“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”-Steve Martin Plus? A sniper joke.

“Cash, every movie costs $2,184.” – Bowfinger

I made this one up for fun when working on this post.  The Mrs. laughed so hard . . . I had to use it.  A link here (LINK) for the age impaired.  Link is probably PG-13.

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

That was what Steve Martin said when he was being interviewed by now unpersoned Charlie Rose and Rose asked what advice Martin would give to a young person.

Martin continued, “ . . . it’s not the answer they want to hear.”

It isn’t.

People want easy.  People want lottery money.  People want step-by-step guides, complete with phone numbers and instructions on how to become rich and famous.  And they want Steve Martin to do it for them.  Now please, we’re waiting.

Face it:  people want free stuff, not hard work and risk.

I can’t imagine that Steve Martin wants anything for free – he wasn’t raised that way.  He’s been a comedian, musician, screenwriter, playwright, and actor.  He’s been more successful at each of these than almost any person on the planet.  When you combine these successes, Martin starts to look less like an entertainer and more like a National Treasure©.  Maybe a National Treasure® we should keep in Tupperware® and wrapped in the good paper towels so we don’t scratch him.  We’ll get him out when company comes over.

But Steve’s success wasn’t free.  In his book, Born Standing Up, Martin talks about his road to comedy, “I did standup comedy for eighteen years.  Ten of those years were spent learning, four were spent refining, and four were spent in wild success.”  This is what those of a certain political persuasion call unearned overnight success.  It is obvious that this success was a result of Martin’s comedic privilege, because it takes a village to raise a comedian.

The concept of spending hours and hours, day after day, year after year seems a bit quaint now, when participation trophies assure every wonderful child that they’ll be successful no matter what.  What seemed fresh and new in his comedy routine when his wild success began was in reality the result of work, study, and effort that took fourteen years.  And he didn’t even have to “accidentally” release a sex tape to make it happen.

Did Martin know that his hard work would make him an icon known all the way around the world, worth millions of dollars?  Probably not.  Although it’s also certain that he didn’t wake up one morning and say, “Omigosh, there’s been some sort of error – where did all this money and stuff come from?”  And that line is comedy gold if you read it in Steve Martin’s voice.

Certainly, Steve Martin didn’t and doesn’t appeal to everyone – his persona of an entertainer that’s “just really bad at it” falls flat with certain people.  But Martin’s dedicated work created a skill set that appealed to enough people that Martin has true freedom – to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants.  At one point in Born Standing Up, Martin talks about how stand up became difficult for him when doing huge stadium shows – but he didn’t stop.  There were “too many zeros,” in his paychecks. So, he died an unremembered failure.

No, just kidding.  His next project, a movie called The Jerk, made $180,000,000, despite costing only $2,184 to make.  That was his next step.

I realize that there’s a difference between writing whatever comes to mind and working hard every day, every post, so that today’s writing is better than yesterday’s writing.  And that next week I’ll be better yet.  And that my writing strikes a resonance somewhere, with someone.  It creates value.

This is true.  I still swoon when I think of it.

And getting good at any craft is not entirely straightforward.  Scott Adams (LINK) uses eighteen elements when writing humor, and edits himself ruthlessly.  Scott wasn’t a humor writing machine when he started, but he built his greatness with time and effort.  And it is effort – I watched a short video of Jerry Seinfeld talking about the effort that goes into making just one joke.  It can take an afternoon or more to get it right – and even then he spends time tweaking it, and this is the level of effort that is required by an experienced comedian.  Imagine how much more difficult it would be to be a rookie.

For me, I’m going to work harder, steal everything I can from Martin, Adams, Seinfeld, and study it.

And learn.

Imagine if I never told Jerry to change his hair?

I do want to say thanks to The Mrs., who has greatly encouraged me to get better.  The nice thing is she’s my harshest critic but also the one I won’t slug.  But I will, passive-aggressively, change all the radio presets in her car to Mexican flamenco music.  She’ll never guess that I changed the autocorrect for “John” on her phone to “His High and Most Worthy Lordship.”

Just kidding, The Mrs. isn’t a trained assassin.  But don’t tell The Boy and Pugsley – The Mrs. just assigned them a mission to stealthily clean their bathroom.

I’m working hard to make myself better, every post.  So I can’t be ignored.

But failing that, couldn’t I just play the lottery?

I’ll just leave this here: