Making a Career, 1 (maybe)

(Note:  I started working here a month ago.  This is what I looked like then)

And here I am now:

A little less hair.  But the same basic reality:  working as a receptionist.

Volunteering as a receptionist, to be exact.  At an office building in Manhattan.  Corner of 37th and 7th Avenue.

Why am I volunteering?  Well, first of all, this way I avoid the dreaded “job interview.”  I can just come in, do my job, and leave.  I never have to explain what my 3 best qualities are.

But mostly, I’m here because it’s a coworking space that’s shared by tech start-up companies (i.e. smart, young, rich internet people).  I first got involved here because of the non-profit I help with, Resolve Network.  But as I’ve hung out here, I’ve learned about the internet, how to make money on it, and a bunch of other nerdy things I never thought I’d find out about.

I wouldn’t have my new website without this place.  This was a big step in learning how to sell a special online.  I feel comfortable talking business now, and it feels reasonable that within a year or two, I’ll be making my living online.  Which is - as far as I can tell - where most of the comedy money is headed.  

So I’m following the money.  Because I want to make my living as a performer.  As a comic.  And so I’m volunteering at a tech start-up coworking space (I’m still not 100% sure I’m saying that right).  To help make that a reality.

I might be crazy.  I might be throwing away a chance at a real career in comedy, by investing in connections with all the “wrong people,” and trying to “go it alone.”  

I’m not trying to “go it alone,” for the record.  Just not presuming someone else will do things for me.  So I’m here, at this office, which looks like the last place a comic should be.  The people I know here, the people I spend time with here - they can’t help my comedy career.  They can’t get me into any clubs.  They can’t do anything for me - comedically.  Half of them have never heard of Louis C.K.

So maybe I’m screwing up bigtime by having spent so much time here.  I took two months off from performing in November and December.  I called it my “off-season.”  I spent a lot of that time hanging out with the tech people here.  Plotting out the next 5 years of my career.  The next 25 years.  Setting up a system of sustainable financial success, pouring in directly from my comedy.  Which should be the only source of income I need, within the next two years.

Or so I claim.

I bet I looked awfully lazy to anyone living by the traditional model of what a “comedian” is.  And maybe they were right.  Time will tell if my investment was a good one.  Personally, I’m kind of excited to see if I’m crazy or not.  

And that’s exactly it:  I’m fascinated by my own life.  The choices I’ve been making the past few years - I find my life absolutely riveting right now.  And I don’t know a better scent to follow, on the path of life.

Even if it means waking up at 6 in the morning.  Or potentially being seen as the comic who threw away their golden ticket.  Go ahead and call me crazy.  It’s a compliment to me, at this point.  I mean, if it turns out I’m “crazy” this whole time?  What a show to have a front-row seat for, right?

Once more, with feeling

February 2013: A Month

I wanted to put it on record - purely because I get off on this type of thing - that I think this will be an interesting month.  And if I’m documenting my life on this blog, I need to be honest about what I see.  Delusional as it may be.

I think this is going to be a month where things get set into motion.  And I think after all the chips are counted, this is going to be remembered as one hell of a month for me.

February, 2013.  Maybe, maybe not.  But hell yeah, I’m excited to watch everything play out, either way.

Here are the goals I have for this month:

1.  Finish and release my first special
2.  Finish and go live with my new website that will sell my special

3. 50 sets
4. 10 blogs

5.  Go through all recorded sets since my last special, to begin preparing for next special
6.  Document and sort out all potential material for next special
7.  At least three 45+ minute run-throughs, to prepare for my next hour set on March 2

1 and 2 are the ones that stand out, to me.  So if I have to pick two to get done, those will take precedence.  Here’s where things stand now, at the beginning of the month:
__________

The special is about done, and I have a release date in my head of February 25.  Half because that’s my mom’s birthday, and half because I just kind of wanted to pick a “day,” even though there’s no real need to.

The special is basically 100 percent finished, though I won’t have copies of it until my editor returns to New York in mid-February.  But within a day of him returning, I’ll be able to go pick up my first special.  That will feel good, probably.

I’ll then hand that over to the DC-based company that’s putting together my website.  The website should be just about done by then.  The third week of February will be setting up the special on the site, linking the site to my PayPal (and a bunch of other programming stuff that I don’t understand), and then working out any kinks in the process.  Then, by February 21, the site should be live.  And that gives us an extra few days of leeway, before we officially go live on February 25.

Monday, February 25.  And I’ll probably spend a lot of that week sending messages to people, trying to spread the word about the special, and hopefully starting to work on promo videos with Mike Pullano, who edited the special and the credits.

I’ve focused on my “life” - and trying to make it a more well-rounded one - for much of the past 6 months.  I’m looking forward to focusing on stand-up this month, and devoting a good chunk of my time to this specific pursuit of mine.  Maybe that’s the wrong way to do it.  But that’s what my goal is, going into this 2nd month of 2013.

Ha.  2013 is already one-twelfth over.  Time really doesn’t wait for us.  Yeesh.

Alright, time for the obligatory shirtless picture, and then let’s get out to some mics.

My hair may or may not be made of flames

Too Much Time on the Phone

I’ve spent a lot of time on the phone recently.  I know this isn’t what a blog post is supposed to be.  But I have a lot of other things to do this week, and I don’t want to commit to a two-hour block to really write about my experiences right now.

So I’m just going to put it on the record that I’m doing well, and that things are going right now.

I was going to write that “things are going well.”  But things have been going well in the past.  That’s not newsworthy.

Here’s what I’m going to write:

“Things are going forward right now.”

That’s new.  Things have never been going forward.  Not like this.  Not at this speed.  And not with this level of persistence.

I don’t know how to word it right, so that anyone else would understand.  But things are actually happening.  Things are getting done.  The concern over perfection is getting thrown out the window.  And we’re just getting things done.  So that they exist in the world.

Then other people can see the imperfect version I made, and they can say, “How did he screw up that last 10 percent??  90 percent of that was PERFECT!!  How did he screw up that 10 percent??”

And then they’ll make another one.  But a better one.  They’ll find out how hard it is to make something perfect (it’s impossible).  But hopefully, they’ll get 90 percent of my failures right.

Then all of a sudden, my world has a version that’s 99 percent right.  I didn’t make that version.  But who cares?  The world is better.  And I exist in the world.  So even selfishly, my world is better.  I win.

Me: not hungover.  Vijaya: very hungover.

So just to update you:  I’m trying to do some things.  I’m doing some things.  And I’m trying to make them perfect.  But they won’t be.

That’s okay.  Just look at them.  And see the flaws in what I’m doing.  And use that as a road map to be better than me.

But I’m moving forward.  I’m moving the world forward.  I’m moving comedy forward.

That’s worth celebrating.  I’m not perfect.  I’m failing.  But I’m trying.  It honestly feels just as good.  And with a lot less pressure.

This is what it failing feels like.  WHO KNEW??