Comedy is a lot of things. An art form, entertainment, experience-based learning, a spiritual path, a universal language, play-based therapy and ultimately a craft.
My big bet is that comedy is an abstract idea with democratize beyond the entertainment world and serve a practical purpose the more we outsource executive functioning tasks to AI-driven tools.
What craft is:
- technique mastery
- intentional practice
- refined repeatable process
- technical, creative and experiential learning
- producing consistent, high-quality results
Let's take it one step further. Comedycraft will at its core stretch beyond "the craft of comedy" and will be an accepted social science. Right now, we're busy dismissing simple solutions to embrace the complex ideas that make things worse. Why? Because we're human and humans are the smartest dumbest things on earth.
There are three core spokes to craft.
- Connection
- Awareness
- Structure
Comedycraft is less the art of being funny and more the act of creating connections between performer and audience, between people and ideas, between friction and solutions.
Comedycraft is the willing participation of social, environmental and self awareness.
Comedycraft is driven by the structure of visible and invisible rules that may or may not be real.
Growth itself is uncomfortable.
Comedy itself is the act of becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable.
For that reason alone, as we have less of a grip on the future, and the unknowns pile higher than ever before, comedycraft will find its place into the zeitgeist and open new pathways forward that bring us closer together rather than further apart.