The Rudicks Are Home: A Sister/Brother Podcast
The Rudicks Are Home: A Sister/Brother Podcast
18 - Writing Process and Man-Rage
Ever wondered how much work goes into setting up a podcast studio, or the pressure of creating new content for an audience? Join us as we share our very different experiences with perfectionism. Andrew takes you through his "YouTuber studio" vibe, while Leah discusses her writing process.
Navigating the comedy industry can be a challenge, and in this episode we dive into the difficulties of getting bookings in a saturated market, the importance of building relationships with bookers, and how being funny isn't always the deciding factor. We also explore the differences between how men and women handle hecklers, and Leah shares her personal experiences with the challenges that come with being a woman on the road.
We wrap up the episode by touching on the cultural elements ingrained in entitlement and how it affects us. Additionally, we delve into family dynamics and success, as we discuss the relentless ribbing from our mom and brother. Don't miss out on this insightful and entertaining conversation – it's sure to leave you wanting more!
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Cool.
Speaker 2:Yours looks more professional than mine.
Speaker 1:Great, i love that. The whole studio or The microphone. Ok, so there you go, there's there's a little compliment for you.
Speaker 2:Who do you think that is Sissy? I don't know, brother, Maybe it's mommy and daddy. Should we answer it Maybe?
Speaker 1:it's Pete's way to flip sis. It could be a listener or it could be stranger danger. Lose a hug. Lose a hug. Love is all you, And we're grown ups now.
Speaker 2:Three, two, one One one. What the hell You didn't clap.
Speaker 1:I think there's a delight. Let's try it again.
Speaker 2:OK, you count off. Three, two, one.
Speaker 1:We hope.
Speaker 2:That's a crazy delay.
Speaker 1:Did you do that in sync? I'll be able to sync it up, ok, yeah.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:Great, i think, even if we were in the same room. we're really furthering the stereotype that white people don't have rhythm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is true, i have rhythm. Yeah, you, on the other hand, you couldn't do them. You can't even do the Macarena. I played the drums.
Speaker 1:I played the drums in high school. I had a drum set. You did Yeah, and if we know anything from the Mega Man, my old band. We slapped.
Speaker 2:And you got piped too.
Speaker 1:I thought you were going to say and you got piped too in high school.
Speaker 2:OK, here we go. What does that mean?
Speaker 1:That's when a man has sex with you, so welcome.
Speaker 2:Hi, we're back with a fresh, hot episode of the Roudix Our Home. We're talking about all kinds of fun stuff today. How you doing, andrew.
Speaker 1:This is my favorite intro so far. I was doing great in that I spent the last 48 hours on YouTube research and lighting setups, podcast studio setups, and I actually spent hours not just online but getting this stuff together And I was so confident I was like finally I got something that looks professional and cool. It looks like a YouTuber studio.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I was like, oh Leah, you know, it's so hard to impress you in terms of like, you're kind of a perfectionist when it comes to art, which makes sense. That's why you're successful, Sure, sure. But I thought, surely, surely, this is it, this is the one, and I escaped in with you And the first thing you said is wow, your studio is definitely a choice.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, i am such a monster. Listen, i apologize. It is, it's, it's. It looks good. It looks good. It's purple, it's fun, it's purple, we love purple, it's purple.
Speaker 1:You're actually, i think I do you a disservice. I do convey a lot of the negativity of our relationship, sure. A lot And there's so much good that I don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you've got a lot of. I actually do feel.
Speaker 1:I do. And I feel, but not towards, not towards you necessarily, just rage. That hasn't been worked out.
Speaker 2:That comes out to you. I think that it's just. It's a taste thing, Like you know. If, like I have a specific like look that I like and you have a specific look that you like, There's not one that's wrong or right, I mean let me ask you this Yeah.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this the first setup, that that I made, that I built, which and admittedly, i At the time I was like, oh, this is fucking great. And now I'm like I totally see all those things that you were saying of like, yeah, fucking stupid, it looked ridiculous. This compared to that. It's same, it's different.
Speaker 2:It's No, it's better because you have light, you have like like I can see that you have like the three-point light set up Like you are very well lit. You know what?
Speaker 1:I have that I didn't have before.
Speaker 2:You have depth of field depth of field exactly The field I see that you've done the research and I'm impressed, and I think everyone else will be impressed if you, if you join our patreon and jump on there And then you'll be able to see the, the beautiful setup that Andrew has spent hours Working on. look at this.
Speaker 1:You see this lamp There's no light bulb in this lamp. That's this. That's the power of fucking. Yeah these are childhood knickknacks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. I love that you know It's listen, it's great, it's great.
Speaker 1:Today we're gonna talk about a little bit Yeah let's, let's move it along, let's let's move it along.
Speaker 2:Let's move this audio medium along where the majority people are listening, so they need to know what what we're talking about. Yeah, we're gonna talk about the writing process.
Speaker 1:And with that in mind, you know I feel like I came out with a little bit of negativity. To counterbalance this, I would like to say that your writing process is is very, it's inspiring. I watched the way that you work and you. Your process is so interesting to me. It's, it's very. I don't think I ever really thought about process until I witnessed the way that you go through Not only your Stand-up comedy writing but also your sketch writing, which is a completely different Beasts. You want to, you want to speak to that a little bit. What, what do you mean? You?
Speaker 2:never thought about process before. Well.
Speaker 1:Not that I didn't think about it, but I guess I didn't think about it so much as it applies to sketch, because I've never really done sketch and People come up to you a lot at our shows, at the meet and greets, and they oftentimes want it. They're like will you do the character? will you you know You should improvise the character in the Q&A's will you do this little video in the character for my friend? Yeah, and what most people don't understand Yeah is that, like, these are very deliberate, thought-out choices that are also rehearsed. It's not you going up there riffing or reading a teleprompter. It's you memorizing this very long script that you've written. Yeah, i don't know how you do it, it's because you do it in one take you don't like cut them up.
Speaker 1:Well, here's the, and it's a lot of work.
Speaker 2:Play and like yeah, yeah here's the here's the secret I actually do use a teleprompter.
Speaker 1:Oh, the fail has been lifted. I wasn't.
Speaker 2:I wasn't for the like for the wealthy women character. for the wealthy woman character, i for a long time I wasn't and It was. it was just like taking so long, i would because it would, you know, i would. just it's like it has to be so word-perfect for me for me to feel good about it and It's like fast and you know it's it, they're a minute long, so like it's not you know, yeah, it's not crazy, but like how you have misisms in word play.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was having to do so many takes and then I would like, i would.
Speaker 2:Mess-up, one word at the very end and I would just be like, oh fuck, i'm gonna start over again. And then I found this like cool teleprompter app That is just made it like so that I can And I just went and I got this And I do, i do do. So many takes that like by the end. I basically do know it. So it doesn't look like I'm Yeah from a teleprompter, but it just is like a nice sort of like tool to have You know to get through it.
Speaker 2:Yeah but yeah, you're not just like that.
Speaker 1:It's such a process. People think you're just going in there with this idea and it's like I've watched you gets through the course of an hour. You know write the Thing or you recording it and you're you're getting so mad by the end Cuz you're getting frustrated and I understand that. Like doing a few self tapes for acting gigs.
Speaker 2:It's like you get to that last line, it's like fuck the one word Yeah, you have to start. yeah, yeah, yeah, you get so in your head so much different?
Speaker 1:Do you find that that process is different than your stand-up process? because You're ready for sketch, you're immediately executing it, right For stand-up. You're writing these ideas, you're letting them percolate.
Speaker 2:It's very different And I think that it's been. I think that, like so I'm in a position now where I've just like recorded an hour and so I'm having to like write a new hour, which is, like you know, the first hour I have is like seven years of material. And now the expectation is like, okay, that's normal, right for comics. And now the expectation is that, like, i write another hour in a year or you know however long it takes, but I'm having a hard time I'm having it's like it's going a lot slower than I thought it would, and I feel like I'm feeling a lot of resistance to sitting down and writing where, because stand-up is like a slower.
Speaker 2:It's a process of like you write an idea, you don't know if it's gonna work. You try it once, it maybe goes. Okay, you try it three times, you still don't know. Like it's constantly like revising and getting it up. It's slower than TikTok or making an Instagram video where the validation is instant, right, like you make a video, you put it out, it gets you know, you can see instantly. It really is like it sort of fuels you in a way, because it's just like okay, here's this to the world. What do you think of it?
Speaker 2:Instantaneously you know, within an hour you can kind of tell how it's being responded to. So there's a little bit of like And it's set in stone. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Where the joke constantly changes, even over the course of a year. That joke is gonna change every single time you do it, and subtle ways, totally, time and cadence whatever.
Speaker 2:And that's for the better. You know, there's a lot of videos that I've put out that I'm like, ooh, i would love to go back and like tinker with this. But you know, you put it out and it's done. But, yeah, i mean, it's what's it like for you.
Speaker 1:It's such an well table that, for a second, it's such an interesting phenomenon what you brought up that so many comedians they. it takes seven to 10 to 12 years to develop your first hour of material And a lot of times, exactly like what's happened to you. you got that first hour, you popped and now the expectation is you've spent seven years, seven years creating this material and now you have to do what you did in seven years in one year, because the next time you go to those clubs the audience is expecting new jokes. Yeah, and it's also not something where, like you, can't just you record an album or an hour, a special, and they call it burning material, getting rid of it to reset the new material.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But you can't just jump in to another show with zero jokes. You need to. They're like lifelines for comedians. You have certain jokes in your set that you know will always work. So like, if the set's going bad, you might bring like your banger joke up in the middle of your set to help. But if you don't have, like people are expecting you to, like some people try to just erase the material and then it's, and then start completely from scratch. That's psychotic.
Speaker 2:It's psychotic. I don't know how you could even do that. I mean that's yeah.
Speaker 1:You slowly wean the material out.
Speaker 2:You really have to be willing to fail hard if that's the way and I think that that's like impressive And that's something that, like, I really want to get better at is like not like letting go of having to be perfect, Like being like okay, having to crush every time.
Speaker 2:Having to crush every time. I think that that is, that's a hard thing. It's part of like being like a perfectionist and not wanting to let people down and like you know. But there's something so exciting about being like okay, i have this new stuff. I don't know if it's gonna work, we're gonna see, and then if it like, if it does awesome and if it, i don't know, it's yeah, it's a wild ride.
Speaker 1:Your art is yeah, no, i mean, art is predicated on authenticity, right? So when you have the whole idea of a hack comic, when somebody becomes a hack, it's because they're continually doing jokes that they know work. That's the definition. They can kill because they're doing easy jokes that they've been doing for 20 years. There is no growth in that. There's no authenticity. You're absolutely right. You need to go up there and fail with these new jokes over and over again until something clicks. And it's hard because, like we do these shows and they're awesome, the audiences are so great, they're here to see us, but and it's so easy to just be like, oh, i'm gonna fucking kill tonight And it's gonna feel so good, i'll go back to the hotel. But the reality is it doesn't feel good, cause what happens if you have self-awareness is you go back and you're like all right, i had a good set, but fuck, i don't have any jokes.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:I would rather bomb with all new jokes than crush with old jokes, you know.
Speaker 2:You would. Well, maybe that's not true. No, that's not true. It's so hard to bomb. I mean obvious. This is so obvious that it's so hard to bomb. But I think it's, you know, it's especially like I feel. I think it's also like as a woman, as you know, as a people pleaser, it's just like like the idea, like the feeling of like letting people down is so hard for me to stomach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. But for the most part, you can't let them down. They're mostly there because they want to take a picture of you, and then you being a killer comic is just an added bonus, so like. But I think the issue comes in when those same people come back the next year. Right, then I guess you can let them down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like we were talking, we did a show in Raleigh in January, right, and we're gonna hopefully be going back there in the fall. And um Was talking to it to my manager, bruce, and he was saying you know, you and Andrew, you need to have like new sets, and it was like, okay, that's. It's also like the deadline of that right where it's just like oh, Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:You telling me that he said that it's probably the most helpful Boost to my like productivity that I've had. Yeah, but that's always really because I'm like yeah, i'm like I'm not gonna fucking let Bruce down. He's a you know big manager. Like I don't want to and he won't even know, like that's the thing is, he won't even know. But Like I had, he's right though. Like he's a hundred percent right and yeah, but now it's like my teacher just assigned me homework. I have to, but that's it's.
Speaker 2:It's always about having a deadline and having accountability. That's literally how I was able to film an out, like when, when he told me that I was gonna be filming an hour I think it was in December of this past year in April, like I had probably 35 to 40 minutes of solid material. Yeah so I had to write you were when he. I was stressed for months, like I And I, and I did it. I wrote like 20 minutes of new day is fucking killer and I like you forced yourself.
Speaker 2:You put I forced myself to because, yeah, and that's that's the way. That's the way it works, that's the way you get stuff done. Yeah, someone lights a fire under your ass.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, hemorrhoids and also.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, you get hemorrhoids.
Speaker 1:I've had them Yeah.
Speaker 2:Pivot.
Speaker 1:Now, what you were just talking about along those same lines is we wanted to talk about the actual booking process. Yeah, that's changed over the years and how it's. Well, it's changed dramatically for you and, by extension, me. But I'm still doing some of my own, a lot of my own bookings still, but I now have the luxury of your representation Helping me, which, holy shit, does that feel good? Well, i'm, booking is so hard, it's so hard. I feel like and to have somebody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i feel like you sort of like mastered the art of like. I feel like you, over the years, have gotten so good at booking stuff for yourself in a way that, like a lot of comics, never figure out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, thank you. I you know it's interesting. I was talking to Amy about this. I I gotta stop saying you know what's interesting, because inevitably it will never be interesting when I follow it. It's not, but this might, this might be.
Speaker 2:It is we'll see this might be interesting. Yeah, this could be interesting.
Speaker 1:He told me that Because I was telling her I was like man before I started, when I would send out. I would send out emails. You send out emails like you are a salesperson, cold-calling people, that's what comedy is like when you start. Yeah you send out 20 emails and you're lucky. You're lucky if one person responds to 20.
Speaker 2:It's unnatural and it feels bad. I But you kind of have to just like numb yourself to it and just it's good to yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's also good, because this industry is just rejection and it's just like coming back from rejection. That's how you succeed. So like you kind of get conditioned early on that like, oh shit, this isn't nobody's going to respond to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But now like I would get one response back. but you got to be real tenacious, you just got to keep emailing people every month.
Speaker 2:You got to email and you got to follow up.
Speaker 1:Oh, follow up Yeah. I sent out five emails last month. on a one day I sent out five for people responding me back with bookings. That is unprecedented.
Speaker 1:That's telling you, it went from 10%, like 5% response rate to like 80% And this was an unusually high. These are all also people that I've built relationships with over the years, So it's not the same as like cold emailing, But even that. What's crazy is like you can go to a club and absolutely kill, have the whole staff like you and the managers like we're going to bring you back. They'll never respond to an email again. It's the weirdest thing. It's like it's so hard to because bookers it's so over saturated. They're getting 100 emails a day.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's crazy Yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's like anything, just keep doing it. I'm also sort of realizing that, like a lot of it, it doesn't have to do with with how funny you are. It's just like they're trying to sell tickets, and so they are. they are booking people who can sell tickets and, you know, fortunately, or unfortunately, like a lot of that has become like people who have massive social media followings And some of those people are funny and some of them aren't, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, i mean honestly, i'll take it a step further. I think being funny has very little to do with booking at all, because when, exactly like you said, when you're at the headline level, all they care about is can you draw, can you sell chicken tenders, and at the like opening level, it also doesn't really have anything to do with. It has to do with the kind of hang you are offstage. Are you going to annoy them? Stop saying yum about the chick, just go get some chicken tenders.
Speaker 2:Yum, chicken tenders, that sounds good with a little honey mustard, yum Yeah.
Speaker 1:If you're, if you're.
Speaker 2:if you're a good hang which, yeah, I'm a great hang You really just not.
Speaker 1:Yeah you are. You're a good hang, you're easy to get along with. Thanks, don't cause drama.
Speaker 2:I do not cause trouble. I'll tell you that That's one thing that you can be sure.
Speaker 1:No, you're the opposite, i will not raise a stink.
Speaker 2:I will let you walk all over me.
Speaker 1:Well, i mean the way that we I was talking to Amy about this earlier today too, because I was like I'm trying to think of ideas to talk about, and she was like you should talk about hecklers. And I'm like, well, we have talked quite a bit about hecklers, however, we haven't really talked about the different. I guess we have the different way, ways in which we handle or not even handle the way that hecklers affect us. Whereas I get very upset, it's very distracting, it's very emotional, you doesn't even phase you. And I told Amy that she was like, oh yeah, it's because she's a woman and women are used to being cat called and interrupted and yell that and and scream down the street and like It's so true And like you just she's like.
Speaker 1:As a woman, you just learn how to just like. Yeah, I was thinking about that.
Speaker 2:That's such a great, that's such a great point. Well, it's just like a cultural thing, i think, like I was thinking it about like road, road rage Also, like. I think it's like a similar thing where, like you know, i drive and people are cutting me off and like, and I'm just like, oh well, this is just like, this is just the world, you know where, as I feel like the men that are around me.
Speaker 2:Like I see them get so worked up about like driving and I'm just like, oh, that's so interesting because it doesn't affect me that way.
Speaker 1:Oh, you know just which men specifically that, which men specifically that have driven you 20,000 miles in the last year.
Speaker 2:Well, it just is like, you know, i mean it's just, it's just like no judgment, because I it's which driver?
Speaker 1:which driver of yours? I'm talking about you which one of your drivers?
Speaker 2:No, but like I mean, obviously it is something that I struggle with, though You're also like, you're also you also drive all the time, so you're I feel like you're on the road constantly, and I didn't mean that as like a pointed No, no, no, I don't know.
Speaker 1:No, no, i know, but I do, it is an issue for me. It is something that I definitely struggle with, but I think it's the same thing is like as like yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know, i don't, i don't, i don't see you as someone who, like, feels a sense of entitlement. I don't think you are at all Like. I don't think that you.
Speaker 1:But it's more ingrained culturally. Like you said, it's not a conscious thing. It is entitlement but it's not conscious. It's just like everybody has inherent racism that they you know that, whether or not they want to acknowledge it.
Speaker 2:Right, it's just the way that, the way that, the way that society is, it just is Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Listen.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Sorry, go ahead feel like you were. There was something that I sort of cut you off on earlier about the booking process, which was there more than you're gonna say about that.
Speaker 1:No, just that. You got to be real tenacious. If you're a new comic, you just got to keep. You know what helped me so much was I. There was a shift that happened where I used to get so mad that nobody would respond, and then I started I tried to sort of shift my mentality to send this email with the, with the feeling, with no expectation, that there's gonna be a response ever yeah like I'm literally sending this to an address that doesn't exist.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna get a response, and then that just it made it better because I would forget about it, and then it would feel good, i would just get a response, like a week later. Two weeks later I'm like oh, this is great, i forgot all about this instead of being mad.
Speaker 2:But isn't that a lesson? for it is, i mean, i think that that's the idea of like releasing all expectations when it comes to you know, i think about that with like doing an audition or like even doing a show like you, you? the idea of releasing Expectations is so freeing. And then when it, when it is like when you do like when you send out 30 emails and one, you get one response. It's like what a treat, what a treat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yummy, yeah, i don't say yummy in reference to the booking.
Speaker 2:Yummy, I got a book.
Speaker 1:You know what I was gonna say join the patreon so you can see what Leah's doing with her mouth, but don't. Actually, if I was on the patreon I would unsubscribe. Okay, well, that was that was. That was a choice. You want to talk about my studio? that was a choice.
Speaker 2:You know I'm. I think that I'm like your studio looks good. Thank you, I'm warm and up to the depth of field is really nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah thank you. I got more lights coming too, which is probably gonna ruin it but It's gonna be a real fun house. It's gonna look good. Now I'm not gonna say listen, but listen. I Like to end this on on a lighter note. We I think we covered a lot of really good technical ground, but Maybe close to something a little light.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we got heavy, we got real heavy.
Speaker 1:Now the story of flashlight tag last week here we go.
Speaker 2:It was a hit it was. People loved it. They did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, loved it I. I will listen back. Actually it did come off as I came off as a little mean, hysterically laughing about it, but it's different when it's your family. So I want I want to preface that now. Mom informed me and dad that we missed The most key part of that story. Both of us seemed to have overlooked or, in your case, probably Ripfully forgot, repressed the fact that the next night They did the same like went to play flashlight tag again.
Speaker 1:They did the same and they did the same it just came flooding back.
Speaker 2:I had repressed that memory They left me in the tree again and I fell for it a second time.
Speaker 1:Why? What would have changed?
Speaker 2:I know I change overnight.
Speaker 1:I'm an. I'm an optimist. The best night of his life.
Speaker 2:I believe in people, i believe in people's ability to change. I am an optimist at heart, and I. It's a tragic story.
Speaker 1:What you know what and when, mom What?
Speaker 2:there wasn't a third night.
Speaker 1:There wasn't a third night, that's they got, that's because they got bored with a bit for me was too easy for me twice, and I'm just when my Going upstairs and I'm in the tree again. You're the monkey girl now mom, when she was telling me is, you're right, it is tragic, it's a tragic story. and when mom was relaying this key, miss detailed, her face lit up and she She goes, yeah, she goes. Can you imagine how excited Mike must have been when he found out that she fell for it a second time?
Speaker 2:And I was just like.
Speaker 1:Are we just there laughing the whole time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like nothing delights this family more than just relentless trolling of me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that explains, it explains a lot, so that's yeah, that's fun.
Speaker 1:You become very successful, so maybe you should thank your brother.
Speaker 2:Maybe I'll thank, maybe I'll thank the whole family for just relentlessly making fun of me for decades. That's what?
Speaker 1:whenever, whenever anyone in this family Says anything that's even remotely gets a little bit sense of my mom like to being trolled the responses, call the And now mom's thrown in now a new addition. I don't know if it's just been like a hot talking point in the culture or whatever, but she goes where. I'm a victim.
Speaker 2:Is that it?
Speaker 1:and I'm a victim, which is so funny, and also I have a side story to tell you about that that I can't say on air.
Speaker 2:Oh, oh boy. Well, that's that, that'll, that'll that'll tantalize the listeners.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Listen, this has been great. Should we wrap it?
Speaker 1:up. It's been great. Let's wrap it up.
Speaker 2:All right, join the patreon.
Speaker 1:Leave a five star review, recording a special and Cincinnati next month. Come see that.
Speaker 2:Go see under July. What is it July 7th?
Speaker 1:7th July 7. Thank you 1455 Dalton Street 1455.
Speaker 2:Dalton we have what we have a lot of fun shows coming up, so those will be in the outro.
Speaker 1:Yes but like July 14th and already put them in great Love it already put them in there fabulous give it a listen.
Speaker 2:Well done, all right, all right. Oh.