#sparkchamber 050420 — Jackie Kashian
From the you-gotta-laugh department, #sparkchamber is thrilled to welcome comic and meddler, Jackie Kashian. Funny and fascinating, Jackie started doing stand-up in 1984 in Madison — she was attending the University of Wisconsin, Madison at the time. Her comedy is observational comedy, which now means, in her own words, “non-political standup comic forced to political comedy. full of rage.”
She tours — used to tour, will tour again? — around the globe, and outputs tremendous records. Her current album, I Am Not The Hero Of This Story, was #1 comedy album on iTunes and Amazon and is critically acclaimed.
Jackie also hosts the podcast The Dork Forest — dork-on-dork dialog, a safe place for guests to speak to their love of books, TV, movies, comic books, websites, food, wrestling, cars, action figures, bees … — as well as a podcast with comedian Laurie Kilmartin where they discuss all aspects of standup comedy. It’s entertaining and thought-provoking. That one is called The Jackie and Laurie Show.
Seriously, check it all out. She’s a master of her craft. Everyone can use a little levity, now more than ever.
1.] Where do ideas come from?
For me, ideas come from making life experiences personal. If there’s a topic — and it’s considered “covered” — the easiest and most interesting way to make it unique is to point out the way it intersects with me specifically. Parents, spouses, politics, TV shows ... everyone has some version of an opinion about them and can talk about them. Make it as personal and specific as you can and it will help to make it more interesting.
2.] What is the itch you are scratching?
I like a deadline. Fictional, arbitrary or external. If there’s a finish line ... that means I’ll finish. What makes me start creating is the visceral need to tell a story. Compounded by the human need for attention ... I will tell/write or create a tale.
3.] Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?
A lot of people take a 3 p.m. nap. I’m not above it. But I can get a great deal written from about 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Then it’s naptime and then it’s, often, showtime. I tend to sleep about 8 hours a night ... sometimes more. I’m like the big cats some days ... lotta sleep. But I noodle around with my notebook most afternoons. I work on fleshing stories and bits out ON STAGE. So, once I have a premise there is a great impetus to FIND some stagetime.
4.] How do you know when you are done?
The thing about jokes is that they are “done” when they’re on an album. But that isn’t even necessarily true — as you can continue to tell jokes/stories after the album comes out and, often, you’ll end up writing a tag line. For me, the joke is done when I don’t want to tell it anymore. And it might resurrect and find new life. That’s why I keep all my notebooks and, VERY RARELY, look back through them. Because ideas that were never fleshed out or might have more life are in those notebooks.