Another Fast Start

Wednesday March 26th, 2008 - Chicago, IL

Today was one of the most productive days I’ve had in a long time. I got in a groove for some reason and I kept it up all day. I’m in a bullet proof mindset and am thinking clearly for a change and I know I’m on the right track. Now I just need to keep this up every day.

I’ve got a lot of stuff going on and I sat down and decided what was the most important thing to focus on before anything else. What do I need to do first and best? After thinking for a while I decided that for right now my standup comedy is in that position. It pays my bills and has for years and years and no matter what else is ahead I need to survive NOW.

My calendar is full enough to keep me alive but not swamped like it’s been many years in the past so I decided that this is a great time to revamp my act. I don’t need to do it but I want to. It will keep it fresh for me and in turn I will be excited about more bookings.

I sat down this morning and started working on the 135 pages of material I worked on a few weeks ago and just hacked it to shreds. I put it in the order I want it and mapped out a plan of how I’m going to incorporate it into what I’m doing now and it was the most fun I can remember having in years. I’ve needed to do this forever and I finally got it started.

It’s like getting a comedy chiropractic session and I can just feel improvement dripping off the page. It was a big deal to get the first version done but now I have it so I can make adjustments and tweak it when I want and I can already see that it was time well spent.

I lost myself in it and by the time I looked at a clock it was 4 in the afternoon. I spent an entire day doing it but I didn’t even notice. I went in and looked at where my act needs an addition or a subtraction and I added and subtracted and arranged and before I knew it the whole document is revamped. It’s now laid out in skeleton form and can be fleshed out.

I couldn’t be more ecstatic about it. It’s like a homeowner finally getting that new roof installed that has needed repairing for years. Now it can rain all it wants and I don’t care. I have a structure of what I need to work on and I’m chomping at the bit to get it on track.

Tonight was another challenging show at Zanies. There were about 50 people but they came around once again at the end. I had to work hard just like last night but I didn’t care. I wanted to try some of my new ideas and I did a couple but more than that I knew I put a full day of work in before the show and nothing can compare to that feeling of pure effort.

Another thing I did was fast today. I’ve been farting around with that for years and I will start and stop but whenever I’ve done it I’ve felt great and today was no exception. I used to think the idea of fasting was insane but now I’m sold on it. It’s good on a lot of levels.

I drank a lot of water and I felt some hunger pangs but they eventually went away. I felt a mental sharpness all day both when working on my act by day or performing it at night. I’m not getting cocky though. I still have a lot of things to work on. Like getting booked.