ͳe quality of my comedy just got way better. I had more
time to focus on the art of it, and I was getting to know
myself better. I was paying attention to my feelings about
things.
In stand-up, you do need to be having fun up there like
Richard Pryor said, but you have to know yourself well, too.
You have to know when you make diĉerent faces, or do
different things, you get certain reactions. You start learning
and it’s like playing a piano. You just know exactly what
keys to stroke, ’cause really with comedy, you’re like fiddling
with people’s souls. You resonate on the same frequency as
them, trying to get them to relate.
To do that, you gotta put yourself out there. And in
order to put yourself out there, you’ve gotta have an idea of
who you are and how people react to that.
A lot of shows during this time stick out in my memory. I
did a show in Arizona that was sold-out, and the thing that
I remember the most about it was this lady sitting in the
front row. She had this mean face. She was mean-mugging
me the first ten, fifteen minutes of my set.
I made it my mission to make her laugh, and she would
not laugh. It took me like twenty minutes to get her to
laugh, and once she did laugh, though, she laughed so hard
that snot new out of her nose. After the show, I went out
and danced all night in celebration. I was so proud of
myself.
Another time, in the middle of the show, the heel on my
shoe broke. So I just did like ten minutes about my shoe,
how cheap the shoe was, why the shoe broke, all that. When
ann
(Ann)
#1