a one minute introduction

and i'm pissed about it

In an attempt to get in touch with my creativity, I have decided to start writing for public consumption. I’ve always found writing to be something I do privately, for my soul, but as society is now more transaction based and anything you do can and should be marketed for mass consumption and profit, here I am trying my best to participate in a world I no longer believe in or feel a part of.

There was once a time where I loved being online, back when the internet felt good. Remember the time when we were amazed that photos from the party we went to were posted online so we were able to re-live the party we were at? Nowadays every single person is trying to go viral and have their moment to prove to themselves and their community that they are worth it. The medical community has influencers. Our lawyers are on tiktok. Imagine that, our doctors and lawyers are posting to gain traction because traction equals money and in this capitalist world, baby money is everything. The internet is open to everybody and everyone wants their moment to shine. The arts used to be for the freaks, the geeks, and the outcasts. At some point the jocks joined and now the whole system has changed. Turns out even if you were popular and cool in high school, you still want validation and recognition as an adult.

My beginning in stand up was offline, it was for the people, for the artists. Honing your skill for years before putting it on the internet for mass consumption. It was real, raw, hardworking, and the craft was respected by the people executing it. It’s not what it is today.

I am the age of the people who changed the landscape of entertainment. I am a part of that culture as well. I used to be obsessed with twitter and I currently post stand up clips. In no way do I think I am above people who are online, I am too. I have to be. And that’s the problem. In order to be successful at this, you have to do the online part as often and as aggressively as you can. The landscape changed, then the content changed, and now everything has been reduced to one minute.

You get my attention for one minute,

You tell a joke, for exactly one minute,

You want to tell a story? You better hurry to the end because all you have is one minute.

Our attention spans have reduced so drastically that an elevator pitch feels too long. We used to sit and watch hours of tv, movies, stand up, musicals, uninterrupted. Now we itch for our phones like it’s a cigarette we haven’t tasted in days. And the problem is that it's working. It’s working for a lot of people. For the scammers and the amateurs one minute is all they have and all they aspire to do.

I know people who’ve been doing comedy for less than two years who are selling out around the country, raking in thousands of dollars for a craft they have not mastered. While masters of the craft are broke and unable to move tickets.

Have we lost the point? Have we become such a self-centered individualistic society that we only constantly think about ourselves? Has community been reduced to the few friends you keep around to fill your loneliness? When did we start living like this and was I complicit? How am I allowed to be mad at a society that I am a part of?

I don’t really have the answers to the questions I ask but I also know that the answers are painfully obvious. Yes, the world sucks now. Yes, everyone is obsessed with themselves and their phones. Yes, we have lost our souls on the path to money. Yes, followers matter more than real friends in your life. Yes, this all sucks and we all feel it but we all keep doing it so it will never stop.

I wish I had a more positive note to end this on. I wish I could be like “and sharks that’s why everyone should get my brand of lobotomy” but even that pitch would be reduced to one minute.