The Talent Problem

Okay I'm not that great at anything. I just try my hand at a bunch of stuff but whenever I do put my hand to something I try to think back to someone who did or is doing what I'm trying to do and analyze how they went about it. In short it takes a lot to make doing something seem easy.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I came across a list of people who try to be funny but fail on Imdb. That list seems off to me. A lot of what some of the people on that list is people did is considered classic.

Bigger and Blacker is often considered one of the best stand-up specials of the 90's. Ashton Kutcher was hilarious in That 70's Show. The Waterboy was my first, "grown up" movie (Okay it was that or Problem Child. What? My parents let me watch a lot raunchy comedies as a child.)





I guess my point a lot of the people on that list did some pretty funny stuff. And that list to me seemed like a cheap way of saying, "Look at me I'm so cool because I'm able to recognize these people suck. And I'm not going in for the popular stuff" That's not the, "talent problem" though.

A lot of these artists were great in their element and not so much out of it. The best example I can think of is Chris Rock. Like I said, he was one of the kings of HBO late night stand up the 90's, but his movies are meh. There are a lot of people who only see his movies and don't get why everyone thinks he's so great and dismiss him. This isn't just about comedy though it's about any sort of art.

Imagine if Shakespeare were around today, one of the best if not the best playwrights and poets ever. Imagine someone saying to him, "You wrote that really great play. Write me a movie." It's not a given it would be a good one because the two are inherently different. Not all writing is the same.



One or two trips when trying to do something different shouldn't discount all the great stuff an artist does.

Furthermore no matter what, over a creative career consistency is going to be a problem. For some artists it's more of a problem than others but still. Even though J.D. Salinger peaked at Catcher in the Rhy, that didn't mean he was a hack.