The Philosophy of Modern Standup: Lesson 6
You will bomb.
If you are a comedian, you will bomb.
“Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.”
— commonly attributed to Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi was one of the founding philosophers of Taoism in the 4th century BCE, and is the closest thing to a comedy writer that early Eastern philosophy produced. His book, Zhuangzi, is a collection of stories, jokes, and philosophical dialogues that became one of Taoism’s central works. It features stories where wise men laugh at tragic circumstances as a way of demonstrating how arbitrary everything is.
The above quote is often attributed to Zhuangzi although there’s no written proof tying him to it. However, it illustrates the theme of this lesson quite nicely:
