Screenwriting, Comedy, and Strategic Success with JD Creviston

Jaclyn: 00:00:00

Welcome to Faith and Family Filmmakers Podcast.

Jaclyn: 00:00:02

This is the members portion.

Jaclyn: 00:00:03

My name is Jaclyn Whitt and today James Creviston is with me.

Jaclyn: 00:00:07

Welcome, James.

James: 00:00:08

Glad to be here.

James: 00:00:09

Thank you.

Jaclyn: 00:00:10

Alright, so, James, we already spoke in the previous interview.

Jaclyn: 00:00:14

We got to know you.

Jaclyn: 00:00:15

So, let's pick it up from there.

Jaclyn: 00:00:16

You are working on a screenplay, correct?

James: 00:00:20

I am.

James: 00:00:21

I'm working on a screenplay that is a Christopher Guest style screenplay.

James: 00:00:24

So, if you're familiar with his work, he did like Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman.

James: 00:00:28

This is Spinal Tap, which is partially written, partially improv'd movie.

James: 00:00:33

So, if you're also a Curb Your Enthusiasm fan, which I am a huge Curb Your Enthusiasm fan, There is a, uh, not really a full script, it's more of a script mix.

James: 00:00:44

There are there like scripted moments, but it's more of a treatment portion of like, this is the scene that we're having, this is, this is who's in the scene and this is kind of the direction we want it to go.

Jaclyn: 00:00:53

Okay.

Jaclyn: 00:00:53

I've got some questions as far as writing this script and producing, because when.

Jaclyn: 00:00:59

Typically, when you've got like a screenplay and you've got it written out, you've got your scene locations, when you go to film it, you go to that, like, say there's a location at, uh, let's say at an apartment or something like that, you're gonna film all of the scenes that are, that take place at that apartment on that same day or two days, however long it takes to complete it.

Jaclyn: 00:01:20

So I'm curious, with writing this in a way that leaves so much room for improvisation, how do you make it, the continuity, how would you do that if you're filming like a scene from, you know, it's going to be somewhere three quarters of the way into the movie?

Jaclyn: 00:01:37

And you're filming it near the beginning of the process of filming.

Jaclyn: 00:01:41

How do you know, like those details that you say in that scene, like that you're going, I don't know how to explain it.

Jaclyn: 00:01:47

It just, for me, it feels like a big continuity mess.

Jaclyn: 00:01:51

Tell me how to do this.

James: 00:01:52

We wrote it in with minimal locations.

James: 00:01:54

So it actually takes place in only about two locations.

James: 00:01:57

So that's one way that we did it.

James: 00:01:58

And it follows a storyline.

James: 00:02:00

So the story of the, of the movie, it's called breaking the routine.

James: 00:02:03

It is about three standup comedians who want to win prize money for a three on three improv competition.

James: 00:02:11

So we brought improv into it as well.

James: 00:02:13

And they go and team up to win this money for, they all have a different reason for wanting to win the money.

James: 00:02:20

And so it's all shot, basically think of the movie like pitch perfect or, or dodge ball, right?

James: 00:02:26

It's all shot, mostly.

James: 00:02:27

In the competition scenes.

James: 00:02:29

So they don't have to be perfect because it's all competition scenes.

James: 00:02:34

The back, the behind the scenes stuff where we do with the green room or offstage, we have those a little more not scripted, but a little more, uh, formed of like saying, this is what has to be in this scene.

James: 00:02:46

Like we have to talk about X, Y, and Z in this scene.

James: 00:02:49

You can do it however you want, right?

James: 00:02:51

We can make it funny.

James: 00:02:52

We can play with it.

James: 00:02:53

We can try different versions, but we have to cover this topic.

James: 00:02:56

So That's how we get away with it.

James: 00:02:58

I have two other people that are working on it with me.

James: 00:03:00

Uh, my good friend, Paul Douglas Moomjean, and then my other friend, David Sudebaker, both of them have experience.

James: 00:03:06

Paul worked at Nickelodeon and, uh, David and I have been comedians and comedy friends forever.

James: 00:03:11

He worked on TV.

James: 00:03:12

We worked on different stuff.

James: 00:03:14

So having them come and work on this with me is big.

James: 00:03:18

And we want to shoot it over like a weekend, right?

James: 00:03:20

We want to do a couple of days and what I'm counting on and I've gotten verbal agreements from people.

James: 00:03:26

Is all my comedy friends from around LA to come and shoot or be a part of a scene or two, you know, five minutes here, whatever.

James: 00:03:32

There's only six principal actors, uh, three, the three main comedians who are the story is about.

James: 00:03:39

And then our rival three, which is played by the Verzi triplets, who, if you don't know, they're on America, they've been on America's Got Talent.

James: 00:03:47

The floor is lava, all that stuff.

James: 00:03:48

So they're good friends of ours and they are going to be our quote unquote, bad guys of the, of the movie.

James: 00:03:54

And so.

James: 00:03:55

That's what we're counting on, is a lot of improv, a lot of fun.

James: 00:03:57

And being stand up comedians, and us having some improv skills with crowd work and those things, it seems logical for us to make the movie this way.

Jaclyn: 00:04:06

Well, yeah, that probably because you guys are friends, and, I mean, That's when you're hanging out with people that you already have like that connection with and there's that dynamic and chemistry like all you need to do is put a camera in there and you've got gold, right?

Jaclyn: 00:04:25

So you're going to be acting in this one.

Jaclyn: 00:04:26

Is this your first acting experience?

Jaclyn: 00:04:28

I

James: 00:04:28

think so.

James: 00:04:29

Like I, I will act it.

James: 00:04:30

I didn't, I wasn't initially going to act in it, but I think that I wanted to have something fun to do with it.

James: 00:04:37

I wanted to be able to.

James: 00:04:39

Do something silly, not have to be my stage self or be myself.

James: 00:04:44

I could be somebody else.

James: 00:04:45

And so I get to do that.

James: 00:04:49

From what we're writing, I get to be more Jim Carrey than anything else in this movie.

James: 00:04:53

Like I get to do a lot more physical stuff, which is not what I do on stage.

James: 00:04:57

So I'm very excited about that.

Jaclyn: 00:04:59

Cool.

Jaclyn: 00:05:00

Yeah, that sounds like fun.

Jaclyn: 00:05:01

So it'll be a good challenge, but it sounds like a good summer activity.

Jaclyn: 00:05:06

Good, clean, fun for the boys.

James: 00:05:09

Yeah, we're just shooting for PG 13 because we do have some moments that are going to be a little sillier and a little dirtier than I, than I like, I anticipated.

James: 00:05:17

Um, not like dirty, dirty, but like, uh, like bathroom humor, I guess.

James: 00:05:22

Like, you know, there's a scene that we wrote where it, They just let me laxatives before an improv game.

James: 00:05:29

And so like, that might be, that's like as dirty as we get in this whole thing.

James: 00:05:32

But yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:05:33

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:05:34

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:05:34

Oh, nice.

Jaclyn: 00:05:35

So then what is the plan beyond that?

Jaclyn: 00:05:37

Like for where are you thinking for distribution?

Jaclyn: 00:05:40

I mean, you do have some movies that you've likened it to, but it's not something that happens.

Jaclyn: 00:05:46

Like it's not produced regularly.

Jaclyn: 00:05:48

So where is the outlet for this?

James: 00:05:50

I have a connection that we are working with to produce another show through currently, um, and so I'm hoping that they will say yes to it.

James: 00:06:01

Because we have that, that agreement, like for another thing that we're working on.

James: 00:06:06

And at the same time, I'm also producing my own standup special.

James: 00:06:09

So I'm hoping that we can distribute all three of those things through the same, through the same place.

James: 00:06:13

And so I'd actually, what's funny is the producer of that, I'm going to try to get him to be in the movie to actually offer money in the movie, like in the movie, say, Hey, I'd like to produce your standup special.

James: 00:06:24

And so it would be like a good tie into the real world type situation.

James: 00:06:28

Like I like having that universe connection.

Jaclyn: 00:06:32

And so are you going to be teaching teens this summer also?

Jaclyn: 00:06:36

Because I know you, you teach stand up comedy for teens, right?

James: 00:06:40

I do teach stand up comedy for teens.

James: 00:06:42

Uh, I have scaled back a little bit.

James: 00:06:44

I'm doing it only, you know, two or three times a year now, just because I'm so busy with other projects.

James: 00:06:49

I actually started, uh, Producing another show out in Bakersfield at a theater that it will be running monthly.

James: 00:06:57

And then I, um, am the host of a show for GR's comedy club in Ventura, California every Saturday, and I am going to start producing another show in Agoura Hills come summertime.

James: 00:07:10

And I, yeah, yeah, I am busy.

James: 00:07:13

And then I have my own side hustle of, uh, performing.

James: 00:07:17

I figured out a, I don't want to say the thing yet until I have more information.

James: 00:07:20

So I could write like a, I want to write like a whole story and a podcast about it, but I have found a niche of places that are underserved for comedy that I can go to and perform comedy and get paid a decent amount.

James: 00:07:33

So to do, you know, 20, 30 minutes, get paid upwards of 300 to perform in a underserved markets.

James: 00:07:40

So.

James: 00:07:41

And then I'm the only one on there.

James: 00:07:42

So I perform, I get all the money.

James: 00:07:45

Um, and I, and I'm looking into researching this.

James: 00:07:47

And once I have my stuff locked in, I will be sharing that so other people can duplicate my process across the country.

Jaclyn: 00:07:55

Awesome.

Jaclyn: 00:07:55

And that seems to be the, the way you do things.

Jaclyn: 00:07:59

And maybe that's part of, you know, what God's put in you is he's like, okay, James, you're going to be the person that once you learn something, you're like, I know there's other people that need to learn this.

Jaclyn: 00:08:08

And so he also gave you the skills and the joy of sharing your knowledge.

James: 00:08:13

Yeah, I think that's true.

James: 00:08:15

I don't, I always want other people to be successful.

James: 00:08:18

Like, I always try to give tips and advice to people.

James: 00:08:22

Uh, for example, I was at an open mic with a, with another comedian friend of mine this last week, and we ordered something to eat.

James: 00:08:28

And I said, can I have my receipt?

James: 00:08:29

And he goes, why do you want your receipt?

James: 00:08:31

I'm like, oh, tax write off.

James: 00:08:32

And he goes, well, my accountant says I can't write off anything until I make money.

James: 00:08:36

And I said, just so you know, Boeing works at a deficit.

James: 00:08:40

They are constantly saying that they don't make any money every year and they write off everything.

James: 00:08:46

So if they can do it, you can do it, right?

James: 00:08:48

And enough comedians don't understand what they can do and can't do.

James: 00:08:52

So they go around being broke, starving artists, which they shouldn't be, right?

James: 00:08:57

It's not how it works.

Jaclyn: 00:08:59

And I think also, you know, when you start treating it as a business, you know, behaving as though it's a business, it becomes a business and, you know, like, it will move into the point where you start to make money when you, when you're taking it seriously and doing all of that.

Jaclyn: 00:09:15

You know, it's the same for me for screenwriting years ago when I decided I want to pursue this as a business.

Jaclyn: 00:09:20

I actually, you know, when I would take a Sabbath day off work, I did not write on that day because that was part of me saying this is part of my career and I'm taking it seriously and so I treated it as that even before I moved into it.

Jaclyn: 00:09:37

It was just part of how I decided this is how I'm going to approach it.

Jaclyn: 00:09:41

Uh, but let's talk about that, actually.

Jaclyn: 00:09:43

You touched on, you know, the starving artist thing, and so people, especially artists, you know, we just, we love to just do our art, you know, whatever it is, let's just do it, we don't need to get paid, we'll just do it, it's in us to do, and I get that, okay?

Jaclyn: 00:09:58

And then also there's gotta be that side where it's like, yeah, you put yourself out there, you work for free, so you get experience, but then, You gotta eat.

Jaclyn: 00:10:04

So like, where's that balance?

Jaclyn: 00:10:06

What are your thoughts on that?

James: 00:10:08

So I, I agree.

James: 00:10:09

When you're starting, when you're starting out, you have to build what I always tell everybody.

James: 00:10:12

You have to build, uh, a little bit of knowledge.

James: 00:10:15

You have to build a knowledge base.

James: 00:10:16

You have to build work that you can show other people to say, look, I have put time and effort and energy into my skill, into my craft, into my creative process.

James: 00:10:26

Now that I have that, I will get paid for it, right?

James: 00:10:29

I agree.

James: 00:10:30

Because too often comedians, especially comedians, I see, and I'm speaking from a comedic standpoint, I've seen comedians, they will do bringer shows and shows where they maybe get a drink ticket or whatever for years, for five, seven, eight, ten years, not getting paid and going, ah, you know, I love standup, but I'm not getting paid to do it.

James: 00:10:48

It's like, you wouldn't go work at Amazon because you love Amazon and not get paid for it, right?

James: 00:10:54

You wouldn't.

James: 00:10:54

Nobody would do that.

James: 00:10:56

You wouldn't go, you might love McDonald's or In N Out Burger, but you're not going to work there for free, right?

James: 00:11:01

Or an occasional hamburger.

James: 00:11:02

It's not going to work for you.

James: 00:11:04

So why are you working just for a drink ticket or stage time?

James: 00:11:08

It's, it's ridiculous to me.

James: 00:11:09

And, and sadly, especially with stand up comedy, improv, those kind of skills, those businesses take advantage of artists, right?

James: 00:11:18

And it happens in a lot of other places too, but that's the one that I see primarily.

James: 00:11:22

And you have to treat yourself like, I have a skill, that skill is, people want to watch my skill or consume my skill, therefore I should be paid for my skill.

Jaclyn: 00:11:33

Yeah, well they're making money off of your skill.

James: 00:11:35

Exactly, exactly.

James: 00:11:38

I mean, if a person who makes ceramics can make money off of selling their ceramics, right?

James: 00:11:42

Yes, it's a physical item, but they're putting in the work to make those and then they sell them.

James: 00:11:47

You're putting in work to develop a stand up set, to make people laugh, to constantly get laughs.

James: 00:11:52

To write these jokes, you should be getting paid for it.

James: 00:11:54

And so that's, that's what I always preach.

James: 00:11:56

And what I push is to do it.

James: 00:11:58

There should not for a couple of years, it's fine.

James: 00:12:00

Right.

James: 00:12:00

And especially if you have a day job or a side job or whatever, you can do that and make money.

James: 00:12:07

I would say probably no more than five years.

James: 00:12:09

Of doing it.

James: 00:12:10

And then you should be making money.

James: 00:12:11

If you're not making money consistently as a standup five years in that's, that's, and I'm talking, I'm not talking quit your job, you know, to pay your bills, but you should be making a decent amount of money where you're not losing money every night to drive there to have to buy a drink or door ticket or whatever it is to get in there, then you might want to rethink what you're doing.

James: 00:12:30

And that's why I wrote the other book, how to produce comedy shows for fun and profit, because a lot of comedians.

James: 00:12:36

Our can produce a show and make money at that point.

James: 00:12:39

Not only is it good for you're making money, but you're also networking.

James: 00:12:42

And so that's what I also believe in is sharing it and spreading it around and making sure everybody's getting paid.

James: 00:12:48

I will never put on a show where I don't pay anyone.

James: 00:12:52

I would never do that.

James: 00:12:53

I put on shows, I pay everybody, even if I take less or sometimes take nothing.

James: 00:12:59

I pay everyone else on that show.

James: 00:13:01

It does not matter to me.

Jaclyn: 00:13:02

But it's true.

Jaclyn: 00:13:03

And I agree with it.

Jaclyn: 00:13:04

I think it's one of those things that needs to be pursued strategically.

Jaclyn: 00:13:08

You know, if you're choosing to take a job that is going to, either you won't get paid or it'll cost you money to be there, there better be a reason why you're doing it, right?

Jaclyn: 00:13:17

Like it's, it's gotta be part of your strategy to get to that next level.

Jaclyn: 00:13:22

And so there might be times in your career where you're like, okay, If I can do that particular job, even if I have to pay to get on that stage, um, that is going to serve me in the long run.

Jaclyn: 00:13:34

And so, you know, that could be a strategic approach.

Jaclyn: 00:13:38

But if it's just kind of like you're just stuck in a rut and you don't know how to Stand up for yourself and demand that you get paid for the work that you do, that, you know, then that, that's a different situation, right?

Jaclyn: 00:13:51

And so I guess that's one of the things I like about, you know, Funny Money is that you teach people how to approach writing, like comedy writing specifically, but I think a lot of it can apply to, you know, writing in general.

Jaclyn: 00:14:04

From a strategic perspective, like, this is how you pursue getting paid.

Jaclyn: 00:14:09

Like, these are jobs that pay.

Jaclyn: 00:14:11

Funny Money And, you know, in order to get these jobs, you need to do this thing and, um, you know, you just, you lay it all out so clearly and so I, I want to thank you for doing that podcast.

Jaclyn: 00:14:22

I'm glad that you, that you launched it.

Jaclyn: 00:14:24

That was back in, what, January 2024 or February?

Jaclyn: 00:14:28

When was it?

Jaclyn: 00:14:28

Yeah, January.

James: 00:14:30

No, January.

James: 00:14:30

I started right at the beginning of the year.

James: 00:14:32

I wanted to do it and give people a way to make money because I, I, I hate watching people, you know, Who are so creative and so talented suffer and not make any money.

James: 00:14:43

It, it, it really like bothers me because I'm like, you wouldn't not pay your carpenter or you're the guy that does your lawn or any of those, we have a skill, we should be paid fairly for it.

James: 00:14:56

You know, especially with the fat, no offense to anybody who's works at fast food, but when fast food workers make 20 an hour, artists who pour their heart and soul into their work should be making money too.

Jaclyn: 00:15:07

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Jaclyn: 00:15:10

And so, okay, let me ask you this, since we're kind of on this topic of strategically approaching your career and whatever.

Jaclyn: 00:15:17

How long does it take to become an overnight success?

James: 00:15:20

Uh, I always heard ten years.

James: 00:15:22

So that, that's what I, that's what I strive for, that's what I shoot for.

James: 00:15:26

I'm not a ten years.

James: 00:15:27

Um, But I am pushing every day to, uh, to make that happen.

James: 00:15:32

And so that's where this is the problem that a lot of comedians or creative artists see is they don't see them, you know, three, five, seven years in.

James: 00:15:40

And then they go, well, I'm never going to make it.

James: 00:15:42

And they quit.

James: 00:15:43

I would say if by year, and I've been told this by many comedians who are headlining across the country and are, you know, you know, them by name.

James: 00:15:50

If I said their name, you would know them.

James: 00:15:52

They said, do not stress until year 10.

James: 00:15:56

If year 10, you're not making money, you're not out there doing shows, you're not getting booked, then you can start stressing.

James: 00:16:03

Until then, keep your head down, keep grinding, create your own shows, make the money that you can make and work at it.

James: 00:16:10

Year 10, that's when you're going to earn your PhD in comedy.

James: 00:16:14

The rest of this is just under undergrad stuff.

James: 00:16:17

You know, master's, you're getting your master's year seven, eight, nine.

James: 00:16:20

But year 10, you're going to earn that PhD and you're going to be, you're going to be the master at that point, if you're doing it right.

Jaclyn: 00:16:26

And so like, are there classes that people can actually take on like how to like learn the craft of comedy on stage and stuff like that?

Jaclyn: 00:16:36

Like I know you do for teens, but like in general, is there stuff that people can do to get better at, you know, standup comedy?

James: 00:16:43

Oh, of course.

James: 00:16:43

Yeah.

James: 00:16:44

There's always like beginner intro standup comedy classes.

James: 00:16:47

Um, I was lucky enough.

James: 00:16:49

To have a lot of good mentors mentor me when I started.

James: 00:16:53

So Gene Parrott, who was the, uh, he was Bob Hope's writer for years, was a good coach of mine.

James: 00:16:58

He would, he's since passed away, but he would meet me at Starbucks near my house and we would write jokes and he would give me feedback.

James: 00:17:05

Uh, Robert G.

James: 00:17:06

Lee, who is a very prominent Christian comedian, was a good mentor of mine.

James: 00:17:11

He still is.

James: 00:17:11

I meet with him every couple of weeks.

James: 00:17:13

We have like a group class that we do.

James: 00:17:15

Um, I've had a lot of comedians just give me advice along the way.

James: 00:17:19

Dwayne Perkins, who has a Drybar special he's been on about TV.

James: 00:17:23

Uh, we were talking one time and he said to me, this was the best piece of advice.

James: 00:17:27

He goes, what do you do?

James: 00:17:28

And I go, I do standup.

James: 00:17:28

He goes, what else do you do?

James: 00:17:30

And I go, well, I have a podcast.

James: 00:17:32

He goes, what else do you do?

James: 00:17:34

And I didn't have any response.

James: 00:17:36

He's like, you should be writing.

James: 00:17:37

You should be writing jokes.

James: 00:17:38

You should be writing scripts.

James: 00:17:39

You should be writing stories.

James: 00:17:40

You should be doing this.

James: 00:17:41

You should be trying to make movies.

James: 00:17:43

You should be trying to make shows, trying to make YouTube videos, all that stuff.

James: 00:17:47

He just kept saying, you should keep making things go, go, go.

James: 00:17:50

Don't just be a one trick pony.

James: 00:17:52

And that probably was the biggest wake up call.

James: 00:17:54

That was about a year and a half into standup.

James: 00:17:56

And I was like, Oh, I better listen.

James: 00:17:59

If this guy who travels all over the world is a, is a, you know, a headlining comedian is telling me this, I should probably do that.

Jaclyn: 00:18:07

Mm hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:18:08

Yeah, and, and so then that kind of brings me to the point I was actually thinking as you were talking, like, the need to be in a, a teachable mode, right?

Jaclyn: 00:18:17

Like, you're in learning mode the whole time you're pursuing, I mean, anything, not just stand up comedy, but like, if you have an ego, you're not able to hear that kind of stuff, and so then it's not gonna sink in and you won't benefit from it.

Jaclyn: 00:18:30

Uh, but in general, I'm curious.

Jaclyn: 00:18:33

Um, cause I, okay.

Jaclyn: 00:18:34

So for actors, you learn to get used to rejection because, you know, with auditions or whatever, you get that all the time.

Jaclyn: 00:18:41

Does that happen with standup comedy?

Jaclyn: 00:18:43

Do you have the same kind of situation where you have to deal with rejection?

James: 00:18:46

Oh yeah.

James: 00:18:47

Oh yeah.

James: 00:18:47

You have, I mean, you ask people to be booked on their show and they never respond, or you try to apply for a festival and you never get in or all kinds of stuff happens, or you do a show and then people go.

James: 00:19:01

Okay.

James: 00:19:02

Thanks.

James: 00:19:02

And never have you back or whatever.

James: 00:19:04

I mean, there's all kinds of stuff that happens to you.

James: 00:19:07

You know, I've even traveled with headlining comedians and, uh, I had one that I am sad that the situation went the way it did, but, uh, belittled me and told me I would never be a great comedian, right?

James: 00:19:19

This is someone who I looked up to and respected.

James: 00:19:21

And uh, come to find out, come to find out though, I was the only person he dared to, right, so then I couldn't, didn't take it personal, because it was like, oh, he does that to everybody because he sees them as competition, or he sees them as a threat, or he sees them as less than him.

James: 00:19:35

And that's a his problem, right, that's not a me problem, that's a him problem.

James: 00:19:39

So, but for about six months, I really beat myself up, and I really And I, and if I didn't have Paul and I didn't have David and I didn't have my wife and I didn't have some of my comedy friends telling me, dude, that's him.

James: 00:19:50

That's not you.

James: 00:19:51

Like, you're not the problem here.

James: 00:19:53

I probably would have quit comedy at that point because I was at the lowest points of comedy where I felt like, Oh, I must be terrible if this guy, who is a headlining comedian, who is known all over the world, who's been in movies and TV shows and has comedy specials that have been on HBO and Netflix and whatever, if he's telling me this, I must suck, right?

James: 00:20:13

And so it was rough.

James: 00:20:15

I, I, I cried many a nights.

James: 00:20:17

I went home, came home and cried and was like, I, I suck at standup.

James: 00:20:20

I should never do this.

James: 00:20:21

I don't know why I started this.

James: 00:20:22

I'm terrible.

James: 00:20:23

I'm the worst, you know, I must be the worst comedian ever.

James: 00:20:26

Like literally stuff like that.

James: 00:20:28

Things that he was telling me, I was telling to myself and my wife and all my friends were like, dude, you're not, it's not you, that's a him problem.

James: 00:20:36

And so luckily I was able to get out of that situation and move on, but it took a little while to recover from that too.

James: 00:20:42

And so.

Jaclyn: 00:20:43

Yeah, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:20:44

And, and especially when you're, we're still fairly early in your pursuit.

Jaclyn: 00:20:48

So you, you still had a lot to learn and, and to grow into and stuff.

Jaclyn: 00:20:52

And that's the time where something like that can knock us down because we don't necessarily have the history behind us.

Jaclyn: 00:20:59

To let us know, like, that's okay.

Jaclyn: 00:21:01

Like this is part of the process.

Jaclyn: 00:21:03

You're learning, you're growing, you know?

Jaclyn: 00:21:04

And so to have those other people to come in and support you through that, I'm so glad you had that because you've been such a benefit, not just like with building your own career and taking care of your family, but like we were talking about helping other people along the way.

Jaclyn: 00:21:20

Uh, And I like that you do have your niche, right?

Jaclyn: 00:21:24

Like, clean comedy, you've got your niche.

Jaclyn: 00:21:26

And the value of clean comedy is huge.

Jaclyn: 00:21:29

You know, I'm, I don't need to necessarily get into that with this audience, we already get it.

Jaclyn: 00:21:33

But, you know, it's one of those things where I'm grateful that you had the support that you did, that you had the courage to pursue what you've pursued, that you've been obedient to God with not just doing it for yourself, but sharing your knowledge and your wisdom and your experiences with people who can, you know, glean from it and hopefully get there faster than it took you even, right?

Jaclyn: 00:21:55

Like, That's one of the cool things about being a mentor is you can help people avoid pitfalls that you had to go through.

Jaclyn: 00:22:02

And so, yeah, I'm just, I'm proud of you and it's been really exciting.

Jaclyn: 00:22:06

No, I am, I am.

Jaclyn: 00:22:07

Cause like, you probably already know this because as we've had conversations over the last like year and a half that we've known each other.

Jaclyn: 00:22:14

Like, you've, you've got this wealth of knowledge that I'm so glad that you're sharing with this, uh, Funny Money podcast that you're doing.

Jaclyn: 00:22:22

Because sometimes you tell me stories, I was like, How do you get a writing job like that?

Jaclyn: 00:22:27

I don't know how to get that kind of writing job.

Jaclyn: 00:22:29

So, yeah, if you are a writer, you're listening to this, and you're like, Well, I want to make money writing.

Jaclyn: 00:22:34

Go check out Funny Money podcast.

Jaclyn: 00:22:36

James is like, he's, Telling you how it works.

James: 00:22:40

Yeah.

James: 00:22:41

And it's always changing, right?

James: 00:22:42

That's why I always try to keep up to date.

James: 00:22:44

I try to, I record every week to make sure that I'm on top of what's happening because things change quickly.

James: 00:22:49

Like, you know, the Fiverr thing happening.

James: 00:22:51

Now Upwork, I'm moving to Upwork to try to test that.

James: 00:22:54

Uh, you know, and I've given out a lot of, of ways for people to do it.

James: 00:22:57

And I think if you are a writer and you don't have your own website, that's, that's a mistake, make your own website, buy your own name with your own domain.

James: 00:23:05

So you can put stuff up there to show people.

James: 00:23:07

Yes.

James: 00:23:07

Being on Twitter, Instagram, or all those things are great, but you need to control what you put out there and having a website so you can put out your work and show people what you're doing, your portfolio.

James: 00:23:18

That's important.

James: 00:23:19

Do that now, do that before anything else, 12 for a domain.

James: 00:23:24

And it's easy to create WordPress.

James: 00:23:26

And if you have questions, I'm more than happy to say, Hey, let me help you create your WordPress site.

James: 00:23:31

I'll, I'll tell you what to do.

James: 00:23:32

And we can go look at my site, which isn't great, but I still get hired that way.

James: 00:23:36

So.

Jaclyn: 00:23:36

Yeah, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:23:37

Well, and I always tell people that, like, the social media stuff, that's like posting your stuff at cafes and meeting people at a cafe, but, like, your own website is like inviting people to your own office or home, you know, however you want to look at it.

Jaclyn: 00:23:52

It's your own space.

Jaclyn: 00:23:53

So you can create whatever tone you want on that.

Jaclyn: 00:23:56

It's not like a uniform, uh, profile platform type thing.

Jaclyn: 00:24:00

Uh, so yeah, I, I totally agree with you.

Jaclyn: 00:24:03

You can organize it how you want.

Jaclyn: 00:24:04

It's going to be all about you.

Jaclyn: 00:24:06

And yeah, it's, that's a great idea.

Jaclyn: 00:24:10

Okay.

Jaclyn: 00:24:10

Well, I was going to ask you for a final piece of advice to share as we close this out, but you just said it.

Jaclyn: 00:24:15

So thank you for that.

Jaclyn: 00:24:16

It's been a great conversation, James.

James: 00:24:19

Thank you.

James: 00:24:19

Thanks for having me.

James: 00:24:20

I appreciate it.

James: 00:24:20

You guys are awesome.

James: 00:24:21

You're doing great work.

James: 00:24:22

I listen to the episodes.

James: 00:24:23

I love them.

James: 00:24:24

I've learned so much as well.

James: 00:24:25

So I appreciate you guys putting these out.

Jaclyn: 00:24:28

Awesome.

Jaclyn: 00:24:28

Thank you.

Jaclyn: 00:24:29

God bless.