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Ask HN: Hackers that perform/love stand-up comedy?

5 points by danielzarick ↗ HN
I've been a little curious lately if there are others of you out there that love stand-up comedy like I do? I've been trying to write more and more lately when I get a chance between school and work. Hopefully I'll get the courage to do an open mic in the next month or so.

What about the rest of you? Do you perform, have the ambition to, and where does that fit in with your work/startup life? And who are your favorite comedians?

11 comments

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danielzarick
Above I mentioned that I am trying to perform, and have been putting it off for about a year and a half... but here are some of my current favorites:

Louis C.K. Zack Galifianakis David Cross Patton Oswalt Daniel Tosh

And all of the "alternative" comedians who, I guess, are now becoming mainstream.

weaksauce
I saw Zack at the UCB theater on Doug Bensons podcast taping about 3-5 years ago and though it wasn't his "standup" he was hilarious. I wish I had the stones to get up and do that kind of stuff. I am forever indebted to the ones that can and can do it well.
danielzarick
That's awesome. I would kill to see him live. Out Cold, though a bad movie, came out when I was in 7th grade and my friends and I loved it. Especially Zach. I've been following him since then, and although I'm glad he's getting recognition, I'm disappointed that I probably won't get to see him do standup live anytime soon. Every chance I've had fell through.
weaksauce
It is unfortunate that the only good movie that he has done is the hangover but I think that his rising stardom is good for his career as he will now be able to get more leading roles where his brand of humor will be encouraged rather than squashed. When he had his late night comedy talk show vh1 pretty much killed any chance he had of being funny with all the things he was forbidden to make fun of. Hopefully that changes.
chrisrhee
I've seen Louis C.K. live 3 times. HIGHLY recommended. He's just got it down. He could read a phone book and have the audience rolling in the aisles at this point.

He regularly updates his website & blog with show dates: http://louisck.net/

brk
I have a lot of material written but have never formally performed. It's on my to-do list.
edw519
I have written tons of stuff and performed at parties, but I still haven't gone to an open mike. Probably for the same reason that I still don't blog. Once I bust either of those cherries, I'll probably become addicted and never want to do anything else.

I learned a little about the stand-up business and it ain't pretty. Most shows have 3 acts, opener (~15 min.), feature (~30 min.) and headliner (~60 min.). The pay is horrible ($50 to $300 for the night), you have to work your way up from opener to feature to headliner, and the hours suck. Also, it would be hard to do much else because you're always driving from gig to gig. Oddly, the feature may be the best gig because the opener (who is usually also the mc) and the headliner have to stay til the end of the night.

It's also a tough life. No matter how good you are, there are always plenty who are better. Your material will probably get stolen, you'll survive on bar food and alchohol, and you'll have as many highs and lows as a startup, but with (believe it or not) a lower probability of big success.

But it still sounds like fun and feels compelling. Maybe one of these days I'll go to an open mike.

My favorites have always been the "joke tellers", Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers.

danielzarick
Loved this response. You're exactly right about all of it. I see it as one of those that you have to do because you can't do anything else. Same way a musician or artist or hacker can't imagine doing anything else.

So... I guess I'll be seeing you at an open mic pretty soon so that you can become addicted?

parse_tree
I love comedy, and would love to give it a try myself but (a) my sense of humour is very unusual and there's many things I laugh at hysterically that most people don't get, and (b) would be too nervous (sober anyways!).

An example of (a), I was at Subway the other day, and a 20-something girl was in front of me. The guy asked what kind of cheese she wanted, and she sort of hesitated and said "the uh, uh, the um, white triangles", which sent me into a fit of laughter, I thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever heard (can't wait to go to Subway again so I can use it). But everyone I told since sort of looked at me like "Uh, okay?". And I can imagine how well something like that would go over in front of a crowd of strangers, told by a scared shitless comedian at his first gig!

weaksauce
As Mitch Hedberg once said, "Drinking for the comedian is like stretching for the athlete."
DanielBMarkham
I think I'm a big ham -- I love performing. Whether it's teaching, playing music, karaoke, or goofing off, I like attention.

Not sure about open mic night, though. For some reason that sounds scary.