Shunt McTunt, Comedy, and Balance

This is the story of Shunt McTunt and the Seven Blunts. Okay, maybe not. Story time waits for another day. But trust me you’re not going to want to miss the tale of Mr. McTunt. Next time I go to order a tea and they ask for my name I’m gonna tell them it’s Shunt. Then I’ll pause. Then I will slowly say Mc…Tunt. Then I shall ask them if they want to hear about one of my blunts. It will be a glorious interaction if they do.

I could do it right now but I’m not thirsty. I will say it’s nice to be back writing at a café. For some reason I’ve lost the habit. I’ve been spending most of my time working and working out and I’ve also quit caffeine, so that makes sense in the picket fence. I’ve noticed I do a really good job of going two for three when it comes to: making money, being physically fit, and being creative.

It’s not easy but I definitely have enough time in the day to be a three-for-three kind of guy. I’ll just have to sacrifice some of my leisure time. Leisure seizure stick a biscuit in my freezer. What? Why? Why would you stick a biscuit in my freezer? In my freezer? Of all the freezers, you choose mine? Unbelievable.

I’ve been thinking about discipline a lot lately, which was probably kicked into gear when I started reading the newest book by David Goggins. Compared to Goggins, I’m about the world’s most gaping little clam you could conjure, but reading his books has helped me learn a lot about the perceived limits of human performance and how they can often be broken down.

David Goggins has had a huge impact on my life because he’s helped me understand that I’m capable of so much more than I thought I was. I don’t think the point of reading David Goggins is to try and be like David Goggins. He’s an outlier. He’s the ultimate extreme. But if you know anything about his life, extreme is the place he was destined to inhabit. What I’ve taken away from reading his books is that we can all be better, and when we’re better we can be better than that. It’s in the title of one of his books: Never Finished.

Always look to be better. Keep improving. You have more in the tank. These are things I’ve taken with my into my life that have been tremendously helpful, especially the last one. Learning to push myself past the limits has shown me that most of the “limits” I had were self-imposed. I invented them with my mind. Illusions. Things I thought were there but actually weren’t. It’s hard to know what the limit is until you actually go there.

The problem for most of us is that the limit is a scary place, so we choose not to go there. I don’t think you should be going towards the furthest limit all the time, that would be exhausting, but learning to go there from time to time can be extremely beneficial. You have to find the balance that works for you. The balance that works for David Goggins in his life is extreme to almost everyone else, but it’s what works for him. He has found his potential destiny and fulfilled it.

The more I waltz my way through life, the more important balance becomes with each and every passing day. I had a great talk with my friend Robert on the way home from a comedy show the other night about it. We saw Taylor Tomlinson on the north side of town and walked out of the venue and then kept walking, until we decided we were just going to walk all the way home, six miles and two hours later.

Tomlinson is one of my favorite comedians, and it’s beyond impressive how prolific she has become so early in her career. She has garnered a huge audience by ripping herself open on stage and frequently talking about mental health issues in a hilarious manner. I’ve seen her a couple of times, but Robert and I both noted this performance was a bit more morose than those of the past. It was still funny, but something she noted in the show was that she’s spent the last ten years of her life committed to becoming really good at stand-up comedy, and now she has to work on herself as a person.

It was a stark reminder of the importance of balance. She’s had all the success in the world, but the issues she talks about are real and clearly affect her, and she seemed genuinely sad. It’s something we have to ask as comedians and people at large: is success in our career worth sacrificing our well-being for?

I don’t think it is. Some people have been dealt a total shit hand and have to spend all the energy they have just climbing out of the hole in order to get by, but that’s a different thing altogether. Most of us have a choice in the level of balance we maintain in our life, to some degree or another.

It’s especially true in comedy, and Robert and I were both very thankful we’ve chosen a path of balance and personal growth over sacrificing everything for comedy in a pedal-to-the-metal attitude. Watching Tomlinson on stage, I had to ask myself if I would sacrifice all of the personal work I’ve put it in order to have the success she has had at the same age, and for me it was an easy answer. No.

Great comedians of many generations have had their points of reckoning. Sometimes they are reborn, sometimes they fall into the abyss, and often times it ends in death. As comedians we often wonder if falling apart is what makes us funny, or if it’s necessary to become unhinged in order to crush on stage. I once had a fellow comedian tell me he’s trying to make himself more depressed because he thinks he’s funnier when he’s sad.

It might seem ridiculous for the average person to hear this, but this is a common line of thinking amongst comedians, especially younger ones. There are a lot of great young comedians here in Austin who are going balls to the wall with comedy and I’m watching them improve at a rapid rate, but at some point the bubble will burst and they’ll have to wrestle with that. Often times it will be too much at once for the person to handle, and that makes me sad.

I didn’t understand why a lot of the great comedians who have been doing it for 30, 40, or even 50 years have often said to take things slow with comedy, but I get it now. You don’t want the rapid success. You might desire it, but it comes at a massive cost. What we should all shoot for is continued and lasting success as a person. That includes our career, our relationships, our mental, physical and emotional health, and our relationship with God, the Universe, higher consciousness… whatever name you want to stick to it.

I used to feel guilty about not doing 15 open mics a week like some other comedians were doing, and even felt a hint of jealousy from time to time when someone at my level started outperforming me, but that’s gone now. I wouldn’t trade my path for anything. I’m confident that my ruthless self-examination in my 20’s will guide me to sustained success later in my career, and I’ll happily take that. I’m more excited than ever that I’ll be spending three months in South America this summer because it will help me grow as a person, and that’s more important than any joke I’ll ever tell.

• Amazon
• Instagram
• Facebook