The Star Addiction
(Yeah, yeah. Here we go with another Favrd post…)
Dean Allen’s more detailed explanation about why he shut down Favrd instantly reminded me of Roger Ebert’s review of a 2002 documentary film called “Comedian.” The film follows Jerry Seinfeld as he goes back to the stand-up comedy circuit after retiring from his insanely successful TV show.
“Why, you might wonder, would a man with untold millions in the bank go on a tour of comedy clubs? What’s in it for him if the people in Cleveland laugh? Why, for that matter, does Jay Leno go to comedy clubs every single week, even after having been called over by Johnny for the ultimate reward? Is it because to walk out on the stage, to risk all, to depend on your nerve and skill, and to possibly ‘die,’ is an addiction?”
The biggest revelation, at least to the eyes of Ebert, is that these comics are often miserable, tortured by their craft, easily depressed by the smallest of mistakes.¹
“It looks to the audience as if stand-up comics walk out on a stage, are funny, walk off, and spend the rest of the time hanging around the bar being envied by wannabes. In fact, we discover, they agonize over ‘a minute,’ ‘five minutes,’ ‘10 minutes,’ on their way to nirvana.”
Sounds familiar? I don’t know about others on the Favrd crowd (though I can guess), but the truth is I’ve frequently agonized over the wording, rhythm and structure of a tweet, sometimes for days (thanks, Birdhouse), before clicking the publish button. Spend fifteen minutes figuring out how to fit the joke into those 140 characters? Typical. And don’t get me started on finding a typo after I published. And then, just as Dean said, I’d go to my Favrd page, eager to see how the tweet did. If it bombed, I’d just get to work on the next one, determined to get a “hit.” Addiction indeed.
I had to learn to curb that at some point—I have a job, after all—so I just had to learn simply not to care that much about the whole thing. To this day, though, getting a “hit” is still, well, a “hit.” I can imagine how others may be much more obsessed than I am—as @tj explained so well—so when I read Dean saying
“Anyway, please don’t take the shut-down as anything other than a shift in my own priorities, manifested in a desire to stop selling crack.”
I just think he knows what’s up.
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¹ I remember thinking the same thing independently as I watched Last Comic Standing on TV one summer. I was shocked by how some of the best comics were so bitter and humorless off the stage.
