>> Ben Rosenfeld: Hi.
My name is Ben Rosenfeld.
I'm a comedian.
And mostly I do standup comedy, but it's -- I'm sure as we get more into it,
and I'll discuss it, but like to do standup comedy you also have to do lots of other things
in order -- especially while you're coming up in order to like take care of bills and stuff.
So in addition to standup comedy, I do improv, I write, I film my own sketches.
I film videos for other people.
That's an extra source of income.
I build websites for other comedians to get some extra income.
But primarily standup comedian is the bread and butter of where my focus is.
Well, I'm onstage pretty much every night like 2, 3 times a day.
So I do most of my shows in New York City,
so you can just kind of run around from show to show.
So it's not -- you're probably thinking like, "Oh, you drive like 5 hours,
and then you prepare for that show."
Here you just kind of run from place to place.
My daytime is separated from my nighttime, where I kind of view it as like 2 separate jobs,
like 1 job is writing jokes, getting the jokes in your head, doing the marketing,
responding to emails, doing the bookings,
all the stuff you can do at a computer during the day.
That's one job.
And then the second job is going out to the comedy clubs or those shows, wherever they are,
performing and talking to other comedians,
talking to the audience so you can build your fan base.
And it really feels like it's 2 separate 8-hour-a-day jobs.
There's different parts of the creative process.
One thing I try to force myself to sit down every day for at least a half hour
and either stare into a blank piece of paper until something comes,
rewrite something that already exists, or just like popup news items,
and like just try to write jokes.
But you can't control inspiration, but you can control perspiration.
So like sometimes 3 ideas will pop into my head while I'm out.
I'll just jot into my iPhone; sometimes nothing for a week.
That part you can't control it, just when you get an idea, you put it in.
But you can control expanding the idea and working on it.
Then it goes to my computer.
And I have 3 main files.
This is probably completely boring to anyone who's not a comedian.
[Laughs] I have Ben's Act, which is the jokes that work.
Then I have jokes to sort, which is ideas that are currently forming in different stages
that I think are potentially funny, but aren't -- I'm not ready to bring to the stage yet.
And then the third one I call it "jokes that are still forming."
That's just the polite way of saying "the junk pile, the bone yard."
So that's one part of the process, is the direct writing and like figuring out where what goes.
A different part is I record either video or audio pretty much all of my performances.
I know generally how a show went, but I don't know the specific punch line to punch line.
So watching it and like listening to it, you can't dispute the evidence.
Like if the third punch line of a joke isn't working for 5 shows in a row,
you should drop or change that punch line.
So like some of the rewrites will just be like I know this line doesn't work as it is,
so I'll just try to brainstorm like a whole page of alternative punch lines; where, you know,
and I mean, I've read a lot of books, but like if you just start writing,
even if they're like bad at the start, just the process of forcing yourself to keep going,
a lot of the times you'll get something that's more usable than what you have.
[ Silence ]
When you're connecting and it's going well, and well to -- and like the audience is with you,
it's mostly when it's a new joke; like, I mean, you know,
you do enough shows you know what works, what doesn't.
But whenever you have a new idea and you try it for like the first time, or the second time,
or you've been working on it for like 2 weeks, and that joke's been struggling
for like 2 weeks, where you adjust it every time
and it's getting a little better, but it's still not there.
And then that first show where it just hits as hard
as all the other stuff, that's always exciting.
But performing and writing were friends, and everything else about it is horrible,
[laughs] but that -- those 2 things keep you going.
The standard heckler that everyone imagines as the heckler that always is like, "You suck.
I can do better," stuff like that.
And that very rarely happens that confrontationally.
Usually it's someone -- bachelorette party that's a little drunk and talkative,
but they're usually like -- most where I've noticed it, they're with you,
but they're just over-agreeing and talking out loud like they think it's a television.
So most people after they respond -- after you've responded like once or twice
and like kind of play with them, they'll stop talking.
[Silence]
I think especially when you're starting out, you're either better
at performing, or at writing the jokes.
And eventually to goal is however it starts out that they both get better
and meet somewhere way better than when you started.
I've always been a better writer than a performer,
and I've been doing it over 5 years now.
I think my performing has gotten significantly better, but it still has a ways to go.
But like everyone's different with what they lean on more.
And yes, you could be the funny friend, sometimes that translates.
Usually that doesn't, especially if you don't put in the -- if you're ready --
like if you have no sense of humor you shouldn't do comedy, but as long as you have a sense
of humor I think you -- and you work at it, you can develop to where it's professionally funny.
I think first you should just do it for a month or 2, and just see if you like it,
and then worry about the theory, because the theoretical version
versus what actually happens, there's some overlap, but a lot of it --
until you've been onstage and you have the experience of how an audience is
and what's going on, it doesn't -- it's scary enough when you're starting out,
where if you start over-thinking and over-reading about it,
you're just never going to do it.
So I'd say if you want to do comedy, when you're done with this,
go find when the next open mike is, write yourself 2 or 4 minutes, or whatever,
and just go do it, and then see if you want to try it again or not.
And then go from there; because what was it, I think Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson or someone,
"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face."
That's this art form [phonetic].
[Laughs]
[ Silence ]
So I went to Rutgers University, Rutgers College.
I double majored in economics and philosophy.
So I know how to make money, I just don't see the point.
So comedy's always been a coping device, but like I never thought that it could be a career.
It was just something I did to get frustration off.
I could tell you my first time.
It was in Philadelphia.
I was doing management consulting; that was my previous job.
But I -- you learned a lot, but and, you know, it's not -- we can go into that.
But so I was down there for work, and I'd already been going to a couple open mikes just
to watch, and after a couple of times watching like Philadelphia amateur comedians,
I was like, "I could write this."
So like I wrote some stuff, and like sent to my friend
who was my college year freshman roommate, and he was doing standup writing.
And I'm like, "Here, maybe you could use these jokes."
And he writes back, "It's not bad.
Why don't you try it?"
It's like, "Why don't I try it?"
So it was like you get 3 minutes.
And, I mean, I'd never been onstage before except karaoke.
So I had little -- I had typed it up, because I'm always like computer savvy.
And I'd printed it out, and cut it up into little note cards,
so I had like 5 little note cards or whatever.
So I didn't even have it memorized.
But I specifically remember when I went
up there the first time my hands holding the note cards were like doing these,
because you have like 50 -- I mean, New York nobody watches open mikes,
but I guess Philadelphia people have nothing to do.
So there was like 50 people in the audience that aren't comedians, and you're --
I just remember like my hands were shaking.
But the thing I remember people were actually listening to you;
because I feel like in society today like people are just waiting their turn to talk.
But when you're already funny and people are laughing and relaxed, and then you stop talking
for a second or 2, and everyone just leans forward to listen for what's next,
that's my favorite part of comedy.
[ Silence ]
Just start.
That -- unlike lawyer or a doctor where you need to go through 7 years of schooling
and like certifications, the way to become a comedian is to perform and write comedy.
So they should just start performing and writing comedy.
They should actually -- well I guess watch the rest of the interview and then just go,
write some jokes that you think are funny, and go find your local open mike
and start performing and show up all the time and go from there.
[Silence]