talking about the stuff floating around my body, endorphins rushing to my nose or however that stuff works. I don’t care. But I really like it when I get down from the stage after a good show and someone says Well done, Mikkel. That’s it. That’s why I do all this nonsense.

2 months ago Permalink 1 note

• comedy
• longer posts

It’s already too late for 100%

That last bit of comedy advice from Thomas was quite popular, so here’s another one I like. Thomas does mostly one-liners. And therefore his advice may be mostly for comedians alike — still it’s something to think about for everyone.

Thomas writes a lot of jokes when he’s developing new material. And I mean a really fucking impressive lot of jokes. This tuesday he showed up for the open mic at a café in Århus with 81 completely new ones. Eighty one. And in about 15 minutes on stage he hammered through them all, recording his performance to later determine what worked and what didn’t.

Of course many of those jokes turned out to not get the laughs he expected. He may not have sold the idea well enough or it might just have bin too plain silly. But that’s to be expected when you go for quantity over quality. As Thomas once told me: I don’t know what’s funny so I try a lot and let the audiences decide.

Now the real advice. If your new joke doesn’t work the first time around, trash it. It’s already too late for it to have worked 100% of times. Statistically this is true.

In effect this means that if your joke doesn’t work the first time you try it, don’t bother doing it again, because if it doesn’t work the first time around, it will probably never be fantastic. And there’s no reason to settle with okay jokes.

And while this might seem dramatic for some, it’s the advice that when I followed it in my (very) early days of writing and doing my first jokes, made my performance turn from okay to better.

…

These days I don’t immediately trash an idea, if it fails or it doesn’t get the amount of laughs I want it to get. And I don’t think you should either. But I know I will have to change something in my telling of it and not just keep on trying and failing. Because there’s no reason to settle with okay jokes.

3 months ago Permalink 4 notes

• comedy
• advice
• thomas warberg

Then don’t wear a cardigan

As I started out doing stand-up comedy I started to notice that when I wore a cardigan, things seemed to go better. It was as if the audiences bought my character faster and I felt more secure.

I told this to my friend Thomas (who have been doing stand-up for way longer than I) and his advice came instantly. Then next time, don’t wear a cardigan!

Because if you build these rituals in your head — and that’s where they are, in your head — you’ll become dependent on them, and the day you don’t have your favourite slippers on and favourite song playing in the background it just won’t work.

3 months ago Permalink 26 notes

• comedy
• advice