Four Hours Until Showtime

While nervously waiting to do WTF on August 28th, I wrote the following.

Today won’t be the day everything changes.  Real life isn’t like that.  Real life is a mountain climb.  Today I take another step towards the top of the mountain that has no peak.

I’m going to be a guest on a live WTF.  If you’re not in the comedy world, you probably don’t know what that means.  Having Marc Maron invite you on his show is the modern day alternative comedy equivalent of having Johnny Carson inviting you to sit on the couch.  If you’re not in the comedy world, that analogy probably didn’t help either.  Being on WTF is a big deal.  He has more listeners to his podcast than many television shows have viewers.  This is my first big credit.

The business of comedy is largely based on credits.  That’s why when you go to a comedy club sometimes the comedian is still hyped by their appearance on some TV show 25 years ago.  Four minutes on Conan O’Brien is a world of difference to club bookers.  Sometimes it’s just as hard to get in the doors of a club in Peoria as it is to get a nationally televised set on a late night talk show.

Podcasting is the future.  It’s new media.  It’s creator controlled.  There aren’t suits and advertisers running the game.  Podcasting is pure.  WTF is one of, if not the number one comedy podcast on iTunes.  I estimate that a quarter of a million people will hear it.  Hear me.

Unlike a spot on a late night talk show, I don’t expect anything to change.  When it was announced I’d be on the show, a club I’d been trying to get back into do a feature spot contacted me to headline, but I mostly chalk that up to coincidence.

Before being on WTF I worked hard writing, performing, trying to make new opportunities.  After being on WTF I’m still going to work hard writing, performing and trying to create new opportunities.  But now  I will do it feeling validated and confident because Marc invited me to sit on the couch.