Not General Patton, though I'm sure he had some wise words too. I'm talking about the Guru of Geek, Patton Oswalt.
This weekend I saw a Q&A with him at C2E2. He was overly generous to the audience. Funny, of course, and tremendously energetic. Stupidly, I forgot a notebook. But I took down some quotes in my phone and thought I would share them here. If they ever release a video of his talk (which you absolutely should, C2E2 people reading this post!) I'll throw it up here.
In the meantime, these quotes will have to make do.
The first is a quote that specifically directed to a young comic. He was only a month and a half into the business and wanted to know when it starts to come together. When this whole success thing was going to pay off. The advice Patton gave could apply to any number of industries though. Including Advertising. Just take out "comedian" and replace it with the thing you want to do.
If I had to guess, this advice bummed the young comic out. But it was really a gift. It's advice everyone has heard and ignored hundreds of times before."Becoming a comedian is the easiest thing in the world. You just get on stage. STAYING a comedian is really hard."
"Just go on stage. Go on stage. Go on stage. Nothing you do now will not (sic) help your career or hurt your career."
Patton also talked about why he's not doing comedy clubs for the time being. Or many shows at all.
He said he loved going to comedy clubs where young, hungry comices made him think about his delivery. Made him uncomfortable about his own skills. It was an interesting point and it shows that he's still pushing himself. Even though his success is very well established."Nothing is worse for a comedian than being the funniest guy in the room. It allows you to coast. You get lazy"
The last point that really stuck with me was something he said to an aspiring director/writer/editor (aspiring is a horrible thing to call yourself by the way, just be the thing). The director asked how people were supposed to break into the filmmaking business today. Patton, almost dismissively, mentioned that we have this great thing known as the internet that lets everyone, EVERYONE put their work out there. He said brilliant films are being uploaded to YouTube every day and that if you want to make things today you should jut make them and put them up. You have to make the work you want to make and then hope that people are as enamored with it as you are.
That's a tall order but it was the best advice he could give. Like I said earlier, this was a really good Q&A. One of the best I've ever been to. Even though the auditorium easily held a thousand people it felt like an intimate conversation with him. It was personal and laid back. He would even occasionally read off mean texts Brian Posehn was sending from the back of the room.
I really do hope someone posts that video.