The Four Levels of Comedy

"The Four Levels of Comedy: make your friends laugh, make strangers laugh, get paid to make strangers laugh; and make people talk like you because it’s so much fun." -Jerry Seinfeld

I am all over the first two levels. Even as I kid, I used to be able to stretch a little story about getting a shirt stuck in a locker into a 20 minute story with everyone in my little audience laughing so hard they were in tears. I once told this story about going to get a horse named Pappy from the field that was something of a legend in my family for a while which is really weird because I don’t remember anything about it other than I didn’t really know which horse was Pappy at the time.

I have also made total strangers laugh. With my play, with blog posts, with comments I say to my husband in the company of others. I am a relatively funny person. I have no choice about this, mind, you. It’s that whole, my name is Hillary thing (hilarity. hillary. same root.).

We are now at the point at which I am trying to figure out how to get people to pay me to be funny. That would be key. If I figure out how to do that, I will let you know.