what do i look like a comedian?

So morley decides to tell me what comedy is all about huh? well he probably should, he's the one betwixt the two of us that gets up there and does it. Infact I couldn't really find much to bring up to argue with the points he made on his site, half way through I thought I'd trump him with the Andy Kaufman arguement, now there was a man who was much less a comedian than an artist, Man on the Moon is such a great fucking film everyone should see it if you don't know who Andy Kaufman is.
Essentially Andy Kaufman was Yoko Ono who got confused for Steve Martin. The really amazing thing about Kaufman is he could economically sustain himself. He did some things that were funny but you couldn't say why, he did other things in his acts that were deliberately boring, offensive and generally designed to fuck with the audiances head. I wouldn't call him a comedian or a comic because essentially at the end of the day it was all to entertain him. It was all about the reaction, you know like agreeing to be a party clown for the bosses kid's party and then just turning up at yourself and informing the kids that Ronald McDonald is dead.
For the record my post which is the second one before this one, wasn't meant to drag out into a big thing on comedy but rather was about the freedom of art. At no point did I suggest it was economically viable. Infact the great thing about the 21st speeches I cited as examples of things I enjoy is that they had a captive audiance.
I've had one experience at Standup when I was 16 and I know when you are starting out a) you ca't pick your audiance, and they don't know you. You may wanna hit them with some political satire but they just want some Rodney Rude pissas.
b) you don't have long, there's simply not the room to fuck with the audiance, you've got an MC deciding to the side of you whether they think you're funny or not and they get paid to cut your act short and rescue the dying crowd.
c) in Australia hamish and andy's idea of 'policies week' has about as much irony and inventiveness as you can get away with in a commercial setting (which is more or less none at all)
I guess the thing that frustrates me most is people I regard as having talent, going pro and ending up with less talent. I got a few friends I've tried to collaborate with over the years in whatever context and been disgusted as they tone themselves down, imitate the proven formulas and manage to take all there potential and everything unique they have to offer and bin it.
By the same token most often the ones that are pushing the boundaries in my experience are the ones that simply cant pull it off because of a distinct lack of talent. These people are easy to recognise by the words used to describe them 'kooky, zany etc.' and always recommended by the friends that press their lips to your arsehole.
I will say this, I watched the insight special on Australian values and they did real in some comics to contribute to the discussion. Now a lot of people contributing cited an Australian value as 'willing to have a laugh at ourselves' or 'take the piss out of ourselves' which is true in the form of the cultural cringe which probably defines the most succesful comedians of recent times the Dave Hughes' and going back to our most successful export Dame Edna Everage.
But anyone who has travelled has probably experienced the very specific conditions we place on 'taking the piss out of ourselves' namely that other contries have views and perceptions of Australia that our own media run propaganda doesn't capture. The most poigniant example being the Simpson's Trip to Australia.
I guess most people were expecting something like the Sydney Olympic opening, portraying our beautiful cities, our unique artists and our diverse culture. But it wasn't the case, Australia was portrayed as a backward paddock nation full of cheap crap and convicts.
The point I would make is that Australian's don't like to have the piss taken out of them at all. Only stuff we aren't insecure about. Ignorant bogan opinions are funny because they give us a sense of superiority. But when Paul Keating says something hilariously insightful like 'Australia is in danger of becoming a bananna republic' we don't find ourselves laughing and infact bottle it up and vote in a bitter vindictive government to fuel the denial.
And that's probably what I really like in comedy. I mean it's hard to stand up in front of an audiance, it makes you feel like you got real small balls. But it's even harder to show everyone you have real small balls. Not many people truly expose it all and in comedy and art brutal honesty is where people take it to the next level. Where there's more going on in your head than the 'that's funny' response. I use to have an idea of taking a photo of my dick and balls and general scrotum area and getting it printed onto the front of some white shorts I could wear around. I hope imagine some would have found that funny, some clever, some disgusting, some stupid. That's art.
If you want to make a living doing comedy, by all means please the crowd by whatever means necessary. When you make a name for yourself. Like Andy Kaufman, people like me can pay to go see you because we have expectations, as opposed to a crowd in some comedy club that don't know you and aren't a captive audiance.
I might be 1 in 100 that would enjoy going to a theatre and there not being a play on and I wish in Oz there where places that did shit like that. There probably are please post if you know of any.
So that's that, is it comedy, is it art?