Humor is a big part of my life. I toss off jokes for comedians, write screenplays, articles, books and numerous other things. I don't say this to brag. (Well, maybe I do, just a tiny bit.)
With all this experience, you'd think I'd knock it out of the park every time. But I can't always do that. The truth is that no one can.
Humor and writing in general is an unreliable mistress.
At one time, the comedian, George Carlin, was a huge star. Yet when he appeared in Toronto for one of his concerts, the newspapers talked about how terrible he was. Many people were stunned by this news. How could an amazing performer like him be terrible?
The truth is everyone bombs at some time. In terms of novels, Dave Barry, Carl Hiasson, even Janet Evanovich have had issues. If you've read Janet's book on writing, (excellent,) she mentions that after she'd finished some of her novels, her daughter (the editor) said they weren't good enough.
I remember when I was a kid at school. One day at lunch, I told my friends about a cleaning lady my mom had just hired. They began laughing hysterically. Milk, along with liquids I'd never seen before (except in horror movies) began squirting out of their noses.
I felt great. My young self thought, "I killed."
A day or two later, we were in class and about to go home when my teacher, Mr. Farber, asked if anyone wanted to tell the class a joke. I was always too shy to say much, but my friends coaxed me into repeating my hilarious cleaning lady story.
Oddly enough, when I stood up, I felt confident. That was unusual for me. But this time, I knew I had a winner on my hands. I began relating the story and waiting for the cavalcade of laughs, I was sure would be forthcoming.
But guess what, no laughs.
Not even from my friends who had the nose shooting incident the previous day. And the lack of laughs started to get to me. I began sweating like a bad Las Vegas comedian, even though I was only twelve. When I finished, I sat down wondering what had happened to my career.
I learned something that day. Your work, humorous, or other, is not always going to be received the same way. Maybe, it's you, or maybe it's the people who are listening to you or reading your work. Or maybe, it's the time of day when they're reading it, their mood, your mood when you wrote it, the temperature in the room, or something to do with aliens. It doesn't matter.
The thing I realized when I told the story again to some other friends, and got laughs once more, is that you have to keep trying to do your best. Eventually, everything will be right with the world again.
Have fun every day!
Steve
With all this experience, you'd think I'd knock it out of the park every time. But I can't always do that. The truth is that no one can.
Humor and writing in general is an unreliable mistress.
At one time, the comedian, George Carlin, was a huge star. Yet when he appeared in Toronto for one of his concerts, the newspapers talked about how terrible he was. Many people were stunned by this news. How could an amazing performer like him be terrible?
The truth is everyone bombs at some time. In terms of novels, Dave Barry, Carl Hiasson, even Janet Evanovich have had issues. If you've read Janet's book on writing, (excellent,) she mentions that after she'd finished some of her novels, her daughter (the editor) said they weren't good enough.
I remember when I was a kid at school. One day at lunch, I told my friends about a cleaning lady my mom had just hired. They began laughing hysterically. Milk, along with liquids I'd never seen before (except in horror movies) began squirting out of their noses.
I felt great. My young self thought, "I killed."
A day or two later, we were in class and about to go home when my teacher, Mr. Farber, asked if anyone wanted to tell the class a joke. I was always too shy to say much, but my friends coaxed me into repeating my hilarious cleaning lady story.
Oddly enough, when I stood up, I felt confident. That was unusual for me. But this time, I knew I had a winner on my hands. I began relating the story and waiting for the cavalcade of laughs, I was sure would be forthcoming.
But guess what, no laughs.
Not even from my friends who had the nose shooting incident the previous day. And the lack of laughs started to get to me. I began sweating like a bad Las Vegas comedian, even though I was only twelve. When I finished, I sat down wondering what had happened to my career.
I learned something that day. Your work, humorous, or other, is not always going to be received the same way. Maybe, it's you, or maybe it's the people who are listening to you or reading your work. Or maybe, it's the time of day when they're reading it, their mood, your mood when you wrote it, the temperature in the room, or something to do with aliens. It doesn't matter.
The thing I realized when I told the story again to some other friends, and got laughs once more, is that you have to keep trying to do your best. Eventually, everything will be right with the world again.
Have fun every day!
Steve