New Years Resolutions 2023

 I don't really have a list of resolutions but here are a few areas I definitely need to pay more attention to in order to grow.

1. Study comedy

2. Take care of my health

3. Be more organised

Studying Comedy

For the past 10 years, I've just been doing the comedy grind aimlessly and recently, I had to take stock of what jokes I really had and to be honest, I have less than 30 minutes of usable jokes, 20 minutes if you just count the decent ones, and maybe 10 minutes if you want a really tight set. Meanwhile, other comedians have a tight hour after a few years of doing it. I think me just "grinding" aimlessly is not a good way of doing it. It was sort of what I needed to do for a few years, but it's about time I took it seriously. I've only taken two comedy courses in my life - an online Masterclass by Steve Martin and also an in person class when Dave Reinitz and Barbara Holliday (Flappers Comedy Club) came to Malaysia. Both times, I would say I kind of took it seriously but in hindsight, I didn't really get out of it all too much and I wonder if it is because of my attitude towards a formal study of comedy. When I took these courses, I was already years into comedy and I sort of had this attitude like I'm a good comedian, and I know what I'm doing already. I paid money both times, so it's not like I went in and said screw all these people, they don't know what they're doing. I did want to believe that it was beneficial and to some extent it was. There are a few gems that I still remember from those courses. But I do wonder if I had been a bit more objective about my comedy, and knew what the weaknesses were in my comedy, would asked for more direction in those areas, would I have gotten more out of those courses? I guess the short answer is, course or no course, I definitely would have benefitted from recording more of my sets and rewatching them. One positive change I have made in my comedy is making short videos for socmed, because it motivates me to record and watch and edit my sets, and whenever I do a subpar performance, I feel motivated to get back on stage and do a better one, just so I can have a better recording. I know that being addicted to posting on social media has its own set of problems and I certainly will be a bit careful about taking validation from it, but I know myself and I know that I need to be motivated with smaller milestones like getting likes from strangers on TikTok, rather than a giant overwhelming milestone years down the road like recording a Netflix special.

I have this obsessive personality where if I need to know something, I'll try to find out a bit about it, but then I go down this rabbithole that I seem to never come out of. 3 years ago, I needed to know more about video and audio equipment for livestreaming and right now, I'm still sort of addicted to camera and microphone reviews on Youtube. If I could channel this obsessive personality disorder back towards comedy, and train myself and my internet consumption algorithm back towards comedy, I think it will be a step in the right direction.

Taking care of my health

This one is obvious. I'm getting older. There are some things I need to change. I need to sleep better and eat better and whenever I am not well, take things more seriously. If for nothing else, I just need more energy to do the things I need and want to do and even to feel good and lately, I feel like I just don't have the energy for it. I have to stop playing computer games and watching Youtube videos late into the night. 

Being more organised

This is also obvious and in line with the previous two. I need a better routine. The one I have right now is just not optimal. I need to go to sleep earlier, I need to have time to do important chores each week, like reading all my mail and emails, and not just the ones I like to do. 

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