I Failed…Now What?
September 22nd, 2009 . by Tim Babb (TANcast's #1 Host/Editor Fan)30 Days and 30 Blogs: Day 21
So if you’ve heard the latest TANcast, then you know that the San Francisco Comedy Competition is over…at least for me. I didn’t score high enough to move on. Or to put it another way, I failed.
The time to ask why is behind me. I made bad choices, things beyond my control happened, etc. The question is, where do I go from here? I was really hoping this contest would open doors for my comedy career. Now those doors are probably slammed shut.
I could sit around and moan that fact, but the fact is I really just want to move on and find new ways of opening those doors (or find new doors). But not knowing how to do that is a frightening thing. It’s like being lost in the woods…no..wait…I wouldn’t know what that’s like. It’s like being in the LAX parking lot and not knowing where your car is (that I know about first hand). You don’t know where to start. You feel like every time you go one direction, you may actually moving further from your goal. As the hours go by, you begin to wonder if in fact you’re just going around in circles.
In LAX I eventually found my car and got to where I wanted to go. Will I be that lucky with comedy? Only time and will can tell.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:29 am
Tim, you’ve got enough talent to guarantee that you find your car, so to speak. Not sure what happened at the show, but I know (from TANcast, as well as Kingdom Comedy and your standup) that we’ll be seeing big things from you one day. It’s only a matter of time before you’re selling out big shows. And until then… can I get your autograph before you’re extremely fucking famous and can justify charging me for it? lol
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I thought you were going to have it from the places you hit early in the week.
But it’s not the end of the world. You did better than I did last year. Got my ass handed to me for a week. But I came out of it a better comic.
Like Mike said, you’ve got the talent. You just need to keep putting it in front of people. The more people like you, the more the industry pays attention.
Here’s an example. I keep in touch with the booker at the Ice House on a regular basis. He’s a super nice guy, but not a big fan of my comedy. I let him know about some sold out show I’d done recently and he told me “Good.. Now build that kind of buzz in LA so I HAVE to book you.”
And that right there, my friend, is the key to show business. Butts in seats. Talent doesn’t figure into it as much as we’d like.
So what can you do to not only build that audience, but harness their power to talk about you?