What I learned from a stand-up comedian
This past weekend I did something I’ve never done before. Now, before your dirty little mind wanders astray, I assure you it was nothing salacious - in fact I was with my in-laws the entire time. You see, I finally witnessed live stand-up comedy. Sure, I’ve been to my share of improv at places like Brave New Workshop but I’d only witnessed stand up via late night TV and cable.
But Saturday, that all changed - we wandered down to the acme comedy co. located in the historic Warehouse District in downtown Minneapolis to see Derek Hughes. My father-in-law actually used to hire Derek (he’s a local boy now living in LA) to do corporate events back when he worked for the former Norwest Bank. Anyway, we had a great time - all the comedians were hilarious! The atmosphere was fantastic (gotta love that smoking ban) and they even served my favorite beverage: 1919 root beer. Besides having a blast, I learned a few things, things that apply in a more general way than I would have imagined.
- Some material may not be suitable for all audiences. The show we were at was clearly intended for mature audiences and while few of us regularly curse during our day jobs or pull a deck of cards from our underpants, you have to be aware of your surroundings. Now, I’m not just talking about political correctness and promoting a harassment free work environment - we all know there are some topics that you just don’t bring up to around certain folks. While everyone may see that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes, it’s rare that the emperor has any interest in being enlightened on the topic.
- Some material just won’t work. Some of this is contextual - jokes about North Dakota probably don’t work so well in, say, Orlando. This point goes hand in hand with the previous one however, you have to realize that some approaches just won’t fly in your organization. Take my company. We work on one of the largest Java applications on the planet - how receptive do you think we are to, say, rewriting the whole app in C#? Now in the comedy world, maybe that joke bombs tonight but just kills tomorrow - sometimes that same thing happens in the business world. Maybe that email about how your team should adopt agile methods would be better received next week, when your manager isn’t stressed out about budgets or that big customer bug. That said, you can’t always change your employer but you can usually get a new one.
- Hecklers are inevitable. If you ever decide to, say, write a book or you give a talk or two for a local user group, you come to realize that hecklers are inevitable. While you probably won’t have to put up with drunken idiots, no matter how good you are, no matter how fantastic your book or article is - someone, somewhere will think you are full of it. Sometimes they will provide actual constructive criticism and if you’re lucky they will at least be informed remarks (as in they’ve actually read your work) but more often than not you will get empty comments. A darkened room (or the anonymity of the web) provide ample coverage for those that can’t create on their own. As Dale Carnegie put it:
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do.
Don’t take it personally - grow from it but don’t let it get you down. Now if even your parents aren’t so sure about your ideas…
- It takes a vast amount of pluck to get up on stage. Frankly, this is a corollary to the previous entry. I have a tremendous amount of respect for those that have the guts to display their work to the public - you risk revealing the limits of your abilities and few of us willingly admit to being less than perfect. It’s very easy to sit on the sidelines and point out where the strong have stumbled but to actually put on a pair of cleats and compete - that takes courage.
- Engage your audience. Of course this isn’t anything new to those of you that track Kathy Sierra’s work but in case you still think it’s about you, well, it isn’t. Sure, I love to look smart but your audience is selfish - they want to have a good time (or learn something). Deliver on that and they will tell everyone they know how fantastic you are. Try to convince them you are the greatest thing since sliced bread and you will fail. To quote Dale Carnegie again:
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
Comedians don’t hide behind obtuse PowerPoint slides - if they did, they’d be out of work pretty fast. Next time you have a presentation keep that in mind.
So there you have it - a simple night out turned into a learning experience (there’s a lesson in there somewhere I think). While I certainly expected to laugh, I didn’t imagine I’d see so many connections between the comedian’s job and my own. But now that I have, I don’t think I’ll ever look at a stand-up the same again.