Book 283 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: Write about THAT…share the real you if you want to make a connection!

Book – Yearbook by Seth Rogen

Book Description:

Hi! I’m Seth! I was asked to describe my book, Yearbook, for the inside flap (which is a gross phrase) and for websites and shit like that, so… here it goes!!!

Yearbook is a collection of true stories that I desperately hope are just funny at worst, and life-changingly amazing at best. (I understand that it’s likely the former, which is a fancy “book” way of saying “the first one.”)

I talk about my grandparents, doing stand-up comedy as a teenager, bar mitzvahs, and Jewish summer camp, and tell way more stories about doing drugs than my mother would like. I also talk about some of my adventures in Los Angeles, and surely say things about other famous people that will create a wildly awkward conversation for me at a party one day.

I hope you enjoy the book should you buy it, and if you don’t enjoy it, I’m sorry. If you ever see me on the street and explain the situation, I’ll do my best to make it up to you.

Reflection:

Hands down, the best book description of any book so far on this entire journey…go read that again if you skimmed through. I love how much he doesn’t take himself so seriously.

Recently, my wife Felicia gave me a mandate after I asked her what book she wanted to do next together. She said, “Find more books for us to read together like Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime!” I guess she really enjoyed it or something. If I had to guess, it was because his book was effortless and fun to consume together while doing a little bit of learning at the same time.

Ironically, that is exactly how I feel like life should work. It shouldn’t be that challenging. Find what naturally aligns to your values and share it with others that feel the same. Then BOOM…you have a wonderful life! That is the art of running downhill and catching Greenlights like Matthew McConaughey taught us.

Well, as fate would have it, Ozan Varol, the author of Think Like a Rocket Scientist, delivered the answer to Felicia’s request the very next day. Ozan sends out a weekly newsletter usually with some of his thoughts on life and I really enjoy them. Occasionally Ozan takes a pause from his reflections to share the best of what he is reading and watching, Seth Rogen’s Yearbook was one of those suggestions. It sounded perfect for what Felicia was asking, so I took a chance.

It didn’t disappoint!!! We had a great time! We laughed out loud and learned a little bit as well on the way. Great work Seth and thanks for making my marriage a little bit more effortless and fun.

I honestly had no idea how talented Seth Rogen is as a comedic writer. Before reading this book, I thought Seth was just an actor that was in a lot of funny movies. It never dawned on me until learning more about his life in Yearbook that he was actually the source of the comedy in those movies beyond his acting skills, which are just okay if I’m being honest (sorry Seth).

Early on in Seth’s career he received what I think was a life changing lesson from another comedian that I will share here.

Seth was performing as a stand-up comedian at the age of 16 for a showcase of amateurs and totally bombed. His jokes were very cookie and “grandparent based” as he put it at the time. They didn’t work. At his next show, a fellow comic who had seen his act stopped him and asked him why he was telling all those corny jokes about Crazy Glue and Bike Cops? The comedian’s advice was to write about what 16-year old’s do. “What do you do on the weekends?” he asked. Seth said, “You mean trying to buy beer and sneak into strip clubs?” The comic responded, “Exactly, write about that!” He then asked, “Do you have a girlfriend or something?” Seth replied, “I did, but she dumped me after 3 days.” The comedian laughed out loud and said, “Write about THAT!”

Seth took the advice and wrote about his girlfriend that dumped him after 3 days. Seth said that was the first time he used real personal anguish to transform it into comedy, and he was proud.

I feel that deeply. I may not write to turn my pain into comedy, but my goal is the same as Seth’s.

Deep down I write to help me make sense of this world in hopes to make a connection. I write to share my pain and transform it into something that can not only help me, but for anyone else that may share a similar pain as my own and are looking to find a connection themselves.

Sharing your pain with the world only works if you are willing to share it all. Deep connections only come from owning who you are at your core and not being afraid to put that out in the world. Other people intuitively see it and recognize it. We know when you are being authentic or are holding back.

As Seth learned at a young age, you might be able to make the masses chuckle by telling generic corny jokes, but if you want to make a few people laugh out loud and never forget you, you need to connect with them on a deeper level. To do that, you need to share the real you that lies at your core.

Thanks for sharing your story Seth and I hope you all have been enjoying my own up until this point!

Question: Are you holding back from sharing your authentic self with the world around you?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Yearbook by Seth Rogen