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Friday, March 11, 2016

Comedy & Poetry

I listen to podcasts. So many podcasts. I tell myself I am working on my creativity. And I am. I listen to many podcasts that feature interviews with writers, analysis of poems, the reading of poetry, etc. I listen to science podcasts that give me new images, vocabulary, and metaphors. I listen to history podcasts that give me narrative ideas. I listen to a podcast on word usage, etymology, and slang. I listen to crime podcasts just because I'm morbid.

But the podcasts that help me the most creatively tend to be comedy podcasts.

Really. Comedy podcasts. Perhaps it's because comedians have to work so hard on having the perfect wording (word choice). And good timing (stanza breaks, forms, where to start and end a poem). Or because comedy writers are so in touch with their angst and self-loathing.

Today I heard the comedy writer Marc Jaffe say " Comedy = pain + time."

Ohhhhh, I thought. There's the connection.

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