As well as a great comedian he was recognised as a satirist and social critic. One of his most famous routines is “Seven Naughty Words”. This is an amiable piece that nonetheless makes use of language that is deemed indecent. The broadcast of the routine over radio landed Carlin in the US Supreme Court.

In the 1978 case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation the court held in a 5-4 decision that the govenment is allowed to regulate indecent language on public airwaves. George Carlin’s right to free speech was deemed not to extend to the new media of the era.

Despite the scenario suggested by the routine, the FCC has never maintained a specfic list of prohibited words. However, they claim to have internal (non-transparent) guidelines which sufficiently determine what is and isn’t indecent.

In follow-up rulings the Supreme Court has softened its stance about instances of obscene speech, however they have never over-turned F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation. Free speech continues to be a point of contention in any media other than print press or public declamation (and even that is questionable). The US government is very much into the letter of the law and apparently not the spirit of freedom.

This is why in addition to bodies such as the American Civil Liberties Union or Civil Liberties Australia we also have the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Electronic Frontiers Australia (of which I am a lifetime member). Other countries face similar problems and some have similar bodies. People in power continue to fear words more than weapons and sex more than violence.

In memory of George Carlin and in support of free speech I encourage people to download the “Seven Naughty Words” routine and find places where you can read it publicly with your friends. This could be in a comedy club, a cafe, or even the steps of Parliament.

The version of the routine which is held by the Supreme Court is copyright free and you can download it from here: http://www.georgecarlin.com/update_10-29-08/documents/index.html

I prefer the version found on Carlin’s album Class Clown. Those words can be found on many lyrics Web sites.

Read “Seven Naughty Words”, rediscover George Carlin’s genius, have fun, and do something on the behalf of free speech. Let freedom ding-a-ling.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

Emotion

We are constantly comparing and contrasting ourselves with the people around us and the people we experience in stories, whether the stories are fiction or non-fiction. When we diverge from what seems to be standard or what we set as our standard, we question ourselves. That questioning includes whether we are feeling the right things at the right moments. Humans are a pretty insecure bunch.

On a less insecure level we are also curious about the diversity of human behaviour and experience. It’s useful to practise empathy. Empathy makes civilisation possible. More problematic is when we have cut ourselves off from our own emotional experience and seek vicarious emotional rushes from the extreme behaviour of others.

Emotion and Subtlety

When writing comedy we want to take people on an emotional journey. People tend to better remember those moments where we inspired tears or laughter, than what only intellectually engaged them. So, we want all the fervency we can pack into a five to sixty minute routine or sitcom. The problem is you can’t start with trying to deliver an emotion. You have to start with a story.

Story provides context. We know certain situations are sad, happy, or funny. If we plunk a character within sad, happy, or funny circumstances, people will automatically start interpreting that character’s behaviour as being reflective of those circumstances. Subtle acting and storytelling techniques are often the most effective, because audiences more frequently experience having to interpret emotion, rather than being confronted with someone emoting at them. They are more likely to believe subtlety.

Sergei Eisenstein is one of film’s and film theory’s earliest pioneers. He demonstrated that when you create a montage of terrifying events, if you then follow this montage with an image of someone’s face, that face can be completely neutral, but the audience will see it as expressing terror. Putting certain types of music behind a neutral face will also encourage particular interpretations.

Emotion and Exaggeration

Now you may be saying to yourself: but I do comedy, and comedy often uses emotional exaggeration. Yes, it does. You still have to understand the subtleties in order to more effectively wield your giant comedy hammer. Not everyone in a comedy routine or story is going to be exaggerating or using the same sort of exaggeration. Your comedy leads may be playing off straights in order to create a comic contrast. Your comedy lead may be mostly straight, and it’s funny when they lose their cool in an exaggerated manner.

In the new Australian comedy Woodley, Frank’s estranged wife is practical, down-to-Earth, and sober. He wants to win her back and knows he needs to bring a seriousness to his behaviour that just isn’t part of his character. So when we sense she is assessing Frank and he is making increasingly outrageous mistakes due to his nervousness, the dynamic feels right. Our own mistakes feel exaggerated when we are squirming under what we assume is a judgemental eye. We empathise with Frank and find the whole thing exceptionally funny.

Show Me the Emotion

Woodley is a particularly good example when it comes to emotion, because it almost entirely follows the old film dictum, “Show us, don’t tell us.” When Frank is standing on a bridge dressed as a giant mascot egg and is about to jump, he doesn’t tell us he’s in despair, he shows us. He doesn’t even tell us why he is in despair, we are shown that in flashbacks. We then share some of his feelings.

As comedians we often base our routines on our own lives. Humour is a way to gain perspective on our lives, but it doesn’t guarantee perspective. When we feel something deeply or strongly, the temptation is to try and enforce that feeling on our audience. So we may over-describe or over-emphasise the importance of an event. We may say “I was SO ANGRY!” rather than showing the audience angry or simply presenting circumstances that would make anyone angry.

In the end you can’t demand people feel things. You can only provide the context whereby they may allow themselves to feel emotion. This is where you have to be honest about your own feelings and you have to respect other’s feelings every time you tell a story. The better artist avoids emotional manipulation. The better artist educates us in what our emotions are and how we can make them a part of a mature and fulfilling life.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

Theories of storytelling are beginning to converge, not so much because we are finding commonalities across media, but because everyone is slowly being sold on the Hollywood idea of storytelling. I find that disappointing because we are losing a richness of shared experience and worse, we are losing empathy and understanding for the breadth of human experience.

What Writers Say

Writers can say many wise and insightful things about their art, but you must remember that this is anecdotal evidence. When you read what John Gardner, Anne Lamott, Natalie Goldberg, or Syd Field have to say about story, one person is speaking about their experience and you will find that other people may have different experiences.

To overcome relying on a narrow viewpoint, some writers will do a comparative survey of what many respected authors have said about their work. This certainly has the potential to provide a more universal viewpoint. But don’t be fooled.

The person doing the survey may have a theoretical barrow to push. They will then selectively include in their research those people who agree with their writing theory. In proper academic research you need to demonstrate you are at least aware of the people who disagree with you. However, once a book is meant for popular consumption, intellectual integrity can be thrown out the door in favour of saleability.

The person doing the survey may be doing their honest best. However, we are all of our time and writers, as much as anyone, can be influenced by fads. Much storytelling advice is still based on the ideas of EM Forster in Aspects of the Novel. Most people are unaware of this and use his words as if they came from God. Aspects of the Novel was published in 1927 and was already an outdated work when it was released, because avant garde works by people such as Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and William Faulkner changed people’s expectations. Some tricks of the trade these authors developed became part of mainstream storytelling.

If you are not of a literary bent, just take a look at the diffences between old film comedies and new comedies. Watching some of Charlie Chaplin’s films, it’s hard to grasp why people found certain things funny. Further, the pacing is much slower than we expect today. What’s Up Doc with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal was a hit in 1972, but if you were to release it this year, people might also find it tedious and slow.

What Jungian Campbellites Say

Joseph Campbell’s ideas about mythology and archetypes have achieved cult status amongst Hollywood scriptwriters, and since these people are highly visible in our culture, writers in other media are also taking on Campbell’s ideas.

Now Campbell never earned a PhD. His work is based on textual analysis and comparison. He does this from a largely Jungian and mystic perspective. His theory concerning The Hero’s Journey has little to no basis in sociology or cognitive science. These have already disproved parts of his theory, but this goes largely unnoticed by the storytelling community. It’s much easier to stick with what you think you know, and what you may fetishistically believe will sell.

We are told by some purveyors of writing knowledge that stories such as Cinderella are archetypical, and by archetypical they mean either it has an absolute and mystical presence in a group consciousness we all share or that it is hardwired into our brains.

Cinderella is the story of a young woman, who because of her submissive goodness, earns being magically brought together with a young man of high and unearned status to become his consort. Obedience is portrayed as more important than asserting your right to humane treatment. Rescue for women must come from others. Marriage is portrayed as the ultimate reward for good behaviour. Monarchy, as opposed to democracy, is portrayed as an idyllic state.

Do people really want to enshrine the values in these old stories?

What Katherine Says

Comedy often subverts these stories because the surprise from going against expectations creates laughter. However, the laughter is also created from the recognition, at last, that these stories are just fairytales.

Comedian Carol Burnett in the 1970s played Snow White in a sketch. Only this is the Snow White fifteen years into her marriage to Prince Charming. Stories frequently end with two people marrying and living “happily ever after”. But as every adult married person knows, it’s not that simple. Every relationship will have its ups, downs, and disagreements. So Burnett portrays a dissatisfied Snow White who is facing the very real disappointments that come with age and sexism. Her problems are resolved when one of the dwarves returns and tells her how much he and all the creatures of the forest love and miss her. He is not concerned with what she looks like, but the memory of friendship and good times.

This would not be the first time that a send-up presents a more balanced and sensible approach to life.

Now this sketch isn’t perfect, a bit of homophobia is thrown into the blend. It does demonstrate that we have many more story possibilities available to us than a cliched and conservative monomyth. No one misunderstood the sketch’s message, it wasn’t inaccessibly avant garde, and people enjoyed themselves.

Imitation is a good way to learn and gain skills as an artisan in any medium. The trick is to not let yourself get imprisoned by unfortunate cultural expectations. Shake your mind loose from the dominant stories and start seeing life for what it is…then show us something new, exciting, and funny.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

When I was growing up my family moved town on several occasions. These moves were to small towns, towns that my parents felt would be safer and hold more traditional values than a city. Americans tend to characterise small towns as either places full of dumb hicks or a sort of 1950s utopia…even those who live in them.

Being the new kid in a small town is a misery. The other kids know you are a safe target for all their frustration and anger. Picking on you won’t endanger their status with the other kids.

Some kids overcome their bullied status by becoming the class clown. This usually only works with the boys. You will have heard of some comedians who made their start this way. With a girl it serves to make her even more of a target, with the other kids feeling the need to put her in her place. Don’t let anyone get sentimental at you about the innocence of childhood, that innocence disappears at a very early age.

Everyone needs friends. Given my situation as the new kid, the only solution was to open up to anyone who was willing to be a friend. These were usually the kids on the fringes.

My best friend in one of the towns where we lived was Michelle. Both of her parents were deaf, so she had developed a speech impediment. She also had wild red hair, glasses, and a wicked sense of humour. I remember going to her house, reading her Vampirella comic books, listening to her teach her budgie the lyrics to the streaker song, and laughing hysterically at our jokes.

That town had been particularly harsh. The level of violent crime there even made it to national news. Between us Michelle and I found a little slice of joy and a whole lot of resilience, despite the darkness, through the powers of friendship and laughter. I also learned a very big lesson in not judging a book by its cover. Kind and beautiful people are to be found all over the place and in the most unusual packages.

Understanding Characters

Some comedians like trading on caricatures and stereotypes of people. They use their audience’s expectations about certain groups of people and then either confirm or subvert them with their jokes. Often the comedians have had little to no direct experience of these people, or for whatever reason choose not to see beyond their own expectations.

What would such comedians make of Michelle? She would be easy to send up, if they had never met her or spent time getting to know what a big heart she has. The same is true for many other people.

For a short time I lived in Hahndorf, South Australia. That little town was frequented by members of biker clubs, particularly around Christmas. This is when members of many biker clubs band together and ride from Adelaide to Hahndorf for the Christmas Toy Run. The toys are often strapped to their handlebars and, when they reach their destination, are donated to the St Vincent de Paul Society for distribution to children in need.

I would regularly chat with this or that big fella in black leather motorcycle gear having a cappucino at one of our cafes. More than that I would ask them about their experiences travelling across country. They had some great stories. I have to admit, the description I carried in my head of these guys was giant teddy bears.

Now certainly, some bike groups are dangerous gangs. These aren’t the ones who ride up to Hahndorf, nor are they the majority. However, they are the ones who receive the most media attention and stick in people’s minds.

A couple years later I moved back to Melbourne and had a show in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. A British comedian friend was helping me with my marketing. At one point we were standing in front of Melbourne Town Hall handing out flyers to our shows. I wandered up to a couple of bearded guys in biker gear, leaflet in my hand. My friend started waving at me to stop. I gave them the flyer and returned to my friend. “Don’t waste your time with those guys, they aren’t going to turn up at your show. You need to be more targeted and effective,” she said. I understood what she was trying to say. My show could be described as cute and a bit earnest, not what you would expect to be of interest to these guys. But guess who turned up that night! Two big biker guys.

Because I was willing to see beyond the biker image, I learned a lot more about who these people are, how they live, what they do, what’s important to them, and made friends. This gives me a lot more detail for telling comedic stories which include bikers and an element of truth. I also opened the door to an unexpected audience.

I have similar stories about my goth, punk, and furry friends. They are all such wonderful glorious people, if only others would take the time to discover this. I’m sure I have some of the weirdest looking audiences on Earth. I wouldn’t have it any other way. These people are life at its most creative and vibrant.

You want a successful comedy career? You want something unique and special to say that people will remember? Open up to humanity and allow yourself to discover the veins of gold.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

A number of things are interesting about this talk. Certainly, the subject matter is interesting and well worth considering. I was also fascinated by Shawn Achor’s use of humour. He has a real ease with telling relevant stories that illustrate his points and keep people listening in anticipation of the comedic pay-offs. His presentation style and message is not that different from Adam Hills’s.

For comparison.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

Civilisation, and the coordinated cooperation that comes with it, has certainly made it possible for us to develop survival strategies at a much faster pace than biological evolution. However like many things such as cyanide, which becomes toxic with refinement, certain aspects of our culture have become toxic with their refinement: things including media marketing, corporate values, and the concentration of power.

The core values that are consciously and subconsciously driving our culture are: status, dominance, and control at all costs.

For a bit of fun I regularly read the Neatorama Website. Recently they republished an article that was based on a campaign begun by Commercial Alert in the 90s. This campaign had to do with the way companies were attempting to control the minds of our children in order to extract more money from the parents. Here is a portion of the open letter sent by Ralph Nader, Gary Ruskin, and a group of others in 1998 to the International Advertising Association in order to encourage the establishment of ethical guidelines.

Advertising firms use techniques that harm children and families, including:

• Convincing children that purchasing products will solve their problems and make them happy.
• Exploiting a child’s emotional weaknesses, such as his or her sense of insecurity, inferiority, need to be loved, powerlessness, and need to fit in.  Nancy Shalek, then-president of Shalek Advertising Agency, explained: “Advertising at its best is making people feel that without their product, you’re a loser.  Kids are very sensitive to that.  If you tell them to buy something, they are resistant.  But if you tell them that they’ll be a dork if they don’t, you’ve got their attention.  You open up emotional vulnerabilities and it’s very easy to do with kids because they’re the most emotionally vulnerable.”
• Fueling anger and rebelliousness among youth.  According to Rick Litman, a partner at Kid 2 Kid Research, “marketing is a unique process in which corporations learn to use youth rebellion to more effectively target a product and sell a product.”
• Manipulating children to nag their parents to buy products.  In other words, pitting children against their own parents, and causing strife within families.  As Cheryl Idell, director of strategic planning and research at Western International Media, explains “It’s not just getting kids to whine, it’s giving them a specific reason to ask for the product.”

Children are unable to defend themselves against this commercial manipulation.  They cannot understand the manipulation that your industry subjects them to.  They are not mature enough to see through what advertisers direct towards them.

What IAA and Advertising Firms Can Do for Children

Think about when that was written. It would mean that people had been observing and creating the effects of child targeted advertising for at least a decade. So the generation of comedians we are now seeing would have been influenced by a culture saturated with this child marketing. I remember in my own childhood how angry some parent groups were with Sesame Street because it deliberately used advertising formats as a way to capture the attention of children and teach them literacy and numeracy.

This generation has been taught to be insecure and that insecurity is resolved through materialism (life is short, eat dessert first). They have been taught that it’s cool to be rebellious like the kids in the sixties had been, but it’s taken out of context and equated with freedom without responsibility (silence is golden, but shouting is fun). They have been taught the need for uniforms of solidarity in a generational us against them culture (all black couture and all the latest technology). And they completely get the golden rule: those who have the gold make the rules. And how do you get that gold: status, dominance, and control.

It’s no wonder we have so many angry comedians at the moment. Anger has been portrayed as sexy. And yet mostly I’m seeing purely anti-social anger. During the Vietnam war when George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, and the Smothers Brothers were angry, they had a reason to be angry. Ongoing racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc means that when Dick Gregory, Margaret Cho, and Lily Tomlin are angry, they have reason to be angry. This generation has reason to be angry as well, but marketing has made it hard for them to properly see and take aim at their target.

The skinny-fat debate has women tearing one another to shreds. This plays right into the hands of corporations who will use the anger and insecurity to sell more products. The solution is for women to turn around and demand to be valued for the quality of their character, rather than their appearance. Men are given cool detached icons to emulate—so cool and detached that men are no longer involved with families, friends, or their community, then have severe problems with loneliness, depression, and suicide.

In fact we are seeing a massive divide and conquer campaign through marketing. So long as people distrust and wish to out-do one another, you can convince them to keep on buying your “weapons” such as makeups or 4WDs. The arms race we are holding against ourselves is bringing about the dissolution of our civilisation.

Think about how many close friends you really have. Facebook has encouraged a generation who are satisfied with “Tupperware friends”. These are friends close enough to invite to the party, distant enough to not mind selling them things. What everyone needs is at least three “lasagne friends”. These are friends who when you have no money after the rent is paid are happy to pop by with a lasagne.

In my pursuit to get laughs I’m disturbed about the times when I have been complicit in this culture. When I make self-deprecating jokes about the (small) size of my breasts: on the one hand I am revealing to other women that I have insecurities as well, on the other I am perpetuating the idea that breast size is an issue of real concern.

I’m also aware of the times when certain comedies started out as satire, but ended up being perceived as celebrations of the very things they stood against. The character of Archie Bunker in All In The Family was meant to be an unreconstructed man and a person worthy of derision. Every week he was given one-liners to characterise his narrow view of the world, such as, “I’m not racist! I’ll be the first to say it, it’s not their fault they’re colored!” People would then quote these the following week in a positive manner. The creators cancelled the show when they discovered the hero Archie had become to their audience. The Simpsons followed a similar trajectory, their lead characters originally were meant to be unsympathetic. I once worked with a child whose developmentally delayed brother was forbidden to watch The Simpsons because he would emulate Bart. He was incapable of seeing the satire. What he saw was a self-directed, empowered boy.

Addressing these issues is tricky, but it still needs to be done. Fear has brought us to this place. Fear about survival, fear of one another, fear of loneliness. Carpe diem (seize the day) has been too long interpreted as “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” Instead let us savour experience out of a respect for life. This draws out the fear and grounds us in a healthy and balanced approach to the present. You can also “seize the day” by performing one act of kindness right here and right now.

The awesome thing about live comedy is that it brings people into a social experience. The next step is activate these people into forming communities. These could simply be communities of friendship, but that’s a big step toward eliminating the fears. The following step would be to help these communities begin a dialogue, which is a thoughtful and compasionate examination of all things social, political, commercial, etc, followed by life-affirming action. Now is the time for people to learn how to think for themselves. Now is the time for people to assert for themselves that they are valuable, not because they look a certain way or own certain things, but because they care and are doing something about it.

Can you tell a joke that makes someone feel better about themselves? Start doing it. It will be the most authentically edgy thing you could do today.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

Those who have been bullied in their childhood do not always recognise that in their efforts to gain “justice”, they are merely putting the shoe on the other foot and become bullies themselves. Anyone in any sort of power who abuses that position by stripping another intellectually, emotionally, culturally, or physically of their humanity is a bully.

Someone bigger and stronger who pins someone smaller and weaker against a wall, putting them in physical distress, is a bully. Someone who holds high position within cultural mainstream, who then emotionally belittles someone who is vulnerable and not part of the mainstream, is a bully. Someone who has had benefit of an expensive education, who then mocks the sincere beliefs of those with less access to an education, is a bully. It is all right to disagree with another. Anytime someone invalidates another, we are entering into abuse.

For some reason of late comedy has been lauded when it is “dark and edgy” and “politically incorrect”. This quote from an article about the downward slide of Saturday Night Live reflects some of my concern about this material.

Disdain for “political correctness” is often positioned as a concern that some important truth is not being spoken for fear of offending someone. But that concern is nothing but smoke and mirrors. To invoke “political correctness” is really to be concerned about loss of power and privilege. It is about disappointment that some “ism” that was ingrained in our society, so much that citizens of privilege could express the bias through word and deed without fear of reprisal, has been shaken loose. Charging “political correctness” generally means this: “I am comfortable with my privilege. I don’t want to have to question it. I don’t want to have to think before I speak or act. I certainly don’t wish to inconvenience myself for the comfort of lesser people (whoever those people may be–women, people of color, people with disabilities, etc.)”
—What Tami Said: Conservatives, “political correctness” and the incredibly offensive unfunniness of “Saturday Night Live”

I highly recommend reading the entire article. I believe at least a few comedians are good-hearted enough that with a little self-awareness, they may move away from their less savoury material.

Here is another quote worth considering by art historian Kenneth Clark.

We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs
—Kenneth Clark

Our culture is currently falling to bits. We are seeing more and more world financial crises. We are also facing more and greater natural disasters brought on by our own production of carbon emissions. These situations may seem to justify a position of cynicism and disillusion, but that creates apathy and self-fulfilling prophecies.

What we need is not a natural optimism, but a hard-won optimism. An optimism that says, “I know things are hard, but I WILL make things better. I WILL do what it takes to ensure the future is bright. And I have faith that I can.” Comedy is good at this sort of message. We aren’t looking for sugar-coated aphorisms that are clearly hollow. We want a genuine realism which accepts that with a public will and responsibility, we can make things better. Mohandas Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr lived that sort of realism.

Use your power for good, people.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

One of the most important skills you can develop, if you are committed to your work, is humility.

Personal humility is not the same as a willingness to be bullied or humiliated. It’s about emotional maturity and a supple ego. Someone with an immature and bloated ego will be unable to listen to advice that might help move their work to a professional level.

As comedians humility is an absolute necessity when facing an unappreciative audience. If your routine dies and/or people are heckling you, it is much more prudent for your career to maintain a level of graciousness. The instant you get angry with your audience and tell them so, you lose your audience, and are unlikely to ever win them back.

Here are some of the characteristics of humility.

* You are willing to accept your limitations.

If you are still unsure of your microphone technique, be willing to admit this so you can receive some help. If your spelling isn’t all it should be, don’t sweat it when someone points this out on your press release, and be open to finding a friend who can do some copyediting for you.

* You are willing to accept you may be mistaken or wrong.

You turn up at a gig thirty minutes late, because you are sure the venue owner told you your set started at 9pm not 8:30pm. The owner is furious with you. Instead of defending yourself, you apologise and admit that you must have misheard the time, then make an offer of appeasement such as helping with the clean-up at the end of the night. Now, you may have heard rightly, but memory, particularly short-term memory, is a tricky thing. Better to err on the side of humility and graciousness. It improves your reputation.

* You are willing to change your mind, if something else seems more right or true.

Don’t change your mind on those things you feel are good and true. However, don’t be so attached to them that with new information, you aren’t prepared to accept something else as better reflecting reality.

When I was a child I was fully into Creationism, because that’s what my family said was real. They said scientists were out to trick us into falling from the one-true path. One of the first required university courses I took was evolutionary biology. The lecturer was a kind man who was fascinated by plants. He was genuinely respectful of my religious stance, even though he was an admitted atheist. I could have listened to my ego and not seen the beauties of nature he was revealing, because that would mean I had been wrong for many years. Alternatively, I could shift my outlook to what seemed more true, even if it felt uncomfortable for awhile. I learned to not mind uncomfortable transitions. This was made possble due to that lecturer’s respect.

* You are willing to accept that someone else, regardless of status, could be more right than you.

I have to admit that I get annoyed with the advice of know-nothing know-it-alls who seem to think they are imparting the greatest of wisdom on my art when they have spent no time whatsoever in learning and/or practising that art. Watching television sitcoms evidently gives them a license to lecture. However, if the majority of your audience is not responding to certain aspects of your routine and they are all saying the same thing, such as you need to slow down your pacing…then you should probably slow down your pacing.

* You are comfortable with allowing varying views on the truth.

This takes us back to accepting limitations. I don’t know all there is to know about life, the universe, and everything…I could be wrong. I am also aware of the times I thought I knew the truth, then changed my mind, then changed my mind again (not that I’m always changing my mind). As such, who am I to judge someone else’s view on truth? They may be more right than I am. With a little time and experience they may even change their minds as well. Life is a process, and we and our understanding are also processes.

Living with uncertainty is a frightening thing for many people. They want to know that there’s a place for everything with everything in its place. That will never happen. Laughter is one of the best ways to help people find the resilience to allow for an ambiguous universe. Comedians play with the absurdity of life all the time. Sometimes two apparently opposing views are both true: light is both a wave and a particle. Tolerance makes dialogue possible. Dialogue makes greater understanding possible.

* You are willing to accept that you are not necessarily better or worse than anyone or everyone else.

We ARE all unique, but often we want to be absolutely and incontrovertibly unique. I am THE funniest person in Australia. I am THE most miserable person on Earth. No one else even comes near to my joy or sorrow. Yes, it’s ego, but I think we all slip into “three-year-old centre of the universe” mode upon occasion and feel those ways.

Humility makes it possible for us to say, “I may not be the biggest, smallest, goodest, baddest at anything, but that’s okay. I’m all I need to be and I’m happy.” All we ever need do is our best and leave it at that without comparison. Beginning comedians can kill their own careers with self-doubt, if they don’t learn this form of humility straight-away.

* You think neither more nor less of yourself based on other people’s assessments of you.

Styles change, public opinion changes, different people like different things. You will never be able to please everyone all the time. Relying on external validation for your self-esteem is a fool’s game. When someone compliments you, you accept that compliment with good grace and say “thank you.” It is a gift that deserves respect. When someone offers you their criticism say, “thank you.” It may have been offered in good faith, and deserves respect even if you don’t agree. If it wasn’t offered in a helpful fashion, say thank you anyway. Everyone is allowed an opinion. Sometimes it will be an opinion of you. You cannot stop that from happening. Like facing a stony audience, your graciousness in deflecting a negative comment will simply improve your reputation.

Now none of these aspects of humility are easy to enact in our daily lives. This is why I call humility a skill. They are well worth cultivating as a way to lubricate our social interactions, grow, and become better comedians.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

When my brother spoke those words, I was taken aback. My first thought was, “What about green?” I’m not certain where he picked up the aphorism. Sadly, that sort of thinking is all too common in our culture and can serve to make black seem attractive. After all, it’s easier to attain than some people’s definition of white.

However, a world of kindergarten absolutes pares reality down to an apparently manageable size. We can easily point to the good guys. We can easily point to the bad guys. We know where we belong and what is expected of us. Piece of cake, right?

This poor piece of cake is only to be had if you can enforce these ideas onto the populace at large. And even then life will be messy. Holes will readily appear in the outlook. We are complex thinking, feeling, living beings and no one will find they can uphold an unrealistic and broken ideal. Life will always be a long string of exceptions. The exceptions and the holes are where we build much of our comedy.

Groups who demonise sexuality and preach abstinence are working against natural biological urges. They cannot stop people from procreating. They cannot even keep people from copulating outside their narrow realm of acceptable exceptions. All they can really do is create a system of endless guilt. Then they provide a parallel system of temporary relief through confession and/or penance, setting up a co-dependent relationship with their members.

I do not believe these groups necessarily had a Snidely Whiplash twirling his moustache and consciously devising this system. Physicality brings death. Sexuality is the origins of physicality. Denying physicality can seem logical to some, particulaly when you are in touch with the fragility of life.

Comedians, like everyone, have a hard time staring at death (not that we don’t upon occasion). But we are more than happy to find every single hole in the repressed sexuality debate. And so we should. We also have a few bigger fish to fry as well.

The people who do twirl their metaphorical moustaches are companies whose marketing and sales people are willing to use less than ethical means to ensure they turn a profit.

For instance: demonise normal to heavy body weights. Glorify a largely unattainable body shape in the media. Promote the values of indulgence and impulse buying through advertising. Sabotage people’s ability to make a considered choice about buying unhealthy foods by always placing those foods in their way. Make them feel guilty about their “lack of will-power” and sell them bogus weightloss programs. The results are people being manipulated into an unhealthy and unhappy lifestyle in order to line other people’s pockets.

Yes, we have to take responsibility for ourselves. But monied interests will do everything within their power to make that step a difficult one. Parents are not taught how to instill a strong character into their children. Many institutions teach obedience as the highest value, since thoughtfulness could lead to conscientious objection.

Doesn’t this just make you want to go to town finding sharp witty jokes that expose the system for what it is? Isn’t that better than a cheap fat joke?

I would say our highest cultural value right now is status. That status can be achieved through political power, monetary power, emotional or intellectual influence, brute force, or celebrity. Mind you, most institutions play with all forms of power.

Yes, we have a certain amount of biological and evolutionary urge to play the status game. The most fit members of a species have better access to other fit members and can thereby propagate their genes. Nature uses many methods to demonstrate fitness, from ability to build a sound nest to sporting the largest and most attractive tail.

However, we are so clever that our ability to demonstrate status goes beyond anything this planet can adequately support. Our media plays on fear and ego, both as a kind of rush and a motivational tactic. Status is seen as a place of safety: “If I have enough power and/or influence, I will be unassailable. No one will dare hurt me physically or emotionally.” This is an irrational dream, but it still sits inside us all.

So to gain status we have people playing with our black and white structures and exploiting our most basic drives, so that we are responding out of balance with reality. We need food, it’s an easy button to press over and over again. We are programmed for sex, it can be used to push our need for status and stimulation: buy the expensive red car, it’s like having sex, it will make you more important than your neighbour, and more attractive to potential partners. A need for the safety of belonging is twisted into co-dependency, so people turn themselves into products to sell to the right social groups. On and on.

All of this needs to be exposed. Ways must be found to make status less of an urgent drive. Alternatives need to be offered. John Clarke and Brian Dawe on ABC’s 7:30 Report do a fabulous job at portraying our cultural and political absurdities. The hugely popular The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report also do a great job. We are still a little shaky about offering alternatives. At least in comedy a more realistic range of human beings is represented: all body shapes, ages, genders, ethnicities, etc. The message is that it’s okay to accept yourself as you are.

I believe that our higher urges are also natural. They are what made our civilisation and many of our finest achievements possible. A certain amount of responsiblity, forward-thinking, and altruism are needed to build a school. And we have done this over and over again. Our ideas of good have made us see only black. We need just enough faith in ourselves to push past cynicism and discover that realistic step after step, we can make positive changes.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine

In the arts many people want to distinguish themselves as mavericks and heroes of originality. It’s an extension of “the chosen one” mythology. Often when they hear of someone doing something similar to their own creative thoughts, they become angry or upset. They don’t understand that skill and artisty in execution are more than three quarters of any creative product. Several people could be working on precisely the same idea. The one who best communicates that idea to their audience wins. However, if they all do a superb job, usually people are thrilled at being able to extend their enjoyment. The Twilight book series didn’t suffer as a vampire story because of Buffy The Vampire Slayer‘s pre-existence, quite the reverse.

When you are just starting out in comedy you have to make some compromises on the behalf of your audience. I am not talking about compromises to artistic integrity, just being flexible enough to include your audience in a show’s creation. Absolute originality is not going to serve you. You need points of recognition to hook your audience.

You

If you are already an A-list comedian, then you are the point of recognition for your audience. Your show can be outrageously original and because people trust you to be entertaining, they will purchase tickets. Of course then you have to deliver. Reputations have been lost when in the name of originality performers forget their audience.

Associating with the Great

Associating with the great is an easy call for gaining attention. Almost too easy. I used to judge for a literary award and if a book was based on Shakespeare, it made no difference what the quality of storytelling was like, it went into the finalist list. I have to admit, this made me mad. The judges were not relying on their own considered opinion, but upon a cultural determination of greatness, which was then transferred to the authors whether or not they had earned it.

However, if a comedian puts in the work and gives us a fresh perspective on well-loved stories and personalities, I’m as keen as the next person to give their show a looksy. I have seen shows humorously covering The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Thunderbirds. I have seen hilarious impersonations of Abba, the Goons, and The Queen of England.

This material works best for both the beginner comedian and the seasoned veteran. The beginner gets a leg up using the well-worn. A seasoned veteran brings love and insight to their portrayals of creative heroes.

Subject Matter

Subject matter is a regularly used point of recognition. Make a show about football and you will have many footy fans turn up, whether or not they know anything about you. A show about dogs will certainly draw in the dog-lovers, it also will provide a commonality of experience that makes it very easy to tell certain sorts of jokes. You simply have to say the words, “stepping in poo”, with a pained look and people will burst into laughter…they’ve all done it.

Some subjects sit on the edge. Tripod could successfully perform a show about Dungeons & Dragons, because people already know them. Others using similar material will attract a small dedicated audience, but the geek appeal may only go so far.

Completely original subjects done by unknown artists probably shouldn’t open at a big comedy festival. The Melbourne Comedy Festival last year had over 300 shows. People will scan through the festival guide and bypass the unfamiliar: too much competition to even bother spending the time and money. The people who go to fringe festivals are willing to do more experimenting. If you start there and develop good word of mouth, by the end of the festival you could be enjoying a full-house. This freshly minted reputation can then be carried with you to the comedy festival. Claudia O’Doherty did this with her show Monster of the Deep: 3D and Telia Neville in While I’m Away.

Word of mouth is your most potent point of recognition. Though you can achieve it virally, you will only sustain that point if you nurture and build your reputation through regular contact with people. This can be achieved using YouTube, FaceBook, street performance, open mic nights, fringe festivals, etc.

Certainly, marketing and publicity can go a fair way in making you a recognisable commodity. Even then, it will give your posters extra mnemonic energy if your face is then associated with the well-liked and familiar. In the meantime learn to be at peace sharing in your culture’s passions, while mixing it up with your creative genius. Your time of utter originality will come.

Peace and kindness,

Katherine