I have a friend that hates every idea I come up with. He's never ending in telling me how stupid this or that is. It's because I bring an idea a day to him. I think he actually might like some, but if he does, he's not going to tell me.
We've tried to work together many times. This one time we were going to start a company servicing the hospitality industry. We would go in and basically take over. Fix them. I was the marketing guy (former chief marketing officer of a restaurant group), he was the operations guy (he actually owned 3 restaurants in the past and sold them all for a boatload). We knew what we were doing.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the bank ... it just didn't happen.
The other thing we were going to work on together was Paul King's Pocket Lint.
The idea was to create a show based on Comedian's In Cars Getting Coffee by Jerry Seinfeld. I love that show. I watch it religiously. It's great. Probably the best talk show format I've ever seen.
I was going to copy that show. I know enough local celebrities that I could make a really compelling show. A fun show. Interesting. But we needed a hook. We didn't have one.
I was working on material for my comedy debut. I had always been on stage, but never as a comedian. I thought I could do it (I'm actually still working on material). I'm not a clown, but I can be pretty funny.
Maybe people just laugh at me. Maybe they laugh to gain favor with me. His girlfriend hated me. She never laughed. I didn't have to worry about this guy - if it's funny, he's going to laugh. So I'm always working on material with him.
8 months later I changed the idea. I wasn't going to talk to local celebs. I was going to talk to businesses and have them pay me for the privilege. He and I talked, and talked, and talked some more about the new direction. Are you in, are you out, what's happening?
He wasn't sold.
When he isn't sold on an idea, he'll let you know if he's not and about 99% of the time, he's right. It'll be a stupid idea. Pocket Lint had merit (and a way to make money, which was important because Cars costs $100,000 an episode and doing something similar local was going to be $4,000 a show) he liked but he was only kicking the tires. At the end of the day, he wasn't going to be in.
Here's the thing - I tried it. It didn't work. Pivot.
They say laughter is the best medicine. Probably is. The fact is, had I been able to do the show in it's original format, then maybe he would be in. It was all about the laughs and the good times. It was all about just cutting loose and not really giving a damn.
I'm a funny guy, mostly. I love to goof off and I laugh on average, way more than any 4 people around me. Unless I'm with my friend. He's way funnier. The guy cracks me up. All the time.
This one time we were at the bar and we meet a guy and a girl. They're half drunk so that's my cue to start the routine (I was always working on the routine and would usually blindside people with the first bit). We're having a great time and then the new guy Lance starts driving the bus over me. He gets all angry. It's surreal.
To be fair, we were making fun of his long wavy blond hair perched on the top of his head like a nest - it was just weird. And his wife was getting a little frisky. She kept rubbing her boobs all over and touching.
My friend starts calling him Lance the Bus Driver. Right then we set up another routine for the show where anytime another guest bags on me, we automatically cut to Lance, driving a cardboard bus with a fan blowing the wind through his hair. Funny Funny stuff.
Pocket Lint today isn't like Pocket Lint 2 years ago, or last year. Pocket Lint is now what it is and will most likely always be.
He hates it.
I love it.
We're both still laughing.
(BTW, he would know that the pic I'm using on this post is a clown fish - and would probably get a laugh out of it.)
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