We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Will Burkart a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Will, thanks for taking the time to share your lessons with our community today. So, let’s jump right in – one of the most essential skills for unlocking our potential is self-discipline. Where does your self-discipline come from?
First and foremost my desire for success. I’ve always had the mindset of choosing to do everything I possibly can, on a daily basis, to works towards success. In the field of stand up success is very relative, but I’ve never wavered from my desire of achieving my dreams, which I’m thrilled to say I have. Now that I am essentially living my dream life, the self-discipline comes from wanting to maintain this life, while also achieving growth.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My name is Will Burkart and I’m a stand up comedian. I’ve been working towards a career in comedy for the last 10 years, and completed my first nationwide tour last year visiting 45 different cities. Currently I’m focused on continuing the momentum of last year and bringing that to an all new tour this year starting in April. I’ve always loved acting as well, (I still do), but found that stand up gives more control to the artist since we are able to practice this craft on a nightly basis, as opposed to keeping our fingers crossed for auditions.
Over the pandemic I put all my efforts into posting stand up videos online, mostly crowd interactions as to not give away material, and went on to amass over 500,000 followers between numerous platforms. After creating a substantial email list, I funded an entirely independent stand up tour, all coordinated by myself from my living room, without any agent or manager. Because of the success of this indie tour, it caught the attention of Hollywood, and shortly after starting the tour, I was signed by one of the biggest agencies, William Morris.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Discipline is a huge one. Stand up requires daily work between getting on stage and editing content. For lack of a better term, likability is another. Likability on stage, so the audience enjoys themselves, and likability off stage because the connections and friends you make lead to most opportunities. Lastly, intelligence. Anyone who’s “funny” is smart. It’s as simple as that. Between the timing, the wit, and the social nuances of a joke, you need to have some level of intelligence to pull off making people laugh.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
Growth! As content creators, we are at the whim of the “algorithm” on social media. The art of stand up itself, is mostly easy at this point, but it’s getting your videos to the masses that is difficult. Growth is directly tied to social media, and coming up with ways to catch the algorithm’s attention and push your content, is a constant puzzle.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thewillburkart.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/willburkart
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thewillburkart
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/willburkart
Image Credits
Andrew Max Levy (headshot) Jesse Gann (stage shots)
