I took my wife to see Tina Fey & Amy Poehler a few months back. The show did not disappoint. They started with a scripted monologue, moved into some Second City style improv, did a “Weekend Update,” and then they hit us with something unexpected. They did a short stand-up set.
Neither has a background in stand-up comedy, and they admitted as much. But they told the audience they were going to give it a shot.
Amy started her set with bits about borrowed memories and aliens. Thanks for reading, Amy!
Tina told the crowd that she had been studying the greats. Chris Rock in particular. And then she did her set, with her own material, but channeling Chris Rock. Except dirtier. It was half stand-up and half Chris Rock impression.
Both struggled at points. Stand-up comedy in a large venue is a challenge for the most seasoned comedian. Starting late in your career, after years of success, well, that’s a bold move. But despite some clunkiness and a few duds, both were terrific. I was impressed they gave it a go, imperfections be damned.
Lorne Michaels, creator of Saturday Night Live, is fond of saying, “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on because it’s 11:30.”
Tina Fey said that Lorne’s mantra taught her not to be precious about her writing.
In her book Bossypants, she wrote, “You have to try your hardest to be at the top of your game and improve every joke you can until the last possible second, and then you have to let it go. You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute. You have to let people see what you wrote. It will never be perfect, but perfect is overrated. Perfect is boring on live TV.”
Perfect is boring in stand-up comedy and blogging too.
When the actors crack up in the middle of a sketch? It’s actually better. It’s the same reason I enjoy open mic nights. There is a certain unmistakable tension in the room when someone goes on stage with a rough cut. An early draft. They might kill it, or they might lay a big wet turd.
It’s real. No polish. And you can feel it.
On SNL, they didn’t wait around for a sketch or a joke to be perfect. That is why it’s so captivating, consistent, and lovable too.
Same with Tina and Amy doing stand-up.
Same with watching Tony Hawk try to land a 900.
You never knew if he was going to get it. But once he did, you felt more connected because you were there through the struggle.
Something about that feels better. We don’t just want to be there for the ending. We want to be a part of the process.
Kintsugi:
Kintsugi is a ceramic repair technique that builds on the beauty of something through the repairing of it. When a piece of pottery breaks, the break is then highlighted with the repair instead of trying to cover it or conceal it. “Good as new” is not the goal here. The repair brings your eyes to it, intentionally, by using gold dust and resin to attach pieces and fill cracks.
As a philosophy, it treats the break and the repair as part of the object’s history. It tells a story.
Maybe you’ve heard someone say, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,” and that is a close cousin to Kintsugi.
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body,” Hunter S. Thompson wrote in The Proud Highway, “but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a Ride!’”
Yeah, that’s a close cousin as well.
I grew up hearing that a broken bone, once set and healed, would be stronger than it was before. I think that’s made up, but what isn’t made up is that broken bones tell a story. They create interest and intrigue just like Kintsugi. And that is its own kind of strength.
This design aesthetic works for businesses and relationships as well.
My best clients would tell you they didn’t know how strong a partner I was until something went wrong. “Calm waters never build a skillful sailor.” And once something went wrong and was overcome, why would we hide from that? It was part of our shared history; it bonded us like resin, and we highlighted it with gold dust.
Duct-tape and bubble gum:
A lot of the things we use every day are imperfect. Held together with duct tape and bubble gum.
The city we live in needs potholes filled, buildings repaired, and parks cleaned up. And yet, we love it because of the people and the promise, not perfection.
You are reading this on an imperfect computer that upgraded and patched itself while you slept last night. Meaning, it shipped before it was perfect. And think of all the use and benefit you garnered from it while it was in that imperfect state.
Despite my efforts, mistakes still slip out from WinWithFlynn HQ and into the world. Recently, a mistake was shipped that was pretty damn funny. English is a trip, and because of a few small typos, the post might have led careful readers to believe I was performing tricks, the sex kind, for tourists in exchange for Starbucks Coffee.
Oops!
Not true…
Funny though.
I was apologizing to a friend for this clumsy spelling, and he said, “I don’t read for its flawlessness, I read cause it’s smart, insightful, funny, relatable, and has ideas that I can and do use.”
What a guy, huh? Everyone needs friends like this.
Once I got done basking in the glory of those words, I realized it is exactly what Tina is talking about. “You have to go down the chute,” even with the risk. You might reach the bottom of the slide with a big fat wedgie. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve had it happen. But you go down anyways.
Lots of junior high graduates can spell better than me, they can probably hammer out a blog post with less errors. Is that the goal, though? As Truman Capote said, “That’s not writing, that’s typing.”
It turns out, humans like personality more than perfection.
They like traits that tell a story and have some history.
Around here, we are going to focus on lowering the bar. And hopefully something slips out that is “smart, insightful, funny, relatable, and useful.” We’ll do that every Monday, not because it’s ready, but because it’s 830AM. (You should subscribe!)
That’s the idea. Not perfection, because “perfect is overrated.”
And trying to create something perfect is the quickest way to create nothing at all.
If you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend.
