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Cancer Made me Do It.

2023-10-13 · letter vlog · Hank · 5:23 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Projects (also: Personal life, Pop culture) · mode: Personal update · tags: heavy topic, on location, self promotion, civic or action cta

In Buffalo before a stand-up show, Hank explains why he wrote a 70-minute stand-up show about cancer (binge-watching stand-up during chemo, new issues from cancer), why he will not tour it (his doctor's advice to avoid stress, wanting to be home), and argues comedy is an important art form; he then invites applications to make art for the Project for Awesome's Nerdfighter Art Perk.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — In Buffalo before a show; why Hank wrote a cancer stand-up show: chemo-era stand-up binge and being broken by cancer

  • ★★ Hank is in Buffalo, New York, to do previously scheduled stand-up comedy; it doesn't feel like a fun time to be funny, but he'll do it anyway. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ Hank says he ended up writing a 70-minute stand-up show about cancer, for a couple of reasons. — 00:00:12 · cancer
  • ★★ During chemotherapy Hank expected to want long-form content, but he was so physically unwell and foggy that he couldn't enjoy things and had no attention span. — 00:00:16 · chemotherapy
  • ★★ Only two forms of content worked for Hank during chemo: sitcoms with many laughs per minute where you don't care what happens (Seinfeld was perfect), and stand-up. — 00:00:31
  • ★★ Hank watched so much stand-up during chemo that he went deep and became a little snobby about comedy, naming comedians people haven't heard of. (playful) — 00:00:50
  • ★★ Hank thinks a successful comedian must be very, very funny and, equally important, have some serious issues of some kind. — 00:01:13
  • ★★ Hank didn't realise how much work stand-up is: part of the work is making it look effortless, and honing the craft needs a reason other than money, which doesn't come. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ Until cancer Hank was broken only in normal little ways; cancer has given him new issues, which may be healing or just being buried again. — 00:01:50 · cancer

00:01:56 — Building the show with coaches and Monday shows, and why he won't tour it

  • ★★ Broken enough and enamoured of the stand-up he watched, Hank decided he could and would do it, working hard with a coach and helpers. — 00:02:05
  • ★★ Hank thanks Sarah Aswell and Ben Acker for their help with his comedy, adding he doesn't say it on stage because it isn't funny. — 00:02:15
  • ★★ Hank says he needed something very complicated but very simple, like making people laugh about cancer. — 00:02:26 · cancer
  • ★★ Hank thinks the show is pretty good: about 70 minutes of cohesive stand-up storytelling that audiences seem to enjoy, and he thinks he would sell a fair number of tickets. — 00:02:41
  • ★★★ Rather than announcing tour dates as such a video usually would, Hank doesn't think he is going to tour the show, for a couple of reasons. (hedged) — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ Hank's doctor said he should avoid stress if possible because it can increase the chance of relapse, a big deal to him; comedy is fun on stage but not relaxing. — 00:02:58 · cancer
  • ★★ As Hank has healed, touring has become less compelling: a month ago a full month of nights sounded amazing; now it sounds bad and he wants to be home with his family. — 00:03:10
  • ★★ Hank built the show at a standing Monday engagement in his town for a couple of months, working up from about 15 minutes to more than 70, honestly too much. — 00:03:27
  • ★★ Hank learned a lot from doing stand-up: about the form, about himself, and about his relationship with his disease and disease in general. — 00:03:42
  • ★★★ Hank says stand-up is a remarkable art form that people who think about art don't treat as art, but it obviously is. — 00:03:48

00:03:53 — Comedy as a neglected, important art form; humans laugh and cry

  • ★★ Hank says comedy is maybe one of the most important art forms, the only one humans evolved a special noise (laughter) to appreciate. (hedged) — 00:03:58
  • ★★ Hank says humans are unique in laughing and crying: other animals do neither, and humans have specific physiological reactions for both. — 00:04:08

00:04:22 — Two-stop upstate New York tour; application for the P4A Nerdfighter Art Perk; sign-off

  • ★ Hank thinks having special reactions for laughing and crying means something. — 00:04:22
  • ★★ Hank is doing a two-stop tour while in upstate New York, where he was already going to do a thing at Rochester Institute of Technology. — 00:04:25
  • ★★ Almost no one will be able to see the shows, but Hank hopes to film the show and release it somehow, since he thinks it's worth people's time. (hedged) — 00:04:32
  • ★★ The Project for Awesome's Nerdfighter Art Perk raises a lot every year: makers create at least 20 of a thing, and buyers get a surprise piece made by another community member. — 00:04:40 · Project for Awesome, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ Hank asks would-be makers to apply via the description's application by October 27 and send their art by January 15; nothing fragile or large. — 00:04:58 · Project for Awesome

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description thanks the people who have come out to the comedy shows; it has been a good time. — video description
  • ★★ The description says Hank is very sad that the world is otherwise terrible right now, and those affected have been in his thoughts. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: cancer · stand-up comedy

Also: Projects: Project for Awesome

Works: Seinfeld

Organizations: Netflix · Rochester Institute of Technology

Concepts: chemotherapy · humour · psychological stress · sitcom

Places: Buffalo, New York · New York (state)

Only in the description or credits: Ben Acker · Sarah Aswell

Also centred on stand-up comedy: I Was So Sad that I Did Comedy

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