So last week, I attempted to transcribe Daniel Tosh's comedy album and honestly got somewhat tired by the middle of it because I wasn't learning much. Afterwards, I tried to apply his style of jokes, but it just wasn't working for me. For one, it seemed too much like his jokes and also I probably cannot say half of the jokes he relates due to censorship issues. Yet the exercise was kind of fun though but maybe another comedian would suit the project better? I'm not sure.
Also, shout out to Mrs. Finco for her sweet comment on my last post. You're the best. I can definitely see why you got Teacher of the Year. Please just give me an A on this project. I will do anything. Anything but do this project. No just kidding, of course I am kidding. In any case, Mrs. Finco brought up a good point by suggesting that I begin a comedic blog due to my fear of performing. Good idea, Mrs. Finco! I appreciate your input. Uhm about the blog though, I don't know. It is definitely appealing but I just don't know how many people will read it but this upcoming week a comedic blog will be my focus. I hope it will take me further than my stab at stand up comedy.

So this week all I did was basically just try to decide if I would actually perform. It's a hard question because every time I think I have enough jokes, it is never enough by the time it's time. I think I should keep in mind that the audience are none but my peers. But maybe that's what scares me so much. Because if I fail, they'll be the faces I see the next day and the day after that. In any case, I still don't know if I'm going to. I think it's going to be one of those things where if I have enough courage the day of, it will get done. However, it would depend on the day itself.
I read this thing last week about how if we practice enough, we should never be scared in a game. Maybe that's what I need. But there's a significant difference between practicing in front of a mirror and shooting a couple of jumpers. Those jumpers will be the same thing in a real game, whereas practicing in front of a mirror will quite frequently be different than performing in front of a real crowd. Or is it? Maybe it's just my mind telling me so.
I've been watching a lot of Daniel Tosh recently, and I came up with a good idea that I hope will help me. Daniel Tosh is inappropriate and scandalous and controversial and I love him. He develops his joke with a series of line that gradually leads to his big conclusion. I watched him, and I had the idea of taking notes which is weird, but it came to mind and I couldn't let go of it. The idea was to simply type up his words as he were saying them so I could follow the structure and creativity of his mind. This seemed a lot like plagiarism, but it's not like I was going to publish it anywhere but the internet and who goes on that, anyways? I'm just kidding, of course, but you'll never know. Anyways, I did that last week, and I'm not sure if it's helpful or not. It was just fun to do. Throughout the process, I appreciated how many levels his jokes had. More than in terms of meaning, his jokes had many levels that he went through before ultimately reaching a place where he could say what he wanted. The next week, I'll see how this activity helps me. Hopefully, it will help me because it took a significant amount of time.

Mitch Hedberg blues

This week was pretty good. As of like actual good things, the week kind of sucked but in terms of this project, it was all right, which is unusual for my project (lol). The reason why is not because of actual work I did (sorry to disappoint you) but because of a Mitch Hedberg special that I saw. Mitch Hedberg is famous, and the only reason you don't know him is because he died so young. A tragic loss, really. He died around the age of 35, I think, due to drug overdose. In any case, his tragic death is not what inspired me. Rather, it was a special I saw of him. It was a 30 minute special. Very conventional stuff filmed by Comedy Central. In the midst of such an important taping, Mitch Hedberg comes on stage and begins cracking jokes. Surprising, I know but almost 15 minutes into the special, he comments on how the audience just isn't laughing at his jokes. He specializes in one liners and weird delivery and I guess this was just too weird for the audience. Anyways, it was inspiring to see him push through the bad audience. By the end, he had them laughing so it had an happy ending after all. Also, I was reading his Wikipedia page (Wikipedia is actually really interesting once in a while) and I was surprised to see that he suffered from severe stage fright. This is weird because believe it or not, he is really famous. He has performed in front of hundreds of thousands of people. To help his stage fright, he wears sunglasses and never looks up. Moreover, his hands visibly shake while performing. So what I'm trying to say about this is that Mitch Hedberg is a great comedian and some people didn't like his jokes. Thus, I can be a great comedian even if people don't like my jokes. I mean, not all people of course but if at least some like it, I can be a great comedian. This gave me courage to continue and I think that is important to note.
So the only reason I share this is to hide the fact that I actually did no work at all this week. Laugh out loud, I'm just kidding (apparently we are supposed to be more formal now..oops). I started this new thing this week that have yielded pretty good results so far. On a google doc, I begin typing the stuff that I did to overcome a writers block (or a comedian block) and it has actually kind of worked. It was a random idea really that I did on Friday in class, and it felt good. Not only was it a cathartic experience, it also got a lot of ideas on paper. When I went home and read it, some of them were actually not bad which is definitely a step in the right direction.

I would like to thank all of the kind comments I received on my blog last week. Y'all are my inspiration except for that one person who said my blog was gothically dark. Screw you, my blog is lightskin af. Mrs. Finco told me all about you except for your name. So I don't know your name but man I can still be mad as heck (hell). No I'm just kidding, I'm not mad, just disappointed. More in myself than anything, honestly. But the majority of the comments were extremely encouraging. I don't know if anybody noticed but my blog posts have been becoming increasingly short due to my comedic insecurities. In fact, I was planning on just quitting and and lying about my progress (sorry Mrs finco ily <3). To further augment my pains (big words, I know. I just wanna fit in with my AP lit homies), I missed coffeehouse. In fact, I forgot about it. I had a conversation with a NEHS member a couple of weeks ago who told me the next coffeehouse was in November so I was nowhere prepared. Then, this week I had a gov research paper that I had procrastinated on so there went the majority of my week. In conclusion, there is no conclusion because there was no beginning, middle, or end this week. I was lost but now I am found (amen). In any case, I will honestly work really hard to make up for lost time. There is another coffeehouse meeting on December 11th apparently (thank you Kexin) and I am determined to perform. In any case, let us begin a tradition.

I used to think the show "The Good Wife" was a quality cooking show.

Really sexist joke I know and thus I sincerely apologize but it came to mind and it wasn't too bad unless you're like a modern woman I guess. How about another one?

If virgin Mary can give birth to Jesus, I can ask out my crush.

Honestly not even a joke. I just wanted some courage to talk to girls but maybe that's the joke? Nah, it's not that deep.

Life can be so hard sometime. Like you don't understand. The older you get, the harder life gets. Especially when one tries to overachieve and take like, I don't know, 6 AP classes. Not that I'm the smartest or the most hard working, but I'm certainly working a lot harder than I was hoping to. So what am I trying to say? I don't even know, because I am making this a lot harder than it has to be. The comedian thing seems to be the same sometimes, and it saddens me to no end. These comedians on TV make it seem so easy, but whenever I try to do the same, it never works out. The bad thing is that I always remember it, too. I don't know. I'm getting a lot of jitters for my upcoming performance, if indeed there will be one. Maybe the problem is that I'm considering failure, but I already have a solution that does not involve performing which just builds onto my initial jitters. Ugh, I wanna cry. Maybe its my time of the month, to be sad and mope around (lol sorry).
I have done work, however. I want to succeed, oh so very bad, but sometimes it seems as if no matter how much I try, I just won't get there. Maybe I should just publish an original joke every week on my blog and see what people think? Maybe people will be nicer on the internet than in real life (a concept unheard of). I think I'm going to throw away my insecurity piece, because although it is done, I just think it is a little amateur and stereotypical. I really wanna write these one liners. These one liners are my ultimate goal, and I only have a couple that I like. This week, I began to experiment with memes. Not the popular ones because they've all been done before, but just regular pictures of people I know with funny captions which I think are working out for me. I just wish I knew how I could incorporate them into my act, but any comedy is practice, I guess.
What am I going to do next week? I'm going to write 20 jokes (at least), 10 of which are under one theme.

So lol at my life because I have gotten nothing done. I wish I had a valid excuse besides school but honestly, school just continues to be killing me. It is really kind of unfair really. But what did I do this week? Nothing.. I am sorry, my dear friends. I want everybody to know that this project really does mean a lot to me but this week I put in no conscious effort which is my fault and nobody else's. Not that anybody was jumping up and down to take the blame. Besides Jesus of course <3 He is nice, isn't he? Let's just take a moment and appreciate our Lord and Savior. Moving on, though, onto all things comedy. Hi my name is Ashish Biju and I'm an alcoholic. Oh no, that didn't come out right. Hi my name is Ashish Biju and I'm a comedian. "Oh, yeah? Prove it." Easy, lets go to exhibit A. Parental disappointment and crumpled up pieces of paper should speak volumes. Lol jk, my parents are always disappointed, and as for the crumpled up pieces of paper I was just playing trash ball. It actually was not a symbol of a tortured artist although that would have been cool. See, looks aren't always what they seem. Deep. Like the pacific. Like the grand canyon. Sometimes, I have the mistaken illusion that I'm a rapper. But if it were to be true, man would I blow your mind. I probably wouldn't have though but in this illusion, your mind is in shreds because of how hard I blew it. Somehow, that seems weird. Let us, however, focus on my project. I am nervous that this project will never get done and that I will fail. I am also really scared that there are comma splices all around that I am ignorant to. These fears are eating me alive, but at least I taste good. Better luck to me next time.

I have begun to start practicing again and it is not going too well. My insecurity piece is coming along nicely but the one liners are not doing as well. I read an article by a famous comedian about how to write jokes and I learned a couple of pointers that I think will definitly improve my jokes. The main pointer that I learned was to mainly write concise jokes. I already knew that but an important lesson I learned was simply about the punch line. Even if it messes up the grammatical structure of the sentence, the punch line must (must) be at the end of the sentence in order to build up the suspense as well as the laugh. Also, once you say a joke, any joke for that matter, you should always follow it up with two extra jokes that builds onto the initial laugh. This will convince the audience that you're just improvising which will only make them laugh harder.

Rodney Dangerfield is one funny comedian! I don't know how many people know him because he's kind of back in the day but his entire act is comprised of simple one liners about how he gets no respect. Like there was this really good one about how he wouldn't have a sex life it weren't for pick-pocketers. Or that other joke about how he calls his dog "Egypt" because he leaves a pyramid in every room. Also that joke about how he worked at a pet store and people kept asking him how big he was going to get.

The jokes Rodney Dangerfield does is so inspirational. Not in the self esteem sense but rather in the comedic. I tried all week to write jokes like his. Simple one liners because his act is almost an hour long and it is nothing but one liners like the ones above. After this week, I have no idea how he does what he does! These one liners are so hard to write. Especially since he's from back in the day and he had no internet to search for ideas. I honestly googled a couple of well known phrases in English and attempted to switch it around to create a funny one liner. I wrote a total of 13 but out of the 13, the only one's I really like are about 4. Which is pretty sad honestly.

Remember how I couldn't perform at Coffeehouse because my jokes weren't funny enough? I think I may have found the solution. Some joke's that I think are really funny at the moment don't seem as funny a couple of days later. So if I write a joke and chuckle to myself, I should always check a couple of days later to make sure the joke still makes me chuckle and many times, it doesn't get that first laugh that it initially did which indicates that joke is not as good as it should be. There are some jokes, however, that still cracks me up and those are the ones that I intend on keeping.

One more thing I should add is an important aspect of writing jokes that I came upon. Especially one liners. It is very important to keep them as simple as possible. If it's too complicated, it becomes too hard to follow and eventually becomes as unfunny as unfunny can get. Also, big words really clip a joke's wings and that's a problem I really have because so far in school or wherever I have to write, the bigger the words, the better. But in comedy, at least, it is important to use small words. According to this source I read (I'm sorry I didn't save it), it is important for the comedian to come down to the level of the audience and identify with them in order to really inspire laughter. If, at any point, the comedian seems to be arrogant or judgemental, the laughter dies out. Some comedians do it like, Daniel Tosh and Ricky Gervais, but their humor is not the kind I wish to imitate.

Until next time, dueces ma homies

Oh no! I forgot to post by Saturday and it's 1:04 AM now so technically that makes this blog post two days late and all this by a mere day and one hour.

In any case, I'd like to apologize to all of my fans for not performing last Tuesday at Parkview Coffeehouse. To begin with, I'd like to assume that the whole world revolves around me so please don't consider me arrogant for apologizing to my fans. Hopefully, I will have actual fans to apologize to soon but until then, a healthy imagination will have to do. But really, the whole world does revolve around me or at least, it seems to and that's not just a fat joke. I guess that's why I decided to not perform. I didn't want gravity to somehow experience technical difficulties and then have to witness my whole world crash and burn around me. A little dramatic? I pride myself on my flair for the dramatic. I thrive on it. Some call it flamboyantly gay but I just call it life.

Making jokes to ease the tension, another day in the life of Lil Biju. But seriously, I really do regret not being able to perform last Tuesday. I thought I had an entire act ready. So ready in fact that I attempted to perform it in front of friends on Monday only to get disappointing reviews. The thing is, I was only 3 minutes into my act before they thought my act was funnier than my jokes, and not in a good funny way but rather in a "you're funny looking" kind of way. The book that I read last week explained how self confidence in both oneself and one's jokes are the most important parts of stand up comedy and I'm sad to say that I lost confidence in my jokes that day. Thankfully, they're not in AP Lit (dummies) so I won't have to worry about them reading this blog post.

So what have I been doing after this tragic defeat? Have I been depressed to the point that my creative juices returned to the Caribbean? Unfortunately so. However, Friday was the pitch for our 20% time project, and I was rejuvenated and out of the ashes rose a brown phoenix ready to soar once more (yes boi swag). Not that I was soaring before but nevertheless, my wings were flapping and I was cruising on the currents of the Caribbean. This Saturday, I sat down and looked at my notes and wrote an act about my insecurities which I think is pretty decent but also too long but that may just be my insecurities talking. Hopefully, my friends will think it's good.

Looking back, this week hasn't been that great in terms of real progress but I think it was the most important week so far. I learned a lesson this week that will be valuable to remember throughout this journey, no matter how long it lasts. Failure is okay as long as the Caribbean currents remain strong. Furthermore, there is no need to worry if one does not feel such currents moving their wings for some time because eventually, it will come out of nowhere and boost us all heavenward.

P.S. My main man, Duane, who I only knew of until last Sunday agreed to by my mentor so ladies and gentleman, this flight is ready to lift off.

I'm nervous. I checked out a book, Careers in Comedy by Sharon Menzel-Gerrie, which explains much of the struggles of stand up comedy. It explores stand up comedy as a career and it was clear for me that stand up comedy just wasn't for me. Stand up comedy basically involves a lot of travel and rejection. What really got me was the rejection part. I can't even get girls because of my irrational fear of rejection. Besides the rejection of club owners, the book talks about what happens when the audience doesn't laugh.The book details experiences of stand up comics who tells jokes to audiences who simply grunt at the punch lines. Apparently, the key is self confidence, a key I've never been able to turn.
Coffeehouse is in 3 days and I'm not confident in my jokes. The book reassures me with examples of famous comedians who bombed their first performance. The thing is, though, I can't deal with rejection as I already said. I'm really nervous that I'll go up there and just nervously laugh at the audience and say, "your turn." None of my friends understand my dilemma either which should be a comfort, I guess. They assume I'll be funny up there. Practicing in front of friends is a good idea apparently but I don't wanna ruin their expectations. I'll wait for Tuesday to do that.
There is a lot of negative energy here and it's really messing up the feng shui of this blog post. A big part of self confidence is positive energy and  I need to remain positive because I've literally been dreaming about this career since 8th grade. That's a long time and I have to be at least mediocre for the sake of my dignity, if nothing else.
So moving on from my overwhelming stage fright, I've actually accomplished quite a lot this week. As I already said, I checked out that book. Besides its depressing elements, it really does have a lot of good information. Like the author discusses different ways to find material for one's act which was really helpful to me. I've already been doing the notebook thing that she suggests but new ideas like just watching people (a little creepy but apparently effective) energized me. There's an entire section titled "Have Patience, Persistence, and Faith in Yourself." It's important to remember that at the end of the day, I'm still funny and this should be my driving motivator.
I've also narrowed down my act to about 7 minutes. The one thing I haven't been able to do is organize my act. I just have a couple of developed jokes here and there but they're not connected. I remember Russell Peters used to make his act seem like he was just thinking of it at that very moment. That's the kind of act that I've always wanted. That requires practice and some more practice and practice is what I'm really lacking. Speaking in front of a mirror just seems narcissistic to me but I need to get over myself and practice my act over and over again. Self-confidence comes with practice so I guess that's what my weekends gonna be about.
A short word about mentors before I close. Friday was the deadline to find a mentor and sadly, I have nobody to present. I messaged somebody really funny who graduated last year but I haven't gotten a response yet so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This week seems to have been shorter than others. Maybe because of Labor day? Basically what I'm trying to say, though, is I just did not have the time to concentrate on this project. I had other things to do like catch up on sleep and Scandal. Pretty soon though, this blog will have to move on from a list of excuses to actual work. It scares me how much I procrastinate sometimes. Like I was walking down the hall and noticed that Parkview Coffeehouse, where I plan on performing my first act, is on September 16 and (gasp) that's in 11 days!
It's not that I'm purposely just forgetting about this though. I watched stand up routines of Louis C.K. and Russell Peters as well as a couple of ehow articles, of all things, about how to perform a stand up act and write jokes. Frankly, I was just overwhelmed by the challenge I had taken on. There's a big difference between cracking a joke once and trying to entertain a crowd for 10 minutes. This epiphany rocked my world harder than your mom last night which leads me to my next problem. Performing stand up in school forces one to censor themselves and sometimes when the individual in question is a teenagers with way too many hormones coursing through their veins, it can be tough.
A quote I have always loved is about how one shouldn't focus on the problem but the possible solutions. Improv seems like a good idea but I'm not sure if that's the best thing for me. I want to focus on the kind of observational comedy that made Louis C.K. famous. Maybe even ethnicity jokes but that might be too far? Or maybe the story telling techniques used by Dane Cook and Kevin Hart?
So far in the act I have written, it focuses on mainly my experiences with being funny and funny encounters that I have had. I want to find a real zinger, though, that will make my act worth my audience's time. This week, I'll have to focus. I'm going to try contacting famous comedians to be my mentor but I'm scared. What if I don't find a mentor that does stand up comedy? I don't know anybody like that. Hopefully I'll find one by next week. I will also have to finalize my act by next week. So far I only have a rough draft done. I also need to start practicing in front of a mirror because apparently it has helped a lot of famous comedians. I think that's about it for this week. Tom? What's the weather going to be like this week?

Procrastinating

We all want to funny. It's part of our never ending effort to be accepted. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only reason I have friends is because occasionally I can make others laugh.
Being funny is fun. Once in a while, you come up with a joke out of nowhere and suddenly you know you're the man. This doesn't happen too often for me though.
Laughing is also fun. Beginning around 8th grade, I became obsessed with stand up comedy and soon, I was ravenous for new stand up comics. They were so funny. I'm sure they would have had tons of friends at school. But unlike me, they're the man everyday in front of thousands of people. An ambition to be like them began to slowly grow but the question that ate at me was always, "What if they don't laugh?' Everybody has their own personal definition of what's funny and that's scary because you're never sure if what you think is funny is actually going to that funny. When the subject of 20% time came up in class, our teacher explained how it should be something we've always wanted to do but have always been scared to try. She stressed how failure was okay as long you could tell yourself, you had done the best you could do.
So here I am, trying to be funny and really, isn't that what we're all trying to be? We all go through life waiting for our next big joke that will be funny enough to be retold one day.
I haven't done much as far as learning how to do stand up. My teacher found a couple of improv books that I'm sure will help. I have about half of my act thought out. I have yet to write it down on paper but I have taken note of various jokes that might be worthy of my act. Parkview Coffeehouse is coming up soon and it will be best to keep this in mind and stop any further acts of procrastination.