>>Erik: With regard to the professionals out
there that are at the top of their game, what
do you see in their work ethic that you can
take back and translate, inject into your
process as you go out every night of the week
to perform?
>>Matt: My favorite standup is Louis CK. He
is probably the best standup out there right
now. He is like a warrior. He talks about
how writing a great joke is like making a
Samurai sword where you constantly bend it
over and over again and squeeze out all the
impurities and the process of doing it. I
think he is ferocious in how he approaches
standup, working at it, and works as hard
as any of my peers that are out grinding every
night doing it too. You can tell in his material.
He will go out there and do an hour, an hour
and a half, and he records every set that
he does and then goes back, listens to them,
picks out the parts, and refines it. Part
of the reason he gets so much respect from
is how prolific he is. He will come out with
a new hour every year whereas other comedians
may be almost as funny but it will take them
four years to come out with a new hour. He
is writing four times as much material and
it is all killer, all great stuff. I think
that`s an inspiration when you see the person
who is the best in the world doing this and
this is how hard he is working at it. That
is the thing about standup too. It almost
seems like a magic to the audience or people
that are not around it all the time. How did
this person do this? When you are around it
all the time, you see the steps to get there
and you see how much work there is. Yeah,
it is being spontaneous, but it is also ten
years of trial and error, trying things out,
finding out what works, getting comfortable
in that moment. Where to take things. Things
might seem like they came off the top of his
head might be something he has used multiple
times before but he is able to work in a seamless
way in the moment that seems spontaneous.
There is some illusion or trickery that goes
along with it too, but that is part of when
you master something, sometimes people don`t
know which part is fresh to you or routine
and that is part of being great at it.
