I know it's beyond anal to count the number of shows you do in an Excel spreadsheet. But I am, if anything, very anal, a sentence I’m already regretting typing as I’m currently typing it. (No backsies.)
The upside of all this tabulating is that I was able to know the exact day that I performed my 10,000th show since moving to NYC in 2009: September 3, 2024, a bit under 15 years after I started all the anal counting. (Again, I shouldn’t be using phrases like “anal counting,” but we’re too deep in it now.) (Regretting the last part of that sentence now, too.)
The question is: What have I learned in 10,000 shows, other than “get paid first,” “always overestimate travel time,” and “if it stings going in, it’ll sting at least as bad going out?” (That last one actually applies to a bunch of things.)
Well, dear reader (yes, singular: I only love one of you and it’s up to you to decide who it is), here’s a list of lessons I’ve learned from doing a Malcom Gladwellian amount of performing: