Oswalt starts off:
āThis isā¦so perfect.ā
I like the pause in there. LIke there are no words so he had to notch himself down even though it doesnāt express exactly what he wants to say: ā¦ āso perfectā.
He analyzes Garyās joke and why itās so difficult to do a joke like this (nobody sees how the sausage is made, they only see the final joke after years of perfecting).
Patton closes with: āThank you Gary Gulman. I know a lot of my shitās gonna get angry these next four years, but itās stuff like what Garyās doing that reminds me I gotta make sure itās funny first. Angry doesnāt change shit. Funny disarms the horde.ā
Gary is one of the best in the world. And no matter what area of life you want to improve in, studying in detail someone who is among the best, will up your game.
It ups my game. I am infinitely frail. I fall apart at the slightest resistance. I sometimes canāt handle it. I sometimes canāt handle failing. I donāt always believe you learn from failure.
But studying the best, makes my brain feel good. Like itās being nourished. And that often gives me the strength to persist.
For the past five months Iāve been going up on a stage 2-3 times a week and performing standup comedy in front of an audience.
Often the other performers are people who were on the Colbert Show the night before. Or just released an hour-long Netflix special.
So I have to up my game all the time. I want to be āone of themā. And I donāt want people in the audience to be able to tell that Iām different.
Plus, I get scared to death. I am honestly so scared I am about to cry every time I am about to go on stage. Even if Iām going on stage to perform just five minutes of jokes. Five minutes is an eternity.
What I realized, and will save for a future post, is that there are at least 20 or 30 (and probably much more) āmicro-skillsā that I could not have possibly imagined when trying to get better at standup comedy.
Iāve been public speaking for 20 years. Is it that different?
Yes.
Which is why I had to have Gary Gulman on the podcast. One of the best in the world.
I said above āfive minutes is an eternityā.
Gary told one joke on Conan in 2016 that lasted six minutes. One joke where (and I measured it) he gets laughs every ten to fifteen seconds throughout.
He uses every skill in the comicās toolbox. And probably many more that I havenāt been able to understand yet.
I printed up the joke. I gave it to Gary. I said, āI want to analyze this joke word by word.ā
The first thing he said is, āThis almost depresses meā.
āHow come?ā
āIt took years to write this joke. And the others that I came out with around then. Itās so hard. Sometimes I canātā even get up because itās so hard to do this.ā
What follows is one of my favorite podcasts. We cover his career, the techniques he learned and how he learned them.
We cover the depression and anxiety and fear that goes into building any career out of excellence. We cover the micro-skills.
No matter what you do in life, the one who masters all the master skills of your field of endeavor will be the one who rises to the top. How do you identify those skills? How do you master them?
And we analyze this joke. To see the joke, Google: āYoutube Gary Gulman Conan States (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLECCmKnrys) ā. Itās his 7/13/16 performance. Watch it first.
Here are some things I learned:
Part A) DELIVERY
1. COMMITMENT
The whole joke is about the states and how they were abbreviated. Gary walks out on stage, āI just wanted to recommend a documentary to everyone and then Iām going to go.ā Everyone laughs.
No one believes him. But heās totally COMMITTED to the joke.
In the podcast he says, āIām bragging, really. Because I know I have something in my pocket that Iāve polished so frequently over the years. Years and years have gone into this one joke. And I know they havenāt seen it. Itās almost like Iām say, āWait till you get a load of me.āā
A lot of comedians just pander for a laugh, especially in the beginning. Yes, fart jokes work. But GREAT comedy is art.
Garyās worked hard and heās know it. This transcends more than just jokes. People wonāt always know that what you have to offer is valuable to them. Until you show it.
Thatās how Gary builds rapport with the audience. They sense the commitment. They are in for the ride.
2. BUILD UP CAPITAL
Audiences are terrifying. And often they donāt know you.
Might be a business audience in a meeting. Might be a reader. Might be a listener or a crowd. Or a comedy club audience.
They have to like you. Johnny Carson has said that this is the most important skill for a comedian.
Likeability.
Watch Garyās clip and see how he becom...