[Music]
hey I’m a law student by day stand-up
comic by night and today I’ve shared the
stage with many experts and I myself am
an expert I’m a bomb expert because I
have bombed a lot my credentials
last year I performed 367 consecutive
days of stand-up often performing three
to five times a night and I bombed
everywhere in anywhere at all times okay
but you know that’s what we’ve stand-up
comedians do we have to bomb to find out
what’s funny we have to bomb to grow we
have to bomb to become who we want to be
and like I know some of you are still
thinking why on earth would you perform
for 367 consecutive days well guys I was
trying to get on Conan the guy who has
the record Sammy oh by for the most
consecutive days of performing stand-up
god on Conan during history so I said
maybe if I do 367 consecutive days I can
get on Conan before I take the bar exam
now I don’t know if that’s gonna be
happen but the streak has led my career
in so many wonderful ways but before I
get into talking about my successes I
want to talk about the lessons I learned
on this process because you learn a lot
when you do something every day for a
year like for example um I took classes
to supplement my stand-up well one of
those classes was improv classes they
are where you act without a script try
to improve your stage presence and so on
my first day of class our teacher tells
us guys guys you can’t plot a scene no
one knows what you’re thinking rather
commit hard to a character and
interesting things will happen and I
immediately thought about wow I plot it
in my life to go move to Seattle be a
billionaire go to Harvard Law School and
marry that girl for my philosophy class
none of those things happened
partially because those other things
didn’t know what I was thinking so I
resolved that I was gonna commit hard to
a character this year and that character
was I am going to do everything someone
who’s trying to be a famous stand-up
comedian would do now this had
accomplished all the same goals as a
plan because I always knew with my plan
of action I’d perform every night I
performed three to five times a night
I’d run my own open mic I’d run my own
shows
I do podcast so I could meet more
established people I’d run a YouTube
channel to build an audience I would
label myself too lazy philosopher to
build a brand all these things I gave
myself permission to do by playing the
role of someone who’s trying to be a
famous stand-up comedian and guys I’m
gonna tell you it’s great because your
values aren’t implicit but also your
sacrifices make sense and that gave me
insight into the second lesson you see
this year I sacrificed a lot I had
Thanksgiving and Christmas by myself
because I didn’t want to risk not going
up that night talk about time with
friends zero time with friends I would
have to go on dates in the morning but
you know the sacrifice and the biggest
sacrifice that I made actually the
second biggest I’ll get to the first one
later but the second biggest one was
giving up an opportunity to go to Rio
for the Summer Olympics with my best
friend Julian now at first I was excited
and much to juvey ins dismay I had to
say no because taking three weeks off of
stand-up wasn’t something that someone
who’s trying to be a famous stand-up
comedian would do but weird enough these
sacrifices actually made stand-up mean
more to me it’s kind of like sacrificing
showed me how much stand-up meant to me
and that’s what I realized we don’t
sacrifice for something in the future
no we sacrifice for something to mean
something to us right den and that’s why
I think that that little paradigm shift
helped me deal with the biggest
sacrifice you see my biggest sacrifice
was my self-image I’m a law student and
when you tell other law students that
you want to be a famous stand-up
comedian you sound like a joke but not
in the way you want
and it made it worse because I was
always promoting shows right so I was
always handing out flyers and I do this
even downtown and I’m handing out flyers
and I see my classmates walking out of
their job where the game paid thirty
thousand dollars that summer and some of
them walked by like they didn’t even
know me which made me think what are
they saying about me behind my back and
you know I found a way of dealing with
that I just assumed they said the worst
things about me yeah I’m pretty sure
Will’s gonna end up homeless and comedy
thing probably not gonna work out and
what this did was I realize our fear
isn’t that people are talking it’s fear
that they might be talking assuming the
worst makes you be a stoic in this case
so I assume the worst when it came down
to people talking mess and what could I
hope my mom who loves me more than any
person in this world could ever love
anyone makes fun of me behind my back so
what so what hope do I have you know
with my classmates the second thing I
thought about was this is that I want to
be taken seriously in life I want to be
like Martin Luther King Gandhi JFK these
guys who’ve accomplished a lot but one
of the things is all these guys have
been assassinated and they’re also
and they’re also assassinated on comedy
stages all over the country which made
me think if I’m truly successful and
life really goes the way I want it to go
someone’s definitely gonna laugh when I
die and that’s what I think we live for
this legacy this thing that doesn’t even
exist this thing that’s in the minds of
other people yet if we truly get our
goals the target on our back only
increases look at Trump he’s getting
made fun of more than he ever did why
because he aimed to be taken seriously
so I got perspective on myself and I was
like you know what I pray that I’m
successful enough to where someone
definitely laughs when I die and I hope
that for all of you
the last one I learned whenever I bombed
in front of one of my comedic idols now
I mentioned I performed three to five
times a night I did that after the model
set by Hannibal Buress one of the most
famous comedians in the country he would
perform three to five times a night so I
said I would well one day when I was
performing my fourth or fifth time in a
night I walked into a venue right and I
get up and I bomb so bad my soul left my
body I get the light to get off stage I
run off stage and my friend Tristan taps
me on the shoulder and he says hey man I
just want to let you know Hannibal came
in watched your set only then walked out
I had just bombed in front of my idol
and it hurt I did the first thing any
self-respecting man could do in that
situation I ran home and called my mom
it didn’t help it didn’t help until I
started writing jokes about it and I
started getting last for what had
happened and that’s when I realized the
Nirvana of stand-up Nirvana is a
Buddhist concept where you break free of
the cycle of suffering by accepting that
suffering is an inextricable part of our
reality
well it’s they’re comics like yeah this
all sucks let me make some jokes about
it and in that we transmute suffering
into laughter suffering into pleasure
and the thing is you can do that with
yourself all you have to do is get some
distance not take yourself so seriously
and this buys you permission to march
into situations that involve a lot of
shame I said that I bombed a lot this
year and I had many embarrassing moments
but we all have those potentials where
we could bomb whether it’s a cute girl
on the subway
whether it’s asking for an interview
whether it’s just going out there and
trying something new we need to embrace
bombing now if it were Hendon Barry’s
bombing this year I wouldn’t have been
able to have my show where people were
walking like I didn’t exist is now at
the Laugh Factory or how about this the
person I started doing my streak with
Brendan Lemon we both got picked to do
the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in
Scotland we’re gonna be performing with
the world’s best comedians for a month
how about this at the lowest point of my
streak when I was bombing so much I
didn’t know if I could be funny
I wrote a blog post and it was picked up
by Time magazine and now I’ve been
mentioned in time all of this because I
embraced bombing so what I ask of you
what I beg of you is to go out there and
bomb like a comedian because it’s the
only way we all can grow thank you
[Applause]
hey I’m a law student by day stand-up
comic by night and today I’ve shared the
stage with many experts and I myself am
an expert I’m a bomb expert because I
have bombed a lot my credentials
last year I performed 367 consecutive
days of stand-up often performing three
to five times a night and I bombed
everywhere in anywhere at all times okay
but you know that’s what we’ve stand-up
comedians do we have to bomb to find out
what’s funny we have to bomb to grow we
have to bomb to become who we want to be
and like I know some of you are still
thinking why on earth would you perform
for 367 consecutive days well guys I was
trying to get on Conan the guy who has
the record Sammy oh by for the most
consecutive days of performing stand-up
god on Conan during history so I said
maybe if I do 367 consecutive days I can
get on Conan before I take the bar exam
now I don’t know if that’s gonna be
happen but the streak has led my career
in so many wonderful ways but before I
get into talking about my successes I
want to talk about the lessons I learned
on this process because you learn a lot
when you do something every day for a
year like for example um I took classes
to supplement my stand-up well one of
those classes was improv classes they
are where you act without a script try
to improve your stage presence and so on
my first day of class our teacher tells
us guys guys you can’t plot a scene no
one knows what you’re thinking rather
commit hard to a character and
interesting things will happen and I
immediately thought about wow I plot it
in my life to go move to Seattle be a
billionaire go to Harvard Law School and
marry that girl for my philosophy class
none of those things happened
partially because those other things
didn’t know what I was thinking so I
resolved that I was gonna commit hard to
a character this year and that character
was I am going to do everything someone
who’s trying to be a famous stand-up
comedian would do now this had
accomplished all the same goals as a
plan because I always knew with my plan
of action I’d perform every night I
performed three to five times a night
I’d run my own open mic I’d run my own
shows
I do podcast so I could meet more
established people I’d run a YouTube
channel to build an audience I would
label myself too lazy philosopher to
build a brand all these things I gave
myself permission to do by playing the
role of someone who’s trying to be a
famous stand-up comedian and guys I’m
gonna tell you it’s great because your
values aren’t implicit but also your
sacrifices make sense and that gave me
insight into the second lesson you see
this year I sacrificed a lot I had
Thanksgiving and Christmas by myself
because I didn’t want to risk not going
up that night talk about time with
friends zero time with friends I would
have to go on dates in the morning but
you know the sacrifice and the biggest
sacrifice that I made actually the
second biggest I’ll get to the first one
later but the second biggest one was
giving up an opportunity to go to Rio
for the Summer Olympics with my best
friend Julian now at first I was excited
and much to juvey ins dismay I had to
say no because taking three weeks off of
stand-up wasn’t something that someone
who’s trying to be a famous stand-up
comedian would do but weird enough these
sacrifices actually made stand-up mean
more to me it’s kind of like sacrificing
showed me how much stand-up meant to me
and that’s what I realized we don’t
sacrifice for something in the future
no we sacrifice for something to mean
something to us right den and that’s why
I think that that little paradigm shift
helped me deal with the biggest
sacrifice you see my biggest sacrifice
was my self-image I’m a law student and
when you tell other law students that
you want to be a famous stand-up
comedian you sound like a joke but not
in the way you want
and it made it worse because I was
always promoting shows right so I was
always handing out flyers and I do this
even downtown and I’m handing out flyers
and I see my classmates walking out of
their job where the game paid thirty
thousand dollars that summer and some of
them walked by like they didn’t even
know me which made me think what are
they saying about me behind my back and
you know I found a way of dealing with
that I just assumed they said the worst
things about me yeah I’m pretty sure
Will’s gonna end up homeless and comedy
thing probably not gonna work out and
what this did was I realize our fear
isn’t that people are talking it’s fear
that they might be talking assuming the
worst makes you be a stoic in this case
so I assume the worst when it came down
to people talking mess and what could I
hope my mom who loves me more than any
person in this world could ever love
anyone makes fun of me behind my back so
what so what hope do I have you know
with my classmates the second thing I
thought about was this is that I want to
be taken seriously in life I want to be
like Martin Luther King Gandhi JFK these
guys who’ve accomplished a lot but one
of the things is all these guys have
been assassinated and they’re also
and they’re also assassinated on comedy
stages all over the country which made
me think if I’m truly successful and
life really goes the way I want it to go
someone’s definitely gonna laugh when I
die and that’s what I think we live for
this legacy this thing that doesn’t even
exist this thing that’s in the minds of
other people yet if we truly get our
goals the target on our back only
increases look at Trump he’s getting
made fun of more than he ever did why
because he aimed to be taken seriously
so I got perspective on myself and I was
like you know what I pray that I’m
successful enough to where someone
definitely laughs when I die and I hope
that for all of you
the last one I learned whenever I bombed
in front of one of my comedic idols now
I mentioned I performed three to five
times a night I did that after the model
set by Hannibal Buress one of the most
famous comedians in the country he would
perform three to five times a night so I
said I would well one day when I was
performing my fourth or fifth time in a
night I walked into a venue right and I
get up and I bomb so bad my soul left my
body I get the light to get off stage I
run off stage and my friend Tristan taps
me on the shoulder and he says hey man I
just want to let you know Hannibal came
in watched your set only then walked out
I had just bombed in front of my idol
and it hurt I did the first thing any
self-respecting man could do in that
situation I ran home and called my mom
it didn’t help it didn’t help until I
started writing jokes about it and I
started getting last for what had
happened and that’s when I realized the
Nirvana of stand-up Nirvana is a
Buddhist concept where you break free of
the cycle of suffering by accepting that
suffering is an inextricable part of our
reality
well it’s they’re comics like yeah this
all sucks let me make some jokes about
it and in that we transmute suffering
into laughter suffering into pleasure
and the thing is you can do that with
yourself all you have to do is get some
distance not take yourself so seriously
and this buys you permission to march
into situations that involve a lot of
shame I said that I bombed a lot this
year and I had many embarrassing moments
but we all have those potentials where
we could bomb whether it’s a cute girl
on the subway
whether it’s asking for an interview
whether it’s just going out there and
trying something new we need to embrace
bombing now if it were Hendon Barry’s
bombing this year I wouldn’t have been
able to have my show where people were
walking like I didn’t exist is now at
the Laugh Factory or how about this the
person I started doing my streak with
Brendan Lemon we both got picked to do
the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in
Scotland we’re gonna be performing with
the world’s best comedians for a month
how about this at the lowest point of my
streak when I was bombing so much I
didn’t know if I could be funny
I wrote a blog post and it was picked up
by Time magazine and now I’ve been
mentioned in time all of this because I
embraced bombing so what I ask of you
what I beg of you is to go out there and
bomb like a comedian because it’s the
only way we all can grow thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: