Even Jokes Take Work

There was an interesting article in the New York Times about comedian Myq Kaplan. It seems Myq (pronounced Mike) spends a few months perfecting each joke. First he tries a joke out in a live performance, tapes the show and then studies the audience’s reaction. The next time out, he’ll change the joke a bit, and again, he’ll pour over the tape to analyze just how loudly the audience laughs. Over time, Myq will continue to tweak a single joke because, as he says, every word matters.

            Who knew it was so hard to make people laugh?

            I never heard Myq perform – or even heard of him -- until I saw the article this week. Of course, he’s been on Letterman and Conan, so maybe he’s already a household name. But I only watch those shows when I’ve got insomnia, and lately, I’ve been sleeping very well, thank you very much. In any event, Myq is a young, skinny kid with glasses, and in the bits I saw on YouTube, he’s very funny with a zany verbal wit. If I hadn’t read the article, I would’ve assumed he’s just naturally funny. And no doubt Myq is. He just works on it so that he’s even funnier.

            I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just want things to be easy. I know that must sound whiny. What with all the young lawyers serving pizza to pay off loans since they can’t land law jobs. Or the tornado victims still in shock, looking at the shatter of their lives.  Not to mention everyone else who’s working harder and longer, just to stay still – that’s if they’re lucky enough to have jobs.

            But for some naïve reason, I thought that when I reached 60 minus 44 days, I’d be coasting along, having already met every self-imposed goal and then some. Instead, here I am, 12 years into the job, working even harder as a teacher because I want to do it better. Same with my writing. It takes a lot of work to get it just right.         

            So it’s nice to keep in mind that even a good joke takes work.