From Open Mic to Laugh Factory in One Year
5 lessons learned from one year in Comedy
I did my first open mic in LA on August 14th, 2022.
I performed for the first time at the Laugh Factory, Hollywood on August 10th, 2023.
Most people never get there and even if they do, it takes years.
In today’s email:
The Laugh Factory BTS: A 30 second BTS video of my first time performing
5 takeaways: Lessons learned from getting on the biggest stage in Hollywood
What to expect: what’s Killing Shame?
One night in 23 seconds. What do you think?
1. It's a bigger risk to not take the risk
18 months ago if you told me, I’d be performing at the Laugh Factory, The Comedy Store, producing my own show with the best comics in the world, get reposted by 9GaG, 800K+ likes, 7M+ views. I wouldn’t have believed you.
I wish I could show you how close I was to not trying and having none.
2. Perspective is EVERYTHING
Getting on stage isn’t the hardest part, dealing with shame is.
Inviting friends to a show and bombing on stage, while no one laughs for 8 minutes is hard. It destroys your self esteem and magnifies every negative thought about yourself.
Change your perspective. You didn’t bomb, you A/B tested. If I don’t bomb I haven’t taken a risk and without risk I cannot grow as a comic.
3. Think Like a Startup
Comedy is tough in LA, stage time is a scarce resource and at the big clubs I’m literally competing with Bill Burr and Nikki Glaser to perform. Obviously I will lose.
What do you do? Change the game.
Create your own show and get friends and connections to come out monthly. Barter stage time with other comics that produce shows. Pitch comedy shows to businesses with existing audiences (member clubs, gyms, art galleries) and use their built-in audience to produce events, get stage time and GIVE more stage time.
4. Only I will control my life, no one else will
I find it harder to post on social media than doing standup. Because if I bomb on stage it's in front of a 100 people, but if I bomb on social it’s in front of everyone I know.
What will they think? This isn’t funny, I’m not funny. Is this cringe?
I have the exact same thought writing this now, but I know now there is ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT. And also who cares? They can't do what I'm doing and as for as I'm concerned I'm the main character in my life.
5. More experiences = More learnings
I’ve failed at a lot of endeavors and have often been told I’ve wasted my time on something that didn’t workout. I think that couldn’t be further from the truth.
All hard things have similar patterns and once you identify that everything connects.
Struggling to cold call on my first sales job, helped me create a thick skin. Doing comedy taught me to be speak up in meetings without fear of judgement. Working on my last startup taught me how to build communities via newsletters.
Fuck what they say. Do what scares you.
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