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Abandoned pilots, failed auditions, festival rejections, bombed sets, sketchy managers, lost roles.
The sweet isnt as sweet without the sour, so we wanted to hear all about the sour.
Overall, the responses reflect a similar pattern of growth from early naivete to seasoned wisdom and acceptance.
Below are their stories and the lessons they learned.
This worked out great.But it just didnt work out for whatever reason.
There could be 7 million [reasons], because Netflix is really low-key about shit.
So that was one.
It was a good experience.
Vanessa Gonzalez
In Austin, that contest Funniest Person in Austin, I never won that.
I got voted the funniest stand-up in the local paper, but the contest I never won.
I always got third.
That was always an,Aww, you know?
Ive done other comedy contests, too, and I feel like Im just not a contest winner.
At the time, they were big losses to me.
I was like,Dont cry, dont cry.I felt ready.
I felt like I deserved it.
But now, looking back, I feel like I didnt miss out on too much.
Ive submitted to things and have had auditions, too, that went nowhere.
I mean, I almost thought I didnt get this.
I submitted and hadnt heard back.
I thought,This sucks,because I really wanted it.
When they called and said, You got a special, I was like,Oh my God.
You just didnt get those jobs.
I apply that to everything.
When it comes to me auditioning, I didnt get rejected, I just didnt get that job.
So I dont think about jobs like that.
But then I had four more auditions that week.
But do I remember that job?
Theres always going to be another job.
I thought it was going to change my life, but it fell through.
I was like,Thats it.
I dont know what Im supposed to do now.
My friendKevin Barnett he was one of my close friends who just passed he was so meaningful to me.
He was really influential in that part.
I didnt know writing was that important.
I love doing stand-up.
Im here doing my biggest stand-up thing ever so far.
But the things you think are important are often so meaningless when you think about it.
[Kevins] passing has also made me realize that.
Tom Thakkar
I was up for an Onion job.
It was an eight-week trial or something like that.
I was really happy with what I was putting out.
I just assumed that I got it, which was stupid.
When I got the email where they were like, Sorry, now is not the right time.
Were going to pass, I was so devastated.
The biggest one for me was coming out of Just for Laughs [Comedy Festival].
Going in, I had a guy who was an agent who promised me the world.
He said, Youre our guy.
Im from Indiana and lived in Chicago at the time.
I had never heard of any of this shit.
Well get you acting, blah, blah, blah.
The second I left JFL I didnt get signed he kept telling me it was going to happen.
He told everyone else it was happening.
People were telling me, Congratulations!
He said, Hit me up when you get to New York.
I moved to New York three days later, emailed him, didnt hear a word.
Six months later, I hit him up again and sent him a tape.
He gave me a note on a joke, another tag, but that was it.
I had to start over in New York.
I thought it was going to be easy.
That was a bitter pill to swallow.
Mia Jackson
There were two things that kind of happened back-to-back.
At one point, I remember being like,I have to do college shows.
If I dont do college shows, Im going to die.
Thats how I felt.
People were tweeting stuff like I hate her.
It was so bad.
I was like, Yeah!
They said, Can you travel?
I called back, called back, never heard a word.
I was like, Hi, this is Mia.
Im just following up to see what I need to do.
I got my passport.
I was just like,Okay, I guess I just wasnt meant to do that thing.
Im glad I wasnt like, Guys, you should look out for me on …
I just give a shot to put things in perspective.
Maybe I wasnt meant to do that.
On to the next thing.
Joe Kwaczala
I have never really felt like I was in contention to do Just for Laughs.
A lot of people who have done the half-hour have doneNew Faces at JFL.
Ive never gotten to audition.
Ive been able to submit clips, but I never got a response.
Thats kind of a huge thing.
I dont have representation, so I dont get to do a lot of auditioning.
It feels like youre sending it out to the void.
Ive sent in clips for years with nothing.
I kind of doubted that I would be able to get a half-hour without getting New Faces.
It seems like the stepping-stone to get here.
Its an interesting thing that I have not been able to crack.
Last year, I got a passport just in case.
Nore Davis
I tried out for late-night sets so much.
I auditioned for Fallon when he was doingLate Night, the 12:30 spot.
I didnt get it.
I think it was between me and the Lucas Brothers.
Come on, man.
You cant be two black n- - - -s that look like me.
Theres two of them and theyre identical?
You cant beat that.
I mean, its dope, but I never got to do Fallon.
But it wasnt my time.
It became apparent pretty immediately that I wasnt ready or else I would have got it.
Plus I always feel like things happen for a reason.
Its so easy to become bitter, but its like,No, no, no.
I wasnt ready yet.
Let me focus on this.
I had been doing comedy and did Bridgetown once.
Theyre going to get you a hotel!
At that time I was sleeping on the floor in Tulsa, you know what I mean?
I had so many ideas about it.
The list came out and I didnt get it.
You get that,What am I doing?
Im crazy for doing this.
This is stupid,blah, blah, blah.
But then I looked at the website and saw who got in.
It was almost the exact same people that had got in the year before.
I was like,This is bullshit!
I look at it and smile because Im really thankful.
No disrespect to that festival, but none of the people who got in that year have done this.
It was such a no-brainer.
It seemed like all signs were pointing to yes.
We were talking about production schedules, where to shoot, all that stuff.
And then it didnt happen.
It was a big rug pull.
It was the first time after a big wave in the comedy world that I had the huge crash.
Im sure people in all walks of life experience it, and Im sure Ill experience it again.
The reason they gave us was that the online grid didnt green-light anything that was in development that year.
It was like,Wow.
We made something good; we put the work in.
It was a lesson that so much of this is out of your fucking control.
At this point, Im just like,Im happy to be here.
Were doing a read of the entire movie, and we want him to read the role.
I thought that meant that I had gotten the part.
I came in to do the full table read.
There were like 50 people there.
Jeff Bridges was there.
All the stars were there in the room.
We read the movie.
It was so funny.
He was the only one who laughed.
People were smiling, but that laugh!
Anyway, I did the read, met all the people, and I thought I had the part.
Two days later, I found out they ended up going with somebody else.
I was like,Oh, shit.
I really thought that was mine.
But then I watched the movie and that part got completely cut out.
Sara Schaefer
Ive had the This is it moment go forward.
I wanted my own talk show.
Its all I ever wanted, and I got one.
I was so passionate about it, but there were some real problems at the preface of the pilot.
Looking back, I made some mistakes.
I didnt ask for help when I needed it.
I didnt delegate or demand certain things.
It wasnt even about,I want to be back in the spotlight!I just love the work.
What I learned was that I was never going to re-create the experience I had at MTV.
It just isnt going to happen.
Even if I had gotten that show, it would have been different.
Since then, Ive done so much work that hasnt seen the light of day.
Some of it is ego.
I want my peers to know that Im still out here like,Im working!
I exist!But I know I do.
