As an unfunny person until the age of 8, for a long time I just aspired and admired funny.
I watched it the way as asthmatic watches kids playing football on a field.
My first comedic influences were Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy. I watched Bill Cosby: 49 so many times I could recite it from memory. Ditto Eddie Murphy's Delirious and RAW.
[I leave, for you, as a gift, the image of me (chubby, Asian, me) standing on my porch doing my best Bill Cosby impression]
Cosby and Murphy started a chain reaction that would eventually be followed by the likes of Jeneane Garofalo, Paula Poundstone, Eddie Izzard, later Margaret Cho, Dana Carvey, Demetri Martin, Aziz Ansari, Louis CK and Sarah Silverman.
The list goes on.
Along this line of love, recently I found this amazing Bill Hicks documentary on my On Demand Box. AMERICAN: The Bill Hicks Story. The Bill Hicks story is, not surprisingly, the BILL HICKS story, a doc that uses interviews, photos and archival footage, everything from home videos to professionally taped appearances, to tape together, and often, animate, the youth, early career, and ultimate success of Bill Hicks: a comedian (who started performing when he was still in high school), an American, and an overall very smart and spiritual guy. I love how the film shows Hicks struggling not only with his career in the comedy circuit (and the various incarnations of lifestyle that went with it) but also with his audiences -with audiences that did and didn't get what he was doing, what he wanted to say, what he was pissed about. It's really an interesting look at the relationship between artists and their work and their audiences.
Okay, so, truly, I fucking LOVE this doc. I mean, guy was a fucking SMARTIE. As soon as I saw Hicks on stage in this film I had this potent memory pop into my head of a bit Hicks does where he talks about being a high and getting pulled over by a cop.
I won't ruin it for you.
Google it.
I promptly ordered this book, which I'm now very excited to read.
Watching Hicks tell his stories on stage made me think of my favourite thing about and kind of comedy, which is the comedy that feels like storytelling. Personnal anecdote type stuff. Writing comedy, it's been interesting to me to see how much it is an incredibly condensed, structured, form or storytelling with an eye on a specific chemical reaction generated by specific stories. It's story telling that has its eye on the audience.
I had my stand up comedy debut about a month ago now. It was awesome. If you live in Toronto and you are so inclined, sign up for one of the Comedy Bar's classes. I highly recommend Dawn Whitwell's classes. She is a classy lady and an amazing editor. You can find all the info here.
That's it for me for now. More updates soon!
xo
mariko