Dying Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard...

That was one of the observations made famous among the comedy community by Richard Jeni, one of the most original, brilliant comics ever. Unfortunately, he died much too easily with a self-inflicted gunshot this past Saturday. I'll never understand how someone can bring themselves to that point, but whatever demons he battled, I'm sorry that they won. Richard was one who could take one comedic premise and take off on it for ten minutes. He was very underrated in his career, never achieving the huge fame he deserved, although he certainly was successful. However, among comics, Richard was very well respected as one of the best. Watch one of his clips here, where he does four minutes on a flop of a movie, Jaws 4. Along with Brian Reagan, Richard was one of the purest COMICS that I've ever seen. There are a lot of comics who are wonderful joke writers. You have a lot of comics who are wonderful at physical comedy, but Richard was great at BOTH, and that is a rarity. One of the best bits of advice on stand-up that I ever read came from him. He said, "A joke consists of a set-up and a punchline, but as a comedian, You have to give equal weight to the visual part of the joke. So, a joke consists of not only what the audience hears, but also what they see." That is a skill that is very much overlooked. He loved stand-up and worked hard at it, and it paid off in front of audiences, but unfortunately the laughs weren't enough to hold off the tears. RIP, Richard. The comedy world will miss you!