Wisdom and Shit and Sadness

Today is Emmett's first birthday, which means today is the final planned entry for Wisdom and Shit. I was trying to think of something I might write to commemorate the event, a final perhaps longer-form piece of advice I could give him.

Then last night I heard the news that Harris Wittels passed away. Now, Emmett doesn't know who Harris Wittels is, and people who read this may not know him either. He's probably best known as the creator of the HumbleBrag twitter account, but for fans of comedy he's remembered more for his hilarious podcast appearances across a variety of shows, all of which I wholeheartedly recommend. Wittels' death affected me deeply, and I'll explain why.

When I started doing Wisdom and Shit for Jamie, I was working nights in my previous gig at NBA.com. Because I was always on opposite schedules from everyone else, I had a LOT of time to kill during the day. I started listening to comedy podcasts as a way to pass the time, and my favorite quickly became Comedy Bang Bang (a show I still listen to religiously).

Every day I would agonize over what to write (foolish, I know, it's just a silly Tumblr my sisters and like three other people read), doubting the merits of nearly every post. Then I started listening to CBB, where Wittels was a frequent guest. Each time he appeared he'd do a segment called "Harris's Phone Corner" (later renamed Harris's Foam Corner for some reason), where he'd read off some of the jokes he'd written on his phone that weren't deemed good enough for his standup act.

These jokes were mostly terrible (hence their absence from his stage show), and were almost always greeted with derision. Yet he presented them time after time, and never flinched. This may not seem like a big deal, but it was to me (and it should be noted, the segment was still hilarious).

The fear of failure is a very difficult obstacle for most people to overcome. Maybe I am adding gravitas to a situation that doesn't merit it, but his willingness to submit himself (and specifically, his creations) to mockery and disparagement struck a chord with me.

It was like he didn't care what people thought. Yet anecdotally, I know he cared a great deal. He often talked on Analyze Phish (another podcast I strongly recommend, even if you care not a whit for the band or their music) about how personally he took negative comments from fans of the band. Still he continued to share his failures.

I thought of Harris's example often as I was trying to come up with advice for Jamie and later on Emmett. Any time I got stuck (which was often), I remembered Harris's foam and felt better about the whole thing. That's not to say my stuff was any good, or even any better than the leftovers he treated us to on the show. But the point was it didn't matter. Just do it and don't worry about how people receive it.

And that's about as important wisdom as I can pass along to anyone.

Happy birthday Emmett, and rest in peace Harris.