“Don’t quit your day job!”   That advice is easy to follow.

Go to work.  Make money.  Go to an open mic.  Get slightly better at comedy.  Sleep (little).  Repeat.

Eventually this will turn into:

Go to work.  Make money.  Go perform comedy.  Make (little) money  and get slightly better at comedy.   Sleep (little).  Repeat.

But what happens when you start getting told to quit you day job?

Someone in charge of something really liked my comedy.

That’s what this blog is going to discuss weekly until I am either forced back to work because of a lack of income or I am too busy to write a blog because I am rich and famous and will only use twitter to interact with the internet because I can only afford to give out 140 characters at a time for free.  That second part is a joke of course…  how am I doing so far… ugh…

Anyway, quitting my job is not something that I rushed into.  I spent years building an act and trying to make connections with other comics and bookers.  I spent at least a full year convincing myself that I could do this.  I paid down debt and saved my money.  I made sure not to get anyone pregnant and I resisted a very real urge to get a puppy.   I listened to audiobooks that explained how to quit a job because I can’t figure out anything on my own.  What happens if you don’t quit your job properly?  Do you lose more of your job?   Why did I spend $15 on a guy telling me to give at least 2 weeks notice?  I will probably wish I had that $15 back soon enough.    What a buzz kill.

On Monday August 11,  I worked late in Kingston Ma, even though I had to be in Somerville Ma, to host a comedy show at 7:30.  After I finished painting my last car for the day I walked into my bosses office and we had a discussion and I gave my notice.  I quit.  It was frightening and I felt bad.  I really liked my boss.  But I had made up my mind, I’m either going to succeed or fall on my face but I’m not going to play it safe any longer.

On Sunday August 17, I broke the news to my parents.  They said “yeah, Greg (my brother) already told us.”  And then my father said “well if you’re gonna do it, now is the time”  I said “I’m glad that you agree…”  he interrupted “I don’t 100% agree, but I think if you’re going to do it, you should do it now”.  Then he got this far away look in his eyes and said “ya know sometimes I wish I took some chances…”.

The lovely Phoebe Angle holding my birthday dinner.

On Monday August 18, I announced it on facebook.  It was without question the most popular thing I’ve ever said on social media.  The only post that ever even came close was a picture of my girlfriend (Phoebe Angle)  holding 7 raw steaks.

I know there are people rooting for me and I know there are people that think I’ll do well.  However I think even more than that people just love the idea.  Everyone wants to take their shot.  There’s a million reasons not to.  I’ve put myself in a position where I can afford to do this and I hope some of the folks that want to do it but can’t for whatever reason can share in my experience by coming here and reading this each week.

September 5th is my last day of painting cars.  But I will still be working everyday after that.  Just trying to make people laugh.

You can also follow me on twitter @shawncarters or find me on facebook https://www.facebook.com/shawncartercomedy