Don't Let Your Comedy Career Become The Long Walk

I recently saw the new film "The Long Walk" and made a joke that it's a metaphor for the Uncle Clyde's Comedy Contest. For those unfamiliar with the film based on a Stephen King novella, the story is about 50 young men who are drafted into walking across New England, with the catch being if they stop walking they are shot dead on sight. The film then explores the horrors of the boys having to move on despite the way their friends were "eliminated." The joke I wrote wasn't really just about the long running Flapper's comedy contest, but really about the nature of comedy in general. Yet, while the joke is hyperbolic, there is truth to the way many comics view comedy - a sort of survival of the fittest - with a never stop griding mindset. While some romanticize the hustle, I would highly encourage you to rethink the idea we are competing against each other and refocus on the idiom high tides raise all ships. 

The Violent Metaphor Has Some Truth
While we can preach a hippy one love message, we all understand there are only so any spots and only so many comics who can take those spots. Many of us have felt the shafting from bookers only to see another comic with a similar look or style get the slots we seek. But while it's easy to get jealous, if you stick around long enough you'll see many "successful" comics don't stay on top long, forced to go back to the same rooms they started in. 

The thing about the Social Darwinistic approach to the arts is that no matter how much a comic positions themselves, the crowd, not the bookers, will determine the success of that comic. Regardless of what you think about the top comics, and trust me, I'm shocked sometimes who makes it to the top, people have decided they're the funniest ones (for now). Over the years everyone from Andrew "Dice" Clay to Tony Hinchcliffe to Gallagher have filled Madison Square Garden. While brilliant comics like John Pinette (RIP) and Eddie Pepitone wouldn't even try such a feat. Yet, Pinette and Pepitone are universally loved by their peers, with the others not so much.  

So yes, there is a truth in the violent metaphor, but that truth must always be looked at through the light of legacy as well. 

Comedy is A Long Walk
If there is something the film touches on really well is the way we have to keep moving while others leave us behind. Perhaps the hardest part of stand up comedy is that we start as a community but end up as an individual. The first few years are open mics and showcases with comics we grow to love or hate doing shows with. Some even become topic of conversation amongst comics for no other reason than their successes or failures. We develop a real village. Then someone meets a headliner or gets passed at a club and their comedy life changes, leaving the group for new pastures. 

Sometimes comics quit because they can't keep paying for open mic spots or paying for parking while not making any money for those shows. Some comics choose family over comedy community. Some comics decide the workforce is better for them. Some comics get writing gigs or acting jobs and move on and never look back. Some become wildly successful and are on the road or play rooms where you can't even get the booker to watch your tape. 

Ironically, the more successful you become, the more isolated your career will become. Whether you spend it on cruise ships, corporate gigs, or the road, you'll find yourself separating yourself from your original community and having to keep on truckin' as you find new rooms and venues and bookers and friends. The curse of walking longer than others is the loneliness that hovers over you, like a shadow.      

Maintain a Few Close Friends 
One thing I have picked up on after working with a lot of famous comics is they keep a few friends around regardless of their individual success. Like in the film The Long Walk, the characters Ray and Peter bond and keep themselves going as forces beyond them (military, rain, inclines, etc.) keep knocking them down. It is in this tight knit support group they keep themselves motivated to walk. 

This is important as you keep building your career. I've seen some huge headliners keep certain people as their close knit community and you can see it has kept them humble and focused. Someone has to be able to call you on your BS, and if you don't have that person in your life you will ruin the success you have because your gut and heart reactions will betray you.

One thing that does make a difference in maintaining these relationships is the pay discrepancy that can hurt a relationship. Some comics go out of their way to compensate their openers and entourage while others think a few hundred bucks is fine after the show makes $25k+ for them. While I can write a whole essay on properly paying openers and writers, if you find yourself underpaying a friend because the headliner you ran with before did that too, just know, it's not cool and it will strain the relationship. 

Scott Galloway talks about becoming wealthy to be good to your family and fly your friends around to experience things with you. Too often I hear about successful comics underpaying their buddies and then flying around with wealthier comics. I would say that's pretty awful, and it's accepted under the guise of "that's how you do it." 

I would argue if you are budgeting correctly, you can find a way to pay what is fair as opposed to paying what has been "the norm." 

Final Thoughts
While watching The Long Walk, I felt this is a generational film like Whiplash, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and The Shawshank Redemption. A film about the plight of man trapped in a system where only friendship can save them. It's that good. It's also violent and harrowing and left me shattered for days. It's that powerful. 

​But it's also a great reminder and warning of the way people live their life, whether they want to or not. And like most great parables dealing with the darkness of the human soul, it can remind us to find our better angels instead of pursuing the better deals.