Comedy is a Marathon. Not a Sprint.

​If you are an artist and last longer than 10 years in any industry, you'll see the trends change so much you'll start to gaslight yourself into wondering if anything you did meant anything. Too often I talk with comics who feel like they had that "breakthrough" moment only to find themselves at the back of the line again or jumping into a new back of a new line again. You finally get passed at a club but find out its another few years to feature and then even longer to headline. You get the comedy special, but then it takes years to find distribution. You open for the big headliner but they don't ask you to go on the road with them. You option the script but the financing falls out for actual production. Remember, this whole industry is built on the illusion of success and if you get caught up in the sprint, you'll miss the value of the marathon. 

I Was Once A Swinger of Birches
Robert Frost once wrote about youth and innocence and how life changes and nothing is permanent. 

So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.

Back in 2017 I filmed both a Dry Bar Special and for Laughs on Fox. This Thursday I'll be performing in a bowling alley in Simi Valley. My point is that even when you see comics hit milestones, they are really just accolades that they can pull out in conversations but they say nothing about the financial status or booking frequency of a comedian. We tend to snapshot a person's current success into "this is how its always been," when in fact the opposite is true.

Many comics will get angry when others they started out with get the spots, shows, and opportunities they wanted, but don't think their career is set for life now. They still wake up the following day with the same bank account, living situation, and personal demons.

So when you see comics on Comics Unleashed or Netflix is a Joke, be happy for them, and understand that these stepping stones into bigger things don't happen all at once or immediately or sometimes at all.

We'd like to think all the big moments are life changing. But, alas, they are not.  

Somewhere there's a comic who was on VH1's Sunday Spotlight who thought they would get a call from MTV that never came. Somewhere there's a comic that did Conan that still lives with roommates in their 40's walking onto a cruise ship wondering when their TV series will get picked up. Somewhere there is a comic keeping Night at the Improv in their EPK thinking a booker will be impressed. Each of those shows were the top of the line in their time, but only in their time. All of these accomplishments don't equate long term success, they equate growth and hard work. We have to remind ourselves that while the early bird catches the worm, one worm doesn't feed a lifetime ahead. 

No One Is Rooting For You 
There is a long game to comedy that if you keep thinking it's about short term gains, you'll miss the bigger story. 

Solomon wrote in Proverbs 1:1-4: 
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
    vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil
    at which he toils under the sun?
 A generation goes, and a generation comes,
    but the earth remains forever. 

Success is a fluid word. Success might mean just being booked in paid gigs. Success might mean doing 10 mics a weeks unpaid but always performing. Success might mean never having to do stand up again because you created a show. Success means different things to different people. 

I'm reminded of the great cautionary tale "A Christmas Carol" where Scrooge believes his responsibility was to be financially secure and socially successful. When the ghost of Jacob Marley shows up with chains tied to his eternal body, a shocked Scrooge remarks, "But you were always a good man of business, Jacob." Marley shouts back "Mankind was my business!"

When your career feels flimsy and out of your control, your perception is that of "everyone else is making it" - but remember that you don't know the chains those people could be locking themselves into. 

The most successful people I know were not the greatest husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, or employees. But they were hyper focused on their goals. It's a bit of a Catch-22. 

Either you put aside your goals and resent those who you sacrificed for. Or you pursue your goals and the people in your life resent your success. Because, and I mean this, only your mom and grandma and maybe your dad will evert truly be happy for you. Everyone else gonna talk MAD SH*T when you stumble and be upset when you succeed. In the words of Michael Jack, "It's human nature." 

I once heard a great joke. How many comics does it take to screw a lightbulb in? 10. One to stand on the ladder and nine to say, "That should be up there." 

While you might think people are supportive, they're fine as long as you don't make it bigger than them. That's why it's important to center yourself and know that the sprint will blind you to the marathon. 

Sprint v. Marathon 
The sprint is grabbing every opportunity regardless of how it might effect your overall career and brand. The marathon is strategizing so you don't lose what you earned. 

Back in 1990 Andrew Dice Clay sold out Madison Square Garden. He was bigger than Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, and many of his peers. Whose career would you rather have had after 1990? 
He set himself up to become the biggest star in the world, and after a few movies flopped, he was a falling star. You might ask, was it wrong to try to sell out MSG? No. But was he ready for it? Apparently not. 

So when comics gets breaks early on, they might not be ready to sustain the opportunities ahead. Dat Phan won Last Comic Standing over Ralphie May, but May is considered a genius and Phan is considered "not a genius." We'll play nice, okay?       

There's an ebb and flow within this industry. Actors go decades without success after blowing up early and then win an Oscar after years of being the butt of jokes. Singers become one hit wonders and then vanish away. Not every success is the start of a beautiful friendship with Hollywood.  

I remember in 2013 I had a wrestler qualify for the state championship. I was talking to a coach from another team who had his first state qualifier in his 14 year coaching career. He said to me, "Now that I have the formula to get a state qualifier, we'll have every year now." He never had one again, and the team hasn't had once since. Somewhere there was a coach jealous of that coach's success and that was a waste of energy.

Final Thoughts 
We should celebrate our friend's wins but we shouldn't think they "made it" now. Because the people who think like that don't appreciate their own milestones and will become depressed if they get the same thing only to find nothing changed in the end. 

Treat your career life a long distance run. As long as you are getting responses from bookers, getting paid, and able to tell the types of jokes you want - you're winning. 

Sure, having a million followers or getting to play big theaters sounds great, but you don't know what's happening behind the scenes. Imagine you make all the money but no one wants to spend time with you? Imagine you become famous but no one wants to date you? Imagine you get the house of your dreams but the money dries up and now your dream house is a nightmare. These are all truths we know famous and successful people deal with. 

The Devil Wear Prada is one of my favorite films because it deals with the dream job only to find nothing but anxiety, stress, and insecurity beneath the surface. And it's when Stanley Tucci's character said, "Let me know when your whole life goes up in smoke. Means it's time for a promotion" that I realized 20 years ago, don't always hope you get what you wished for.   
In the film Without Limits about the long distance runner Steve Prefontaine, at his funeral, his coach Bill Bowerman said it best: "But [Pre] finally got it through my head that the real purpose of running isn’t to win a race. It’s to test the limits of the human heart."

​Apply that runner mentality to stand up and you'll never lose again.