Art Hoarding and Todd’s 711 Challenge.
I am a notorious art hoarder. Nobody knew because I was not sharing anything. I create a lot of content that I do nothing with. The longer I go without sharing anything the worse it gets. I am sitting on a pile of photos and raw video that I do nothing with. I have hours of standup footage and hard drives full of photos. I have started to put these things up on my socials. I have lowered my expectations and stopped trying to follow “posting rules” I hear in my doom scrolls. I no longer want to be a social media cuck. I want to get in there, to participate.
What is art hoarding?
Art hoarding is when someone creates lots of pieces (content) but never does anything with it. A lot of artists do this. It’s the painter who dies with a storage unit full of paintings and nobody knew how great they were till after they were gone. There is a fear of sharing one's work that one will be rejected. Once I separated myself from the work it got a lot easier.
“You are not your art” ~Beth Pickens
I have taken so many things up to this point but not the last step of sharing it. I worry about failing in front of people. People are not paying that close attention! The story that changed everything for me was about Tim Robinson. He was a writer for many years on SNL and had several sketches make it to air. But when he was given the opportunity to do his sketch show “I Think You Should Leave,” he reshot and used one of the same sketches. This was so inspirational to me and shows me how people are just not paying that close attention! I don’t have to worry about these made up things. Just post it! Get better on the next one!
I have taken several steps sharing my work: Keep it simple, choose one or two mediums to share in. Share every day. No rules. Just post, reflect, and get better on the next one. Remember You are not your art.
My latest project came from a challenge given to me from my dear friend Todd Basil. I am approaching this article a bit differently than usual, I wrote the first part before I started. Then added to it at the halfway point and finishing the article after completing the challenge.
The challenge is to post a standup clip before 11 am every day for 7 days straight.
The parameters for a standup clip are:
1. Is the premise clear? (can I clearly hear it and clearly understand it)
2. Can I hear laughter?
3. Does it end on a laugh?
That’s it. I love this because the parameters take so much of the emotion around it out of it. This helps me become more of a passive observer of my own material. The time limit is really helpful for me to have a deadline in the day. I had tried to do a posting goal in the past and I fell off because I didn’t have a time of day that I needed it done by. 11am is the perfect time because I just sit down with my coffee and do it. When I get stuck I repeat “good enough and on time.” Done and on time is better than perfect and late (or never).
Day 1
Expectations and goals.
I am doing this because I feel like I am an art hoarder at this point in my life with all of my art. I would like to accept this challenge in hopes that I will let go and share the things I spend all this time creating. I bring a lot of ideas to a certain point, but my finishing record is embarrassingly low. I do what is some of the hardest parts, writing material, performing the show and filming it. But I tend to stop there and this is my way of getting things to that finished point. I also want to just have more clips up there. I love this short form of standup that has evolved and I want to be a part of it. As well as this is totally within my wheelhouse, I know how to edit, I just struggle with hitting the post button.
How am I feeling about this goal?
I am also trying something new within this, I am not going to tell anyone I am doing it until after I finish it. I don’t want anyone’s input until I am finished with the challenge. I’ve never done this before and I am excited to see what happens. I am going to enter my creative cocoon and come out with this article.
What do I expect to get out of this experience?
I will have 7 posted clips. I will have gotten more comfortable with posting my clips. I will get better at finding clips to post. I know there is gold in this footage I just have to elevate it. This challenge is to get me to actually pull that off. I am going to go back and use footage I deemed unusable. I am going to look at it differently, rather I messed up this or that but how can I use what I captured? My hope is that I will work on that skill. Also this is a goal that is all on me. I have the raw footage, and the time it’s about just sitting down at my computer and doing it.
I am posting to Instagram and Tik tok.
Day 3.
On day 3 I am ready to bump it up. I feel like I can push it to 21 days! I am excited and already seeing so many things. Like I am really beginning to enjoy finding clips. I have made one observation that a lot of the clips I am choosing are from sets where I was interrupted by an audience member then I was able to save it and make it funny. Which is great, but I am also part of the problem because I am not a crowd work comedian. I am having mixed feelings about this because I am in some way encouraging people and setting the expectation that people should go to shows and interrupt the comedian. But I’m still using it because it was a great clip. I’ve gotten a bit of a system down now and its mostly about starting.
Day 7.
I have developed my daily routine is to edit 2 clips, put on my phone, and post one. going forward because some days I have a bit more time than others. I have noticed that the clips I post on. The biggest help to this has been just sitting down and doing it. Once I start its easy but if I think about it too much, I can talk myself out of it.
I love that it forces me to go back and use things I haven’t used or I deemed not good enough. Where I am forced to use things that I didn’t think were good enough. Many of these things were that I messed up the exposure on the shot. But the truth is the footage is good! I want to find the gold in these sets. I am kind of excited to be going through things this way. In the times when I don’t have anything, I am forced to find stuff. Like I might even try and find my riffs at the mic between comics. Coming back with fresh eyes to things I have this outside perspective that I may not have had at the time because I maybe didn’t perform it the way I had planned, or they laughed at a weird spot, but was there laughter? Yeah, then I get to use it! I have found so many jokes I only did a few times and totally forgot about, now I’m expanding on them. I haven’t repeated any jokes yet, but I hope I have to eventually. I don’t feel done yet. But I think its good for me to have an end point. So now I am pushing to 21 days.
Push to 21
I will say sharing my work feels really good. So much of this has been just getting over the hump of “I don’t feel like doing it.” The time limit has been great for me to add that little bit of urgency, once I start I don’t want to stop. Posting comedy clips has become Pringles. Now, I have to restrain myself from posting more! I am excited to push to 21! This is also pushing me to get back to what I was doing before with my own shows and working on exploring capturing new clips. The best part of this challenge and hitting this goal is that it is completely up to me. I have total control over whether I hit it or not. It is a win within my control. My hope with this article is to encourage others to join me. If you are unsure or feel it’s too much, start small, do the 3/11 challenge, and then push to 7/11.
If you enjoyed this, share it with someone you believe needs to hear it and consider subscribing to my newsletter. You are doing great!
~Bjorn RG~