SMILE
It was a beautiful Autumn Day in Washington DC.
As I made my way to the comedy club, a little Asian girl, probably no more than 12 years old, stopped me in my tracks.
“Would you like a manicure for $10, sir?” she asked as she stood in front of a beauty salon.
“No, thank you.” I replied. I smiled, and moved on.
This interaction, although tiny, was particularly significant to me. Let me explain.
On July 15th, 2019, a student reporter from my alma mater, the University of British Columbia, reviewed my third comedy album “Son of Smiley”. He wrote, “There are stories that are noticeably stretched to facilitate outdated jokes...On top of this over-exaggeration, it seems that Hill is bogged down by old-school comedy ideas that are trite and overused.”
He goes on to say that I am “an amazing storyteller” and finished the article with “[the album is] bogged down by cheap vyings for laughs with hacky, overdone ideas.”
Let’s fast forward to 3 years later.
On Oct 3rd, 2022, another student reporter from UBC connected with me prior to my new show titled “Stupid Ed” at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. A weeks after attending the show, she wrote in the review “He’s a talented comedian in all respects: his jokes are good, his pacing and delivery are impeccable, and seeing him live, I found myself laughing at a comedy special for the first time in a very long while.”
She ended the review with “The most effective kind of comedy, in my experience, tends to touch on things that are deeply personal and often very dark. It’s an excellent medium for processing and translating the worst parts of life into entertainment and can turn what would otherwise be painful into something insightful and entertaining. Ed Hill exemplifies that in a way I’ve never seen.”
Two different times. Two different reviews. Two different experiences. What is the same, however, between these two articles, is the essence of the moment. Nothing lasts forever, and change is the only constant. It is easy to see the first review as bad, and second one as good. It is easy to see that some parts of life are perfect, and some parts are broken. Yet good or bad, perfect or broken, is irrelevant. What holds true is that I participated fully in every moment. Some people will be harsh, and some words will be kind. All I need to do is what I did on the streets of Washington DC.
Smile, and move on.
-Ed.