How to give yourself a comedy exam

The only real advice I could give to any new comedian is to record all your sets. Record all of them and watch them back. Or get an audio recording and listen to them.

I have not been practising what I preach. For the past several years, I have been getting an audio recording of most of my sets but I have not been listening to them. Yesterday, I sat down and listened to a large chunk of my recordings from the past 2 years and I was shocked at how inaccurate my memory of how I did at shows were. I remember doing well at the second night of the Giant Show and that was true. I remember doing well at all the shows my wife was at and that's sort of true. The show I was so bummed out about on Jan 1st, I actually did okay. I was getting laughs. I could have cut down on the waffling a bit, but it wasn't as bad as some of my other shows that I remembered doing okay in (those were actually really bad). So don't be like me. Listen/watch your recordings. It's like giving yourself little comedy exams, to keep you on track.

I know some comedians just do their sets and without recording them. Jason has a phenomenal memory and he can do a 20-minute set and remember exactly which jokes worked and how well and what new words he added where. And then he goes home to rewrite. I can't do that. I have to record - at least the audio, but preferably, the video.

In a way, I'm glad I thought I bombed on Jan 1st, because it made me take stock of where my comedy is. I probably would have procrastinated and put off listening to my sets for another few months or years if not because of that.

So my conclusion right now is I suck. I don't like comparing myself to other comedians, but I would say judging from my past performances, I'm somewhere in the bottom half of the local comics. I'm lucky Mike Saddi has been putting me in shows because if I was a show organiser, I wouldn't pick me to be in it. I suck and I would not have known how bad if I didn't listen to my sets. I thought I was doing great.

That's the bad news. The good news is, it seems my jokes are good. I've just been performing them badly. Even some of the ones I gave up on are actually salvageable. I just need to rehearse more. So I still have my half hour of material. I have a more systematic way of coming up with the best version of a joke now, but it is a bit tedious because I have to listen to my sets and edit them down to individual bits. It's time consuming but I like the feeling of progress I get from it. After I write down the best version of a joke, I need to rehearse the hell out of them. That's what I will use the open mics and shows for in the next few months. Doing an hour by October is still within reach, but it is going to take a minor miracle and a lot of work.

I will never underestimate the importance of listening / watching my sets from now on. Had I been doing that for the past few years, I would be an immensely better comedian than I am right now. I feel like I wasted a chunk of my life. Anyway, no point crying over spilt milk. Onwards to comedy greatness.