Name: The WAR OF ART with Steven Pressfield | You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes
Uploaded: 2023-07-26T14:00:21.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The WAR OF ART with Steven Pressfield | You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes' from Pete Holmes on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-07-26. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The WAR OF ART with Steven Pressfield | You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes' from Pete Holmes on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-07-26. Transcript available.

The WAR OF ART with Steven Pressfield | You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes

You made it weird. You made it weird. You made it weird. Oh yeah. You made it
weird. You made it weird. Yes, you did. You made it weird. Oh yeah. You made it
weird. With Pete Holmes. Yes, you did. You made it weird. Oh yeah.
What's happening, weirdos? This is my chat, my conversation, my chinwag with
the incredible, incredible, I don't say that lightly, Stephen Pressfield, whose
book, amongst others, his book, The War of Art, has absolutely transformed and
changed my life and countless other people and creative people who are trying
to do their calling, to follow their bliss, to write that book, to write that
script, to write that song, to start that,
physical transformation, whatever it is, Stephen Pressfield wrote this book to
help you get over what he calls resistance or the resistance. It came about
because I texted Ryan Holiday. I was like, I don't know what's going on, man. I've
had this movie idea for almost 10 years. I just can't write it. I know it. It's
outlined. I have interest. I want to do it, but I can't sit down and do it. And
he said, read The War of Art.
I listened to it on tape, and I'm almost done with it. I mean, I read it. It's
exactly the kick in the pants that I needed, the gentle, loving kick in the
pants, and I'm off to the races. I'm almost done. So this is going to be a book
that I've already listened to twice, and I will always go back to whenever I
need that boost to get it done.
And if you guys have a project like that, you are going to benefit from this
conversation deeply. I know I did. It's incredible. He also has a new book out
called Government Cheese, G-O-V-T Cheese, which is incredible. It's his memoir.
I'm loving that as well. He has other books going pro, which is also incredible.
Just check them out. But especially The War of Art, give it a read, especially
if you have a project that you've wanted to get off the ground and you just
couldn't. So check them out, and you're going to enjoy this chat.
Just a couple things to plug up top. I have some tour dates. Where am I going
to be? I'm going to be, and this is when I found out where I'm going to be,
Denver. That's going to be awesome. St. Louis, Raleigh, North Carolina, Salt
Lake City.
We're adding more and more dates to PeteHolmes.com. I know I'm going to be
coming to Indiana soon. So whenever you listen to this, just go to PeteHolmes.com.
Chances are I will be touring and coming to a town near you. Hope you can be
there.
And those of you that are new to the show, you might not know this, but we only
do ads for things that I actually use and actually love.
And these Pete's Picks at the top of the show are absolute OG Pete's Picks.
Magic Mind, you guys know I talk about Magic Mind a lot. I'm always offering it
to the guests. Why? Because I want them to be on their game for the show.
And when I am feeling sluggish, creatively drained, a little fatigued, having a
hard time thinking, focusing, dialing in, Magic Mind is a magical elixir that
helps me focus better, helps you focus better on your work, be more creative,
and drink less coffee.
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So it sort of rounds the edges of your coffee so you can drink it with your
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30% more stuff done on average.
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Fighting off procrastination, brain fog, fatigue, and some ADD symptoms,
getting you into that flow state.
I love it. I find it mood elevating.
I find it really, really helpful when I need to dig in and do work, answer
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It's incredible.
And I have an amazing offer for weirdos from our friends at Magic Mind.
All you have to do is go to magicmind.co slash weird and use my discount code
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I swear, I swear by it, and I hope you love it too.
We're also brought to us by our friends at Living Libations.
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All right, everybody.
Enjoy the wonderful chat with the wonderful Steven Pressfield.
Get into it.
This is from my, I had a talk show, and this is what that's from.
Uh-huh.
Isn't that fun?
Yeah.
So we just, we just repurposed it.
Yeah.
Okay, we're rolling.
There's no real formality.
You can just hold it like you're eating an ice cream.
That's the tip.
Okay.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you, Pete?
We've just met through Ryan Holiday.
Yeah, we did.
You know, over email.
That's right.
So that's great.
He's introduced me to a lot of great authors and just great people, and we tend
to be drawn
to similar people, and he's really drawn to you.
He loves you.
He keeps posting about it.
I love him, too.
Yeah.
He's a great guy, and he's taught me a lot.
I'll tell you, for somebody that's like 40 years younger than me or whatever.
Isn't that annoying?
Yeah, it is annoying.
When does he do all that writing?
Yeah, yeah.
Some people just have a compulsion, it seems to me.
Like, I don't mean it like bad compulsion.
I mean, like, I think he's compulsed to write.
Like, I don't think, you know, it's interesting reading your work.
I'm reading Government Cheese right now, but also War of Art and some of your
other things.
It's like, what does it feel like to not write always comes up to me?
Like, especially in Government Cheese.
You know, I'm reading what it was like.
I'm just making sure this is off.
I'm reading what it was like before you found your flow and found your purpose.
It's really interesting to hear all the shame and the guilt and the listlessness.
Well, what about you?
I mean, were you immediately a comic, like straight out of high school or
something?
Don't you do this.
Well, it's funny.
I've been thinking, I'm writing a joke about anxiety right now.
And the crux of it is everybody complains about too much anxiety.
And I get it.
But nobody's screaming the virtues of just the right amount of anxiety.
And I want to write a joke about, I only really have the opening line as I go,
I have anxiety, thank God.
I understand as a bell curve, too much is debilitating.
But not enough is numb.
But I'm going to ask you, I know I'm supposed to be interviewed,
but I'm going to ask you something.
Go ahead.
When you say you're writing a joke.
Use a day off.
You are a day off.
I'm so excited to talk to you.
I don't feel pressured or beholden.
When I have a day writing a joke, tell me.
When you say you're writing a joke, you make it sound like it's going to take
you
three weeks or a month or something.
I mean, is a joke like this joke, will it be like a setup line and a punch line?
That's the whole thing?
No.
Or will it be a whole, what will it be?
I think you could do it as well if you have an area that you are deeply
passionate about.
So I, when I was young, starting as a comic, I knew I had a joke when I had
something clever
that would literally almost like a, like a trap you set in the woods.
Like it's a hair trigger and you'll go in it and it'll snap and it'll close you.
So an example of that would be, um, I bought a paper shredder.
This is an old joke of mine.
Um, I love that my paper shredder came with a manual cause that's the first to
go.
Right?
That's just a joke.
Uh huh.
Um, it gets better after that.
I go, I just plugged in the shredder, put in the manual.
Like if this doesn't shred, I'll read it.
It's clever.
It's a joke.
That's a setup.
I bought a shredder and a punchline.
It's actually two lines.
Anyway, now, just like you, when I, I'm assuming you're, you're thinking of
things you can write
about, I get a white light in my belly of, I couldn't forget this if I tried.
I write it down not to remember it.
I write it down to exercise it from my body.
And when I go on stage, I have, don't, don't forget to talk about anxiety, but
I didn't
have to like, try to remember I have anxiety.
Thank God.
That's how I feel.
Uh huh.
It's like writing the music, you know, and I go, and I, I can go on stage.
It gets a little tricky as to whether or not I can yank, if I can fishnet the
whole audience
over my shoulder, like Santa Claus and bring them with me on that feeling.
That's where the craft comes in.
But the identification of what a joke is now comes from a strong feeling, which
often isn't
funny.
It's just a deeply excited, urgent feeling.
And to answer my own question and to put it back to you, when I don't let those
things
out and then share them, it feels like too much anxiety.
It'll fester like a pond and get scummy and gross and unclear.
But if I keep it moving and pass it on.
I'm definitely a believer in that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But you know, when you were talking about, I have anxiety, thank God.
Yeah.
That could be a book.
That could be a book the size of The War of Art or something like that.
A 190 page book.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You could do an entire thing, really.
I have a...
And actually, you've got to think about it because nobody's done it, you know?
In defense of anxiety.
Yeah, really.
Yeah, yeah.
That's...
Well...
It's a concept.
That's a very sweet...
I love that compliment.
And I'm like you.
I want to find...
I think I'm like you in that you just did this.
I want to find what the joke...
Where the joke belongs the best.
Like where the idea, excuse me, belongs.
Sometimes a joke is a joke.
Sometimes it's a movie.
Sometimes it's a book.
Sometimes it's a cartoon.
Like I found...
I submitted some cartoons to The New Yorker because I was like, that just is a
New Yorker cartoon.
So you had to...
Did you get accepted?
I did.
It took about a year and a half.
Did they pay you?
I think it's something like four or five hundred bucks per cartoon.
Why not?
If you break it down to the time, though.
Well, I guess that answers why I'm not still doing it.
I think if you get on contract, it's because you seem like an interested person.
If you get a contract with them, it's more money.
But if you're just freelancing, it reminds me of your story.
Hacking together little gigs and finding your place here.
Yeah.
But here, now I am going to put it to you.
I told you that when I don't create and share and reflect and be reflected to,
that like beautiful circle of sharing.
It's not just narcissism, me saying, I like anxiety.
They also feed it back to me and the 