RWR-035: From Open Mic Nights to the Late Night Shows with Andrew Norelli

Risk Without Regret: Thoughts On Life, Business, Freedom, & Happiness

On today's episode, I talk with Andrew Norelli. Andrew is a standup comedian and has been doing comedy for the past 18 years. He talks about working a boring sales job for a few years that eventually helped push him into comedy. From open mic nights where nobody would show up to several years later performing on all the popular late night shows, we'll go through his whole journey from the beginning. We also talk about what it takes to be a comedian these days, the type of dedication that is needed, and how all of this can relate to you if you're thinking about going down a path that's different than the typical 9-5. Which most of you hopefully are. I hope you enjoy this episode and be sure to subscribe to the podcast here!

Book I'm reading

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Everything we mentioned

Bones (Andrew's latest album) Jim Gaffigan Jerry Seinfeld Stryper concert George Carlin Tibbits Opera House Laughs Comedy Club The Improv at Harrah's

Connect with Andrew

Website: andrewnorelli.com Facebook: facebook.com/andrew.norelli Twitter: @andrewnorelli

Best quotes from this episode You gotta be willing to work. You gotta be very self-disciplined when you're self-employed. And when you're carving your own path, that's probably one of the hardest parts. I think part of success in any alternative career path is to start as early as you can. The risk part comes when you're basically doing something and you're making no money. I think that's another mistake people make, they start then stop. They start and they stop like five or six times. Accept that life happens and don't let things side-track you. I think you have to have hustle and work hard, I don't care how funny you are. You can't just be funny. If you don't have fear, then you don't know what you're doing. What's wrong with you if you don't have fear? You should have some fear or you're not paying attention to life or to your career. There has to be some level of fear that's at least driving you and making you better at the very least. Definitely some self-doubt too. That's how you get better. Nobody's stuff is perfect. If I feel like I did everything that I could've done and had planned on doing and it didn't work, no, that's perfectly ok. That does not bother me. Not at all. You'll drive yourself crazy if it does. If you start trying to please everybody all at once, whether it be industry people or crowd-members, then you're probably gonna end up pleasing either no one or you're gonna end up pleasing people and it's not gonna matter. All art and entertainment needs to have segments that are completely uncensored and totally free. It's proven in every society to be important. An important part for people to express themselves, to challenge conventional thinking, and to fight the establishment & people with power. People pay a little closer attention to a message in their inbox, as long as it's from someone they know. Why do we have words when we have cleavage? I think that's maybe why I kept going in comedy. I've had a lot of little moments where I was so glad that I didn't stop trying and that I never quit. And that keeps me going. You appreciate it more when it's a long process and you have to learn everything along the way. If you don't know whether to say yes or no, then just say yes. It's a balancing act, because there are times when it actually is in your benefit to say no. Hopefully when you say no, you do something else constructive.

Thanks for listening

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast here and I can't wait to share the next episode with you soon! And feel free to leave a comment below with your feedback and any questions you have.