A LIFE OUTSIDE OF COMEDY

When you are pursuing stand up comedy as a career, it takes up your time and energy. Nearly every night, you are doing shows and during the day you are either writing, doing projects like podcasts, sketches or working on social media. (Man does social media take up time, linked in included!)

Sometimes as comedians we forget to also have a life. Its the life that helps us create content and jokes. I have not had a weekend without comedy since the pandemic ended, which makes me miss a lot of opportunities ripe for social interactions like concerts, games, weddings. In addition, we also need to rejuvenate ourselves. Comedy burns you out. When people ask me, especially if its within hours of a show, "How you doing, Paul", I usually joke "we shall see." Its dark but basically indicates that how this set goes will govern how I am doing. It really does though. A great show can make you happy for hours while a bad show or a bad set can ruin a night or week.

I was lucky to live multiple lives before I did comedy (lawyer, musician, artist manager) which gives me a broad range of material to choose from but I still think comedians should have a life outside of comedy. Of course, I won't take this advice myself. Follow me on instagram if you dont already! #standup #careerchange #formerlawyer