0m34s Don’t do the pause after “I recently broke up with my girlfriend” anymore

3m43s Good improvised call out

5m17s Don’t do the motion until after I’m done with “could’ve spiced things up”

7m02s First time I’m doing this joke for a real audience

7m15s Get rid of “just a number” and “variety” lines

7m36s Good job calling out the situation

Overall: Solid set. I was getting consistent laughs throughout and had a four or five huge laughs. It’s time to start focusing on getting consistently huge laughs. Also, the shoes joke that I’ve been working on for a few months finally came out and the first three parts of it worked well, the last three parts could be cut or get tweaked.

0m30s Good job calling out the sound two people made

1m07s When you do a joke you wrote an hour ago, you’re gonna stumble on a couple of words

1m18s I should’ve just addressed it right away, but the time rewind works too

2m05s I actually wrote the joke with “bitch” to end the joke

2m22s This is a good idea, if it gets quiet after a joke, “let’s have a moment of silence for everyone who died today”

3m00s Pause another second and look around suspiciously before saying “Pronto”

4m51s There’s a reason I stopped doing this joke a month ago

Overall: Decent for an open mic. The best part of the set was the rewinding of a joke because one of the comics blurted something out. I need to be able to handle the order of my joke getting messed up by crowd interaction better.

0m54s I should’ve waited for the laughs, they just started laughing

4m34s Don’t say “real” the first time I say “man”

6m06s Good job calling back what the audience referenced earlier

6m49s Good call out on the audience member’s slow response

8m28s Do the handjob motion a little clearer

Part 2

0m56s Say “dangerous” not “harmful”

1m56s I felt I lost the audience at the Plan B joke, so I tried to do a more vulnerable joke, even if it’s not my strongest joke

Overall: I had consistent laughs for the first ten minutes with a couple of huge laughs and one applause break, then I lost the crowd a bit on the morning after pill joke, but I was able to get them back and close strong.

1m48s Make sure the sound works before the show starts next time

3m27s I should be doing more crowd work to start the show to draw people in and at least get them to listen to the other comics

5m04s I should’ve started doing the crowd work earlier and more of it

Part 2

0m05s Should’ve gotten people’s names earlier on

1m10s I was supposed to get the light after ten minutes, it’s nice that I can tell when I’ve done around 10 minutes

4m20s No need for the word “also”

6m28s Address the phone ringing

Overall: I could’ve done a much better job MCing. I didn’t try to talk to people or win them over in the beginning so anyone who was already listening listened and everyone who was ignoring the show kept ignoring the show. For these bar shows, I need to get better at winning over people that don’t want to hear comedy or weren’t expecting comedy.

0m35s Starting by calling out the situation in a bar increases the odds people pay attention

3m09s I should’ve addressed the guy yelling out “babushka” the second time he did it

6m05s At least I addressed the loud talking

6m36s I need to control the room a little better, get back to material in less than 30 seconds

Part 2

0m59s Instead of “babies are harmful” say “babies are dangerous”

2m07s Saying “The Goodwill is out of sweaters tonight” is hysterical but really could’ve gotten my ass kicked at this bar

4m22s That doesn’t even make sense

4m48s The guy gave me a fake million dollar bill

Part 3

0m33s That’s a good improv line, I should use that again: “Have you ever held someone?”

3m22s I did 22 minutes before checking my notes, not bad

3m56s Don’t ask him how much time I have left, just keep going until they tell me otherwise

5m58s Good ending, I could’ve pimped my website here by saying “you can help make this work by visiting…”

Overall: I did twenty five straight minutes, which is always hard to do in NYC, regardless of venue. I started out really strong for the first two minutes, especially for a bar, but then I lost some people. I need to work on addressing the situation when people yell things out while not going completely off topic.

So here’s my challenge: Give and create one million dollars in value for other people in the next year without expecting anything in return. See what happens and report back.

So how do you create a million dollars in value? Everyone has their own unique skill set that others find valuable, so I can’t tell you something like: “Create a website for every senior citizen you know, they value websites at forty dollars each.” This challenge is not about assigning a specific monetary value to every interaction you have with a person. It’s about doing more than is expected in every interaction you have. All of us, especially me, can always do more. You can give this extra value at work by doing more than what they pay you to do, especially if it won’t get recognized. Or, you can even do it for one of your hobbies: For example, if you love playing tennis, give some free lessons.

Although the focus should not be on the actual monetary sum, discussing the sum can help make my idea clearer. Giving one million dollars in value can occur in various ways. You can give one person a million dollars in value, give a million people a dollar in value, or give something in between. Coming up with one great million dollar gift or a million really small gifts seems really difficult to me. A more realistic goal is to divide up the million dollars by the number of days in the year, which rounds to $2,740. Now try to give $2,740 in value every day. Some days you might give twenty-seven hundred people a dollar of value, other days you give three people a thousand dollars of value. For the internet inclined, if you have a blog with 2,700 readers, and you can give a dollar of value a day to each of your readers, you’ll hit the million dollar mark easily (and probably end up with more readers by the end of the year).

And yes, I feel like a hippy writing this, but my experiences over the past couple of years have me really believing this is true. When I’ve given someone something without expecting anything in return, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Posting free comedy tips on my website has led to successful comics getting in touch with me. Giving other comics stage time and not asking for anything in return has led to me getting stage time. I didn’t write tips or ask people to do shows so that they’d help me out, I just did it because it seemed like the good thing to do. The things I’ve received back in return were all just nice unintended side effects. However, every time I’ve pitched someone, asked them for something, or expected something in return, I’ve gotten nothing. (And deservedly so!)

So go ahead, take the million dollar challenge.

“The news never meant anything to us on “SNL” because w always looked at it just to see how to satirize it. Nothing in our personal lives was sacred. We used all of it for material on the show. The most important thing was those ninety minutes live on Saturday night. So what if your whole world was falling apart as long as you could find a joke in it and make up a scene.” (99)

“It’s such an act of optimism to get up every day and get through a day and enjoy it and laugh and do all that without thinking about death.” (101)

“There’s that joke about the optimist who says, “If the house is full of shit there must be a pony somewhere.” (145)

“In the early day of “Saturday Night Live” we had our innocence and we believed in making comedy and making each other laugh. We were just working together to entertain, like kids playing together.” (153)

“While we have the gift of life, it seems to me the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die – whether it is our spirit, our creativity or our glorious uniqueness.” (153)

“All the material for our show came from improvisation. We wrote our sketches on our feet in front of the audience, and rewrote them by repeating performances… I was a wreck.. It was the most stressful thing you could ever imagine. But there’s no other training ground like it for comedy writers and performers.” (164)

“You feel completely in control when you hear a wave of laughter coming back at you that you have caused. Probably that’s why people in comedy can be so neurotic and have so many problems. Sometimes we talk about it as a need to be loved, but I think with me it was also a need to control. I’ll make the decision whether to come out in my underwear or not.” (183)

“People whimpering and hovering over me made me feel like I was dying. People yelling at me made me feel alive.” (199)

“I’ve learned what I can control is whether I am going to live a day in fear and depression and panic, or whether I am going to attack the day and make it as good a day, as wonderful  day, as I can.” (200)

“Cancer is what you make of it. If you make it a horrible situation, so will everyone around you. I put humor into it and I opened the technicians up to their humor.” (206)

“People who know Bob, the head radiation technician, say he should be on television, but I said, “No, he should be in the radiation therapy department cause that is where his humor is needed most.” (207)

1.How are you using the internet / social media to promote your personal career?

I use it primarily as a place for people to watch my videos. YouTube has been huge for me. It’s allowed a broad audience to watch me perform. Before YouTube I relied strictly on live shows. I also get a lot of private bookings from people who watch my videos on line: Johnson and Johnson, Microsoft and Genentech all watched my videos before booking me for private events.

One important benefit of the internet is it has allowed me to stay in touch with  fans. They write to me and I write back. The people you correspond with become your most devoted fans.

2.Have you noticed the payoff yet?

Yes, the attendance at the shows has gone way up because people can see what the show will be like on line. It used to be people relied on your credits to determine if your show was worth watching. Now, they can watch a snippet on YouTube.

3.Your act involves technology: a projector, a screen, PowerPoint slides and a remote control. Has this kept you out of some standard comedy club venues or do you just bring your own equipment?

It’s amazing to me that most sports bars have a better AV setup than a comedy club. However, I work in all kinds of venues that don’t have a projector and screen.  I just bring my own projector and screen. It’s a pretty simple solution.You’d be surprised how many venue operators freak out over this issue. It’s like some kind of voodoo to them.  I have to calm them down and assure them that modern technology is not inherently evil. Ticketmaster.com just makes it seem that way. (Thank you for those online convenience fees!)

4.Was it more difficult starting out because you had to setup equipment at open mics, or did you build an online following before doing a live show?

I did my first PowerPoint jokes while I was giving talks in grad school. I had seen many professors put gag slides into their talks. I decided to do the same. When I started at the comedy open mics I did straight stand up for a over a year before I brought the PowerPoint back into it. That happened when I found a sports bar with an open mic. They had a better AV setup than any of the clubs. I tried the PowerPoint science jokes there and the audience loved it. I figured if it went over well at a sports bar it would probably go over well other places.

Once I felt I was onto something, I developed most of the act at a hole in the wall in the Tenderloin in San Francisco. We were right in the middle of crack central. There was (and still is) all kinds of drugs and prostitution going on right outside the door. The only people who would come to the show were the tourists who didn’t know what a crappy neighborhood the show was in. I got a lot of positive feedback from them despite the less than ideal setting. At that point I knew that a broad range of people from around the world liked the comedy despite the cerebral focus on science. I didn’t get the chance to do the show at a nice place for several years. It was mostly  the crappy rooms that welcomed me. I couldn’t open for anyone else and use the PowerPoint. No one would allow it.

Finally, I decided to produce my own show. At first I did it at small theaters then eventually I got the Punch Line in San Francisco to let me do my show there. It was a Monday night which is a notoriously difficult night. Despite the bad timing the show sold out and we had to turn people away. At that point I decided to shift my focus to producing my own shows in theaters around the country.

I have to say I get a big kick out of it when people tell me my show wouldn’t work someplace because the venue is too crappy. If they only knew…

5.Did you ever try performing comedy without the PowerPoint? How was it?

I still perform without the PowerPoint regularly. I enjoy it. I’ve been training in martial arts for many years. It’s been drilled into my head that you must be good at wrestling, muay thai, and jiu-jitsu if you want to compete on a national level. For me the same holds with my comedy, I need to be good with PowerPoint, stand up, sketch comedy, and acting if I want to compete at a national level. Of course the PowerPoint is the strongest part but I constantly work on the other parts as well.

6.Besides yourself, I’ve seen Demitri Martin and The Stand Up Economist do their act with video screens playing a big role, do you think this is a trend?

It’s a medium that can be used to get a lot of information across quickly. However it’s most common use is to stretch 3 minutes of useful information into an hour long torture session. Demitri and Yoram are demonstrating how visuals can be used for good. Will that spread into a trend? No idea.

7.How do you think digital tools will change comedy in the future?
Anyone can make professional looking comedy videos now on the cheap. That’s a big plus for the small time comic. The challenge is getting people to watch them.

8.What do you think about posting videos of your performances online?
Great idea. How else are people around the world going to see you perform? I get people writing me from the Middle East, Indonesian, Australia and Europe because they’ve seen me on YouTube.  Do people steal your jokes? Absolutely they do, but people steal your jokes from live performances as well. If you are worried about people stealing your jokes I recommend Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

9.How much information do you tend to share on the social networks?

I share what I think is interesting… sometimes I’m wrong.

10.What’s your weirdest online experience involving your comedy career?

The head of the Church of Satan wrote me to compliment me on my act.

11.Any last thoughts?
Is that a threat?

0m12s There were two real people in the crowd and they started kissing as I was getting up, so I decided to start whispering

1m43s My favorite part of NYC open mics is when “A” material gets crickets

3m15s Reword to “babies ruin lives”

Overall: I delivered my jokes the way I would with a real audience. Sometimes that’s all you can control at the open mics.

0m28s I decided to do an old joke but got into it from a different angle

1m27s The last word should be “pronto”

1m51s No need for the word “prolific” as it slows down the joke and is just showing off alliteration without being funny

2m18s Instead of “she” say “my mom”

Overall: The old jokes didn’t really hit and the reworking of the pot joke needs a tighter setup.