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Welcome Myles Weber
Carole Freeman: Hey, everybody. We're live. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the get good podcast. This is a podcast for comedians that are serious about getting good. So whether you're trying to advance beyond the open mic scene or looking to get booked consistently at comedy clubs and more, this podcast is you.
I'm comedian, Carole Freeman, and I'm interviewing headlining comedians, club owners, bookers, festival judges. Comedy instructors and more to find their best tips, techniques, and strategies so that you can improve your standup comedy and get good. And today's guest is perfect. He's all of those things. Well, maybe not the club owner yet, but he's all of those things.
So I'm so excited. Myles Weber, welcome to the show. Oh, let's just do this for fun.
Myles Weber: Look at those little yellow hands clapping. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's great to be here. Let's talk about getting good. Shall we? Let's get good.
Carole Freeman: Also, I just want to give you a shout out.
Impressed I am what a pro you are.
I think I sent the email requesting headshot bio and literally three seconds later, you had that in my inbox and I was like, this guy is a pro.
Myles Weber: Yeah, no, I, that's, that's someone tell comics. I'm like, have your headshots on your phone, have your bio easily accessible on your phone, have your EPK. If you're in the sending that sort of thing on your phone ready.
So yeah, I, I happened to be holding my phone when the email came in and I was like, Oh, Click, click, click. Boom. There we go. All right. Perfect. So, yeah, no, it always drives me nuts when comics take forever to get their stuff over to you. So I try and not do that.
Carole Freeman: It's, it's, it's easier to do it immediately than try to remember to do it later.
Myles Weber: Now I'll put a note on my phone to do it later in the amount of time it could have just taken to just do it real quick if you have it accessible on your phone. Yeah. Have it on your phone too. Yeah.
Myles Weber's bio and credits
Carole Freeman: That's hilarious. So Myles for people that don't know you, let me give a little bit of your bio here, some highlights we already got a thumbs up my goal in every one of these live streams is that I want to get every one of the reactions.
So, you know, whether it's just pandering and you want to give them to me now, or just are, you know, I don't really want the angry react, but maybe, maybe not something that makes people angry, but anyways so Myles success. Let's see, he's racked up over 60 million views across all platforms. He's been on MTV, you guys.
And let's see, a Dry Bar comedy special that's out now, and he's recorded another one that's coming out later this year in 2023. He's also kind of a big deal in competitions and festivals. He took a first place in the San Francisco international comedy competition. That was kind of a big deal. They've had some really big names go through there.
And also he was the second youngest to win the competition and one of only two comics to sweep the whole thing. And Myles has also fared well at festivals being best of the best in Burbank comedy festival, San Luis Obispo comedy festival, two times and the big pine comedy festival out here in Arizona.
So. Hey, we got a lot to talk about. Oh, and he also runs a green room talk, which is a comedy coaching career and comedy writing coaching businesses too. So we'll talk about that too. So. Excellent.
Myles Weber: A lot of things. A lot of things. It's weird when people read it off because I forget a lot of those things.
Yeah. You just kind of keep going through your career and accumulating stuff. You're just like, all right, I've done a couple of things. That's fine. There we go.
Carole Freeman: Hey, and if you're joining the show here, go ahead and leave us a comment where you're watching from, where you're joining us from. And this is interactive participation.
If you've got questions already brewing up, pop them in the comments here for Myles.
So how long have you been doing comedy?
Myles Weber: 15 years.
Yeah. Yeah, it started shortly after I got out of high school, it was just always an obsession of mine and then committed to it. Did well in front of my friends the first time, bombed the next week, and then I was like, yeah, this is it for me.
Carole Freeman:
Where, so where did you get your start? Where was your first open mic?
Myles Weber: First open mic was in the Bay Area in Northern California. So there was a comedy club that was about 15 minutes down the road from where I lived. And I mean, where I live again, I found myself back to my hometown living it again.
And so yeah, My then home club, pepper Bellies in Fairfield, California. And that was my home club for about five years. And then unfortunately it burned down, which was sad . And then, but I mean that ended up, you know, I mean, you hate to say it ended up being a good thing. Hi Morty. I love Morty Morty.
Stein Morty. Stein Mor. A fantastic comic and a really good human being as well. Yes, I dunno. Morty. Hi Morty, nice to meet you. Morty's great. So so yeah, no, I mean, that ended up being a good thing for me just because it required me to branch out further and start working the road more outside of that city because I was just really getting comfortable, like, just working there a lot and like the surrounding area.
And so kind of pushed me like, okay, well, broader horizons now, what's next? And so I kind of try and take that symbolism and with life and. Yeah. When things seem like they're kind of burning down, it's like, Oh yeah, because you've outgrown this situation and you probably got to move on to something bigger, you know?
So, and that's what I did. And then, yeah, no, from there, it was just a matter of, you know, working the road as much as I could. When I won the SF competition in 2015, I started getting busier and more consistently every year and then started doing cruise ships here and there in 2018 and then, yeah, was.
Killing the game and then shot a dry bar special at the end of 2019. And they were like, okay, it's going to come out in March of 2020. And I was like, March of 2020, that's going to be such a good month. I can't wait for March of 2020. The partying that I will be having in that specific month and that specific year and go figure some stuff happened in March, 2020 that required it to get pushed back.
But then a lot of life happened and that was also a good thing because I was working. I think you're supposed to as a comic, you're supposed to throw yourself on it as much as you possibly can for as long as you possibly can. But then it kind of, you get to a fork where you're like, okay, I can get all the way up there pretty quick.
But I'm going to have to burn everything else down to get there. Cause I can only focus
Carole Freeman: like personal life stuff. Is that what you mean?
Myles Weber: Yes. Because yeah, I feel like we all kind of come to a point where it's just like, all right, do I get super busy and. Shoot myself into the stratosphere or do I have a family that I like?
Because yeah, I know so many comics who are just watching their kids grow up from the phone. They're on their third or fourth marriage. The relationships aren't. Being able to withstand the way that they wanted to, and that's why I say it's lonely at the top. And so I'm just like, okay, and then I've been sat down by all these comics on these cruise ships when I was working, you know, because you always work with another comic on the ships and they sit me down and they're like, don't do it.
I did kid and so and me and my wife were just like, Hey, man, we like each other. Like, yeah, we love each other, of course, but I mean, like. We actually, like you're my homie, like I like doing stuff with you. I'm not annoyed with you in the slightest. It's just like annoying that we're both so busy. And so we kind of slowed things down and I was like, all right, what does it look like to make a schedule that's a little bit more family friendly in this industry.
And so that's been my balance. And that's been part of the reason why I do the coaching now is I'm trying to teach comics, like you don't have to burn it all down in the name of success in this industry. There's enough people in the world now where. You can just get a following online, keep those people happy, and then you can have a career for as long as you want to.
So yeah, that's kind of like my whole comedy journey in a very short, brief, eight minute nutshell.
Carole Freeman:
So in the beginning, did you have that awareness that to make money at it, you're going to have to go on the road?
Was that, Comedy is so different 15 years ago than it is now.
Myles Weber: Oh, yeah. It's very, very different. I mean, you could conceivably make so much more quicker now in the day and age of social media and everything. And I'm seeing that with comics, but they're being pretty smart about it. So it's interesting.
Yeah. No, back then it was like Mark said, that's my concern. Yeah, man. I mean, it can be done. It can be done, but it just takes a lot. It takes a lot of scheduling, a lot of communication. You know, we've got our calendar. That's our mutual calendar. Everything that has to go on that calendar is talked about first and then put an ink on that calendar.
And we both have access to it all the time. So that way it's just like we make sure we go on dates and taking your significant other to a comedy show doesn't count as a date. So I cannot stress that enough. Like that's you taking them to work and you do that too many times. And then you wonder why they're annoyed sitting in the back of the club.
So but yeah, no, when I was starting out, I very much, so it was like, they say, go to LA. That's the thing that it's just like you go to LA, you're going to New York. Well, I was closer to LA and I was like, what do I do down here? And they're like, you just go and you just kind of grind it out and then maybe something will happen.
And I was like, okay. And that lasted about a little under two years. Before I just lost everything and I was just like, because I was still trying to like work the road and everything and L. A. Is like, well, we can't give you any of our dazzling opportunities unless you're here all of the time. And I'm like, it sucks down here.
I don't want to be here all the time. All of you suck. And they're like, not to your face. So so yeah, that was kind of the path in the beginning that was just kind of told to everybody, you know, I mean, you're better off going to New York if you want to, like, cause I wanted to do standup. I didn't really want to act.
I didn't really want to do anything that was behind the scenes in that Avenue. So I, I was like, okay, I just wanted to stand up and LA is not a standup town. That's, that's just kind of how it goes. You know, I know a lot of comics that they do comedy down there. And then once they leave, they have to relearn how to do it for normal human beings.
Just because the way of life down there is not like most other major cities that you're going to be performing in. And it's most certainly not like any of the small towns that you. Inevitably be performing it on your way up and sometimes on your way down. So yeah, it's, it just didn't really work for me that way, but I learned a lot in that trip living down there and then was able to kind of like build it all back up.
You know, from nothing at that point, but now I think it's different. I think now it's like you can considerably get a following on social media pretty quickly with, you know, the success of reels and shorts and sometimes tech talk, cause I mean, I feel like there's just everybody. And their mama and their grandmama got a tick tock.
And so now it's just like screaming into the ether. But every now and then something happens. You don't know until you post, but I know comics are getting a good following online and they're starting to go, well, where do you want to see me perform? And then people were like here. And then enough people say that.
And then they. Get booked there and they go and they're selling tickets and it's like, oh, because that's really where we end up. We get into comedy because we love telling jokes ideally. And we're probably using humor as a defense mechanism because we couldn't cope with something in our past. That usually is.
What makes a comic is some type of messed up ness. So we're always trying to figure out how to best be funny for as many people as we possibly can, as often as we can. And inevitably you run into the business side of things where it's like, it's time to sell tickets. People love to get pissed at tick talkers who are selling out of the club on a Wednesday night and being like, that could have been our spot because we're comics and they suck.
Well, what do you mean suck? Like, I need you to be more specific. Like you don't like them. The person who is not their fan and did not buy a ticket to that show or the people who did buy a ticket and did go to that show and do follow them online and do love them and drove sometimes from hours around to go see them.
They had a fantastic time and that is all that matters is that they sold tickets and you didn't. And if you think you can, you should do the same thing. So so, yeah, now I think the path to victory can be shorter and it's going to be interesting to see. How these comics who were, you know, in my day we had to, like, kind of play a lot of away games for many years and I quit playing an away game to like, this audience doesn't know who I am.
They don't care. They just saw maybe a flyer or worse yet. They were here and didn't know that there was going to be a comedy show. And so you're just having to, as I've heard, like, Guys like Bill Burr and stuff say, you got to get them. You know, there, there's something to be said for having to get them.
And I think when you get to a point where you're like a Kevin Hart or a Gabriel Iglesias, and it's just people who love you at every show you do, you're playing home games now. And you don't have to get them. You're already got them. They show up in the boat. Like, so there's something to be said for playing a lot of away games, because I think you get really good and you can sustain that for a long time.
But at the same time, who's to say that these newer comics who are selling out these shows on off nights, they've got an audience full of people who really like them, and maybe they'll be able to be patient and support them in their growth. And maybe they will get good. And it's just like going to be a better way for everybody.
But I think we just get too much in the like, well, it was hard when I started and it should be hard for everybody. That's miserable energy. And that's, that's very like, I beat my kids and I'm, or I, my mom beat me when I was younger and I'm fine. No, you're not. No, you're absolutely not. And so, so yeah,
Carole Freeman: Myles.
I like. Yeah. The comics of, I don't know, all, all the years in, but like, you know, some 20, 30 year veterans that are like, no, this is this, I don't like the social media thing. You got it. Like you said, like,
you just have to do it the hard way I did. That's the only way.
Myles Weber: No, there's so many ways now. So yeah.
But yeah, no, all these, the old comics, they'll just always be shaking their fists for the past, you know?
I mean, it's just like very their generation to be, it's, it's the very like boomer to everybody else. Type of relationship, you know
Carole Freeman: well, I heard stories about how they had it easier as well. Like, you know, the triple run we get into, like, I've heard comics that I know from Seattle that would say like three months in, I got, I went on the road gig as a feature and went from having five minutes to 25 on, on a road gig like that.
i don't know many comics now that are getting that kind of opportunity
Myles Weber: there's not a lot of those anymore with the cost of things and inflation now. I mean, those gigs. still pay the same. If you want to do them, they're there and they still pay awful. So it's like you can't really survive even if you've got merch and you're selling out of it only so much.
And then let's talk about like, oh, well, it was hard for me. It was hard for you on like the come up maybe to a degree, but you also wrote that fire hour and that hour sustained work for you for You just got to sit on that tired ass material that you wrote 15, 20, 30, sometimes four years ago, and they are just doing it over and over and over again.
But now all eyes are on everybody all the time. And I'm so excited that. Like we're about to kick into the comedic work ethic that they've had in the UK for a long time, which is I'm a standup comic, and it is my job to write a new hour of material every 12 to 18 months. And that is the relationship we all have with our fan base out there.
That's why standup comedy is an art form out in the UK. They treat it like the United States treats music, you know, their standup comedy magazines and things like that. They don't care about your intro on the shows because they're like, they booked you here. Why would you not be funny? I don't need you to prove to me in a fancy intro, all the things you've done and why I should care you're in front of me right now at this establishment and I trust it.
So you should just be funny. And so we're getting to that here where it's like, yeah, I was talking to a comic recently who's an older generation comic and they're like, well, don't you worry about putting all your material online? I'm like, no, I write new jokes as long as I'm doing that. As often, like I just recorded it at a new hour the other night in Napa, California.
And it went fantastic. And I gave myself the day to be like, victory. Yay. And then this morning at four in the morning I was up and I was like, what do we do next?
Carole Freeman: And I was writing stuff and getting work done. Sketch just been shaking.
Myles Weber: Yep, it is.
You have to love the never ending chase. That standup comedy is, you'll never ever figure it out.
Mm-hmm. You'll never catch it. You'll never get it. It's like, it's like the gold at the end of the rainbow. You could never actually touch it or see it. It's not really there, but you see it, so why shouldn't it be real? So yeah, you're always gonna be chasing that next hour. Always, forever, like look at guys like, you know, Chris Rock, who's been doing how many hours now?
Carlin did what? 14 hours in his career on HBO and stuff like that. So it's just like, you're forever chasing the hour. And even when you die, you'll be like, Oh, well, I only had 30. So I mean, so yeah, it's just, you have to really, that has to excite you. That's an element of stand up comedy that I think that comics really don't think about when they get into this industry.
It's more work than you know. It's more work than you think. It's a commitment, but it's just like, yeah, man, you're never going to figure it out. You're all, you never stop bombing. It just happens less and less over time. But you still got to be willing to take it on the chin in order to find the good stuff.
So that way you're taking as many, you know, reasonable and calculated risks as you possibly can.
Carole Freeman: So of all your years,
do you have a memorable or favorite bomb story?
Myles Weber: Man, as far as like gigs go, it's hard to say.
Especially if it's like a matter of like good or bad. I mean, because the good are usually, I mean, the obvious ones are always like when you record something major, like a dry bar or a special that you've promoted and sold tickets to successfully, like those are always just. Those are the easiest shows you're ever going to do.
And it's weird because we put the most pressure on ourselves and those type of gigs where we're like, all right, this is a recording. It's going to be, it's like, you've been hopefully doing this set and you know it like the back of your hand and you've been doing it, like I said earlier at away games. So this is a home game for you.
It's going to be a grand slam. You're going to knock it out of the park. You should be the most relaxed for this one. The most fun shows I have are just those shitty little, and I did one last week, it was just a shitty little bar and is just like, you know, maybe 20, 30 people there. And that was packed.
And there's just this energy of just like, who cares? Like, there's, there's no real losing here. We, we take as many chances as we can. We've all kind of got this unwritten, like, law with each other of just like, yeah, no, most stuff can fly here and we don't care. Excuse me. So so yeah, the, some of the best shows I've had were like, 12 people on a club on like a Sunday and stuff like that.
Some of the worst shows though. Oh, dear Lord. Like, There's every type of reason why a show could be absolutely terrible. I did a show where
So, no, bad shows, I mean, there was one time the thing about when you bomb, you and those comics forever are bonded together.
That's the thing, is, you go down like wounded soldiers in battle together. Together. So I was doing some fun bombs with some fun people that I had was, I was doing shows at Rooster Tew Feathers in Sunnyvale, California. It's a nice comedy club and it was with April Macy and she's a very, very hilarious headliner and such a nice lady.
And we've worked together a lot. And we were working together that weekend and Sunday there was maybe like 20, 25 people there. It was scarce. And the audiences in Sunnyvale can be a little weird. They're tech people. So they just kind of have really suppressed a lot of their emotions and expressions.
Carole Freeman: But they're more like, they, instead of laughing, they go.
Myles Weber: Yep. Yep. Nod. Nodders. Not even smilers. Just like, okay. Okay. Yeah. Like that. That's the, the fact that they're staying awake is them saying that they're expressing gratitude towards you. And so the host went up,
First comic went up. I went up, ate a dick, and then April went up and she proceeded to start eating a dick and then she stopped and she was like, you know, when the host goes up and bombs, you're like, okay, that happens.
So, I mean, they tend to be the greenest one on the bill. That makes sense. Not all for not. We'll see what happens next when the feature act goes up and they bomb. Now, it's a little strange because I mean, like, that doesn't usually happen that way. It's a little odd that it happened back to back. But okay, we'll see if I can do my job.
And see what, what yeah, tech, I've confirmed that they do. All they do is not. And she's like, so let me see if I can just get it back. But when the headliner starts to bomb, I don't think you guys should do this ever again. Like, I don't think maybe this isn't your event. Maybe you guys are like library people.
You should just all like get together and collectively go to the library or like ride a bike or sell lemonade, like never go to a live event. Where people are telling jokes ever again, can we all make the end? So she just roasted them for being so ridiculous. And so, but we still talk about that one.
That's one we still talk about. And another one that I love is I don't know if you know,
the comic Dave Nihill.
Yeah. Yes. Irish comic. Oh, Dave is amazing. And he's killing the game right now. It makes me so happy that he's doing so well. He deserves it. He's on my list.
Carole Freeman: If I just a little tiny stories, like I read his book and he was like, I was.
It's a fan, fan of him from his book. And I was in San Diego about four years ago for a conference and he turned out. So daytime it was like social media marketing world, 5, 000 people there, like 10 different events you could go to every hour of the conference. And I walk into the session I'd picked and he was hosting, like he was introducing the speaker.
And I'm like, Oh my God, super fan girl. And so excited. And then. So that night I got some guest spots at Madhouse in the back, the back room, whatever. And it turns out that he, I think he was featuring there that weekend in the front room. And I was like, Oh my gosh, it's destiny. Look at us running into each other.
And it turns out, so I got to see him all weekend at the conference. And, you know, a couple of shows that at Madhouse as well. So anyways, like, I would love to have him on, I don't, he's probably too big right now, but anyways, if you're watching, we'd love to have you on the show here. So,
Myles Weber: well, I'll, I'll, we'll remind me and we'll talk more about that after the show.
I'm sure that he'd, he'd love to, he, he's one that I talk to regularly about like, you know, every month, like, Hey, man, how the show's going? What are you doing online? Like what's happening. And he has always been, we are open with each other's playbooks. And I'm always grateful with comics. You're always trying to help other comics and he's just like, pay it forward, mate.
Like he's such a good person. Like, so love Dave, him and I did shows because I mean, he relatively started in the Bay area doing like standup, you know, as an adult. And so he. Was starting on the bay and it was God, like, this was like, probably 12, 13 years ago and he was hosting. I was featuring.
There was an older comic who was headlining and the audience was older. And my least favorite audience is rich old white people because I. Grew up in a poor community and it was very, very ghetto in a lot of ways. And so I don't really have anything to connect with rich ass entitled old white people.
And so Dave went up, bombed. I went up, bombed horrifically, like no one liked me. And at that point, I think I did five minutes over my time and I told them, I was like, I know I needed to go five minutes ago, but I stayed just to show you people I'm not afraid of you. And, and so they hated me and then the next comic went up, but we saw his he had his set list written out with Sharpie on a card and in the middle of the set list.
In bold letters, it said fish sticks and he proceeded to go up and he did like 10 minutes on fish sticks and it annihilated. Oh, dear God. I'm sure six of those people died and he. Just, and me and Dave were just looking at each other like fish sticks, man. Like that's what we didn't know. And so we got the masterclass on pulling folks in that night.
Apparently they just wanted some fish sticks. And now to this day, when Dave and I see each other, we're like fish sticks. Yeah, man. Like, so, and we call each other fish stick funny. So that's, that's how you gotta be now. So yeah, no, when you bomb, there's something beautiful about the camaraderie of you and that comic are going to always have that bond together.
Carole Freeman: John is saying that if he make a small crowd crack with laughter, it feels like Superman level. And then he's also doing a phonetic spelling of. Fish sticks. Fish sticks. Fish, fish sticks. For the win. Yeah. All right. Exactly. There we go. Perfect. Let's see. Well, so take us back to, you know,
how did you get your first dry bar special?
Did you seek it out? Was it on your, you know, your. Comedy punch card goal list. Did they just approach you and surprise you? How'd that go?
Myles Weber: Yes. So well, I mean, I always knew I wanted to do some type of widely recorded or, you know, received set. You know, I feel like that's what we are. I, you know, I grew up watching comedy central presents and all that stuff.
And so I was like, Oh yeah, something like that would be amazing, you know? And so there was a lot of nose before I got to dry bar.
Before Dry Bar was a thing, I was submitting 5 minute sets to late night shows because I had scratched and clawed to get the emails of every late night booker.
Carole Freeman: got a different something that's different.
Now versus then that's not something a lot of comics are even thinking they should try to do.
Myles Weber: So, Oh, it's dead. It's pretty much dead. That's about it. Like Conan was the last one who was having comics on regularly. Like the tonight show, maybe it has a handful of comics on in a year and everybody else is fading away quick.
So it's just like, yeah, it's just, it doesn't mean as much as it used to anymore, which is fascinating. It means more to probably get a set on. Don't tell comedy. On their social media now than it does to do anything on the late show, which is fascinating, but that was what we were doing at that time.
And so for years, I emailed all of them. I got told no 2 times by all of them. And then
Conan's Booker.
Had been giving, he gave me and one email reply that was like notes, like all this stuff, but this one bit might work. And so then I was like, oh, let me try and build a set around that bit then. And I just kept emailing him, emailing him for like, God, two years.
And then finally he was like, stop emailing me. I was like, do you need like another clip? He's like, no, just stop. Just don't. Unsubscribe, please never email me ever again. And I was just like, fuck.
Carole Freeman: It sounds like a dating story too. Like one time you got one date and they were like, like, we're going to have something, we're going to get married.
Aren't we? And like, no, no, no.
Myles Weber: Yeah. No love, no love at all. Yeah. Not even like dry sex. It was just like, absolutely not. The cops are on their way. I'm like, Oh, okay. We're still out at a public place right now and I don't have my dick out. They're still on their way. Okay. It's that bad. All right. That's fine.
You know? So yeah.
Carole Freeman: Talk about hard work Myles. I mean, that's persistence, but that's part of the game is that you've got to, you no, like just.
Myles Weber:
You can't take this industry personally because it will consistently do this to you where you feel very chewed up and spat out. And if you take it personally, that will freeze you from making any real tangible progress and learning the lesson from all those notes
So, you know, I'm grateful. I got those notes now, but then dry bar became a thing.
And I was like, okay, well, it seems like they're just doing clean sets. I could do that. Thank you. So I wrote the set, I was just kind of like, all right, well, if I was going to do this, it's like what 2025 minutes because when they first came out, it was like 45 minutes sets. And so I was like, where I was at then that seemed long, like now I'm writing a clean hour and a dirty hour every year and a half or so.
So but at that time I was like, okay, that seems like a stretch, but then they made it 20 to 25 minutes. So I was like, okay, well, what do I want to write about? If I was going to write about me and then it was just like storyboarding. Everything to do with, you know, me as a person and things like that.
So that way you have that good foundation. So that way you're answering the question of who are you and why do I care so that way in specials in the future, you can then start dealing with whatever hot takes or things like that, that you have that are observational, but first we gotta be like, why do I care?
And so I was working on that for like eight months, nine months, I had gotten a really good tape. Of me doing this at at a comedy club, thankfully, and I was sending that to the booker for a while and I went through every comic who I knew who had filmed 1 and I was like, can I get your name as a wreck?
I'm just at getting a list together. And I think I went through and I got 32. 31 or 32 names of comics who they're like, yes, absolutely. But apparently 1 of the comics key Lewis, he, he called the guy who books the dry bar shows and he was like, if there's 1 comic, you got to book, you got to book Myles Weber and...
Carole Freeman: I thought this was going to go the other way, where it was like, the guy said, no,
Myles Weber: and he's, oh, no, no, no. If he said, if, yeah, no, if he was a then I would probably not said his name. But no, he gave me, like, the golden vouch and he is friends with that guy. And so I got a call in October of 2019 and it was the booker and he was like, Hey, I had somebody fall out this Saturday.
And I think it was Monday and he's like, can you do it? And I'm like, yep. And so I had shows booked, I think in Chicago at a comedy club, and I had to call them and be like, I can't come this weekend. I'm so sorry, but I have to do this and I hope you understand. And I don't think they did cause I've never worked there again, but hell with it.
Right. So yeah, I was an alternate and then ended up filming and it went fantastic. And then it finally came out on the app the end of 2020 in November, and then they released it on YouTube in, I think, April of 2021, and it got one of the top 10 for that year for their specials. I think it was like number eight on the top 10 list.
So I was like, Hey, not bad for an alternate. No, not bad for somebody who wasn't supposed to be. And so that kind of made it feel a little more significant to me.
So, yeah, I know there was something to be said about, like, I wasn't supposed to be here and I got here and I was able to make a good impression.
And then I filmed the 2nd 1 with them this past October and still hasn't come out yet, but it's supposed to come out at some point this year. So, yeah, no, it's, that was always definitely something I wanted to do that ended up kind of falling in my lap in the right way. Cause I mean, I felt like, like I said, the Comedy Central presents the half hours with a thing, but I mean, with commercials, it's like a 20 to 25 minute set.
So I was always like going, that would be cool. And you tell yourself it has to be that exact thing. And then you start going out for the late shows and you get all these notes and you get frustrated. And then ultimately in the end, here we are 20 to 25 minutes that you're doing it. It's going to be released about as many, if not more people see these and see the Comedy Central stuff now a days anyway.
And so I was just like. Oh, it kind of weirdly worked out. The thing I wasn't ready for was when you've got a goal that you romanticize for so long, it can never live up to what you've thought about because you've thought about it every single different possible way. And the overthinking of every single possible different way, you're going to have that great night.
Post Accomplishment depression after the Dry bar special
And you're going to get that feeling and it's going to be great. But then the sun comes up the next day and life just kind of keeps on going. And you're like but the credits rolled. What do I do now? You got to keep on living. What are you going to do now? And so I was very depressed after. I did the special.
Yeah, because I was just like, what do I do now? What happens next? Oh my God, it's over. Like, so yeah, there's just weird feeling and apparently it's a thing because I looked it up and I talked to my therapist about it and I've talked to other entertainers about it and it's called post accomplishment. Depression.
Oh, wow. And it's something that a lot of writers get, you know, they write that number one New York Times bestseller and then they're like, shit, what do I do? The lady who wrote Eat, Pray, Love, she did a tech talk, I think about it, where she wrote that book and then everybody was like, this is our jam, write something else.
And she was like, oh no, what am I doing? So she just went into like a crisis mode because it's like, yeah, what do you do now? And so yeah. You, you just kind of, and that's why I said in the beginning, be at peace with it. Yeah, I like chasing the next high, but you gotta be at peace with the fact that you're never going to get it.
So it's just the chase has to fulfill you. That's just, it's, it's a game you're playing with yourself. It's putting the carrot on the stick on the string in front of you on the treadmill. And you just gotta be at peace with the fact that that carrot is always gonna be just in front of you, just out of reach, but that's the game that you've agreed to play with yourself.
And so the sooner you can come to terms with that, it gets a lot. More rewarding and experience on a day to day instead of chasing those little highs.
Carole Freeman: Alicia Hillman is saying P. A. D. for Post Accomplishment Depression, a new kind of depression for my collection. She's a brand new comic in the Phoenix area.
Myles Weber: So, well, if she's collecting depression, she's going to be a very good comic then. That is, that is a fact. That I wish was more of a joke than a fact.
Carole Freeman: Yeah. Yeah. Well, so from that story class, what can we learn? You know, getting achieving goals is going to be tenacity, hard work and who, you know, and being in the right place at the right time.
And also knowing that realizing sometimes those goals aren't the be all end all of your career and then the hamster wheel, it just, it never ends.
Myles Weber: Yeah, it never ends. It never ends. So yeah, just be, I mean, the thing that I always circle back to is. If there's things that I could ever like put on comics and any level I tie it all back to like
the four agreements
which is a fantastic book that everybody should read.
But how they turn how they can tie themselves into comedy, I think makes a lot of sense. I have them here because I referenced them a lot. And the first agreement is be impeccable with your word. And your comic. Be impeccable with your word, like put actual work into this, you know, the lately when I've been running this set that I just recorded this past weekend, people come up to me and they're like, your stuff is really well thought out.
I'm like, thank you. Cause yeah, I actually like sit and put the pen to paper and try and figure this out. And then it goes through all the processes and everything. So, you know, your job is words. So good, Mark. That is a great book to read a few times. Go through it once a year. Usually I try and read that thing again.
But yeah, man, like try hard at this, you know, take an English class or 12, you know, know this language inside and out, you know, that's going to help you out a lot. Be really impeccable with the words that you're using, you know, really think things out. You can yeah. Still joke about things.
Everybody that gets all like, Oh, you can't joke about anything anymore. It's like, homie, if you're not good at writing, just say you suck at this. Like, because of seven things that you can't talk about really, or the things that you're really this mad about, it means that you can't write about the other thousands and millions of things that there are to write about in life.
Kevin or Jim Gaffigan wrote five minutes on bacon, like. You can write about anything. So be impeccable with your words because words are our thing. And the second agreement is don't take anything personally. We've talked about that today with the nose and things like that. Don't take it personally. You know, the rejection is just.
You weren't ready for that spot yet, or with somebody else's story, you know there's comics. I know who have gotten the late night sets and good for them. That's their story. You know, that was a notch on their belt. We have different belts. You know, we're doing this differently. So don't take it personally.
You lose in a comedy competition. Don't take a personally it's taking you longer than you had anticipated for something to happen. Then. Well, don't take it personally, like, you really can't take anything that happens in this industry or in this lifetime personally, because you never know what's going on with people and you never know what's going on with situations.
So don't take anything personally. Don't make assumptions. Don't assume that, you know, what's going on. That's the 3rd agreement. Don't don't assume, you know, what's going on with a Booker that. Yeah. Oh, well, I've emailed them every two weeks for a year, and they haven't said anything, homie. They're getting bombarded.
So don't assume that you know how their day to day is going on and things like that. So try not to make assumptions about how everyone's operating and what's going on and why. Oh, well, this person looks like they're screwing off and they should be further along or they're getting all the opportunities that I should be getting.
You're assuming that that is factual. And usually there's more nuance to that life isn't black or white. So don't assume that, you know, what's going on when you don't Morty said, I think the moral of the story was that you were prepared for the opportunity, whether it was last minute or not. Yes, that's the other big moral of the story.
Yeah, I mean, preparation, luck is what, what Oprah say preparation, meeting, timing, right? Yeah, you know, and that's, that's, that's very, very accurate, which also brings me to the final agreement. Always do your best. So many times I have to tell comics, you are competing with nobody, but yourself, you are not competing with the comics in your scene that you came up with.
You're not competing with the new comics who are somehow passing you. And you don't know how when you start taking your eyes off of your own work. That's when things start to slip away from you quickly and faster and faster and faster. You can't look at everything as a competition. It's exhausting. It is going to get you in your head.
And that is when everything on stage dies. So. You're just competing with yourself. Do your best today. Were you better today than you were yesterday? Perfect. Even by one increment, one joke or one line, like you're always competing with yourself in this industry. So you do you boo and no one else you were in competition with nobody, but yourself from your last special yourself from your last set, you know, it's just you.
Versus you and that's it. So those things, if you can really find their home in comedy and in your life, I think that things usually get a lot easier to navigate through.
Carole Freeman: This reminds me another episode I interviewed Benny Darsow. I don't know if you know him. He's an Australian headliner. And the favorite quote from that episode was let the journey unfold when it.
So it fits perfectly with everything you're talking about as you don't have control over so many things,
you're only in competition with yourself.
Johnny says, water your own lawn. I think that's great and Alicia's saying she loves the advice.
Myles Weber: Yeah. I mean, it's weird when it's weird when I say I've been doing this for 15 years because it doesn't feel like it feels like way less.
But when I think back, I've seen a lot of comics come and go and a lot of it was over the same type of stuff. So yeah. It's it's really easy game to get all up in your feelings about as far as like, you know, comparing your notes and your success to others and what's going on. It's really easy to do that.
It's really easy to get into fights online on these comedy boards because they happen all the time and they're right there. And a lot of people are just bleeding their wounds out over everybody else on the Internet. I get it. But the work comes from the consistency. Of just, hey, man, keep your eyes on your own paper.
Don't worry about what anybody else is thinking or saying, because you can't control that.
Don't listen to the trolls online. That's the other thing. Who gives a shit? Who cares? Like, great advice. You do you boo boo. There you go. Yeah, exactly. That's how that agreement should be written. Yeah, there are so many trolls online.
There is no shortage of people who are just like, tearing you down and saying ridiculous things. And I've gotten. Death threats on the internet from people because they're all up in their feelings about a joke or something like that. And who cares? Don't respond to them. They want your attention. They want your energy.
Steven Pressfield wrote a book called war of art.
That's another good book for comics to read as far as like motivation to light the fire under your ass to, you know, put the pen to your paper until your fingers bleed, wash them and then do it again. He said it's better to be. Beaten and bloodied in the arena than to be chucking peanuts in the stands.
And those comments online checking peanuts, like most of these people don't even have a picture of them on their profile and they're trying to tear you down and everything. And most of them aren't creating anything of their own. You know, if somebody's doing better than you, they're not usually talking crap about you because they're busy doing the thing, you know?
So you just can't let any of that nonsense stick to your fur. Online and everything like that. And that's all coming from the tunnel vision of keep your eyes on your own paper, you know,
Carole Freeman: yeah, if you put as much effort into just getting better at your own comedy as you put into, you know, complaining about this or that go much.
Be better use of your energy. So I want to switch gears a little bit here and talk about your tips for getting good tape. So I think a lot of the audience is going to be newer ish comics we've got here, and I think that was my first introduction to you actually was seeing a online. Class or, you know, webinar that you did about, you know, good tape.
So can you talk about like,
why you need this five minute magical tape? What is it? What's it used for?
Myles Weber: And. Sure. The, the five minute set that you have recorded is your first golden ticket in stand up comedy. Like we're all looking for like, yeah, but now that I'm doing the open mics, what do I do?
How do I go up the chain? You have a five minute set. Recorded of you killing and it looks as good as it possibly can, and it sounds as good as it possibly can. The title of the book that I mentioned is called war of art, and I believe it is by Steven Pressfield. If memory serves me correct. Yes, war of art, highly recommend the audio book is good too, because it's read by this like crotchety old man.
And he's really just like, stop being a little. And it's the whole tone is just so good. So definitely good on the audio book level too, if you're not a reader. So what was I in the middle of saying?
Carole Freeman: Oh, about the good, good tape. What is it?
Myles Weber: The good tape? Yes. So You have that 5 minute set. That's how you're going to get booked.
You know, you're going to send that out to comics. You run good rooms in your area. So that way you could book at a showcase level and then also comedy club level. They want to see you be able to kill it. And 5 minutes seems to be what everybody is willing to sit and watch. So the secret of the 5 minute set.
Well, 1 of them will try and go through as many as I can. 1 of the secrets and this is an important 1 is. Silence.
I've talked to many bookers. I've talked to many people who produce shows who run comedy festivals, have comedy clubs, things like that. Agents, managers these people are being submitted to by comics. All the time, they just don't have the time in the day to sit and watch. Everybody's set to completion.
What they will watch is the first 1 to maybe 2 minutes, 2 minutes. If you're hilarious, and then they will jump around to the rest of the video. See if people are laughing and then they will get to the end and be like, all right. All right. Sounds good. Or it doesn't sound good. So front load the front of that five minute set, you're going to do that set differently than you would do most sets where, you know, you start with your second best joke and then with your best joke and then everything else in the middle kind of populate set.
That meat that's not how you're going to do this set. You want to try and front load that first one to two minutes with the best heat that you have as quickly as you possibly can. Lots of laughter and applause breaks, good delivery, confidence on stage, not really fidgeting a lot, taking all the likes, ums and you knows out of your, your cadences and knowing what your ticks are and iron those out.
Make sure the first one, two minutes is fire. And that is going to help you out a lot from there. They then usually go to your social media to make sure you're not a shitty human being. Because if you're getting into fights online and it's very evident that that's what you do, they don't want you fighting with the people that they're employing at their club or establishment.
Not worth all of that nonsense. So make sure and understand that when you're on social media, you're always being watched to some regard. So but with this five minute set. You want to make sure that the aspect ratios are down to widescreen. There's so many times I see a comic who's got the black bars on the side because they use their phone and it was just skinny pacing up and not widescreen.
YouTube links are how you're going to send your five minute. So that's, I mean, if you really like Vimeo and you want to be that person, sure. I don't get it, but you do you, but have your YouTube link with the five minutes that unlisted. So that way everybody else in the world doesn't freely see it.
It's just people who have the access to the link. They'll be able to see it, but turn your phone sideways. So it's widescreen format. If you have to absolutely use your phone, but really, I mean, you'd kind of don't want to use your phone because I mean, yeah, if you can get. It's set up in a good place where you don't have to zoom in from far away.
It might be good quality audio and video, but you want to try and make sure that it's framed like waist up is the best. If it's just framed waist up that's ideal. Second best is knees up. Third best is feet up. Usually your whole body is in the frame only if you're a very. Physical comic and you do a lot of act outs and you need that to be able to be seen as far as the video goes.
Otherwise, try as best as you can to be framed from the waist up or the knees up and comics tell me like, Oh yeah, but how do I know if I'm in or out of frame? Perfect. Well, if you're a person who takes the mic off the stand, take the stand, put it at arm's length over here, take the stool, put it arms like over here, stay in there.
That is your framing, which is this stool to this mic stand. And that gives you a little bit of parameters on stage to make sure that you don't go too far out of the shot of reframing and everything like that. So make sure that it's widescreen formatted, Okay. Make sure that it's in high quality video as high as it can be high quality audio on a tripod, not being held by your friend who's laughing very closely to the camera.
Don't do that. And then you want to make sure that the tripod is set high so that way nobody walks in front of the camera because you don't know how many times I thought I got that lightning in a bottle. Awesome. Five minutes that, and only to find out that a waitress was. Standing in front of my camera for a solid minute of my set.
And so you can't use it. Also unedited five minutes start to finish. Doesn't have to be you starting a set and finishing a short set. But if you've got five minutes in the middle of the long set that you think would be ideal, where it's uninterrupted, that five minutes stands alone. That's what they wanna see.
They don't wanna see edits to where it looks like you were chopping stuff out of the middle. 'cause they're gonna assume that that was just you bombing for. However long you're up there, so they just want to see a chunk, an excerpt from a long set. If it has to be that or just the 5 minutes. So, yeah, those are just a few of, like, the quick hit things that tend to help.
Don't do any local references. Make sure that it's something that's universal. So that way you can get booked. Everybody everywhere. No crowd work. No club wants to see you doing the crowd work. They know that that's situational. So how do we know that the crowd work is going to kill there like it does here?
And how do I know that it's not going to start a fight here? That's always what they're thinking. Nobody wants to be the first club where your crowd work goes really, really bad because then that's going to be all of the Internet and they don't want that. So make sure that your submission clips are there.
You know, the jokes, tried and true, the jokes, you don't have to be clean, but I would be lying to you if I told you that killing clean doesn't sound out way more than killing dirty does.
It's just like, and even then try not to be so bodily function with too much of it, too much dick or fart or poopoo peepee or titties or ass, vagina, whatever it is too much of that in excess.
We're just like, okay. Okay, because because, I mean, if you're going to think if that's something that a lot of comics are doing covering, if they've seen that and other submission clips, they're going to be like this shit again. And then they're just going to write you off completely. So those are all the things that I think would really help with comics in their 5 minute set.
And make sure that you've got a new 1, every 12 to 18 months and make sure it's current. Anything before the pandemic is just. Don't send that.
Carole Freeman: joke should be real strong too.
Myles Weber: So strong fish stick jokes and don't burn them. Don't burn them. They don't want black fish sticks. We want to make sure they're nice and golden brown.
Carole Freeman: We got a couple of the comics that joined the show. So I just want to shout out John Fitzsimmons. He confirmed that you got your author correct on the books that you're mentioning.
Myles Weber: Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, just don't be that person in general. Nobody wants to hang out with that person. Move waitress. Yeah, move her.
Carole Freeman: Do your best to, you know, your, even though we all feel like our, our, our personal Facebook should be just our personal life. When you're a comedian or any kind of a, you know, wanting to be a professional artist, you're.
Personal Facebook isn't personal. And like you said, that's one of the newer things that's different is that the bookers are going to go look like, is this person causing a lot of drama? You know, do they look like a comedian? If I look at their page, does it look like they're actually going out and doing comedy or are they just using it as a personal space to post their beefs with everything?
Myles Weber: And that's where I tell comics. Now there are a lot of comics are like, should I have a Facebook fan page? And it's like, yeah.
Get a fan page. Get a fan page now.
You know Pressfield also narrates the book. There you go, Pressfield. That's why he got all that angst in his voice because he's just like, this is my shit.
Yes. Yes. Have a fan page. Yeah. Get a fan page now. If you're like, oh, well, I don't have anything to post yet. That's fine. Just create the fan page that we have it and you're ready to post, you know, cause keep those things separate. Like you should anyway. You know, my private Facebook page is people. I know comics.
I know who I've worked with personally. And then I got my fan page for everybody else. So that way I can keep my own personal life. You know, I want to share pictures of my wife and my kid. Yeah. They get to keep their anonymity and I get to make those posts private and everything. And so, yeah, you know that is something I tell a lot of comics about, like, keep it separate, have your Facebook fan page, get that going, get that rolling.
That's where you do the same things that you're doing on, like, Instagram and tech talk and YouTube shorts and stuff like that. So, but yeah, keep them separate for sure. Have your personal life and your on stage life and be able to turn it down. And turn it off. I remember when my wife and I were like, you know, relatively new to dating each other, but we were friends for 3 years before we started dating.
So we knew each other well. And we were out somewhere or no, I think we were just a home on the couch and I was just being hella extra about something. We were watching and she looked at me and she just went, mm. I'm like, are you trying to turn me down? She's like, yeah, I'm trying to turn you down because you feel like you're on stage right now and I can't have you just being on all the time.
It's exhausting. And I'm like, what? And then sure enough, yeah, it is. When you're around people who are on all the time, it's exhausting. So have a switch, man. You clock into work when you get on stage and everything, you've got your time for your writing and stuff like that. But yeah, people always tell me they're like, you're really quiet.
When you're just like hanging out, I'm like, Oh yeah, no, that's, yeah, I turn it up to 11 when I go up there. And then when I come back off stage, I turn it up back to like a five or six or seven men, you know, something that's manageable and normal. Cause otherwise it's just like, it's hard to have an honest conversation with us all the time when it just feels like we're just mining for jokes all the time.
So you gotta be able to wear different hats. That's going to be important too.
What's your writing process?
Carole Freeman: Well, speaking of that, you know, jotting down an idea premise, taking it to, you know, a good solid joke that you would tell it on, on a recorded special.
Myles Weber: Sure, sure. So, I mean, it starts off as a thought. That I'll text to myself and so I'll just have the thought and then at some point you should have somebody that you're bouncing these ideas off of.
Ideally, it's a comic or somebody you trust comedically or creatively. So I've got a couple of comics who I bounce ideas off of and they bounce ideas off of me and then everything goes through my wife too. She helps me write as well. Because she gets it, you know, when we first started dating, we were in the car 12 hours going to a gig together.
She just turned her body to me and was like, tell me everything you know about comedy. And I did for 12 hours. And so she gets it. She understands. So it goes from the idea to just. Talking about it with the group, and then they kind of give me their thoughts on it. And then I'm like, okay, I can go this way.
I can go that way. Then it goes brainstormed on a sheet of paper, or I'm just kind of, like, breaking it out chunk by chunk where the places that could possibly go where the places that it might be worth mining for jokes that just seem like interesting and funny ideas. And then it just starts. Growing, growing, growing.
And then from there, it's time to go try it out on stage. And so I'll, you know, write it out in its entirety, either texting it to myself or in the notebook. I go on stage, I do it and then listen to it, watch it back. And then the parts that aren't working. I'm like, can I tweak it and make it work? Or does this just need to be scrapped altogether?
Because I need to make sure that the end makes sense and they might not need to know this for the ending to make sense. I might just be too married to this idea for no reason. So, and then it just starts to narrow down every time you try it, every time you work on it and that's just trimming the fat and eventually you've got this nice lane bit and then that's usually in the middle of my sets.
Now, when I'm doing, you know, on the road, like 45 to an hour, more times than not, those are usually the two. Time of sets that I'm doing sometimes on cruise ships, I'm doing like the half hours, but I'm doing less and less of those now as I'm getting booked more on off nights at comedy clubs. So in the middle of my sets, I've got five to 10 minutes always.
That I'm workshopping just every time if I'm booked a weekend at a comedy club, by the end of that week, there's going to be a new 5. that's going to be pretty polished. That's the rule I have with myself. That's my agreement. And so the middle of the set, I sandwich it around a stuff that I know is going to work real well, or, you know, do some real good crowd work that I'm confident I'm doing.
But then it starts from there. Once it starts getting a good working order, I can figure out where it fits in. Thank you. The collective of what I'm doing and everything, and then from there, you can start expanding on other ideas around it because you're like, oh, well, this is kind of like this that I have here, but maybe there's a piece missing in the middle.
How do I combine these things? Oh, there's this. And so you really just start, like, opening up the creativity and the curiousness about all of the ideas that you have to see how they can connect to each other and a long form set. And then I do that over the span of. Maybe about 8 to 12 months. And then by then I've got a rough 45 to 60 minutes that is in good working condition that I'm just trying to figure out what to do with it now.
And then I spend about another 5 or 6 months honing that set. So that way I'm just doing it as much as I can. So that way the rhythm of it is down. Everything is like in working order and the cadence is good and I'm not flubbing up over my words. And then from there, once I feel like I got it, it's a matter of recording it and then.
So, and then we start all over again, but just always starts with just like, what do I want to talk about now? And usually that's like, where am I at? This last special was a lot of where am I at my life right now? And so that's a lot of what. The special was about and so now it's just like, okay, I feel like less heavy.
That's done. Now I can move forward to the next 1 and I know the next 1. I'm like, okay, this 1. I just recorded. It was pretty clean. The next 1 is probably going to be more adult and more dirty and things like that. And so I could kind of, like, tune myself into that type of mind frame and those type of sets and start working the things out that way.
Now, I find that those type of subjects though you're very welcome for the advice. I find that those type of subjects thanks for joining us, Steven. When, when we're getting into like dirtier stuff, I tend to write that faster. Just because I'm just like, okay, like, no, because this will be in good working order to some degree.
I'll be able to riff in between it just because riffing about dirtier stuff is a little bit easier. Because people are just like, should we be talking about this? And if you've got that lens on whatever you're talking about, it's going to be funny. So but people like doing. People like the dirty shows and some people like the clean shows.
And so I'm just like, okay, well, then I'll do, I'll just keep doing it for everybody. Because I always get so weird when comics that only do the dirty stuff, get mad at the clean comics and the clean comics, it matter the comics who only do the dirty stuff. And I'm like, you're allowed to be good at both.
It's really weird that you're both just like pitching about being one dimensional and you're just jealous that you can't. Go over to that side of the grass and thrive like work on it. It's a muscle. You're gonna suck at it for a while. Like, that's how this works. You know, you gotta be willing to suck a little bit in order for things to start to get better and to start figure it out.
You gotta take it on the chin. So that way you can Figure it out on the other side. So yeah, that's, that's kind of how my thought process is always just in that cycle. Always. I am always working on something. If you see me at the club, best believe there's going to be some new shit in there that I am trying to figure out and trying to piece together and trying to work on.
Like that's where it goes is in the middle of the set.
Carole Freeman: So along those lines then, so that's, you know, at your level of how you work things out. And will you talk then about like. You know,
open mic goals for newer comics.
So we've talked about that before, kind of assessing, you know, what's your goal of an open mic and then looking at, you know, are, is this actually the type of audience I can really test a joke with versus, you know, when you're working clubs, you're mm-hmm.
Myles Weber: Sure. That's always the thing. You know, your best jokes are tried out on, you know, an actual audience, you know, so there are some open mics where, Oh, Hey, we, you know, it's a comedy club. That's got a good reputation. And for whatever reason, Oh man, there's 60 people here on a Wednesday night to watch the open mic.
That seems like a good place to try out those jokes. So there you go. If there is an audience there, then you can try out the jokes, you know for those one type of audiences, though, try out the stuff that you have a feeling has been kind of working or has legs. And this is the time to prove it to yourself if it does have those legs.
So that's when you want to try out those jokes. Not necessarily a brand new idea that you've never done before. Try something that it's like, it just hasn't really got its good honest shake. In front of a real audience, other than that, open mics tend to be terrible more times than not, because there isn't as much of an audience and there's mostly comics who are mostly not listening to and mostly don't care.
And there's like the. Place where it's like a bar and the TVs are still on and the volume is still on. And there's a, there's people playing pool, whatever the elements you're battling and you're like, is this really what I want to be doing right now? And how much am I really getting out of this at an open mic level where that's really all you're doing?
Those shows are important because it's giving you your armor, it's getting your chin, you know, you're getting, if this is boxing, this is you sparring and getting used to the feeling of getting hit. So that way you keep throwing punches back and you don't just cower in the corner and Like you need to be able to Bomb and not take it personally.
They didn't not like you as a human being. Fundamentally, they just didn't like your jokes. You have to be able to separate that and not take it personally because we are putting our chin out there every time we tell a joke, you can play a song and in three minutes, when that song is over, you're going to get people either to clap or they're going to ignore you.
That's about it. At the end of this joke, I am going to know. What you all think, and then I can't just stop after that based off of your reaction, I have to now tell another joke and I have to react like you loved the last joke, even though you might not have. So we are constantly putting our chin out.
There is very important that you bomb. At an open mic level until you stop caring. And then once you stop caring, it's usually when you kind of have this freeness about your set and this conversationality about your set, that is really going to help kind of get you past that hump into getting booked at showcases and then as a host and then as a feature, and then eventually as a head minor.
So those are kind of like the chain of commands at an open mic level, you know, you want to be trying to figure out how to get to that next level, but. Make sure that you're being smart about it. You're there to network, be homies with the comics that are there, get to know your scene, find your writing buddies, everything like that, people who you would mind not being in the car for hours on end going to the next gig with each other and you don't want to kill them and they don't want to kill you back, you know, so so I would say if you're in an open mind level, those are all some things that you would want to take into account.
As far as, you know, and if you find a seasoned vet that comes and rolls through, listen to him, Hey, you want to go to Denny's? It's my treat. Let me bend your ear for a little bit. You know, we were all willing to give as much advice as you're willing to ask for. It's just a matter of you being down to ask and, you know, connect that connect with that kind of like on a human to human level.
So those are the things that I would look out for an open mic level for sure.
Carole Freeman: Hmm. Such great advice. This packed packed hour plus that we've got here, everyone. So, well, I just want to end on we
share a little bit about the, the comedy coaching that you're doing, the green room talk.
Is that what am I getting it right?
Myles Weber: Yes. Green room talk. I'm thinking it's going to be kind of evolving into a little bit more right now. That is the website greenroomtalk. org. But it's going to be taking new form as green room talk university. So because it's been a lot of like one on one coaching virtually that I started I started after the pandemic because I mean, initially comics were going through it and I wanted comics to have like somebody to talk to initially and to make sure they weren't burning their life down as a means to be successful in this industry, you know because like I said earlier, I think there's a way around that.
So it started out as like, just trying to like help comics out and at the First, that's what it was. And it was working. Then as things started to open up, it grew more into something else because you can't just like lead off with the mental health stuff with comics. We tend to get a little bit shy about that type of stuff.
Then it became more like I could totally help you, right? And then it was a matter of like, not realizing that comics didn't have a lot of just like the basic stuff. Writing tips and tricks and formulas and things like that. And some of the stuff isn't in books that I've read, you know, about stand up.
It's like other ways of thinking about things. But these are just tricks that I've learned from comics over the 15 years I've been doing this, and it seems like we're all doing a handful of things just in our own kind of unique way. So I started teaching them how to write better and working with them on their jokes and punching.
And then helping them on the back end with their business and their social media. And so now I'm, you know, there's comics I edit clips for, I help them manage their social media. We've helped them like pick their lane on social media about what they want to do how to edit certain things. And then from there, they're like, Oh, I'm starting to sell tickets now.
So what do I do here? And then I work with them on that and how to market themselves in a smart way and how to. Get their website look in and things like that. So it's just like top down, something that I wanted up and running when I started doing stand up as a means of like, not throwing everybody to the wolves, you know, it's like, we're throwing everybody into the ocean in this industry to see who could sink or swim.
And I don't think it has to be that way anymore. I think there's a better way we can go about this where, you know, we might be able to get people to stick around and stick through doing stand up and really do something meaningful and really have an impact and things like that. You know, so so, yeah, so right now it's greenroomtalk.
org is the website. So we do 1 on 1 coaching in that regard, but we're getting ready to start this winter. We're going to do our 1st semester for it's a 8 week comedy course online. You get the, there's going to be different packages, but you know, the, the big one they'll. People will be able to get one on one writing sessions with multiple different headlining, working comics who are actually doing the things that you want to do in this industry and not just saying they do and taking your money.
Cause that is an all too common thing. People who write these books and have these classes and stuff. And I'm like, yeah, but I can't buy tickets to see you do stand up literally anywhere. And I can't find a special that you've ever done that you widely released to anybody. So, like, why are you teaching again?
It's always like to me, like, I should learn from people who are doing the thing I want to do. So these are comics who are literally like, There are dates on the calendar. We're doing this for a living at a professional level across many different platforms. So you'll learn from us. And then we're also gonna be doing like classes, like group classes where everybody's kind of talking about their own expertise and things like that.
You know what to do with, with standup. And so yeah, it's gonna be like a, a course that you can go through online by the end of the year where you're taught by the pros, and then you get a little graduation thing at the end of it. To be able to show to people who are running shows and comedy clubs and things like that around the country that like, no, we worked through this company and now we know how to be a consummate professional on and off stage as best as we possibly can be.
And I think that that would definitely help everybody in that regard. So yes, greenroomtalk. org if you're interested in coaching, we're here to help you out.
Carole Freeman: Nice. Nice. Well, anything in closing that you want to say or that you were hoping I would ask you about? I
Myles Weber: mean, nothing really comes to mind. I mean, thank you for asking me to do this.
I mean, yeah, this is fantastic that you're doing this and as a means to like we were talking about earlier, maybe, you know, comics in your scene, you tell them about this podcast and they can watch and listen and learn a lot from it. You know, that's the idea. But I think really just like, you know, keep at it.
As far as like, with comics, you know, that's something I can say in parting,
it's going to get frustrating. There's going to be times that you're going to want to quit. And this is something that I want to instill in my kid. And it's something that I heard from a podcast with like an Olympian and they were talking about how their dad was kind of like looking at things throughout their life.
And that's if you want to quit, quit on a good day. Because when you have that bad day, when you bomb yourself back to the stone age and it's the worst set of your life and you go back to your terrible hotel or the really bad grimy looking condo with no windows that the comedy club owns and you just got to be alone with your silence and your thoughts.
It's really easy to quit on that bad day, but it's hard to quit on a good day. We all have our bad days. You're allowed to have them. They hurt. It's allowed to hurt, but wait till you kill. And if you go up and you crush it and you get off stage and you're like, that was fun, but I still think I'm done.
Totally. You can quit now. Absolutely. But stick it out. Stick around, you know, there are so many comics who have been doing this for a long ass time. And people think that they're overnight sensations because they haven't heard of them. That's the thing with Matt Reif now. Everybody loves trashing Matt Rife because they're like, Oh, well, he just came out of nowhere.
It's like, he's been doing standup since he was 15 and like, he's in his mid twenties now. So, I mean, he slummed Like he paid his dues and he's selling tickets now. So good for him. So it's just like everybody's in here paying their dues. You know, I mean, Russell Peters is one of the highest paid comics on the planet now, and it took him 17 or 18 years before anything happened, you know, George Lopez took him forever before anything happened, you know, and you don't know what the thing's going to be.
So keep going. Just keep going and become one with the chase, enjoy the chase, and then you will always be able to keep on going. But yeah, no, those are the parting things I would probably say for comics to to hang on to in their journey throughout this.
Carole Freeman: Such great wisdom see Johnny's saying. The words of Sinatra.
I thought of quitting baby, but my heart just ain't going to buy it. All right. Lots and lots of great reviews here. Everybody's saying such great advice. Great advice and Myles said it all Alicia says great advice. And Hey, if you guys want to go check out where you can see Myles perform next
Mylesweber. com go check it out.
And also his greenroom talk. org. If you'd like to work with him more personal level too.
Thank you so much for watching, for being here and for listening.
And we'll have some more great people coming up very soon. And thank you again, Myles, for being here.
Myles Weber: Of course. Thanks for having me. It was, it was an honor.
Carole Freeman: We'll see you all next time.
Excellent. We'll see you all next time.
Bye now.
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