KMERRITTBLOG

…Is This Thing On?

Tonight was my final stand up comedy class, and I’m a little more sad than I’d expected. For a while there, I was pretty bummed that this class wasn’t exactly what I wanted it to be- an exercise based class that taught me how to think differently and realize the humor in things. Instead, it was a class much more focused on “you think you can write funny stand up? Try it out here.” People were coming to class with years worth of jokes to try out. And then there’s me, who’s never written a joke in my life. I found myself with little spare time to spend writing material, and that left me extremely insecure of my low quality work. Each week I was performing only mediocre work that wasn’t getting the kind of laughs I had hoped for. But this past weekend I spent six hours pulling together the bits and pieces of mediocre jokes, and tweaking some of them a bit to up the laugh factor; and I actually had a ball in class tonight. I was confident in my work, most of my jokes were memorized, and I was able to focus on my presentation. People laughed. And they laughed at the same jokes they’ve been hearing for 6 weeks, so I’m pretty sure I’ll at least get a small chuckle out of a brand new audience! At least, I hope s0. I realized that I finally had fun and gained confidence when I stopped judging and doubting myself so harshly. It was new to me, and it took some getting used to, but now it’s a riot. I only decided about 8 months ago to look into comedy classes, but I never had the money until now. I’m very glad that I did it at the first opportunity I had, because it’s something that, after this performance, I can look back on as an accomplishment. Based on how this performance goes, I definitely think I’ll be exploring more comedic outlets.

My final show is in two weeks, and don’t worry— I’ll be posting the invite right here for all of my lovely followers. I’m just waiting to hear back on some details before I start spreading the word. And for those of you who can’t make it, don’t worry. You’ll get a link to the video soon enough!

Looking for Bloggers!

Re-posting my Craigslist ad for anyone who might be interested. I guess it doesn’t necessarily have to be a female, I don’t really know why I put that.

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We’re looking for female writer(s) in their 20’s to start a blog with. You don’t have to be a professional writer, just as long as you’re good and have something to say! We still haven’t decided on a topic for the blog, which is where all of the co-authors come in! So far it’s myself and one other girl who is highly interested, but we’re hoping for at least another writer or two.

I am a 24 year old female living in Manhattan, and the other contributor is 23, living in Brooklyn. We both work in the creative fields- in advertising/communications/social media, so we know how to spread the word once we get something going. We both have our own personal blogs, but we’d like this to be more of a focused, collaborative blog based on one specific topic. Like I said, we’re not quite sure what that is yet, but I know there’s some sort of niche in NYC just waiting for us to explode into- we just have to figure it out. I don’t want this to turn into a Sex & The City type blog, blogging about sex, relationships and men 24/7. It’s too played out and there’s no longer a genuine market for that. If you’re interested, you can learn a little more about us at http://www.kmerrittblog.com and http://annnna.tumblr.com. Those are our personal life blogs, so obviously we’re looking to start something with a lot more focus.

Please only message me if you’re a serious, self-starter who is sincerely interested in developing an online persona within the blogosphere and online world. I’m not saying we’re going to treat this as a full time job, but it would be great to have a lot of creative feedback and conversation between all of the authors in order to make this blog the very best it can be. And when I say blog, please don’t think that it has to be a traditional blog. We’re interested in doing all kinds of things. We both have experience in web design, and know tons of people in the industry so we could potentially build an amazing, interactive layout if it suits the concept. Even if you’re not a writer, but would love to contribute to something like this, go ahead and shoot me a message anyway. Maybe each author will have their own area, whether that be writing or taking photos? The possibilities are endless right now.

Send me a message if you’re interested, and we can meet up to see how we mesh and discuss some possible ideas. Hope to hear from some awesome people!

What Can Eminem Teach You?

I’m not a huge fan of rap, but I enjoy listening to Eminem. A lot actually. I grew up thinking the only reason I liked him was because he was from Detroit, and the only reason he got so much publicity was because of his extreme vulgarity. It wasn’t until recently that I realized the guy’s actually ridiculously talented.

I think the song Forever by Drake is a perfect example of the rap industry in general, that also really showcases Eminem’s skill. I’ve only heard the song like 3 times, but I’ve heard it enough to know that Lil Wayne and Kanye West are put to shame once Eminem closes with the last verse. His storytelling is so much better, and his speed so much faster than either of the other guys. Personally, I can’t stand Lil Wayne or Kanye West because I don’t care to hear about bitches, money, and drugs on song after song. But Eminem. The man is an extremely talented lyricist and storyteller. His songs are written with such precision as to pack in as much detail in as little time as possible. Each word must be chosen precisely so that the flow and the meaning are both maintained. Essentially, the dude’s actually a great writer.

I must not be the only person who thinks so, because I just ran across this article over on copyblogger.com. It’s a great little read entitled “The Eminem Guide to Becoming a Writing and Marketing Machine.” There’s some pretty solid advice for writers of all sorts, whether you’re in marketing or just a creative writer. Plus, it’s written by someone who actually knows a thing or two about copywriting, not some thugged out Eminem fan with horrible grammar.

I Want YOU

Attention NYC area writers, comedians, performers, and just all-around awesome people:

I’m looking for creative, adventurous people to start a collaborative project with. What kind of project you ask? I have no idea. That’s where you come in. Well, your brain + my brain = creative genius (I hope). In case you’re unaware, or my horrible skills have made it hard to figure out, I’m an aspiring writer of many genres. By day I work as a copywriter in advertising which is fun as hell, but of course it’s not enough. By night I want to dabble in comedy writing- skits, tv, comedic music videos; as well as travel blogging, food blogging, whatever. So that doesn’t really narrow it down. I think I want to create more of an interactive experience of entertainment- somehow, using all kinds of different media. I want to create some purely fun entertainment in some sense of the word. It should be something fun, not a hassle. Anybody interested? I love my blog, but it’s just not doing enough for me. And I want to have more of a focus with this project than my sporadic and slightly insane blog does. Oh, and I kind of want to become a household name in the world of dorks with way too much time on their hands.

If you’re interested, or know someone else who might be, leave a comment below or shoot me an email and let’s chat about it: kim@kmerritt.com. You can check out my portfolio, youtube page, etc through the links above. And if you can’t figure out how to do that, you definitely should not contact me.

My First Stand Up “Performance”

Monday night was my first stand up comedy class at the Manhattan Comedy School, held in conjunction with Comix Comedy Club. Our teacher is Cory Kahaney, the winner of season 1’s Last Comic Standing. I got an email on Friday night saying “please bring 2 minutes of material you’d like to try out,” and the freaking out began. I had never written anything that is worthy of a stand up performance in my life! And I have a memory comparable to that of a 90 year old, so Lord knows I can’t remember the last funny thing I’ve heard either. So, if I were smart, I would’ve spent the weekend writing material. Instead, I ate a lot of food, lounged around, and accidentally got a bit tipsy on my picnic. Hey, somebody had to drink the premixed cocktails. I wasn’t going to let 10 oz of rum go to waste.

So anyway, I threw together a little short something on Monday before going into class. I figured we weren’t going to have to memorize it, so after going over it a few times to hit the basic points, I was off to class. I wasn’t really nervous until we got started with some “about you” kind of questions. It seemed like almost everyone in the class had performed before- and those who hadn’t, were just naturally hilarious. People started going up with their exuberant personas, acting like they’re competing for an academy award. It was also 405 degrees in the room so of course I was sweating like crazy, so I looked even more nervous than I was.

About 18 people later, and second to last, it was my turn. I like speaking with my hands, so I chose to perform without looking at my notes. Plus I wanted to look more prepared and experienced. I mean, who reads from notes? My first joke, only two sentences in, got a couple of very subtle laughs. My second “story” joke got a few more laughs, but I could’ve told it better. My third joke, people loved it! Of course it needed tweaked a little, but they got the jist. The teacher even said it was hilarious!

Overall, I don’t think I did so bad. I timed myself almost perfectly- having about 2 minutes and 6 seconds worth of material. I may have forgotten a line or two but it didn’t cause me to screw up the jokes. She gave me a few pointers, and told me overall a good, solid first attempt. I started out my first line or two saying “um” quite a few times, but I caught on to that immediately (thank you, public speaking classes!) and tried to fix that. I actually don’t mind speaking in front of people- as long as I know what I’m talking about. I kind of love being in front of people once I start. I only noticed one HUGE problem that I’m going to REALLY have to work on before my final performance- I LAUGH AT MYSELF! Haha if you don’t personally know me, I can be a very giggly person. As soon as someone else laughs, I’m right there with them. All the time. So as soon as people started laughing for the third joke, I unwillingly joined in! It wasn’t even that funny to me anymore because I had rehearsed it a few times, but I couldn’t help it! Laughter is soo contagious to me! After a few chuckles I managed to pull it together and finish the joke, and nobody said anything about my laughing, so maybe no one else noticed…?

Next week I have to go in with 2 more minutes of original material, and a one liner about a different topic. So far, this class is fun. It’s not exactly what I had in mind, and I’m not sure how much it will help me develop my thinking abilities as a comic thinker, but it’ll be one hell of an experience that’s for sure!

After stand up classes, I want to try out improv, sitcom writing, sketch writing, and travel writing classes. We’ll see what comes after those!

Being out of school is awesome! I love having a job doing what I love to do, then having the time and money to pursue the other passions I have outside of advertising!

The Man on the Stairs

So I’m reading this book called No One Belongs Here More Than You. Stories by Miranda July. I don’t really like it so far. It’s a collection of little bizarre stories involving crazy weird sex scenes. Perhaps I’m not intellectual enough to understand it, but yeah, it’s not really working for me.

However, I liked this little selection from a story called The Man On The Stairs:

“I never really knew true love. Would he empathize with us? Does he know what it’s like? Most people do. You always feel like you are the only one in the world, like everyone else is crazy for each other, but it’s not true. Generally, people don’t like each other very much. And that goes for friends, too. Sometimes I lie in bed trying to decide which of my friends I truly care about, and I always come to the same conclusion: none of them. I thought these were just my starter friends and the real ones would come along later. But no. These are my real friends… This is my number two problem: I am never satisfied with what I have. It goes hand in hand with my number one problem: rushing [through life]. Maybe they aren’t so much hand in hand as two hands of the same beast.”

Yours Truly, Doing Stand-Up

Last night I finally signed up for stand up comedy classes at Comix! I start April 5th, with 6 weeks of classes, followed by a “final show” on May 16 I believe- so keep that date open if you’re in the NYC area. There’s also the opportunity to do a few open mic’s during that time, and attend shows. I was going to sign up at Caroline’s on Broadway, but I had a better feeling about this Comix place. They have a few more writers on the staff that are more focused on what it is I want to do- comedy television writing. I really hope I do well in this class, and I hope it helps me to focus more on comedic writing!

Connecting the Dots With Words

Hot tea + warm blankets + 3 creative briefs. Lovely, long evening/night/morning.

I’m using the Behance Action Method paper to keep track of my ideas. I’ve never really been a fan of it because the front is a bit too organized for my liking. But the back! I am in love with the back! There are rows and rows of dots (kind of like a variation of the Dots game), lined up as a much fancier way to keep your writing in line. I’m a huge fan of anything that keeps my writing relatively straight and of average size (hail college ruled, death to wide ruled!), but the dots are just awesome. If you look at a glance, you might mistakenly think that I have insanely perfect handwriting- which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Okay enough of a break, back to work!

Writing, not Typing

Call me old fashioned, but I absolutely love the feeling of picking up a pen and writing. It’s weird though, as I always crave a different utensil or paper to write with/on, and I can’t seem to focus without that specific instrument. Today I was craving an ultra fine point red Sharpie, and some computer paper. Don’t know why. I just picked it up, and started writing. Sometimes it’s just a Bic pen and notebook paper. Sometimes it’s a number 2 pencil, or a mechanical pencil. My handwriting sucks, but it’s a very liberating feeling to just start jotting down your thoughts.

Gotham Writers

On Sunday, Samantha and I went to the Gotham Creative Writing Workshop in SoHo. It was held in McNally Jackson Books on Prince Street, buried deep inside the basement level biography section. It was more of an exercise based class, designed to get our creative minds flowing endlessly and limitless. I had a hard time focusing though, because I kept glancing at the various Hitler and Stalin books surrounding me, and thoughts of Nazi’s and genocide filled my mind.

Our first exercise was to write down one extraordinary thing that has happened to us, and then one thing of the same caliber that is completely made up. I wrote down the following:

1- A homeless man spit on my pretzel as I was eating it in Herald Square. (True)
2- A homeless person offered me spare change because he thought I needed it more than he did. (False. Although if the economy keeps going the way that it is, I’m sure it won’t be much longer until this one is true too.)

Then we had to list three things that we hate, then choose one and start ranting. Of course I should be excellent at this, because my Myspace blogs for the past ten years have been filled with all of the things that I hate. I’ve used Myspace as a place to vent about pointless stuff, because no one seems to use Myspace anymore. Therefore I won’t subject anyone to my pointless venting. But it turns out it’s pretty hard for me to be put on the spot to think of things that I absolutely cannot stand. So I wrote down the following:

1- Lady Gaga
2- Velvet
3- Hipsters
4- People who are tone-deaf and walk around the city singing (or rapping) A Capella

I went on to rant about the fourth one, stating how “I’d rather listen to the sound of a lonely, dying cat in heat.”

Another exercise required us to “invent” a device that may never be possible to create, but would prove highly beneficial to us. At first I thought of a hand held device that could do absolutely anything that I asked it to, but I realized it was too vague. So then I went on into a superficial device that “is a small, pocket sized device that turns ‘bad food’ and empty calories into healthy food with little to no calories- or carbs. This device would make every craving- whether it be cupcakes, fried chicken, or greasy pizza- just as healthy as a bowl of lettuce. The device would be discreet, perhaps designed to look like an ordinary purse item so that nobody knows how you’ve achieved that bangin’ body by eating the way you do.”

I guess I have a little difficulty creating imaginary devices on the spot as well, but perhaps that’s why I don’t plan on writing fictional series like Harry Potter.

To make a long story short, I definitely wish that I could afford to take more in-depth programs through the Gotham Writers Workshops. I definitely need to keep an eye out for more writing classes around the city!