The Stand-Up Truth
From George Carlin to Iliza Shlesinger

Obviously, laughter is by leaps and f’ing bounds the most sought after and popular demand of a stand-up comedy audience. No one is disputing this. People are tired. They are frustrated, burdened, distracted and trapped in a mental loop of one worry after another. Laughter is the best medicine yada yada. Case Closed! BUT! ….
Stand-Up comedy is more than that. It is about the anxiety of facing the truth about ourselves. True, to include no humoristic outlook on the insights a comedian shares quickly starts to feel like a lecture and most people do not like to pay to see a finger-pointing comic telling them what an irredeemable mess they and the rest of the human race are.
But there is a balance. The best comic evokes both laughter and self-reflection. It is the hardest of tasks and the ones who do it best are not necessarily the most popular. If you go on YouTube and look up the following comics you’ll see what I mean:
1. George Carlin — the man brought political and social consciousness to its most uncomfortable depths.
2. Stewart Lee — the man most masterful at striking this balance I’ve ever seen.
3. Iliza Shlesinger –especially her most recent Netflix special, Elder Millenial.
4. Richard Pryor — I’m incapable of capturing him in a single line.
5. Robin Williams — he portrayed our absurdist psychoanalytic depths.
The list is much longer, and I’ll spare you an index that is very likely to be very subjective and not shared. Instead I should say…. watch a lot of stand-up comedy, especially bad. One thing that list comprises is that it is populated by comedians who struck that balance of truth and hysterical laughter beautifully.
There are two ways really to develop a comedy act. The least painful way and the torturous way.
The first way is through imitation where some winning of the audience will eventually happen and you’ll hopefully develop an act of your own — but risks always being derivative.
The second way is through open revelation that is seldom funny in the beginning but eventually you will develop a point of view that achieves and even celebrates the folly of human endeavour.
Stand-up comedy, for me anyways, is our last chance to get the human population to spot and speak truth. What has long been regarded as an American art form became prominent in the United Kingdom, then France, Germany, Portugal and Greece and now we see its birth in Mainland China — where comedians are careful to get their truth out with the same cunning that Roman Catholic sponsored Renaissance artists presented controversial artefacts in their artwork.
There is a place for all kinds of comedy. Obviously, and justifiable so, the most popular comic will always be the one that delivers the most laughs; oftentimes cheap and derivative but the delivery of a unique voice will bring a new spin to it all.
A lot of people will disagree with what I’ve written here, and I welcome the disagreement. But I believe that stand-up should be a hierarchy of achievement. At the highest level, we need the ones who expose us to the most devastating truths that miraculously deliver the most hysterical laughs.
Go through the above list. I promise you, you will be shaken to your core if you listen with full awareness of what is being shared by these brave souls.
