One night, Eric went to see a standup show in Hollywood. After a couple of enjoyable comedians, another
comedian appeared to the stage and started telling jokes, which ruined Eric’s supposed-to-be-a-fun night
completely. This comedian’s jokes were dreadful. Eric hated every single one of them. Since the dire night, years have passed. One day, he was watching TV, crying with laughter. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t seen the show “Curb Your Enthusiasm” before. Who created this brilliant show? he wondered. When he saw the creator’s name, he murmured, “Larry David? It can’t be right.” Larry was the rotten comedian at the show. After the traumatic night, Eric had refused to watch any of Larry’s products. In fact, he hadn’t watched another popular TV show, “Seinfeld,” either.
Now that he recognized Larry’s talent, he learned that the venue owner had offered Larry a chance to try his new jokes out whenever he wanted. He was testing audience that night.
I was amused as well as amazed by how much impact one little show could make. Larry David is a well-known comedian who made television history with Seinfeld. Yet, the twenty minutes of the night kept Eric away from seeing his work for more than 20 years. Two decades…can you imagine that? What would happen if my performance is bad? Probably nobody will ever come back to see me again.
There is no guarantee how an audience will respond. I just need to maximize every opportunity that I get, hoping for a thumbs-up.