Let’s take a look at the value of time as it is spent starting a stand-up comedy career, assuming that your time has some sort of assigned monetary value.
I’m taking this approach because…
People seem to understand the value of money, whether they have any or not. But they can have some real difficulty when it comes to valuing their time.
In order to illustrate exactly what I am talking about, let’s assume that…
The time you spend each week developing your stand-up comedy act is worth just $10 per hour.
And let’s assume that you spend just 5 hours a week on your comedy career developing material, rehearsing, driving back and forth to and participating in open mic gigs, surfing online for those free “magic bullets” that don’t really work or provide any real usable information, etc.
Given those criteria, let’s see just how long you will last in stand-up comedy…
Forget about buying any books, taking a workshop or attending a stand-up comedy course of any kind.
Let’s just stick with what I have laid out as far as your time expenditure goes simply as an example.
20 hours/month X $10/hour = $200 per month (value of time invested)
Here’s the question:
How many months are you willing to invest of your valuable time before you can make some of that $200 per month (time value as assigned) back with your stand-up comedy talent and skill?
Is it 3 months? Is 6 months? Is it 12 months or more?
More than anything I want to give you a perspective that I hope motivates you to very much value your time to the fullest when spending it starting a stand-up comedy career.
I come from a very different perspective than you will read in any book on stand-up comedy in this regard:
It doesn’t have to take years like the stand-up comedy books say to be able to produce and deliver headline level stand-up comedy material if you have comedy talent unless…
You are trying to “joke write” your way to headliner level material. It can be done that way, it just takes a really long time.
But it doesn’t have to be that way if you have comedy talent and are armed with the right information.
Check out the YouTube videos of these Killer Stand-up comedians and you will understand what I am talking about.
So, the question remains:
How much is your time really worth when working on your stand-up comedy career?
This I can say with great confidence:
If you don’t value your time as a show business professional — no matter how you do it, I promise you that no one else will either.
The value of time cannot be underestimated. Most of us have many time fillers and time wasters that can be better utilized. One way to look at time developing as a comic is the concept I was taught as a means to complete a dissertation. Rather than look at it as time lost, consider replacing activities with work on comedy so that it is time invested. Do you watch TV? Trade some of that time. Do you play golf? Can some golf time be replaced with comedy time? What other things do you do that can be shifted to comedy time? The advantage of this process is you can develop your comedy, which is VERY healthy, but do less of things that have little value. Learning happens at different rates for each individual. Effort, persistence, and good teaching increase learning effectiveness. That is what is nice about Killer Stand Up – it harmonizes with Steve’s good teaching and the users effort and persistence.
Very good article. I literally come from a website just now which talked all about how long it takes to “write” good material. Steve, I fully agree that you yourself dictates your greatness.