In Up the Mountain Slowly, Very Slowly, a mountain climber, who also has a dayjob as an accountant, says, “At work, the results of the decisions I make are always hard to gauge. This situation is clear — either you make it or you don’t.”
It reminds me of one of my fave parts of doing standup: There's no mystery about it. When you're in front a crowd, you know exactly how you're doing. People either laugh or they don't. In so many other art forms, it's subjective. With comedy, it's binary. The switch is on or off.
It's all part of the rawness. It's just you and your words. No instruments, no canvas, no middleman. Just put up or shut up. Love that.
Sandpaper Suit is NYC standup comic Matt Ruby's (now defunct) comedy blog. Keep in touch: Sign up for Matt's weekly Rubesletter. Email mattruby@hey.com.
Moving on/Subscribe to my newsletter
I only post on rare occasions here now. Subscribe to my Rubesletter (it's at mattruby.substack.com ) to get jokes, videos, essays, etc...
-
Even the best standups seem to just scrape by. Then you hear about a guy who got a late night writing gig. Pay's nice. Long hours but he...
-
Never been to a Letterman taping. But I've heard the studio is chilly due to Dave's orders. Was talking about it the other day with ...
-
Patton Oswalt preaches love instead of hate in standup. “Actually, I think when you’re younger, anger and comedy mesh together very, very w...