Four Life Lessons from Comedy
In the beginning of my career, I dabbled with comedy when the scene in India was taking off and did a few shows around the country. These days, I love watching comedy, talking about comedy, discovering new comics, re-discovering my favourite comics, hanging out with comics... you get it. They’re my original tribe and I am a passionate cheerleader of the scene from the sidelines.
Here's 4 reasons to sign up for a comedy workshop or simply go try an open mic (these were only clear to me in retrospect).
1. Truth seeking — Comedy is a subversive art form that has no respect for hierarchy or status quo. The jokes are often at the expense of the establishment and are the underdog’s tool to make a point without upsetting the system - by walking a fine line. At work, this taught me to discard hierarchy and seek truth instead; speak truth to power, however uncomfortable; but then use that to constructively innovate out of status quo. Acknowledging facts that other people simply won’t face or bring up has been the single biggest contribution to any personal satisfaction or professional success.
2. Storytelling — The audience makes up their mind about you in under 20 seconds. This taught me how to tell stories with a good structure. A story has a beginning (setup), middle (conflict) and end (resolution/punchline). A good story will set up characters, introduce a plot-line that raises more questions than it answers, keeps the audience engaged as they find out the answers and finally has a massive pay off (lesson, punchline, plot twist etc.). Storytelling is the foundation all creative endeavours and human relationships. Good marketing, law, comms, sales is at its core good storytelling. Read Sapiens on this subject if you haven’t already.
3. Great is the enemy of good — There’s only one way to get good at comedy - you need to get out there and try your product (material) with users (live audience) and workshop it over time. Even the best comics do this. This taught me that no amount of decks and preparedness can match real world testing and feedback. At work, instead of fearing judgement or trying to appease stakeholders, I launched my work product, actively sought criticism and improved it over time. This resulted in dramatically better real world performance and the eventual realisation that your work speaks for itself.
4. Embrace risk-taking — Getting on stage is a risk. Every second on it is a risk. And there’s a non-trivial chance that your audience doesn’t find you funny even on your best day… well, because the audience is boss.
This taught me to embrace risk. I realised that taking risks actually produces a heightened state of consciousness called FLOW; characterised by timelessness, effortlessness, information richness and complete absorption in the present.
Image courtesy C Wilson Meloncelli blog
This is one of the purest form of happiness I’ve experienced. Ask any comic why comedy is addictive - they will tell you it is because of the live stage shows. Even though they don't pay the most, they have a high frequency, realtime risk-reward loop that makes it worth it.
Finally, risk creates skin in the game (reward/punishment paradigm) and when you win, you get non-linear outcomes.
Wanna know a little secret? People forget the bad jokes - they only remember how good your closing joke was. There’s a lesson in there! ;)
PS - Thanks to all the comics and producers for the shows and memories and special thanks to Papa CJ for launching my comedy career.
