Writers, Comedians, and Critics
Photo: Jeff Dunham with Achmed the Dead Terrorist (courtesy Richard McLaren, Wikimedia Commons)
My sister saw the comedian Jeff Dunham in person once. If you don’t know, Jeff Dunham is the ventriloquist with puppets such as Walter, Bubba J, José Jalapeño on a Stick, and the skeleton Achmed the Dead Terrorist (my personal favorite). When she told me, I was excited for her (and a little jealous). But to my surprise, she said he wasn’t very funny.
Of course his comedy shows are hilarious… So why wasn’t he funny when my sister saw him in person?
As a professional comedian and puppeteer (how many people can put that on their resume?), Dunham must come up with new material to stay relevant… but then he must also make sure that new material works with a live audience. At the show, Dunham admitted some of his jokes weren’t very good. He said he was testing new stuff, and at this stage of his career, he had to test new stuff in big venues.
Some of Dunham’s jokes probably had him cracking himself up in front of his mirror. But a live audience is the real judge. If people don’t laugh at a joke, Dunham has to try again. Maybe the delivery is off, or the joke’s setup isn’t right. Or maybe the joke just needs to be scrapped.
It’s the same with writing. As the old saying goes, sometimes you have to “kill your darlings.” That means sometimes the phrase or passage you worked hard on and love doesn’t actually work in the end, because that great idea no longer fits with how the passages around it have been expanded or rewritten. Perhaps your “darling” can be saved for another time or place. But if readers don’t react to it the way you’d hoped, then you need to tweak it. Or maybe scrap it altogether.
Of course it’s a balance between trusting your instincts and responding to “critics.” Readers and even editors don’t always get it right. But if multiple readers have been confused by, or have an issue with, something you wrote, you probably need to rethink it. It might be fixed with some light editing. Or it might need to be completely rewritten. Or it might not be needed at all.
Unfortunately, many writers receive one negative comment from a reader or editor and give up. But this is a normal part of the writing process. Don’t take criticism the wrong way. Most people are trying to help. Get more feedback, then decide how to make your writing better without losing the essence of the piece.
We write because we want to be heard, and because we want to connect with others in some way. The worst thing we can do as writers is ignore our readers’ (or editor’s) comments and publish a piece that doesn’t connect—or doesn’t get published at all.
It’s not easy for us writers to share. We’d rather work hard, publish, and have the world love it. But great artists know this isn’t realistic. Jeff Dunham must deliver awkward performances before he can fill stadiums with laughs. Great writers must suffer the red pen before we change the world with our words.
But change the world you will. Just don’t give up.
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