Take my Jokes...Please!

Don’t be funny.

You’re an artist, not a comedian.

I’m not suggesting you should be a stiff monotone droid.

Some artists are funny, or can be funny, and you might be one of them.

But I have seen performers undermine their art and credibility by attempting humor during an interview.

The operative word is “humor.”

Attempts at humor often occur as an interruption, disrupting the flow and focus of that particular moment.

Watch the MSNBC and CNN cable news hosts and panels and see the ways they undermine the discussion, their focus, their pacing and their credibility by thinking they are funny.

That should be enough for you, the artist, to recognize that comedy is also an art.

Choose your humor – your clever asides and the time and place for joking – wisely.

In comedy, like music, timing is everything.