Seriously Funny

"You're too glib", said my district manager. I looked at him with my mouth open. Was that a criticism? Was it possible to be "too glib"? If true, it meant a personality transplant at the least. I had based my entire life on glib. Glib was me, glib was good, glib was an honor badge from witty class. Glib was my fantasy music group, the B G's, Brothers Glib. Just to be clear, I mean the humorous kind of glib here, not your superficial, insincere glib. I am very sincerely superficial, thank you.

I was crestfallen. I left that meeting shaken and not stirred, I was speechless, and that's a rare occurrence for me. After all, my interaction with the world is mainly verbal, and my verbal is mostly glib. I was a salesman, and salesmen are naturally talkative. Ever try selling something by mime?

I learned other things from that meeting: I made my co-workers nuts,and I was too quick witted. Apparently always having an answer is not a good thing. Seriously, my DM felt my sense of humor was a liability, but I had always considered it an asset. It was at that point I began to think perhaps I wasn't suited for the business world. If I drove my fellow employees to distraction, either I needed an off switch or a new career, and there's the problem: what does a creative person, a self-styled king of the snappy one liners, a wannabe Hawkeye Pierce, do for income? I had tried standup comedy, but I don't have the patience for the endless rehearsing and life on the road. Comedy writing has a huge pitfall; they'd love to hire you, just show them some published clips.Published? As in your work is accepted by a publisher? Or a tv or radio show? I have written for radio and tv, but here's something insidious about writing comedy:no one takes you seriously. They think it is effortless to write wittily, and that anyone can do it, and therefore you will always be undervalued. People love to laugh, they just don't like paying a good price for it, which is where we get the term "cheap laughs".

I think part of the problem is that really funny people make it look easy; the audience doesn't see all the sweat that goes into even just a 10 minute routine. Right now I'm sounding morose about comedy, and that kinda kills the effect I'm going for. Don't misunderstand me, comedy can be deep at times, even profound, but if it depresses you, something's wrong. Despite the cliche of the tragedian inside the comedian, scratch a clown and you'll get spritzed with seltzer water nine times out of ten. Number ten will be a custard pie.

With the Internet and blogging, I have found the perfect outlet for my creative juices, even though I have to stop typing every couple minutes and wipe off the screen; it's frustrating how easily creative juices smear. The great thing is if I drive anyone nuts, I don't see them leaving my page, so it's out of site, out of mind. I find it important to stay informed to feed the comedy mill in my head, and also to keep up with my fellow humor bloggers, and web surfing lets me do that. Plus,with blogging, my writing is published. As to income from comedy, or funny money, well, I'm still working on that. $eriously.

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