Discussing authentic emotional expression as a key component for connection in comedy, the difference between subjective and objective truth, and why we’re so afraid to connect with others even though it’s what we want most.
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Why is art often dangerous and isolating and why is this required to move culture forward? Traditional and alternative comedy are compared.
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A chat about staying the fool on stage, where political comedy goes wrong, the secret sauce of William Shakespeare, famous metaphors from Jesus, and various forms of irony.
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A semi-delusional take on the economics of stand-up comedy, the importance of marketing your art, setting realistic expectations, and continuing to pursue your passion regardless of painful negative feedback.
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What does it mean to be addicted to something? How can we maintain motivation without addiction? You might have to lie to yourself. Be sure to treat your dopamine with respect.
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Today’s episode discusses self-esteem, leadership, cowardice, cynicism, generosity, and Mr. Franke’s personal efforts to avoid being an annoying twat with a microphone.
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Let’s whisper about telling secrets, the interplay between epinephrine and dopamine, romantic poetry’s relationship to stand-up comedy, and being hated authentically.
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Let’s explore the moral relationship between artists and their work, how that gets easily misconstrued by the general public, tolerating low quality or even bad art, and our strong propensity to see the good in ourselves and the evil in others.
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An episode that touches on existential philosophy and how philosophical absurdism might bleed over into absurd humor, Shakespeare, Freud, Ernest Becker, and how to be authentically silly.
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Examining negative subjective experience as a necessary ingredient in forming comedy, a bit of neuroscience and PTSD, how engaging with literature can affect such things, and how the story of Jesus showed us how to write a joke.
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Waxing philosophical about the relationship between the stand-up comedian and his/her audience, whether comedy is a monologue or dialogue, the goal of stand-up comedy, and a wee bit of ancient Greek thought.
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Candid thoughts on stumbling toward worthwhile work, the simultaneous pain and value of failure, the nervous energy of stand-up, and how to maintain unhealthy delusions of grandeur.
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