This episode of Hot Breath! features the winner of the February 2025 Clean Comedy Contest, Helen Anderson. Helen shares her experience crafting a brand-new 60-second comedy set, battling perfectionism, and embracing self-promotion. We dive into the writing process, the power of deadlines, and how clean comedy can open doors to more opportunities. Helen also talks about performing for 3,000 people at a corporate Christmas party and the lessons she has learned on her comedy journey.
Join this month's contest here: https://buy.stripe.com/aEU7tv9v08GHbfO28a
Follow Helen on social media here: https://www.instagram.com/helenandersoncomedy/
If you’re a comedian looking to sharpen your writing skills, gain confidence in your material, and take advantage of clean comedy gigs, this episode is packed with inspiration and actionable insights.
Key Takeaways
- The Power of Deadlines – Helen submitted her set just two minutes before the deadline, proving that pushing past perfectionism can lead to success.
- Writing Process – She used Scott Dikkers’ "Funny Filters" to refine her material and workshop it with other comics.
- Community Matters – Engaging in comedy groups and contests provides valuable feedback and motivation.
- The Value of Clean Comedy – Helen’s clean material helped her land a gig in front of 3,000 people, showing that “clean is green” in the comedy world.
- Self-Promotion is Key – Helen overcame her hesitation and actively promoted her contest entry—something all comics should embrace.
- Consistency Wins – Building a comedy career takes persistence, and setting small, regular writing goals can help comics stay on track.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Ladies and gentlemen of theClean Comedy Contest, we are bringing
on this month's winner.
And if you want to compete innext month's contest, just go in
the link in the show noteswhere you can join and compete to
win a hundred dollars and aninterview on Hot Breath, like today's
winner.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcometo the Hot breath verse, the 2025
(00:22):
February Clean Comedy Contestwinner, Helen.
Helen, thanks so much forholding this contest.
I, I feel like I'm winning the Oscar.
Yeah, that's amazing.
That is the goal.
I really want to play it upand really give a fun platform for
(00:44):
comics who put in the work.
It's a lot of work to write anew 60 second set in two weeks.
People on the surface itsounds like, oh, you just write new
jokes in two weeks.
But to actually do it, see itall the way through, write the set,
edit the set, record the set,upload the set, like, it's actually
a lot.
(01:05):
So anytime people, I, I seepeople that just even finish the
drill and like enter thecontest all the way to submitting,
I salute.
Because it's a lot of work.
Yes.
And I submitted at the verylast minute.
I think it was like twominutes before 5:00 Eastern Time.
And, and that's because, youknow, I think a lot of comics, they
(01:27):
struggle with perfectionism.
I do.
So I kept thinking, I'm gonnathink of something better.
And then finally I thought,no, I'm just gonna do it.
And I was at work when Irecorded a Little Quiet.
I thought, I probablyshouldn't be doing this at work.
Yeah.
How do you, that's aninteresting point though.
(01:47):
How do you deal with perfectionism?
How do you kind of overcome itand just do instead of think?
Well, something like thiscontest helps because it gives me
a clear deadline.
And so this forces me to, youknow, plow through, hit send, and
then see what happens.
And we see the results of thatin you winning and my wife, we watch
(02:10):
all the contests together.
And yeah, yours was definitelyone that stood out of just the see
through line.
I mean, there's so many linesin your set of take us through.
Like, you get the theme of love.
This contest theme of thismonth is love.
So kind of where do you start?
And then how do you start todevelop material that's ready to
(02:30):
post?
Because it's a great set.
Oh, thank you.
And I'll tell you, one of thelines I took out because I thought
it might be too much is I wasgoing to say I bought some sexy glasses
at the naughty eyeglassesstore at the mall.
Victoria's Secret.
That might be pushing puns alittle too much.
(02:51):
But anyway, you.
Maybe not.
Maybe I should have kept it in.
But you gave us some writingprompts, actually, and that's what
this came from.
So on the first day, you gaveus writing prompts, and one of the
prompts was, what's somethingkind of unusual that you love?
And I made a list of, like,four or five things, and one of them
(03:12):
is, I do.
I just love it when my husbandputs his reading glasses on.
It's attracting me from thevery beginning.
And he doesn't always wearglasses like I do.
And so I think that'simportant because then it leaves
something to the imagination.
Right.
So he only has them on occasionally.
Anyway, so I wrote.
I try to write like 30 minutesor more a day, and it only happens
(03:37):
maybe four or five times aweek, but I just kind of wrote a
few paragraphs expanding onthat, and then the next day revisited
it and tried to pick out thekernels of a good joke.
And I apply something calledthe funny filters from Scott Dickers.
Are you familiar with Scott Dickers?
That helps me a lot, becausethen I'll take a nugget of an idea
(03:58):
and apply the funny filterslike wordplay or, you know, exaggeration
and things like that.
Oh, that's great.
Yeah.
I've had Scott on the show afew times.
Yeah, he's a great resourcefor writing.
Yeah.
So I'm just curious, how muchdid you write versus how much did
(04:19):
you, like, keep.
To edit it down to 60 secondsis a challenge in itself.
I probably wrote, like, a pageof ideas, most of which wasn't funny.
And then I think I probablypulled out six to eight jokes with
(04:40):
a setup and a punchline andnarrowed it down to, I think, four
or five.
I did run it through.
I think it's good practice.
I don't always get to do this,but I vetted it with another group
that I am a part of, and Ithink I changed one or two things
based on their suggestions,and that helped.
(05:01):
Great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's what I loved in.
In the contest, like, Facebookgroup, as well as people would post
and, like, share ideas andstuff as they were developing.
So I liked.
I'm glad it's also.
It has a community feel.
It is a competition, but it'sstill collaborative, which I really.
I really love about thiscontest as well.
Yeah.
I've enjoyed being part of theFacebook group for this specific
(05:24):
contest too.
There's a great, greatcamaraderie and supportive feeling.
And also, I appreciate Scottand Sandy.
They were very supportive,including leading up to this final.
And Sandy, you know, Sandy's impressive.
She's one of the regularwinners of the daily contest jump
contest on your Facebook page.
(05:46):
So I knew the competition was tough.
Yeah, yeah, it was good.
I liked.
I was excited to see Sandy inthe finals for the reason of, like,
she does this contest a lot aswell, and she's.
She could sometimes go on theline of like, oh, is this dirty?
So to challenge people towrite clean and then to see her be
(06:07):
like, okay, I can do cleanalso, and that make it to the finals.
I just love seeing comics,like, evolve and develop in real
time like that, because I.
I feel like every comic can beclean if they just understand how
to do it.
I feel like every comic canlearn the skill of right clean, you
know, if they're not naturally clean.
Because it's just supervaluable to be able to have clean
(06:28):
jokes when an event asks youto be clean and you can say yes to
it and actually get paid.
That's what I hear.
I've heard people say clean is green.
Is that the phrase?
Yeah.
I'm still new in the my comedyjourney, and I'm just starting to
get paid gigs here and there,but I am hopeful that having a lot
(06:53):
of clean material willeventually lead to a lot more opportunities.
That's what I've heard.
Yeah, for sure.
And comedy is a marathon as well.
I want people to realize that.
That it's like, oh, I have aclean set.
Where's.
Where's my Netflix special?
Or whatever.
Like, it is still a marathon.
But throughout my career, I'vehad just random events come up of,
(07:13):
like, a company potluck whereyou're literally standing in a conference
room just telling jokes at,like, noon.
But those kind of events thatpop up randomly early in your career,
like, those could pay morethan 50 other little shows that you
do around.
And all shows in stage timeare valuable, but also it feels good
when you can just say yes tothat kind of stuff.
(07:35):
Oh, for sure.
This is a little bit of a story.
I hope you have the time for it.
But when I first started to dostand up at my work, Nate Bargazzi
was coming for our Christmas party.
He was the going to be the entertainment.
And so I reached out to theorganizers and said, hey, does he
need an opener?
(07:56):
And I was just half jokingbecause I didn't think they'd say
yes.
And they said no.
But the word started gettingout that I did Stand up comedy.
So the following year, Iactually got to perform for my company
at our Christmas party.
And so I got to perform in abasketball arena with like over 3,000
people and eight minutes.
(08:17):
It was clean, but it didreally well.
And it was a huge shot in thearm for continuing to do this.
Oh, my gosh.
What company do you work for?
Can.
I work for an essential oilcompany in Utah?
Jeez.
Doterra, if you know Doterra.
Doterra, yeah, Doterra.
(08:38):
Oh, your Christmas party is inan arena.
Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah.
Well, I know a clean comedianwho does Christmas parties if you
need one.
I can.
We can discuss it.
Yeah.
Can I open for you?
(08:59):
Of course.
Please.
Yes.
That'll help sell it.
Like, he said I could open forhim, guys.
So we should really do.
We should have Joel come outto the Christmas party.
That's.
Yeah, that's.
That's such a cool story, though.
Wow.
3,000 people at a Christmas party.
That's incredible.
Yeah.
(09:20):
And it helped that I had theclean material already, you know.
Exactly, exactly.
So I must ask, what is yourfavorite joke of your set?
Oh, of the set in the.
The one I submitted for the competition.
The one you submitted?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(09:40):
My favorite joke is the one atthe end.
The love isn't blind, but itmight require a prescription.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, There's.
Yeah, there's so many fun.
Yeah.
It was just very well written.
Yeah.
I'm gonna steal all of that material.
That is.
That's really the point ofthis contest is I just steal everyone's
(10:02):
material and then I'll talkabout my husband and his glasses,
and my wife will be like, what.
What is happening?
So you're based in Utah?
I'm in Utah, yes.
You're in Utah.
Okay, cool.
How long you been doing comedy?
I.
I took some classes four yearsago, but it's just been in the last
(10:24):
year that I've given it more attention.
I do it on the side.
I have a day job, a full timejob, and I do it, you know, at nights
and weekends.
And so I've just really beenfocused on that.
This.
Really putting more time intoit this past year and developing
a community and doing thingslike this.
And speaking of community, Iwant to say thank you to everyone
(10:45):
who came to watch this andhelped me promote it.
I really appreciate that.
Yeah, you had some peeps showout here and they were in the comments
here and they had their ownword plays as well, which was really
funny.
Yeah, I know.
We had.
Mallory said.
Hilarious.
Helen.
(11:07):
Mallory's Hilarious too.
And SLC queen bee said funnyas Helen.
So you got some goodsupportive people in there.
Yeah.
And they kept it clean, isn't that.
They did.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, that was, it was fun to see.
I love that in the, I love thechat interactions in these live streams
(11:29):
as well as well.
Well, this is, this is so cool.
I'm so excited for you, Helen.
Seriously, the set wasabsolutely incredible.
I mean, I know you said you'rekind of newer to comedy and still
getting into it, but I mean I,based on that said, I feel like you
do have a lot of good likejust insights into writing and such
and your voice.
(11:50):
So is there anything foradvice you could share or insights
that maybe doing this contestand developing this set kind of brought
to your attention or justsomething that's kind of helped you
continue to be consistent?
So yeah, I think it'simportant to give yourself little
(12:11):
goals and to shake things up alittle bit.
So like I said, I, I try towrite regularly, but it's nice to
do something like this.
Enter a contest to give me a,a slightly different objective and
something to focus on andmotive, new motivation for writing.
And also, yeah, it was a goodreminder to not be too much of a
(12:34):
perfectionist because like Isaid, I, I was, I didn't even share
this in the Facebook groupbecause I was so self conscious.
I thought, I'm not sure thisis good.
Oh, wow.
So it's, it's important toremember that it's good to put it
out there and our perceptionmay not be valid.
(12:58):
And also the other thing is Ithink it's important to get comfortable
with self promotion.
Self promotion is hard.
And yesterday I decided againI was feeling kind of self conscious
about my entry.
I wasn't sure how good it was.
So it took a little leap offaith to promote the finale asking
(13:18):
people to watch it.
So I reached out to family andfriends and posted about on social
media, as did Sandy and Scott.
And I'm glad they were, youknow, pointing everyone this direction
to the finale.
And I'm happy people turnedout and invested the time to watch
it.
How did you overcome thatresistance to be like, okay, fine,
(13:43):
I'm going to put myself out there.
I guess one thing is I justhad to remind myself of other times
when I thought something mightnot be good and yet, yet it turned
out okay and just developing atolerance for embarrassment if it
wasn't good, you know, I, Ihad, I guess reminded myself that
(14:07):
I can get comfortable withbeing embarrassed sometimes and,
and I don't Always.
It doesn't always have to begreat, so.
Yeah, it doesn't have to be great.
It almost.
It's like, I think there'ssomething of, like, done is better
than good or.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What is it?
Something perfection is theenemy of good or something like that.
(14:29):
Yeah, it's basically.
Yeah.
Focusing on the.
The process instead of theoutcome and kind of just creating
from a sense of.
Yeah.
Enjoying what you're doinginstead of what you may get from
it.
In a sense, maybe.
Yeah, that's true.
I.
Focusing on the journey.
In fact, I also am part of anaccountability group, a group of
(14:52):
comedy writers who once a weektalk to each other about what they
got done and what they'replanning to do the next week.
And so for two weeks, I said,hey, I entered a com.
A clean comedy contest.
I'm working on that.
And then last week, I said,okay, I entered at the very last
minute.
I'm not sure how it'll do, butI entered.
(15:12):
And.
And so having thataccountability group also kind of
forced me to get over myreluctance or whatever and.
And just do it.
Wow.
That.
Yeah.
Last two minutes.
You squeezed it in at.
You said at the 5pm deadline,and you did it anyway.
And look at the.
Look at the results of gettingout of our way can really help you
(15:34):
go farther.
Yes.
And I know there were so manyother good entries.
I saw a lot of good ones inthe Facebook group.
And just a shout out toeveryone who entered.
There's a lot of talent there that.
That only increased my, youknow, perfectionism.
(15:54):
But anyway, yeah, there's a lot.
There's.
There's a lot of great contentin that group.
And Scott said that you havereally good stuff on IG as well.
Have you been more consistenton social media and stuff?
Yeah.
So I thank you, Scott, andthanks for letting me plug my Instagram
page.
You can find me on.
@helenanderson comedy on Instagram.
(16:17):
So it's just been.
So I entered through myregular personal Facebook page because
that's the one that's beenfollowing you.
Your.
Your page.
But yeah, on Instagram, I'vekind of been building that over the
past year, and I've been alittle bit more consistent.
I'm still learning throughtrial and error, but like you said,
(16:38):
it's the journey.
I'm not building a lot offollowers quickly, but I am building
community.
That's been really rewardingis to have people engage and building
friendships and being able tosupport other people in the comedy
world.
In my local comedy crowd, youknow, giving them support and, and
(17:02):
getting good feedback from them.
So, yeah.
HelenAnderson comedy.
Thank you.
I just.
Yeah, I just followed you.
Thank you.
Yeah, very cool.
Yeah, you have some cool stuffon here.
A mom of four grown kids.
An attorney.
Yes, yes, My heavens.
Wow.
(17:22):
Yeah, an attorney for this.
Thank you.
And I have a co worker who'son maternity leave right now too,
and so I'm taking on a lot ofher workload.
So that's made it a.
That's another reason why itkind of came to the down to the wire
when I recorded and, and submitted.
(17:46):
But I'm all for maternity leave.
I think that's great.
All four babies.
So, yeah, my wife is currentlyon it and yeah, love loving it.
Yeah, it's great.
So, yeah, I just followed youand please, everyone follow Helen
at Helen Anderson on Instagram.
(18:06):
Is there anything else thatyou would like to promote while you
have the floor?
Helen Anderson, Comedy on Instagram.
And I, I have some, I havesome shows coming up.
They're all here local.
So if you're local, you cansee me in Ogden at the VFW in Ogden
(18:27):
on next Saturday, March 7th.
And.
And then I have another showthat's through something called the
Do Kind collective on the 22ndand the details are on my Instagram
page.
Yay.
Well, Helen Anderson, congratulations.
(18:47):
Thank you.
Give her the applause.
Sound effect, well deserved.
The set was absolutely hilarious.
So Hot Breath verse, go followHelen on social media.
Go see her live if you're inthe area and if you want to compete
in March's contest, you canjust go to the link in the show notes
and sign up and maybe you willhear yourself on Hot Breath.
(19:11):
Thanks, Joel.
It's been an honor.
Thank you, everyone.
Have a good day.
Bye.
Ladies and gentlemen of theClean Comedy Contest, we are bringing
on this month's winner.
And if you want to compete innext month's contest, just go in
the link in the show noteswhere you can join and compete to
win a hundred dollars and aninterview on Hot Breath, like today's
winner.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcometo the Hot breath verse, the 2025
(00:22):
February Clean Comedy Contestwinner, Helen.
Helen, thanks so much forholding this contest.
I, I feel like I'm winning the Oscar.
Yeah, that's amazing.
That is the goal.
I really want to play it upand really give a fun platform for
(00:44):
comics who put in the work.
It's a lot of work to write anew 60 second set in two weeks.
People on the surface itsounds like, oh, you just write new
jokes in two weeks.
But to actually do it, see itall the way through, write the set,
edit the set, record the set,upload the set, like, it's actually
a lot.
(01:05):
So anytime people, I, I seepeople that just even finish the
drill and like enter thecontest all the way to submitting,
I salute.
Because it's a lot of work.
Yes.
And I submitted at the verylast minute.
I think it was like twominutes before 5:00 Eastern Time.
And, and that's because, youknow, I think a lot of comics, they
(01:27):
struggle with perfectionism.
I do.
So I kept thinking, I'm gonnathink of something better.
And then finally I thought,no, I'm just gonna do it.
And I was at work when Irecorded a Little Quiet.
I thought, I probablyshouldn't be doing this at work.
Yeah.
How do you, that's aninteresting point though.
(01:47):
How do you deal with perfectionism?
How do you kind of overcome itand just do instead of think?
Well, something like thiscontest helps because it gives me
a clear deadline.
And so this forces me to, youknow, plow through, hit send, and
then see what happens.
And we see the results of thatin you winning and my wife, we watch
(02:10):
all the contests together.
And yeah, yours was definitelyone that stood out of just the see
through line.
I mean, there's so many linesin your set of take us through.
Like, you get the theme of love.
This contest theme of thismonth is love.
So kind of where do you start?
And then how do you start todevelop material that's ready to
(02:30):
post?
Because it's a great set.
Oh, thank you.
And I'll tell you, one of thelines I took out because I thought
it might be too much is I wasgoing to say I bought some sexy glasses
at the naughty eyeglassesstore at the mall.
Victoria's Secret.
That might be pushing puns alittle too much.
(02:51):
But anyway, you.
Maybe not.
Maybe I should have kept it in.
But you gave us some writingprompts, actually, and that's what
this came from.
So on the first day, you gaveus writing prompts, and one of the
prompts was, what's somethingkind of unusual that you love?
And I made a list of, like,four or five things, and one of them
(03:12):
is, I do.
I just love it when my husbandputs his reading glasses on.
It's attracting me from thevery beginning.
And he doesn't always wearglasses like I do.
And so I think that'simportant because then it leaves
something to the imagination.
Right.
So he only has them on occasionally.
Anyway, so I wrote.
I try to write like 30 minutesor more a day, and it only happens
(03:37):
maybe four or five times aweek, but I just kind of wrote a
few paragraphs expanding onthat, and then the next day revisited
it and tried to pick out thekernels of a good joke.
And I apply something calledthe funny filters from Scott Dickers.
Are you familiar with Scott Dickers?
That helps me a lot, becausethen I'll take a nugget of an idea
(03:58):
and apply the funny filterslike wordplay or, you know, exaggeration
and things like that.
Oh, that's great.
Yeah.
I've had Scott on the show afew times.
Yeah, he's a great resourcefor writing.
Yeah.
So I'm just curious, how muchdid you write versus how much did
(04:19):
you, like, keep.
To edit it down to 60 secondsis a challenge in itself.
I probably wrote, like, a pageof ideas, most of which wasn't funny.
And then I think I probablypulled out six to eight jokes with
(04:40):
a setup and a punchline andnarrowed it down to, I think, four
or five.
I did run it through.
I think it's good practice.
I don't always get to do this,but I vetted it with another group
that I am a part of, and Ithink I changed one or two things
based on their suggestions,and that helped.
(05:01):
Great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's what I loved in.
In the contest, like, Facebookgroup, as well as people would post
and, like, share ideas andstuff as they were developing.
So I liked.
I'm glad it's also.
It has a community feel.
It is a competition, but it'sstill collaborative, which I really.
I really love about thiscontest as well.
Yeah.
I've enjoyed being part of theFacebook group for this specific
(05:24):
contest too.
There's a great, greatcamaraderie and supportive feeling.
And also, I appreciate Scottand Sandy.
They were very supportive,including leading up to this final.
And Sandy, you know, Sandy's impressive.
She's one of the regularwinners of the daily contest jump
contest on your Facebook page.
(05:46):
So I knew the competition was tough.
Yeah, yeah, it was good.
I liked.
I was excited to see Sandy inthe finals for the reason of, like,
she does this contest a lot aswell, and she's.
She could sometimes go on theline of like, oh, is this dirty?
So to challenge people towrite clean and then to see her be
(06:07):
like, okay, I can do cleanalso, and that make it to the finals.
I just love seeing comics,like, evolve and develop in real
time like that, because I.
I feel like every comic can beclean if they just understand how
to do it.
I feel like every comic canlearn the skill of right clean, you
know, if they're not naturally clean.
Because it's just supervaluable to be able to have clean
(06:28):
jokes when an event asks youto be clean and you can say yes to
it and actually get paid.
That's what I hear.
I've heard people say clean is green.
Is that the phrase?
Yeah.
I'm still new in the my comedyjourney, and I'm just starting to
get paid gigs here and there,but I am hopeful that having a lot
(06:53):
of clean material willeventually lead to a lot more opportunities.
That's what I've heard.
Yeah, for sure.
And comedy is a marathon as well.
I want people to realize that.
That it's like, oh, I have aclean set.
Where's.
Where's my Netflix special?
Or whatever.
Like, it is still a marathon.
But throughout my career, I'vehad just random events come up of,
(07:13):
like, a company potluck whereyou're literally standing in a conference
room just telling jokes at,like, noon.
But those kind of events thatpop up randomly early in your career,
like, those could pay morethan 50 other little shows that you
do around.
And all shows in stage timeare valuable, but also it feels good
when you can just say yes tothat kind of stuff.
(07:35):
Oh, for sure.
This is a little bit of a story.
I hope you have the time for it.
But when I first started to dostand up at my work, Nate Bargazzi
was coming for our Christmas party.
He was the going to be the entertainment.
And so I reached out to theorganizers and said, hey, does he
need an opener?
(07:56):
And I was just half jokingbecause I didn't think they'd say
yes.
And they said no.
But the word started gettingout that I did Stand up comedy.
So the following year, Iactually got to perform for my company
at our Christmas party.
And so I got to perform in abasketball arena with like over 3,000
people and eight minutes.
(08:17):
It was clean, but it didreally well.
And it was a huge shot in thearm for continuing to do this.
Oh, my gosh.
What company do you work for?
Can.
I work for an essential oilcompany in Utah?
Jeez.
Doterra, if you know Doterra.
Doterra, yeah, Doterra.
(08:38):
Oh, your Christmas party is inan arena.
Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah.
Well, I know a clean comedianwho does Christmas parties if you
need one.
I can.
We can discuss it.
Yeah.
Can I open for you?
(08:59):
Of course.
Please.
Yes.
That'll help sell it.
Like, he said I could open forhim, guys.
So we should really do.
We should have Joel come outto the Christmas party.
That's.
Yeah, that's.
That's such a cool story, though.
Wow.
3,000 people at a Christmas party.
That's incredible.
Yeah.
(09:20):
And it helped that I had theclean material already, you know.
Exactly, exactly.
So I must ask, what is yourfavorite joke of your set?
Oh, of the set in the.
The one I submitted for the competition.
The one you submitted?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(09:40):
My favorite joke is the one atthe end.
The love isn't blind, but itmight require a prescription.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, There's.
Yeah, there's so many fun.
Yeah.
It was just very well written.
Yeah.
I'm gonna steal all of that material.
That is.
That's really the point ofthis contest is I just steal everyone's
(10:02):
material and then I'll talkabout my husband and his glasses,
and my wife will be like, what.
What is happening?
So you're based in Utah?
I'm in Utah, yes.
You're in Utah.
Okay, cool.
How long you been doing comedy?
I.
I took some classes four yearsago, but it's just been in the last
(10:24):
year that I've given it more attention.
I do it on the side.
I have a day job, a full timejob, and I do it, you know, at nights
and weekends.
And so I've just really beenfocused on that.
This.
Really putting more time intoit this past year and developing
a community and doing thingslike this.
And speaking of community, Iwant to say thank you to everyone
(10:45):
who came to watch this andhelped me promote it.
I really appreciate that.
Yeah, you had some peeps showout here and they were in the comments
here and they had their ownword plays as well, which was really
funny.
Yeah, I know.
We had.
Mallory said.
Hilarious.
Helen.
(11:07):
Mallory's Hilarious too.
And SLC queen bee said funnyas Helen.
So you got some goodsupportive people in there.
Yeah.
And they kept it clean, isn't that.
They did.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, that was, it was fun to see.
I love that in the, I love thechat interactions in these live streams
(11:29):
as well as well.
Well, this is, this is so cool.
I'm so excited for you, Helen.
Seriously, the set wasabsolutely incredible.
I mean, I know you said you'rekind of newer to comedy and still
getting into it, but I mean I,based on that said, I feel like you
do have a lot of good likejust insights into writing and such
and your voice.
(11:50):
So is there anything foradvice you could share or insights
that maybe doing this contestand developing this set kind of brought
to your attention or justsomething that's kind of helped you
continue to be consistent?
So yeah, I think it'simportant to give yourself little
(12:11):
goals and to shake things up alittle bit.
So like I said, I, I try towrite regularly, but it's nice to
do something like this.
Enter a contest to give me a,a slightly different objective and
something to focus on andmotive, new motivation for writing.
And also, yeah, it was a goodreminder to not be too much of a
(12:34):
perfectionist because like Isaid, I, I was, I didn't even share
this in the Facebook groupbecause I was so self conscious.
I thought, I'm not sure thisis good.
Oh, wow.
So it's, it's important toremember that it's good to put it
out there and our perceptionmay not be valid.
(12:58):
And also the other thing is Ithink it's important to get comfortable
with self promotion.
Self promotion is hard.
And yesterday I decided againI was feeling kind of self conscious
about my entry.
I wasn't sure how good it was.
So it took a little leap offaith to promote the finale asking
(13:18):
people to watch it.
So I reached out to family andfriends and posted about on social
media, as did Sandy and Scott.
And I'm glad they were, youknow, pointing everyone this direction
to the finale.
And I'm happy people turnedout and invested the time to watch
it.
How did you overcome thatresistance to be like, okay, fine,
(13:43):
I'm going to put myself out there.
I guess one thing is I justhad to remind myself of other times
when I thought something mightnot be good and yet, yet it turned
out okay and just developing atolerance for embarrassment if it
wasn't good, you know, I, Ihad, I guess reminded myself that
(14:07):
I can get comfortable withbeing embarrassed sometimes and,
and I don't Always.
It doesn't always have to begreat, so.
Yeah, it doesn't have to be great.
It almost.
It's like, I think there'ssomething of, like, done is better
than good or.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What is it?
Something perfection is theenemy of good or something like that.
(14:29):
Yeah, it's basically.
Yeah.
Focusing on the.
The process instead of theoutcome and kind of just creating
from a sense of.
Yeah.
Enjoying what you're doinginstead of what you may get from
it.
In a sense, maybe.
Yeah, that's true.
I.
Focusing on the journey.
In fact, I also am part of anaccountability group, a group of
(14:52):
comedy writers who once a weektalk to each other about what they
got done and what they'replanning to do the next week.
And so for two weeks, I said,hey, I entered a com.
A clean comedy contest.
I'm working on that.
And then last week, I said,okay, I entered at the very last
minute.
I'm not sure how it'll do, butI entered.
(15:12):
And.
And so having thataccountability group also kind of
forced me to get over myreluctance or whatever and.
And just do it.
Wow.
That.
Yeah.
Last two minutes.
You squeezed it in at.
You said at the 5pm deadline,and you did it anyway.
And look at the.
Look at the results of gettingout of our way can really help you
(15:34):
go farther.
Yes.
And I know there were so manyother good entries.
I saw a lot of good ones inthe Facebook group.
And just a shout out toeveryone who entered.
There's a lot of talent there that.
That only increased my, youknow, perfectionism.
(15:54):
But anyway, yeah, there's a lot.
There's.
There's a lot of great contentin that group.
And Scott said that you havereally good stuff on IG as well.
Have you been more consistenton social media and stuff?
Yeah.
So I thank you, Scott, andthanks for letting me plug my Instagram
page.
You can find me on.
@helenanderson comedy on Instagram.
(16:17):
So it's just been.
So I entered through myregular personal Facebook page because
that's the one that's beenfollowing you.
Your.
Your page.
But yeah, on Instagram, I'vekind of been building that over the
past year, and I've been alittle bit more consistent.
I'm still learning throughtrial and error, but like you said,
(16:38):
it's the journey.
I'm not building a lot offollowers quickly, but I am building
community.
That's been really rewardingis to have people engage and building
friendships and being able tosupport other people in the comedy
world.
In my local comedy crowd, youknow, giving them support and, and
(17:02):
getting good feedback from them.
So, yeah.
HelenAnderson comedy.
Thank you.
I just.
Yeah, I just followed you.
Thank you.
Yeah, very cool.
Yeah, you have some cool stuffon here.
A mom of four grown kids.
An attorney.
Yes, yes, My heavens.
Wow.
(17:22):
Yeah, an attorney for this.
Thank you.
And I have a co worker who'son maternity leave right now too,
and so I'm taking on a lot ofher workload.
So that's made it a.
That's another reason why itkind of came to the down to the wire
when I recorded and, and submitted.
(17:46):
But I'm all for maternity leave.
I think that's great.
All four babies.
So, yeah, my wife is currentlyon it and yeah, love loving it.
Yeah, it's great.
So, yeah, I just followed youand please, everyone follow Helen
at Helen Anderson on Instagram.
(18:06):
Is there anything else thatyou would like to promote while you
have the floor?
Helen Anderson, Comedy on Instagram.
And I, I have some, I havesome shows coming up.
They're all here local.
So if you're local, you cansee me in Ogden at the VFW in Ogden
(18:27):
on next Saturday, March 7th.
And.
And then I have another showthat's through something called the
Do Kind collective on the 22ndand the details are on my Instagram
page.
Yay.
Well, Helen Anderson, congratulations.
(18:47):
Thank you.
Give her the applause.
Sound effect, well deserved.
The set was absolutely hilarious.
So Hot Breath verse, go followHelen on social media.
Go see her live if you're inthe area and if you want to compete
in March's contest, you canjust go to the link in the show notes
and sign up and maybe you willhear yourself on Hot Breath.
(19:11):
Thanks, Joel.
It's been an honor.
Thank you, everyone.
Have a good day.
Bye.
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