On January 1st, 2010 I posted my comedy goals for the coming year. Since it’s the last day of the year, it’s time to go through them and see how I did. Black text is the original goal and bold text is how I did.
Performing:
- Get on stage 450 times this year
I was on stage 531 times this year - Do at least 8 road gigs
I did 9 road gigs - Perform at 3 different colleges
I performed at one college and did a fundraiser show for a college soccer team (but not at the college) - Perform at Rutgers University twice
I performed at Rutgers twice for stand up and once for my motivational speech - Bark only 1-2 nights per week while having spots 6-7 nights a week
By the end of the year I was averaging barking 0 times per week and doing (non open mic) spots 5-6 nights a week - Average 4 spots per weekend night
I averaged around 2 spots per weekend night - Get passed at 2 different clubs in NYC
I didn’t get “officially passed” at any clubs, but do 2-3 club spots per week - Practice my full set at home daily
I only did this for one week, when I was preparing for a 45 minute set. I would practice new jokes at home before trying them out on stage, but not nearly every day - Enter 5 comedy contests, place in 3 contests and win 1
I applied to 1 comedy contest and was not accepted - Enter 5 comedy festivals, get accepted and perform in 2
I applied to 1 comedy festival and was not accepted - Perform in 15 improv shows
I performed in three real improv shows and went to 15-25 “jam sessions” - Perform in 3 sketch shows
I performed in one sketch show - Act in 20 web videos
I acted in 8 web videos - Give my motivational speech 20 times
I did my talk once - Get booked to 2 commercial / modeling gigs
I did not do any commercial gigs and wound up on one (unpaid) print ad - Get a TV / Film credit
I did not get a TV or Film credit
Producing:
- Produce my own weekly show where the average attendance is 30 people
I produced a weekly show for 40 weeks of the year, but the average attendance was much lower than 30 people - Start or join an improv group
I did not start or join an improv group - Run a weekly open mic
I help run a weekly mic, and sometimes run a second one
Writing:
- Write every morning
I wrote in a daily journal for the first ten months of the year and then stopped - Get up to having 45 solid minutes of stand up
I did a 50 minute set once this year, but would not say I have anywhere near 45 solid minutes. I have 15-20 of what I consider solid minutes, and another 15-20 of “If you really liked me…” minutes - Write 75 blog posts that are not performance critiques
I wrote 39 non performance critique posts - Write a performance critique of every set within a week of the performance
I more or less kept to this, although I think I was 10-14 days behind most of the time - Write 52 sketches
I wrote 32 sketches - Write a spec script
I did not write a spec script - Write a pilot for my original sitcom
I wrote an original sitcom pilot and co-wrote a second original sitcom pilot
Learning:
- Take 3 improv classes
I took 2 improv classes - Take 2 film acting classes
I did not take any film acting classes - Take a commercial auditions class
I took one commercial auditions class and then did some one-on-one commercials coaching
Traffic, Marketing and Finances:
- Get my facebook fan page up to 1,000 fans
I’m at 377 fans - Get to 200 RSS subscribers
I’m still at 22 subscribers - Get 2,000 unique visitors a month to the blog
I average about 1,500 unique vistors a month - Earn $8,400 from comedy this year
I didn’t reach this goal, but am still happy with my earnings - Find a 20 hour a week job that pays $40 an hour (doesn’t have to be comedy)
I did not find a consistent job at that hourly rate - Have my ebook downloaded 5,000 times
My eBook has been viewed at least 1,600 times
Overall grade for the year: B-
I had a productive year, but it could’ve gone even better. I fully nailed 10 out of 35 goals, partially achieved another 12 goals, and completely missed on 13 goals.
Out of the 16 goals I’d consider most important, I achieved 10 of them. Next year I will try to limit myself to less goals so I don’t dilute myself too much.
The thing I’m most proud of is the amount of times (530+) I was on stage this year. Exceeding my stage time goal is always my number one goal, and I will up my target number of times for next year.
Too much!
What a huge jump in production from 09 though!
TS!