The Shame from Bombing on Stage
Bombing on stage: the act of delivering jokes to an audience with such few laughs in response that you sink deeper into the stage until it swallows you whole and the nightmare ends.
You’re in for a treat of a video today, but first.
I’ve bombed several times. Without bombing you can’t get better. But it can be a scarring experience. My entire obsession with Killing Shame is to be immune to bombing. Go on stage for 10 minutes, get 0 laughs and still maintain the elite level of confidence I have before I get on stage. In some messed up freudian ways THAT is my ultimate goal.
LAST WEEK I bombed hard and I’m still recovering - here’s how it went down…
In Today’s Email: (Read time: 4 min)
Bomb So Hard: Please don’t remind me Jay-Z
[Video] Meet Abu: The new character I’m workshopping
Comic To Watch: BOOYAKASHA!
💣 💣 💣 💣 💣
Here’s what happened. Ever since I watched Jim Carrey playing Andy Kauffman a month ago, I’ve been fixated on doing weird character work. Think Borat, Ali G, Bruno type characters but on stage and not just being funny BUT also WEIRD AF.
Making people laugh by making people uncomfortable, there’s a valley somewhere between feeling uncomfortable and feeling unsafe where pure joy and laughter lies. That’s what I’ve been trying to find.
So 3 weeks ago I did my first show in character - Abu - a stereo-typical image of what an untraveled American might think an untraveled Arab would look like.
Thick accent, funny laugh, archaic values, Borat vibes.
I entered the comedy club before the show and every one of the 70 audience members inside stopped what they were doing and stared at me as I walked in.
Meet ABU 😂 - This could either go really good or really bad - I had never been so excited and terrified at the same time.
I did the show and it went really well, the crowd loved it and I felt a new dimension in comedy open up. (I’ll talk more about this next week)
NOW coming to how I bombed. Two weeks later I performed in Dubai and I decided to do some character work. I couldn’t do Abu, cause … that would be like telling a homeless person a knock knock joke.
SO INSTEAD - I just became WEIRD AF. No words spoken for the first minute on stage, walking around the audience, maintaining deep eye contact, quivering voice and innocent punchlines. Here’s the good and the bad.
The good:
The audience was completely engrossed and listened to every word
They were utterly confused, they didn’t know how to react
They had never seen anything like this before
The bad:
The confusion didn’t convert to as much laughter as I had hoped for
After shows people come up to me to chat, this time no one did haha
In terms of total laughs - I was one of the worse comics at the show
OH, also my family was present 😆
Unfortunately I didn’t take a video of the performance, but I would have loved to show you how quite the room got. The secondhand embarrassment would’ve been so powerful this post could go viral.
But after the show I felt mixed emotions. Happy that I had evolved in my art to have the balls to do something so risky. I felt confident and comfortable in this weird character. But I also felt a LOT of shame. I didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone as soon as I got off stage, I didn’t want to mingle with people post show, I didn’t want to talk to my fam - I FELT HUMILIATION.
And that was NEW. I’d never felt that after a performance. I knew what I was trying, but maybe people in the audience did not and they were judging me on what I just did on stage while my family saw me take an L on stage. In my mind, people’s perception of my comedy abilities diminished and I felt like a noob.
I’m still processing from that show and recalibrating thoughts. Overall it was a landmark performance for me where I figured out WHAT I was capable of BUT most importantly it showed me a WEAK SPOT in my armor. A point of extreme vulnerability that was able to take over my feelings.
I guess it’s time to nip it in the bud and KILL SHAME through a LOT more embarrassing character work 😈
Comic To Watch
This week’s gotta be dedicated to the legend: Sacha Baron Cohen
I mean there’s really nothing I can say here that you already don’t know but he is the GOD of character work. Borat, Ali G, Bruno, The Dictator are all masterpieces.
Fun fact
He took clown training in Paris under master-clown Philippe Gaulier and this is what he says - "Without him, I really do doubt whether I would have had any success in my field"
That’s all for today folks.
- Talk soon Killers!