We were lucky to catch up with Clay Horwitz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Clay, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Theres really no shortcut to learning the craft of stand up comedy. You really have to love it and want to dive into it, because at its core, its just people talking for a long time. If thats not your thing, i imagine it could get boring pretty easily. But i always loved it. All of middle school and high school i watched stand up on Comedy Central and late night TV and consumed so many of the greats of the early 2000s era I grew up in. but i was a child, i never even considered actually trying it myself because i felt too young. So by the time i was 18 and finally gained the courage to try it, i had consumed such a mass amount of it that i felt more equipped to give it a shot. People also say that any skills, especially language-based ones, are easier to learn the younger you are. So starting at that age i think gave me a bonus because i was finding my voice as a stand up comic and writer at the same time i was finding my voice in real life as my actual human self. So as i grew in one aspect, i grew in the other. Love of the craft and perseverance pushed me through years of open mics and bar shows, and being the youngest one on every lineup and actually doing well against comics in their 40s gave me the confidence to never slow down and keep at it, despite the little rewards you see as a beginner in the field.
The only real way to speed up the learning process of this is to perform more. For every open mic i did once a week, if i did it twice a week, i would’ve grown faster. But it really is a game of time. It’s not like, lets say, basketball, where you can shoot around for 8 hours a day and practice nonstop if you want to get good. The stage time is limited, and you have to prep and take full advantage of it while you have it. The learning process is important and i dont think speeding it up is going to equal success. You have to put in the time and the work as all of our predecessors have, and slowly the people who don’t love it with their whole heart will slowly weed themselves out.

Clay, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a film director, writer, and comedian living in new york city, but originally from Chicago. I’ve written for TV shows on Amazon Prime & Sling TV, and been featured on major online comedy platforms such as Chocolate Sundaes, 800 Pound Gorilla, & Roast Battle. I’m one of the youngest headliners to tour across the world and performs at sold-out comedy clubs around the country, from the Comedy Store & Hollywood Improv in Los Angeles, to Zanies & Laugh Factory in Chicago, to The Stand & New York Comedy Club in NYC.
My live comedy show “Vibe Check!” has received critical acclaim across the country & been featured in Time Out New York. It debuted internationally at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival in the UK, where i performed in the “Best of the Fest” showcase. I’ve also performed in the prestigious New York Comedy Festival. My uniquely sharp stories about my mess of an existence and hot takes on our modern society are ones only I can bring to the table as a disoriented young adult trying to discover my place in the world. I take these stories into my filmmaking work as well, where I have directed short films that have gone on to place at festivals around the country. My most recent short film, “Don’t Forget You Are A Boy,” a one-shot comedy in the vein of Birdman, will debut at festivals this year. I also hosted and produce a web series entitled “Clay’s Feast,” in which myself and other comedians scour New York for the best hidden gem food spots in the city. It will debut on Amazon Prime Video in the spring and i’ve never been more excited for a project to come out.
In my work, my biggest goal is to evoke real emotion. Whether its laughter through my stand-up, intrigue through my takes and conversationalism, or the cornucopia of emotions that are layered within my film and writing works, i want to make people feel something. Whatever that emotion is, i want it to be strong and prevalent. What that emotion is is based on the work, but theres nothing stronger than feelings in this world. Everyones choices and decisions are based around them. I want to be the master of creating feelings. Because once you can do that, you can tell any story you want and make it beautiful.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think the biggest and hardest feeling to describe is that for me, the art will always come first. Second is money, location, the future, etc. While i surely do strive for a wife and success and riches, i feel that those things will come naturally when the time is right. When i become the artist that i am meant to be, i feel that these secondary life goals will fall into place. Thats the hardest thing to explain to non creatives i think. Some people’s top crowning achievement is to lock in a wife and kids, and a job that pays enough to get a huge house. But then they have all that and all they think about is what else the world has to offer and how their life would differ if they chased their dreams. And not to say that those things arent great and worthy of chasing, but to a creative who truly wants to make the best art possible, those things won’t fulfill you in a lifelong way. I’ve moved across the country (once to los angeles, once more to new york) chasing my creative dreams with no job or backup financing lined up just to get closer to the creativity that i seeked at those moments. So many people have said it sounds so scary to do it, but i never felt scared because i knew on the other side would be a tougher version of myself who would be so happy that i leaped when i had the chance to leap. So i may not be rich or have a million followers because i pivoted to a medium that wrings out creativity in favor of quantity. I may not have a chill corporate job that pays 6 figures. But what i do have is my love for the crafts that i’ve always loved burning stronger than ever. And that is enough to get me to the end of each and every day. Non-creatives chase goals that society has set in place for them, but creatives chase their own goals for as long as they can. I plan to never stop.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Man, i remember the first 3 months i lived in los angeles i was broke. Like flat broke. Like no savings, no checking, nothing. I was crashing on my best friend Mikey’s couch at the time, it was 4 sweaty dudes in a 2 bedroom apartment. Not ideal. My parents told me not to go there so soon and wait and stay home and save up a ton of money, but i knew my journey had to start. I couldnt take the risk of getting pigeonholed into a boring job in my hometown and wanted to dive head first into entertainment. But i was 20 and really unhirable for anything except production assistant work on any low-rate film set. About 2 months in, i got a gig as a PA on a music video shoot for a pretty popular punk band. Popular enough that they should have been paying, but i said id do it for free because i was so desperate for more experience. I went to the shoot with $9 in my checking account. I knew they would have lunch for us and that was enough for me to justify it. But the shoot ran super late, and by the time it was wrapping up, it was midnight and the buses that were previously running in that area of LA stopped running. And i didn’t have enough money to call an uber. So as we were packing up the truck, i truly wondered what to do. Do i ask for a ride and let these production execs know i’m a broke mess and hope they take pity on me? Or do i pray and hope i don’t get mugged on a long and strange walk to a bus station in a neighborhood not ideal for this type of brisk jog. I decided to be a professional, and said nothing. I was gonna tough it out and walk home. This is what i wanted, right? Man. But right before we got let go, the producer cut me a check for $50. I said i’d work for free but he did it out of the kindness of his heart because he saw how hard i was working that day. He didn’t know it, but that check saved me that night. It gave me hope that maybe if you work hard enough, people will notice, and itll all pay off. I waited for the crew to leave, and deposited it on my Chase bank app on my phone. I used that 50 to call an uber to the closest train stop, since ubering all the way home wouldve burned my whole check. Those few months were really a struggle for me, but that was a moment where I saw a glimmer of hope through the steel walls of the painful entertainment industry and decided i was never in it for the money or the recognition. I just wanted to learn and grow. And that night, i did.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://clayhorwitz.yolasite.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claytononset
• Twitter: https://www.tiktok.com/@claytononset
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ClaytonOnSet
• Other: tickets to see me on tour! https://linktr.ee/clayhorwitz

Image Credits

black and white pics / zanies pics: Michael Regan
pink background pic: Noah Outlaw