Getting Checked

Comedian Joe Rogan has a wildly popular podcast called the Joe Rogan Experience. I highly recommend you check it out. The podcast is based on the premise of having long conversations with cool people, and through these conversations one can get a feel for the speaker's opinions and life philosophies. One theme that comes up regularly on the show is the idea of getting checked. Getting checked is best described by Rogan's example of training in the martial art jiu jitsu. Jiu Jitsu is submission grappling that requires the martial artist to learn many techniques from many different positions. There is constant shifting between offensive and defensive techniques from almost any position. To truly master the art requires the martial artist to practice technique through sparring. Sparring shows the true application of technique and can be humbling. The realization that there is still much to learn and that one's journey to master an art is never complete is a large pay off getting checked. I apply this idea of practicing skills and applying them to real scenarios in my everyday life. It's a huge part of stand up comedy. You can write a joke but there is no way to know if it's truly funny unless you get on stage and tell it. Stand up is humbling it checks the ego. The constant process of writing and performing leaves little room for bullshit. It forces you to get better. My hope is that I can really begin to understand performing while keeping my humility along the way.