Category: Comedy

For the past two years, I set goals at the start of the year and then reviewed how I did at the end of the year [see 2010 and 2009]. I feel like this is working for me, so here go my goals for this year. I was able to have fewer goals this year (30 down from 36 last year) and then whittled down my top 10. Meaning, if I nail these 10 goals, and don’t achieve a single one of the others, I’ll consider it a very good year.

Performing:

• Get on stage 700 times
• Do 25 road gigs
• Perform in 5 sketch shows
• Act in 12 web videos
• Perform “How To Find Your Passion” for 24 audiences
• Kill for an entire set that is at least thirty minutes long
• Do two feature spots (45-50 minutes of show) at the venue where I did one feature spot last year

Learning:

• Take an acting class (or 1 on 1 coaching)
• Take two improv classes
• Take an advanced stand up class
• Become an expert at Apple Final Cut and Apple Motion

Commercials:

• Go on 104 commercial auditions
• Get 8 commercial call backs
• Book 3 commercials

Producing:

• Continue producing a weekly show
• Have an average attendance of fifteen audience members

Writing:

• Write every morning
• Create 24 new “A” minutes (aka write 240 minutes of stand up and throw out most of it)
• Get up to 25 minutes of killer standup, 35 minutes of solid stand up, and 50 respectable minutes
• Write 52 sketches
• Film, edit and post 15 sketches
• Enter five film contests
• Write first draft of the “Surviving SCU” script I outlined, then rewrite it twice
• Choose a show and write a spec script
• Write 52 blog posts that are not performance critiques
• Write a performance critique of every set within ten days of the performance

Traffic, Marketing and Financials:

• Average 2,500 unique visitors a month to the blog
• Earn $13,500 in entertainment and motivational speaking related activities
• Find a 10-20 hr a week job with health insurance that pays $500 a week
• Have my ebook downloaded 10,000 times

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TOP 10 GOALS (from the 30 above)

• Get on stage 700 times
• Get 8 commercial call backs
• Build to 25 minutes of killer standup, 35 minutes of solid stand up, and 50 passable minutes
• Choose a show and write a spec script
• Perform “How To Find Your Passion” for 24 audiences
• Write first draft of the “Surviving SCU” script I outlined, then rewrite it twice
• Take an acting class (or 1 on 1 coaching)
• Film, edit and post 15 sketches
• Kill for an entire set that is at least thirty minutes long
• Become an expert at Apple Final Cut and Apple Motion

Wanna join me in my public goal posting?

Post your goals in the comments below and I’ll email you a reminder the last week of December 2011 to see how you did in meeting your goals.

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.