Tag: Goals

On January 1st, 2011 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 (2 out of 7 accomplished):

• Get on stage 700 times
  I was on stage 753 times
• Do 25 road gigs
  I did less than 25 road gig
• Perform in 5 sketch shows
  Performed in zero live sketch shows
• Act in 12 web videos
  I acted in 6 short films/web videos. It’s closer to 12 if you count that some of the videos were cut up into multiple shorter videos, but I don’t count it.
• Perform “How To Find Your Passion” for 24 audiences
  Did the speech less than 24 times
• Kill for an entire set that is at least thirty minutes long
  Killed for 50 minutes in a 54 minute set, and had a couple of other great long sets, so goal accomplished.
• Do two feature spots (45-50 minutes of show) at the venue where I did one feature spot last year
  Did one feature spot.

Learning (2.5 out of 4 accomplished):

• Take an acting class (or 1 on 1 coaching)
  I’ve been getting coached on acting for most of the year.
• Take two improv classes
  I took one improv class. (I was scheduled for a second, but had stand up gigs get offerred and had to postpone.)
• Take an advanced stand up class
  Took two advanced classes.
• Become an expert at Apple Final Cut and Apple Motion
  I got good at Final Cut but am completely lost in Motion.

Commercials (0 out of 3 accomplished):

• Go on 104 commercial auditions
  Did way fewer auditions .
• Get 8 commercial call backs
  Got fewer than 8 call backs.
• Book 3 commercials
  Did not book 3 commercials.

Producing (.5 out of 2 goals accomplished):

• Continue producing a weekly show
  I had a weekly show until the end of May and then started a bi-weekly show in November.
• Have an average attendance of fifteen audience members
  The average attendance for these bar shows was less than 15.

Writing (4 out of 10 accomplished):

• Write every morning
  Did not write every morning.
• Create 24 new “A” minutes (aka write 240 minutes of stand up and throw out most of it)
  I have about 24 new good minutes from this year. Possibly more.
• Get up to 25 minutes of killer standup, 35 minutes of solid stand up, and 50 respectable minutes
  The response to the material still depends on the night, but I can do 25, 35 and 50 minutes comfortably.
• Write 52 sketches
  Did not write 52 sketches.
• Film, edit and post 15 sketches
  Did less than 15 sketches.
• Enter five film contests
  Entered one film contest.
• Write first draft of the “Surviving SCU” script I outlined, then rewrite it twice
  I wrote and rewrote this screenplay multiple times.
• Choose a show and write a spec script
  Did not write a spec script.
• Write 52 blog posts that are not performance critiques
  Did not write 52 non performance critique posts.
• Write a performance critique of every set within ten days of the performance
  I wrote a performance critique of practically every set.

Traffic, Marketing and Financials (.5 out of 4 goals accomplished):

• Average 2,500 unique visitors a month to the blog
  Averaged 2,100 unique visitors a month
• Earn $13,500 in entertainment and motivational speaking related activities
  Did not earn $13,500
• Find a 10-20 hr a week job with health insurance that pays $500 a week
  Found a part-time day job, no health insurance though.
• Have my ebook downloaded 10,000 times
  Less than 10,000 downloads

TOP 10 GOALS (from the 30 above) – 5.5 / 10 accomplished

• Get on stage 700 times
  Yes
• Get 8 commercial call backs
  No
• Build to 25 minutes of killer standup, 35 minutes of solid stand up, and 50 passable minutes
  Yes
• Choose a show and write a spec script
  No
• Perform “How To Find Your Passion” for 24 audiences
  No
• Write first draft of the “Surviving SCU” script I outlined, then rewrite it twice
  Yes
• Take an acting class (or 1 on 1 coaching)
  Yes
• Film, edit and post 15 sketches
  No
• Kill for an entire set that is at least thirty minutes long
  Yes
• Become an expert at Apple Final Cut and Apple Motion
  Sorta

Overall: 9.5 / 30. I felt good about my accomplishments for the year until I went through this list. I clearly didn’t do as much as I set out to do but I did an okay job with my top 10 goals.

2012 Goals Coming Tomorrow.

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.

Since writing down goals worked so well last year, I’m going to do it again. So here are my comedy goals for this coming year.

Side note: I recommend everyone write down their goals (not necessarily comedy) somewhere and not look at them for six months. You’ll be surprised how much of them you’ll have achieved.

Performing:

• Get on stage 450 times this year
• Do at least 8 road gigs
• Perform at 3 different colleges
• Perform at Rutgers University twice
• Bark only 1-2 nights per week while having spots 6-7 nights a week
• Average 4 spots per weekend night
• Get passed at 2 different clubs in NYC
• Practice my full set at home daily
• Enter 5 comedy contests, place in 3 contests and win 1
• Enter 5 comedy festivals, get accepted and perform in 2
• Perform in 15 improv shows
• Perform in 3 sketch shows
• Act in 20 web videos
• Give my motivational speech 20 times (details coming soon!)
• Get booked to 2 commercial / modeling gigs
• Get a TV / Film credit

Producing:

• Produce my own weekly show where the average attendance is 30 people
• Start or join an improv group
• Run a weekly open mic

Writing:

• Write every morning
• Get up to having 45 solid minutes of stand up
• Write 75 blog posts that are not performance critiques
• Write a performance critique of every set within a week of the performance
• Write 52 sketches
• Write a spec script
• Write a pilot for my original sitcom

Learning:

• Take 3 improv classes
• Take 2 film acting classes
• Take a commercial auditions class

Traffic, Marketing and Finances:

• Get my facebook fan page up to 1,000 fans
• Get to 200 RSS subscribers
• Get 2,000 unique visitors a month to the blog
• Earn $8,400 from comedy this year
• Find a 20 hour a week job that pays $40 an hour (doesn’t have to be comedy)
• Have my ebook downloaded 5,000 times (details coming soon!)

Holy crap, I just set 35 goals! I can barely count that high. Last year I had 14 goals and achieved 12 of them. Here’s to achieving the same proportion of goals this year!