Why Become a Professional Comedian?

Video Transcript

"Hi there, my name's Larry Omaha and I'm a professional Stand Up Comedian. Why did I become a Comedian? Well for me, the reason I became a Comic is I had to become a Comedian, because as a youngster I was very shy, introverted, very insecure, had a very low self esteem and I did not enjoy that. I hated being like that. So I would see Stand Up Comedians performing on TV and I thought, wow look at the praise they get, look at the, how the audience loves them. The ability to stand out in front of that audience and just take control. I wanted to be like that, so the seed was planted from the time I was a youngster. Oh sure, as I grew up I applied for jobs as a Fireman, I was rejected. I, I had a lot of other job, and I got a job as a Government Investigator, and some people go, wow that's a great job, but to me it was just another stepping stone to the point where I could make some money and then go on to my real journey. Which was to become a professional Stand Up Comic. The path I took to become a Stand Up Comic was, I quit a very good government job and I moved to Los Angeles and I became a struggling person, a struggling Stand Up Comic. I was going to open mics, three different open mics a night. Three different audition performances every night, all across Los Angeles for a year before I got my first paid gig out here in Los Angeles. But it took my three or four years before I could actually start making decent money. I've had several agents over the years, I realized I didn't really need an agent to become a successful Comedian, what I needed was to have a strong Act and then I got in touch with booking agents. There are booking agents all around the country and I developed relationships with them and they would call me all the time wanting me to come to their area of the country to work. The way to get a booking agent is to send them a tape of your Act. How do you get a tape of your Act? You have someone tape you in a club, or you buy a video camera and tape yourself. It'll never be high, high quality bu it should be good enough that that booking agent can watch that tape and say, "Yep, that person's funny. That's the kind of person I want to hire"."