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5 Feet of Fury

Kathy Shaidle's blog. Est. 2000

Patton Oswald: Build your own couch

July 27, 2012 By Kathy Shaidle

Those aren’t his actual words, but his keynote at Just for Laughs contains good advice for everyone:

When I say everything I know about succeeding a comedian is worthless, I know what I’m talking about because everything I know became worthless twice in my lifetime.

The first time was the evening of May 22, 1992. I’d been doing standup almost four years at that point, and that was Johnny Carson’s last ever Tonight Show.

Up until that night, the way you made it in comedy was very clear, simple, straightforward.

You went on Carson, you killed, you got called over to the couch, and the next day you had your sitcom and your mansion, and you’re made. Just ask Drew Carey and Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen DeGeneres. And Bill Clinton. That’s how you did it.

But now, Johnny was gone and he wasn’t coming back.

All the comedians I remember starting out with in D.C., all the older ones, told me over and over again ‘you gotta work clean, you gotta get your five minutes, and you gotta get on Carson.’ And it all comes down to that.

And in one night, all of them were wrong. (…)

 

More from my site

  • ‘Getting called over to the couch’ changed your life forever (video)‘Getting called over to the couch’ changed your life forever (video)
  • Howard Stern and Ellen Degeneres bury the strap-onHoward Stern and Ellen Degeneres bury the strap-on
  • Stand up comedy fundamentalism: Patton ‘Oswalt isn’t too interested in thinking about any of the obvious grey areas’Stand up comedy fundamentalism: Patton ‘Oswalt isn’t too interested in thinking about any of the obvious grey areas’
  • More on ‘getting called over to the couch’ — meet the other comics who Johnny waved overMore on ‘getting called over to the couch’ — meet the other comics who Johnny waved over

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