how does someone decide whether to leave a standard academic career to pursue standup?

a great question! a great question that someone asked me! and that i answered! and that you can read here! or just below here!

dear friends,

i’m grateful that you’re here.
thank you very much for being here.

as you may know, this is a place where i often share quick fun joke nuggets.
as you may ALSO know, this is a place where i SOMETIMES share longer pieces of writing, including advice when people ask me for it.

now is one of those SOMETIMES times.
please enjoy as desired and possible!


THE QUESTION THAT SOMEONE SENT ME:

I’m seeking advice. Is there a difference between being funny and potentially being a good stand up comedian?

How does one make a decision of leaving a standard academic career to pursue stand up? How do you know if you’re good?

THE ANSWER THAT SENT THEM (AND THAT I ALSO NOW SEND YOU):

thanks for your message!

before you start, you're probably NOT good. (this is true for most things, i think.)

for example, whatever academic career you're pursuing, you probably wouldn't have been able to write a good dissertation or thesis before you had taken all the classes and learned all the information and acquired all the knowledge and experience or did all the research.

so, before you get a degree, how do you know you're going to be good?

you don't.

you study the subject because you're interested in learning and growing and acquiring skills and hopefully becoming good.

and the same is basically true for standup.

the way you find out if you CAN be good is, you start.