ON POSITIVE FEEDBACK

As you may have heard, President Barack Obama recently was announced as the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. This caused some consternation, as many people felt he hadn't done enough to warrant the award. I made an offhand joke about me winning the "Nobel Pizza Prize" on my Facebook page. While it's not a good joke per se, people know I love pizza, and several people clicked that they "liked" it. For reasons beyond my ken, I simply BASKED in those likes. I was like Demi Moore's character in the movie Indecent Proposal, just rolling around in "likes." All this, and only FOUR people actually liked it. The feedback meant that much to me. (My other analogy was comparing myself to a puppy having its belly rubbed. For some reason, the Demi Moore one just seems more appropriate).

Several months ago, a friend cautioned me against being "needy." My complaint that I put a lot of work in writing an update and didn't get much back prompted her caution. I respect her opinion, and have been trying to NOT be needy, and just accept that not everyone either likes what I do or has time to provide feedback. That's okay. I get that.

Still, part of me thrives on people liking what I do. I love having big audiences for improv shows and making them laugh. I'm okay with having small audiences, as long as they laugh. I'm always pleasantly surprised when someone I don't know says they enjoy the podcast or the Bradley Stevenson character from my work with Senior Discount (new video coming soon!). And feedback from my best man speeches - to have a stranger come up to me and say how much they enjoyed it - that meant a LOT to me. (I expected my friends to laugh. They are comfortable with my sense of humor, and are generally more supportive).

Ultimately, I know that I can't rely on other people's feedback to tell me what I'm doing is good or bad. It's an internal thing, and I need to keep plugging along, doing work (comedically or otherwise) that I think is good, and let the universe sort out its quality on its own. But still, every once in a while, like everyone else (I imagine), I like to hear I'm doing a good job.