George Carlin on the greatest mistake made by up-and-coming comics

The top mistake new comics make according to George Carlin: "not writing your sh*t down."

In the past year or so, I’ve met a number of what we think of as high profile comedians. I mentioned my files to them, and I got this blank look. I would ask them, “Don’t you keep your files? Don’t you at least have a record of the things you’ve already done?’ And they said no.

For 44 years I’ve been categorizing and indexing these things, and I feel unarmed without it. And these are not guys who just get up on stage and do it differently every night. It’s not that way. It’s a wonderful myth that certain comedians can exist that way, and it’s just not true, because you’re alone up there for thirty minutes or an hour, and you better have some structure.

So I think it’s unimaginable that people who want to be funny aren’t writing down every little aspect of it that they think of, and trying to find ways to put those thoughts together.

More about Carlin's writing process here: How George Carlin wrote new material.