[Rhodes22-list] Brad--Flight Time

[Steven Alm]

Brad,

The History Channel is playing "History of the Joke" hosted by Lewis Black
and he's interviewing all these many comics on all the many aspects of
comedy.  One of the segments referred to experience and they were talking to
Penn and Teller.  Penn said that when you look at a pilot, the first thing
you look at is his flight time hours.  He then equated his "flight time
hours" as an important part of the success of a comedian.  Like anything
else, experience is important.

So just for the hell of it I've tried to calculate my "hours."  I'm starting
with my first full-time band that I joined when I was 25 years old.  I'm a
music major grad and I'm in my first full-time professional music job.  Like
you, I started performing for money when I was still a teenager--I'm not
counting that.  I'm not counting my college gigs, not counting commuting
time, not counting rehearsal time (biggie), I'm not counting break time, not
even counting the few years I was a public shool teacher--just flight
time--when I'm in the air and have control of the airplane.  In other words,
on stage.  I haven't gone through all my years with a fine toothed comb and
made any exact totals but in very round numbers I think I have about 25,000+
full-time, professional hours of actual "flight time."

Now, for professionals like Elle, a teacher, her flight time hours will
exceed that by many fold.  Give flight time hours a shot, Elle.  You
probably teach 6 units a day, we're not including preps (sorry--I have more
prep hours than anybody--I started "prepping" for my job at age 5.)  I know
you put in more than 40 hours/ week but let's just start there.  40 X 4
weeks is 160 hours a month times 8 months is 1280 times (guessing) 30 years
is 38,400 actual flight time hours.  Am I close?  I don't know if I'll catch
up to you before I'm retired--or dead.

How many hours have you logged?

Slim