datamusicata

Last night I turned on the TV to watch a comedian who is very hot right now. For those of you who don’t know it, I have toured with Steven Wright, Bill Cosby, and Robin Williams and do a considerable amount of comedy in my shows, so it is of interest to me what the latest comedy spin is.

I watched a fellow named Dane Cook, for as long as I could stand it and finally had to surrender and turn it off. My perception was, he was simply not funny. No jokes, no punch lines, no class, no style. Very coarse and obscene, even for me, who has cursed like a sailor my entire life. People would laugh, but I couldn’t tell why.

I know funny because I make it happen every night and I wouldn’t have been on the road with such luminaries if I couldn’t carry my weight, so this was a conundrum to me. Why wasn’t I getting it? This character fills Madison Square Garden, so he’s doing something right that clearly, I am doing wrong. Perhaps.

I could be generational, as he appeared to be about 33 and I am 63. But Steven Wright still makes me laugh and I have seen some new comedians that tore me up, so...what gives here?

What I did notice and what this particular post is really about is how much authority this fellow brought to the stage. He really seemed monumentally convinced of his own hilarity and he moved physically with great authority. He has also been in several major motion pictures and did most definitely carry his load. He was good in the two films that I saw him in. One with Richard Gere, where he played an unctious peeping tom. During his comedy performance last night, all of his gentures were dramatic and broad and his voice also carried that feeling of complete authority.

Perhaps that is what they were responding to? Maybe audiences are so unsure as to what is really talent at this stage of the game that they can be convinced by your attitude and your preparedness? And if so, how do we put this into our own act?

What I have been doing, as I have told you before, is to be as completely prepared for the gig as I can be. So my level of confidence that I can pull off a good show is solidly based in preparation and experience. I have been doing actual concerts since 1962.

I probably have ten thousand hours on stage by now, given that in the seventies and into the eighties I spent three hundred days a year on the road; toured with everyone and did solo concerts when I was not the opening act. I did the NACA conventions and sewed up blocks of schools, sometimes twenty five or thirty after one showcase.

So did a lot of traveling, and a lot of performing. I truly am confident that if put into the spotlight, I’ll probably entertain you, no matter who you are, who you like, or who you came to see.

But after all this time, experience and brilliant reviews of my concerts, as well as my recordings in all the trade magazines, I am not playing Madison Square Garden and Dane Cook is. So there is something to be learned from him, and everyone else for that matter. The successful as well as the overlooked, or under promoted.

What I did read, was that Dane Cook spent a year on my space befriending over a million people. He said that he did it ten hours a day for a year. So his name became known to a million people. That can’t hurt. And it is probably too late for you to try that trick, but maybe not.

In this age of media overload, there is only so much time that anyone can give to any artist and there are more of us than ever before, so what ever brings you before their notice seems to be valid. But there is a rub...because there is always a rub.

You have to be prepared to deliver once that spotlight gets on you. Otherwise you have that brief moment in the sun and then it’s over. I’m betting that a million friends on myspace won’t carry anyone forever. Either you deliver the goods or you disappear. I didn’t see any goods delivered last night. Even though I did see preparation and authority, I didn’t see any discernablie talent, so for right now my money is on the disappearing act. But Adam Sandler is making millions...and I don’t get him either,...never did. So what do I know?

I know what greatness is...and that ain’t it.