In which Our Hero discovers discipline.
One key internalization from this past weekend:
How you feel doesn’t have to dictate how you act.
This is one of clown school’s most important lessons.
You’re tired? Headache? Angry? Upset? Depressed?
Irrelevant. Curtain’s up in five. You perform.
The difference between a good standup and a great standup isn’t the height of their best sets — it’s the quality of their worst ones. The question isn’t “How are you feeling?” but “Can you still deliver?”
Clown school drills this into you.
Every day you step on stage.
Every day you play the game.
Every day you work. Show up. Try. Fail. Try again.
It’s consistency as craft.
A clown has to be able to turn it on — sometimes more than any other performer.
This came up today with a woman I met in the O’Hare waiting area. She’s a professional Twitch streamer trying to stick to a schedule, even on the days she doesn’t want to go live.
But here’s the twist: those reluctant days, she says, are often her best streams.
I don’t know if that’s true for me — whether my best work surfaces when I least want to make it.
But I do know this: I still make it.
Because success, more than anything else, is about behavior, not feelings.
Julian Wise 