4.8 • 641 Ratings
🗓️ 28 February 2018
⏱️ 81 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Eugene Mirman is a stand up comedian, actor, and writer. You’ve heard his voice as “Gene” from Bob’s Burgers, seen his face on Comedy Central, Netflix, and Flight of the Conchords and recently found his podcast on Audible, Hold On.
From the outside, Eugene has lived what we may think of as the typical struggling comedian’s career. It took him six years of failing before got a bit of traction. Most people quit well before the 6 year mark. How did he persevere through those years of struggle? He never considered not being a comedian. He didn’t give himself a backup plan. He made the conscious decision to keep trying new things until things started to stick. Eugene is a living lesson of perseverance and tenacity, and his mindset is one that will help you thrive long term, regardless of what you’re creating. Listen to this episode if you want to laugh while getting a schooling on how to make sacrifices that pay off.
In this episode:
* If you have a skill, service, or product that serves someone’s need, your audience is out there looking for you as hard as you are looking for them.
* No one is stopping you from making the thing that you want to make. Go make it and then find 5 ways to get that thing out there. Then do it again.
* Focus on your one big goal and work on it every day. It’s a long slow grind, but if you stick with it for 10 to 15 years, Eugene is betting that you’ll be a success.
Enjoy!
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0:00.0 | All right, all right. You guys, it's Chase. What's up? Welcome to another episode of the show. |
0:09.7 | And I am pumped. I'm a huge fan of comedy. I don't know if you guys know that or not. And my guest |
0:14.6 | today is a professional stand-up comedian. You know his stand-up work, I'm sure, and certainly if you |
0:21.6 | at all interested in animation. Bob's Burger's mega hit. I don't know how many umpteen seasons |
0:26.9 | were on right now, but my guest today is the inimitable Eugene Merman. I have had the good |
0:33.5 | fortune of knowing Eugene for, I'd say, I don't know, half a dozen years maybe. What an extraordinary human. |
0:39.0 | In this episode, we're able to cover a lot of ground on the process, the creativity behind, |
0:45.1 | beneath, alongside within comedy. |
0:47.6 | And I've never heard it described quite like Eugene talks about it. |
0:51.4 | We talk literally about how you write a joke, you know, what |
0:56.2 | the, what he does tactically, like he sits down in front of his computer, all the way |
1:00.3 | to managing complex narratives and where to draw inspiration and information from one's |
1:07.4 | craft. That's a side of comedy. I've never really seen. I haven't taken classes in comedy or improv. |
1:12.0 | I have taken a couple of improv classes, I guess. |
1:13.9 | But Eugene does, you know, shares this stuff with us |
1:17.7 | in a way that's super accessible and something |
1:19.6 | that I really appreciated. |
1:20.9 | We also talk about he was born in Russia and the impact |
1:24.9 | that emigrating to the United States had, |
1:27.4 | both in his childhood as a source of sort of joy and heritage, but also frustration and material for his comedy, for example. |
1:36.3 | This, like, how he gathers material from pop culture and what inspires him to create comedic routines. I loved that. |
1:44.4 | I'm just going to, I'm going to stop back up and let you guys listen to the one and only |
... |
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