Bobcat Goldthwait won the game. He was on top of the comedy world.
Here is his network debut. It’s hard to watch but you should give it a shot.
Goldthwait went big with this act, channeling a crazy street person with the occasional punchline. Success on stage got him into acting. He was starring as Zed McGlunk in Police Academy 2 while his friends were still in college. They gave him the script and said, “just do it in that funny voice.”
But doing the same funny voice every night gets old.
Goldthwait wrote, “I have been a game-show host, a talking puppet, and a Happy Meal toy. My acting has been dubbed into more languages than I can name. I cashed huge studio checks and got flown around the world. And I was miserable the entire time. Seriously—being the man’s dancing monkey was . . . horrible. I’m not bitter about it now (no, really), because it’s behind me. I love my life now. But it took me almost 30 years to get here.”
“The man’s dancing monkey” is no way to go through life. That goes for the teachers, the bosses, and the fans dancing monkey as well.
Goldthwait’s reward for the comedy equivalent of straight A’s? Do more of that funny voice.
And he hated it.
But when the music is playing…
In 1994 while at The Arsenio Hall Show he destroyed the set.
He had to keep ratcheting things up. To keep getting laughs, he needed to be even more. Not more of himself, but more of the act, the crazy street person.
Later that year he was on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show and said, “I know I have to go nuts. It’s sweeps [week], and I don’t know what to do, because I don’t really feel that nuts. What can I do? I could mess up your hair, but that’s not funny.”
And then he set Jay Leno’s furniture on fire.
Part of Goldthwait’s 30-year ascent towards doing what he loves was this period.
Crescendo and capitulation all at once.
But he couldn’t even self-sabotage without getting a laugh.
His intentions were clear though. Don’t get invited back.
He said, “That really was me, going, ‘I’m done, man.’”
Up until that point, he’d gotten straight A’s, and every promotion. The fake voice was required though.
Dance Monkey.
Comedians and actors working dead end jobs envied his success. They didn’t realize that he’d reached a dead end as well.
Straight A’s feel like a win. And they can be.
If you love the subject, the challenge, and the outcome. If those stars are aligned, count your blessings. You’re good at what you enjoy.
But a lot of the time those A’s came easy, and you enjoyed the accolades, so you kept right on going. Even if the activity itself was not a match.
It can happen in science or swimming. It can happen in medicine or music.
There is a notion that the A’s, the success, will give you options.
I love this visual from Tim Urban showing a life full of options. No matter which paths you take, you’ve still got so many out in front of you.
Just choose one, right?
I want my kids to have lots of options. Shoot, I’d like a few more as well.
It feels like straight A’s and early success will give you that, and they can, but only if you can see them. Unfortunately, a lot of those straight A students, with all their options open, can see only a single path.
It’s that famous college or nothing at all.
That doesn’t sound like options to me.
What if you like the sun, have allergies, and want to move to the desert? Your neighbors will think, “Dave got straight A’s and went to Arizona State?? What a waste!”
So, the thing that was supposed to give you options, gave you expectations instead. And that’s a real bummer. Expectations are great, but not other peoples. Those are yuck.
Maybe all those A’s are not the win we thought they were.
If you hate the class but keep trudging through, it’s a sign of grit and character but it could also be a colossal waste of time.
If you wake up at the end of AP History in a pool of your own drool, maybe it’s not for you. And that’s okay.
Think of all the useful things you could have learned with that time and effort. Things that don’t cause narcolepsy. Subjects you are actually interested in. Seriously, think about them. Those other subjects are called options. Well, technically they call them electives, but you get the idea. And you traded them in for your gold star. You turned those green paths black, based on what the neighbors would think.
Bobcat couldn’t see them either. His early success opened so many doors, but he could only see one of them.
And this is why you need to be careful when selecting the games you play. Because you might win.
Listen, I’m not saying that our nation’s straight A students, those that are now our doctors and lawyers and management consultants, have much in common with Bobcat Goldthwait.
That would be silly.
But some of them are definitely talking in a funny voice.
Sometimes the things that feel like a win pull you away from what you really want to be doing. The clear path, the straight A’s, the famous school, the promotion, those might be the safe path rather than the successful one.
Because success is something you need to define on your own. For Bobcat Goldthwait, it was the option to create while being authentic. The ability to walk into a room and in his own voice say, “It’s just Bob, now.”
If you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend.
