Meeting Creative Challenges with a Friend
Two comedians walk down the street ... and a social media plan is born
“Creativity is a renewable resource.”—Zach Sherwin
“People underestimate the role of luck … making good work is about luck, so you make it happen by taking as many bats as you can.”—Chris Duffy
Preview: Episode 101
What do you do when a creative path feels closed to you? Comedians Chris Duffy (remember him from episode 76 on Paying Attention?) and Zach Sherwin found a way to tackle a creative stumbling block together. Both of them felt there was a potential to create exciting new content in TikTok, but both felt intimidated by the platform. While on a walk, they concocted a plan to create and post content for 101 consecutive days, a plan in which they provided each other both inspiration and accountability. In this episode, we talk about what they learned about the platform, the creative process, collaborative projects, perfectionism, the vicissitudes of algorithms, and metrics of success. It’s a heart-warming, laughter-full episode full of friendship, fear, birds, and success.
Chris Duffy is a comedian, television writer, and radio/podcast host. Chris currently hosts TED’s hit podcast How to Be a Better Human. He has appeared on Good Morning America, ABC News, NPR, and National Geographic Explorer. Chris wrote for both seasons of Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas on HBO, executive produced by John Oliver. He’s the creator/host of the streaming game show Wrong Answers Only, where three comedians try to guess what a leading scientist does all day, in partnership with LabX at the National Academy of Sciences. He has performed live in venues as big as a sold out Lincoln Center and as small as a walk-in closet (also sold out). Chris is both a former fifth grade teacher and a former fifth grade student.
Zach Sherwin is a Los Angeles-based comedian and the creator and host of The Crossword Show, in which a panel of comedians solves a crossword puzzle live onstage in front of an audience. In 2022, he published his debut crossword puzzle in the New York Times. His writing for the web series “Epic Rap Battles of History” has received multiple Streamy Awards and Emmy nominations, and the Epic Rap Battles in which he’s appeared have amassed well over half a billion YouTube views and an RIAA-certified Gold record. His own YouTube videos have been viewed many millions of times, and his other writing credits range from “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” (The CW) to MAD Magazine. As a performer, Zach has appeared on “Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell” (FX) and “The Pete Holmes Show” (TBS), both long cancelled, as well as “America’s Got Talent” (NBC), which seems to be doing just fine! Zach has also worked extensively as a TV audience warm-up comic, including at the 2023 National Spelling Bee finals. For more information on Zach and The Crossword Show, please visit www.crosswordshow.com.
What We’re Reading and Listening to:
Rosemerry:
I am recently obsessed with the intricacies of translating poetry—especially when it comes to my beloved Rainer Maria Rilke. In searching for translations of one his sonnets to Orpheus in which he says something like “singing is being,” I came across this old article by past US poet laureate Bob Hass. This poem so beautifully wrestles with the difference between singing because we think we sound good and singing because something true must come through us. Join me in the wonder of this poem and how to best render it in English for those of use who do not yet know how to speak fluent German?
Comparison is the root of all unhappiness. That is why, friends, a podcast like this week’s in which two friends come together to improve themselves and each other is so encouraging for me. In fact, it’s the premise on which Christie’s and my friendship (and the podcast) was born! And I am recently re-obsessed with this Shakespeare sonnet (that is two sonnets mentioned in one newsletter!) that notes what is more important than comparing ourselves to others …
The power of love. A poem that inspires and moves me more every time I read it …
Christie:
A Man of Two Faces: a Memoir, a History, a Memorial by Viet Thanh Nguyen is a profound exploration of what it is to live between two different worlds — as a Vietnamese refugee who has spent most of his life in America™, where does Nguyen belong? The memoir is a deep exploration of so many important issues of our time, and I will be thinking about it for a long time. I am more eager than ever to read his novel, The Sympathizer, which has been on my “read next” pile for a while now.
You simply must read Emily Sohn’s wonderful profile of Virginia Kraft. “A pioneering adventure writer who was deadly with a rifle, she chiseled early cracks into publishing’s male-dominated world. So why hasn’t anyone heard of her?”
I loved this essay, “Not Everything Has to Be Meaningful,” by our recent guest, Brad Stulberg. He writes that “in times of deep grief, serious illness and other significant life disruptions, our sanest and most caring option is often to absolve ourselves of any pressure to find meaning or growth in our experience. Instead, as I found, sometimes simply focusing on showing up and getting through is more than enough.”
(in honor of the bird theme that emerged in this episode—and how we learn new creative skills … the old-fashioned way)
Finn Learns Cursive
It begins as a dark wing arcing up,
then cart wheeling high, swooping
down, then back up to a point before
diving as falcons do toward the earth
with great straightness, curving up
at the very last moment, in this case
before meeting the blue solid line, climbing
to intersect the first long arc,
then doubling back on its path.
The pencil wheels across the blank
page, it flies into another loop,
and another, pushes into a bow
and then bends, sweeps and circles again,
and the boy moves his hand, entranced
by the leaden record of its dance
as his thoughts appear on uneven horizons
until the whole page
is a flock of slender black wings
all of them rising at once,
that beating, that beating, his heart.
A Note About Paid Subscriptions:
First, we want to thank ALL our subscribers! We are so grateful you join us in this conversation about what it is to engage with yourself, the world and others in a creative way. And a BIG thank you to our paid subscribers. You make this podcast possible. Starting this month, only our paid subscribers will receive our bonus episodes as a thank you for their financial support.
This week, we talk with Zach and Chris about the absurdities of the world, the 18-month delay in kickbacks, how entertainment is a war of attrition, how to find the juice in marketing, and their goals for 2024! If you are not yet a paid subscriber, you can go now to our website, EmergingForm.substack.com, or by clicking the button below. Thank you!
Two Questions:
(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)
How has a friend’s support helped you reach creative goals?
What creative habit would you like to try out for 101 days?
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