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Marc Hogan

So what are your New Year’s Resolutions?

by Jim Lawless on January 18, 2010

In August 2008 Marc Hogan was bet £1 that he couldn’t become a stand up comic in less than 12 months and perform a one man comedy show at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival in August 2009 for 21 nights. He won the bet!

We hope you enjoy Marc’s thoughts on New Year’s Resolutions….

Now we’re in January I’ve been thinking a lot about 2010 and what the year will bring.  Last week, my wife Kirsty asked me, “So what are your New Year’s Resolutions?”

2009 had been a momentous year. I had done something that most comics thought of as “mad” and I can honestly say it was the most exhilarating, depressing, terrifying, and most rewarding 11 months of my life…

As a public speaker I now share that story with businesses to help them achieve their goals.

Both Jim and I managed to achieve two very different goals, and we both reached them in different ways, however I recently came across some research by Professor Richard Wiseman on the subject of motivation.

Professor Wiseman tracked more than 5000 participants from around the world who were attempting to achieve a wide range of goals including losing weight, gaining a new qualification, quitting smoking etc.

One group was followed for 6 months, the other for a year.  At the start everyone was confident of achieving their goals, however by the end only 10 percent of participants had achieved their goals.

The successful 10 % used the following techniques:

  1. Made a step-by-step plan;
  2. Told other people about their plan;
  3. Focused on the good things that would happen when they achieved their plan;
  4. Rewarded themselves for making progress;
  5. Recorded their progress.

Now whilst I didn’t use all of these techniques, I did do the majority of them, and on talking to Jim, I know he also utilised some of these principles.  For me the biggest influence for achieving my comedy goal, was telling other people, simply because I couldn’t bare the thought of failing in front of everyone.  Even when friends, other comedians and business customers thought I was mad and told me it couldn’t be done, I continued to broadcast what I was doing.  I found that telling everybody I met increased my commitment and made me persevere.

So this year , even though it terrifies me I’m making public that I am going to write a book. It may be a thin book, but it will be a book that I will have typed with my own fair hands at 3 words per minute.  Apparently the average book is 30,000 words long, so that’s 10,000 minutes, which is about 166 hours.

If I can write for 1 hour a day I should be finished by June!

So what are you going to achieve this year? Feel free to tell everyone!

Good luck
Marc

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Do something scary everyday

by Jim Lawless on January 4, 2010

Here is the second of our guest blogs from Marc Hogan…

Do something scary everyday

Back in 2008 I was happily making a living as a corporate speaker in sales, communication and influencing skills.  Then in August that year I happened to be sharing the stage with Jim Lawless.  I’d heard Jim speak before and knew the inspirational power of his Taming Tigers speech, but, I never expected it to affect me as much as it did…

At the end of the corporate event Jim Lawless told me that I was, “quite funny”.  Two little words that changed everything, even if I wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or not…

He continued, “Of course Marc, making a business audience laugh is easy.  When you’re talking about presentation skills, your audience is not expecting to laugh much, but a comedy audience, who are expecting to laugh, now that’s an entirely different proposition…”

“Actually Jim I think you’re wrong I believe the same rules can be applied to presenting and stand up comedy – you have to engage with the audience, be committed to your material and have great delivery”.

“Prove it” he said.

“You what?”

“Prove it.  Prove to me that comedy is exactly like a business presentation.”

“What, you want me to do an open mic night at a comedy club?  Ok then…”

“No, No, No Marc,” he said. “That’s far too easy, any fool can do 5 minutes at an open mic night.  You’re a professional speaker you should set your sights higher… or at least further North… I bet you that you can’t put on a show at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival.” 

At that moment my stomach back flipped.  I’d always fancied myself as a bit of a comedian, in fact I lie, I’d dreamed of being a comedian to stride the stage like my heroes Billy Connolly, Eddie Izzard and the great Eric Morecambe.  But I’d been to comedy nights before, they are like ancient Rome where comics are the Gladiators and the audience are the hungry lions and tigers.  The truth is I was petrified of entering that arena.

“Are you mad, Jim?  I’ve never even been to the Edinburgh Festival, let alone thought about actually performing a comedy show there.  I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

My stomach triple somersaulted again.  The little voice in my head was screaming at me.  There’s no way I could do this!  It would be suicidal.  I’d never be able to do a one-man show at the Edinburgh Festival.  They’d eat me alive.  I’ve never written a joke in my life.  I’m only “quite funny”!

“Go on Marc,” Jim said, “Act boldly!  You’ve got to aim high, do something that scares you!”

“Jim, are you quoting your rules for Taming Tigers at me? For pity’s sake man!”

“You said it was easy!”

“No I said they were similar …”

“No, come on Marc, that’s your Tiger talking.”

Oh here we go, that blooming Tiger again…  My mouth went dry, and my heart started to beat even faster.  But I knew he was right.  I was scared, very scared but he had ridden a horse in a year.  I mean if he could do that, why couldn’t I take the challenge?

It may have been the rush of endorphins but I suddenly heard myself saying.

“Ok, “I’ll take the bet.  How much?”

“A pound!”

“A pound??” I exclaimed, “You’re the one who should be the comedian!”

“I learned to ride a horse for a pound.”

“Oh, alright then a pound it is.”

(Because let’s face it, back in 2008 a pound was a lot of money…)

“Lets write it down then.”

I forgot he used to be a lawyer, so I picked up a piece of paper and wrote down:

I, Marc Hogan, being of sound body and mind, agree to appear at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2009 as bet by Jim Lawless for the princely sum of £1.00 on 5 August 2008

And we both signed it.

When I got home that night I steeled myself to tell my wife.

“Darling… you know the Edinburgh Festival is on right now?  Perhaps we would like a romantic weekend away?”

She looked touched by my romantic gesture, “Oh I’d love to do that.  I’ve always wanted to see the Festival.” 

“Excellent I’ll book some tickets now.”

As I lay down in bed that night, I thought I’ll wait until we’re in Edinburgh to tell her – once we’re there she’ll think it’s a brilliant idea. 

Perhaps if I’d known the enormity of the task, I never would have accepted the bet, but as I lay there waiting for my mind to calm down enough to let me sleep that night, I found myself asking, “How hard can it be?”

As I was about to find out, it was going to be hard, very hard…

I later discovered most comedians spend between 3 and 10 years preparing before they even attempt a one man show at Edinburgh, I had less than 12 months to become funny….

Taking my one-man show to Edinburgh Festival for 21 nights was quite honestly the hardest and yet most rewarding challenge of my life.  I’ve Jim to thank for that.  I’ve learned more in the last year about achieving goals than I have in the previous 10.  The lessons I’ve learned have changed my life in ways I couldn’t imagine. 

My question to you is, what challenge could you take on in 2010?  What dream have you been putting off? 

You’ll never know how it could change your life until you try. 

 Marc.

 

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