Being Appreciative

This was going to be a story about how I kissed a senior citizen at the bar last week.

But when I sat down to write, I got distracted by other thoughts.

Last night was one of my best nights on stage in a long while.

I wasn't any funnier than usual. The crowd was good, but not exceptional.

What made the difference was that I started to feel the way I want to feel onstage. Not worrying about the next joke...not agonizing over the last joke...but just being in the moment.

The interesting thing is, a lot of this new stuff didn't come from doing comedy. It came from being involved in wrestling, and my new interest in Buddhism, and my attempts to overcome my shyness.

A lot of comedians tell you that the way to become a better comedian is to eat, breathe, and live comedy 24 hours a day.

I think there's some truth to that, especially at the beginning and especially if you're obsessed with maximizing your success.

But I also think that it's possible to stagnate if that's all you do. Comedy comes from life experience and making your entire existence about comedy narrows that experience. I remember a veteran comic telling me that one of the reason he had a lot of trouble finding material audiences could relate to because his lifestyle was so different from that of the audience.

There's a big world out there and my life is richer for it. Learning to appreciate other things helped me appreciate the things I already have more.

Upcoming Comedy
Thursday, July 31 - The Comic Strip, Edmonton
Friday, August 1 - The Comic Strip, Edmonton
Saturday, August 2 - The Comic Strip, Edmonton
Sunday, August 3 - The Comic Strip, Edmonton
Monday, August 4 - The Comic Strip, Edmonton

Upcoming Writing
Living Articles in the Edmonton Journal (current Living article is here
Friday, August 1 - Living Section, Edmonton Journal


Dan's musings on relationships can be found at hotchicksandstrangers.blogspot.com