The End Of The Road (6)

The conclusion to our genius project voyage is upon us. These past six weeks have been full of new adventures and experiences for all of us. Whether you continue to work your way towards 10,000 hours in your hobby or not, the lessons you learned from it will always be with you. For me, stand up comedy has most certainly been a route of inspiration. It quickly became a stress relieving technique that I used while working my way through homework. When my parents said that I was procrastinating by watching Louis C.K., I would just respond with, "I'm studying, Mom!"

Even though I will most likely stop practicing stand up once this project is over, it is important to reflect on my comedy experience. First off, stand up comedy is much harder than it seems. I set aside 1 hour one day to write a routine and then the rest of the day was going to be spent on video games. I ended up taking 5 hours to write the routine. With no breaks or snack interruptions, it still took me 5 times the amount of time I thought it would take. After all, I'm just describing my thoughts about a certain subject. It shouldn't have been that hard, but for some weird reason, it was. The lesson learned is not to underestimate someones craft. Do something before you judge it.

Now for a reflection on the Ted talk I gave. I had many different ideas for themes to talk about during the presentation. I had so many little messages to spread, but nothing really stuck out to me. I finally decided to talk about noticing small things in life based off of what Joe Conklin told me. The next step for me was to write some jokes. In my case, I ended up drawing the jokes. The jokes ended up getting laughs but I with I embedded more jokes throughout my talk. My delivery was stronger and more fluid than it was in my practices. I am overall satisfied with the Ted Talk I gave even though I wish it was more of a stand up routine as opposed to a presentation.

In the end, I am happy to have had the opportunity to have tried something new and to have learned new skills from it. Although I have already found passion elsewhere, it was fun trying something different for a change. The lessons I've learned from comedy will stick with me long after I stop doing comedy.