Comedians as Daoist Missionaries

[Mark Saltveit]

Here is an article of mine in the excellent (but sometimes racy) MeFiMag. Let me know what you think.

 

This link is to a PDF of the whole magazine. My article begins on page 8.

 

Comedians as Daoist Misisonaries

 

Mark Saltveit

[The Eternal Student]

Here is an article of mine in the excellent (but sometimes racy) MeFiMag. Let me know what you think.

 

This link is to a PDF of the whole magazine. My article begins on page 8.

 

Comedians as Daoist Misisonaries

 

Mark Saltveit

 

I am constantly amazed as to where the path leads me. I am actually an aspiring standup comedian who was successful at open mics and after a few invitations from comedy clubs I was looking to do my first proffessional gigs. Unfortunately I have found it extremely hard to overcome writers block and my prospective new job has come to a grinding halt. Before that issue, I was much more spiritual and genuinely trying to cultivate every day. When I wandered off the path is when I found it difficult to be creative. Searching for a Taoist community led me to TTB and the relevance of your article convinced me to signup.

 

I have only been doing open mics in the short time i have been performing. 3-5 minutes each time. But when the material and the performance is good I always recieve comments about how people liked the intelligent aspect of my comedy. This always makes me laugh because some nights I do not do anything political or touch on topics that people consider highly cerebral but if it touches on aspects relevant to the Tao; I truly believe a small spiritual connection is made between people. I find when the Tao is at the forefront of your mind it is easier to find what I will call the "spiritually silly" behavior that the mind engages in inevitably. Comedy is finding these rough stones of unclear thought, polishing away the useless (that which is not one with the way) and showing others the gem that was buried underneath so to speak.

 

Comedy for me is cyclical. When speaking the performer is the masculine, the audience is the feminine taking it all in, when they laugh the performer is the feminine and the audience is the masculine. Each completion of the cycle cultivates the tao. When the crowd laughs they are saying in their head "Without knowing it, I have carried that knowledge with me all along!" to me it is a short yet extremely blissfull period of time in which the performer is reassured they are on the path, and the listener realizes that there was a path beneath their feet the entire time.

 

All I seek is to reach a point where I learn as much as from them as they forget because of me.

[zanshin]

From the first poster's srticle-

"I've actually become a Daoist missionary. Which means I stay home and mind my own goddamned business."

 

 

Great line!