I got to
INT. WHALE - AFTERNOON
I wrote a sketch for a Late Night Comedy Writing Class. The assignment was to write a cold open for a latenight show and I wrote it for Whalefall, a movie about, in part, the process of Whale Fall. The sketch was about a host doing their show from inside a while and, so, in the scene heading, I got to write Interior Whale. It made me happy. I got to write it just like Joe Miller. He gets to drink from the firehose.
In my day world, several summers ago, I took management training class—I promise you this will related to improv and not be boring—from these fine people:
Maybe a year or so after I got to talk to Johnathan and Mellissa, the owners of Raw Rignal Group, during a pretty dark time in my life, between the first and second time I went to rehab. I was feeling pretty lost and rejected and confused about what I should be doing with my life. I listed my experience and Melissa offered, "Instead of thinking about what you have done, what if you think about what excites you? What if you think about a job in terms of what you get to do everyday?"
The combination of Late Night Comedy and framing things in the mindset of "getting to do things" things like comedy, writing "Int. Whale," or even getting to write at all, getting to perform improv, as opposed to, say, spending 30 days in a in patient rehab, reminded me of this from Conan O'Brien.
Every comedian dreams of hosting The Tonight Show and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second. I’ve had more good fortune than anyone I know and if our next gig is doing a show in a 7-Eleven parking lot, we’ll find a way to make it fun.
And finally, I have to say something to our fans. The massive outpouring of support and passion from so many people has been overwhelming. The rallies, the signs, all the goofy, outrageous creativity on the Internet, and the fact that people have traveled long distances and camped out all night in the pouring rain to be in our audience, made a sad situation joyous and inspirational.
To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. As proof, let’s make an amazing thing happen right now. — Conan's Tonight Show Closing Monologue
And then he played Free Bird with Will Ferral.
This is all by way of saying that the time you have in life is the time you have, so you might as well live it doing the things you want to do the way you want to do them in whatever capacity you can. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. As proof, let’s all make something amazing happen right now.
