{"id":220,"date":"2009-06-23T22:52:03","date_gmt":"2009-06-24T06:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richardkiss.com\/?p=220"},"modified":"2021-02-05T17:30:13","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T01:30:13","slug":"people-get-better-at-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richardkiss.com\/?p=220","title":{"rendered":"People Get Better at Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been doing stand-up comedy for four and a half years now, and done over 400 shows. Recently, I taped a longer set I’ve done and posted it on my web site<\/a>. I’m happy to see that I’m improving (I’m assuming. I haven’t actually watched it yet). I did 18 minutes, and while not 100% solid and consistent, it’s definitely tolerable, if not funny. I’m hopefully overcoming my biggest weakness of being too boring and monotone with some fake excitement, inflection and movement.<\/p>\n

Audiences should realize, however that comedians get better. When you go see a comic live, you aren’t seeing a movie. You’re seeing a slice of a comic’s life. Their performance, although possibly rehearsed, is just another rehearsal, another practice for the shows that comes after. It’s not a final product. It’s another attempt, another try at improving, being funnier, becoming more compelling, getting more interesting. You’re just a guinea pig in this somewhat scientific experiment, and your reaction \u2013 laughter, groans, silence, obedience \u2013 is the feedback.<\/p>\n

Just because a comic is not funny or has a bad show does not mean you will never like that comic. It’s pretty amazing how much I’ve learned and changed in just the last two years. Talent plays a role, but comedy, like pretty much anything else, is something you get better at with practice. When you go see a comedian, you’re watching him or her practice. Just by being there, you’re helping comedians get better.<\/p>\n

Thanks, audience member. Here’s your gold star.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been doing stand-up comedy for four and a half years now, and done over 400 shows. Recently, I taped a longer set I’ve done and posted it on my web site. I’m happy to see that I’m improving (I’m assuming. I haven’t actually watched it yet). I did 18 minutes, and while not 100% … Continue reading People Get Better at Stuff<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardkiss.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardkiss.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardkiss.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardkiss.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardkiss.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardkiss.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":602,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardkiss.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions\/602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardkiss.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardkiss.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardkiss.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}