On Humility

I just went on the r/StandUpComedy subreddit and had a look at a post by a comedian who said he'd been doing comedy for about a year and was asking everyone to reply to his thread with what their biggest achievements thus far in stand up had been. Proud moments, goals for the future etc. This thread excited me because while I go onto this subreddit every now and then, I don't usually stay for very long because it seems to be mostly filled with people posting videos of gigs and asking for feedback or people linking to comedy specials by comedians that I don't find terribly hilarious... and just a quick aside: I don't have a problem with people posting footage of their gigs and asking for feedback, in fact I think it's great, but I'll get to the slight problem I have with it which may not be a problem at all but just me being a dick... in a little bit.

Anyway, so I went on to check out this thread and straight away I was pleased to see a bunch of long responses, and I started reading. After reading all comments though (only sixteen, but they were all pretty lengthy) I was a little disappointed. I had hoped to find... well actually, I don't know what I had hoped to find on here, and maybe sharing comedy advice on the internet just isn't the same as sharing it in person, but I'll say now that I didn't find what I thought I had.

To me, the way the thread came off was just a bunch of comedians, in similar positions to myself, becoming excited by the invitation to talk about themselves and the growth they have experienced in the first stages of their 'careers'. It seemed like a bunch of egos competing for screen time, basically – fevered egos, you might even say (Eh! Eh!). None of the long comments had replies underneath them, they were all just individual replies about the particular poster's achievements and goals which basically said to me that these people weren't reading here to exchange actual advice, they were just looking for a forum to gloat upon... actually I lie, there was one comment that started a conversation: one between two comics, the first comment had called a particular city's scene 'cliquey', there was a friendly disagreement, and then plans to meet up with a slightly back-peddled explanation by the original poster. Fevered egos really, but who am I to judge?

I'm not even sure about the reasons that I had for coming on to this page? I mean, to be completely honest, I had no intention of posting my 'achievements' or 'goals' on there, but not because I don't like bragging... just because I don't really care about bragging to people that are in no position to get me anything for my hard bragging work. But I had a bit of a think about the reason why some of the advice that these people were handing out for free over the internet was that I sort of half-resented, half-dismissed them as idiots. Petty. Pathetic. I found myself thinking, “who the fuck is this cocky tosser? Thinking he can dole out advice like this when he's only been doing comedy for *re-reads start of comment* TWO YEARS!!!” That may be the problem with comedy advice over the internet... it's all well and good to talk about the giving and receiving of advice in person and there is a valid point to be made about the fact that it doesn't matter whether you think a comedian is good or not, advice is advice and should be taken gratefully. The fact of the matter though, is that it is a narcissistic reflex to reject advice that comes from a source whose credibility you don't have positive proof for.

There is a reason piano teachers give recitals and put themselves last, there is a reason that past football players often slot nicely into coaching roles, and it is the same reason that I don't feel comfortable being told about 'the industry' or given tips on witing by some fevered ego sitting behind a keyboard on the other side of the world. It's because we are all the same fevered egos, and we only like to be told what to do by people we know can do it at least as well, or hopefully better, than we can. Well... I don't know, maybe you're not all that shallow. All I know is the day I can come onto a forum like this, read the comments, and take a meaningful piece of advice from something someone has said without requiring proof of their talents; on that day I will finally have learned humility.

Peace, Taco.