Fights, Crazy People, and the Darkness of Open Mics

• 1:06:20Open mics blur the line between actually funny comics and actual crazy people, with real mental illness present throughout the scene.
• 1:06:40Tim watched two guys almost fight at an open mic and sat through performers who ranged from funny to genuinely disturbed.
• 1:06:54He only attended because he has the same impulse that drives people to watch human trafficking documentaries—wanting to see how dark things get.
• 1:07:27That hunger for darkness is the same compulsion behind obsession with Kennedy assassination and 9/11 conspiracy theories.
• 1:07:44Long Island's particular open mic scene has no redeeming qualities—unlike southern bars that at least have folksy charm, it's just garbage and garbage people.
• 1:08:05Tim was taken to a tri-county flea market in Levittown that was a three-story building filled entirely with people's discarded junk.
• 1:08:44Comic bringer shows have been running for twenty years by finding clueless people on Facebook to fill the lineup.
• 1:09:08He texted a friend who'd quit comedy to come back to a show, and the friend actually showed up.
• 1:09:19Tim realized he'd pulled the guy back into the darkness partly because he wanted company in it.
• 1:09:36When Tim returned to the open mic scene, he wasn't prepared for how genuinely dark and depressing it had become, or whether it had always been that way.
• 1:10:21The core problem with Masterclass and the whole self-improvement industry is that there's no honesty about what success actually costs or whether you get anything back.
• 1:11:10People who reach high levels were always going to get there—they just chose a particular path, and Masterclass promises magic from your couch that doesn't exist.
• 1:12:02Nobody tells people that even if you succeed in pursuing your dreams, you might realize you missed out on things more valuable along the way.

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