Writing Advice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAkHlQBJVPc
I’ve heard that comedy is born of pain. If so, then self-deprecating humor must come from self-doubt. And I have a lot of self-doubt because I know just enough about a whole slew of subjects to know how bad I am at them.
This is a very silly video, but the idea came from some things I really do struggle with. I actually did start writing a screenplay like the first idea in the video and my wife’s response was that it was “fraught”. And in the past, when I’d attempted to write something else serious, the feedback was “this would make a great comedy skit”.
So it got me thinking: “What if I just suck?” In a sense, that’s what these three split-screen videos have been about. What if I just suck at singing, acting, writing, etc.?
I’d like to think that I’d get better the more I practiced. But I recall a story about an acting teacher who told the class that the ones who become successful at acting are not the most talented, but the most stubborn. And that’s why you see so many famous actors who suck. Because they’re the ones who stuck with it. But they still suck.
So, what if that were me? What if, no matter how hard I worked at these things, I still sucked? Well … to be honest, I don’t know. I don’t know what to do beyond stubbornly trying again and again. Except … except that I do know how to make fun of it. And maybe some other people will find it funny, too.
They say that comedy is born of pain. But sometimes it helps ameliorate it, too.
A few things I learned from this one:
- Asians age well
- it’s a lot easier to memorize dialog that you’ve come up with yourself
- in the future, everyone talks like Nic Cage
Also, I’ve noticed that I’m very strongly affected by caffeine because I’m up at 2:35am from having a couple pieces of chocolate and an iced coffee earlier in the afternoon.
