Let's Kill Some Babies!

Wednesday February 25th, 2009 - Lake Villa, IL

I don’t have an exact time count but I spent at least a full eight hour day working hard at getting my four and a half minute set ready for The Late Late Show on March 10th. It may have been nine hours or even ten but off an on all day all I did was work on preparing it.

There’s a lot of work involved in this whole process and I‘m not done yet. I must say I have put more preparation time and effort into this one single set than I have for any other comedy project I’ve ever done. No matter how it goes I will have improved my skills and broadened my comic horizons and it will be that much easier to prepare for the next one.

People ask me why it takes so much work to just go on TV for four and a half minutes. It needs to be tight and have a flow and be clean and oh yeah - how about FUNNY too? I worked all day editing and tweaking and switching words and trying different punch lines and switching the order of jokes and adding new ones and it’s all a lot of trial and error.

On top of that I sent the set out to as many people on my list that I thought had at least a smidgeon of comic ability to see what they might add to the mix. I was rewarded with lots of fantastic suggestions I wouldn’t have thought of at all and most of them were very tiny and minor but strung all together and added up it made a major improvement to the set.

Many people I sent it to weren’t actual working standups but they have comic ability so I wanted to tap as much as I could. Many of those are ones who said ‘I don’t want to be a nitpicker BUT…’ and then they’d make a wonderful observation that I will totally use.

I have no qualms at all about this process being a cumulative effort. I have no problems sharing credit either. Many if not most comedians are obsessive about making sure if they ever release a CD it says ‘ALL comedy material written by…’ and their name follows. I’ll gladly pass out credit if I can make my set better and that’s why I asked so many for help.

Yes I know how to do a four and a half minute set and yes I could have done it without any help from others but it wouldn’t be nearly as strong as it is now and I’m fine with the fact others can say ‘You know I gave him that joke.’ Great! But I’m still the one on TV.

Many good comics will give other comics a joke or a tag line that fits better into the act of the receiving comic than it does for the giver. I’ve done it lots of times and it’s cool to see another comic get laughs with a line I thought of. I’ve had comics give me lines too.

I’ve found a percentage of people want ZERO input from anyone. They want it all to be something ‘original’ even though that’s very difficult to accomplish. It’s all been done in one way or another so why not try to do it with style and panache? That’s what I want.

My persona of Mr. Lucky is nothing new and I’m fine with it. A lot of people are seeing my set and saying a variation of ‘This is like a young Rodney Dangerfield.’ Well I guess I just have to live with that. I don’t do Rodney’s jokes but my pedigree is definitely of his.

I think with the circumstances of the country the way they are a new version of Rodney would go over quite well right about now. People are suffering and more will follow in a short time so maybe my timing is good for once in my life. Comedy will be needed. Soon.

What I focused on today was taking all the suggestions I received and carefully reading them over and piecing the set together like a puzzle. Some people liked some of the jokes and others hated the exact same ones. Some suggestions I took immediately but others no.

It’s ultimately up to me and my lifetime of experience to construct this set and send it in to be approved and then polish it up and just go DO it. I heard an interview recently with Quincy Jones discussing the making of the Thriller album with Michael Jackson. He said it was difficult but there were some songs cut out of the final mix because they didn’t fit.

He talked about how everyone liked the songs but for the flow of what they were doing he had to make the decision to cut the songs no matter how painful it was. He referred to the process as an artist ‘killing his babies’ and how difficult that can be for some people.

What I did today was honestly look through the set I had and trim quite a few lines that I liked and may still do again in clubs but for the flow of a TV set just didn’t fit perfectly. It’s not that they weren’t funny it’s just that for this particular set they didn’t mesh well.

Getting to that point alone shows growth because there was a time when I would’ve had a difficult time doing that but not today. I trimmed and cut and edited and what I have left is a very tight and well flowing set which I will submit but still continue to make better.

John Roy was very helpful with this as he’s not only been on the Late Late Show but he also was on The Tonight Show and won $100,000 on Star Search a few years ago. He’s a very meticulous worker and he has been very helpful on giving me inside pointers and the smart way to structure my set. He suggested some cuts and I followed them immediately.

Gene Perret has been absolutely wonderful in all this as well. He has always been a very encouraging mentor and he is an absolute master as the craft of comedy writing. He made several suggestions of both lines and structure and I listened to him as well. I have a very credible list of talented comedy people to consult on this and I’m asking all I can contact.

A television set is very different from a club set or even an audition set. I auditioned for the David Letterman show at Zanies a while back and wasn’t very happy with it. I got the chance to be reviewed by the talent booker Eddie Brill who is also a comic and Eddie was extremely helpful and generous with his time and I thank him for helping me improve.

His critiques were a direct result of me revamping and reworking and being able to find my stride on this particular set I’m doing now. Whether I ever get to do a Letterman show remains to be seen but I do owe Eddie Brill a thank you because indirectly he was the one who steered me in the right direction as far as preparing for a TV shot. I’m very thankful for this shot and am putting in my due diligence and working hard to make it a success.