About a year ago, I set six goals for the year… and I’ll give myself a 0, 0.5, or 1 below for each one. The big headline is that a lot of these boxes weren’t checked because I was so busy on the road with standup. That’s good. Here goes:

1. Perform standup on TV. 0.5 points. I did earn a network TV credit (and a check) for appearing on Last Comic Standing but I was on for so short a time that if you blinked you probably missed it. I recall complaining to my roommate that I had not yet appeared on TV for standup (aside from Bill Bellamy’s Who’s Got Jokes?) but then he put things in perspective by asking whether I had taped and submitted my best stuff and submitted it to my manager. When I told him I hadn’t, he said I had nothing to bitch about. So, in September, I did exactly that and now have to sit back and enjoy the submission process. It’ll happen when it happens.
2. Continue acting training – book roles and land callbacks. 0.5 points. It was early for me to book a major role on TV or in film. Still, it would’ve been nice to have landed another commercial. I do have to keep in mind the number of auditions I missed by being on the road for standup. It was a laughable number – probably 20.
3. Write & perform one-person show. 0.5 points. It was to be the year of the one-person show. But at least the first draft of it is written and I’m very happy with it. I’ll get it up onstage in the 1st half of 2011.
4. Develop continuous online content – blog, podcast, videos, etc. 0.5 points. I wanted to do this on the reg, but I do have to give myself credit for relaunching the podcast (and recording 24 episodes – weekly when I got it going on July), several good blog posts, and many videos.
5. Sell some programs for Funny ‘Cause It’s True. We kept it alive by pitching a corporation in December but we were just too busy to try to do any more biz dev… Azhar and me with the creative side of the business and Andy Gibson by being promoted to a Gillette Brand Manager.
6. Launch new website. 1 point. Done.

As the Les Brown quote goes, “Shoot for the moon and if you miss you will still be among the stars.” And if you’ve seen my one-liners, you know I tear it apart by wondering whether he understands astronomy.

But the idea is a good one. I think goals should just be slightly out of reach. And out of the 6, I’d give myself a 3. 50% is a failing grade, but given that these are strategies to achieve the greater objective of “to make as many people laugh – and think – as I can” – and because I obtained that, 2010 was still a big success.

In fact, 2010 was my best year ever. Here’s the list of accomplishments:

1. Achieved the feeling that I’m gonna be OK. This closed out 8 years in the game for me. Very cool things happen around Year 9 and Year 10 so, as long as I can keep playing for 2 years, I’m not gonna sweat what does or doesn’t come thru for 2011. I have a career in entertainment and am grateful everyday for this. I’m happy with my current lifestyle and can do this for a while still… dwelling in LA and traveling for shows. I get to see my family often and have reconnected with friends from so many past lives. Unbelievable.
2. Had my best financial year.
3. Got signed across-the-board by a great agency, Innovative Artists.
4. Continued to build relationships with headliners… featured for Kevin Nealon in Tempe and appeared regularly on his New Material Night at the Laugh Factory on Tuesdays; featured for Russell Peters in Minneapolis in June; featured for Sebastian Maniscalco at the Hollywood & Brea Improvs; featured for Orny Adams at the Hollywood & Irvine Improvs; and became Tim Allen’s favorite host at Laugh Factory on Thursdays.
5. Wrote the first draft of the one-person show.
6. Cracked into NACA, booked 15 colleges, and have done very well at every one so far.
7. Launched my favorite website on the web.
8. Continued to build and entertain a following online: 4,128 Facebook Friends, 774 Fans in the new FB FI Fan Club, 2,894 members in The Funny Indian Fan Club group, an undisclosed number on the Newsletter distribution (so pretentious), 115 YouTube subscribers, and 1,354 followers on Twitter.
9. Earned network TV credit by appearing on Last Comic Standing.
10. Relaunched The Funny Indian Show Podcast, recorded 24 weekly episodes in a row (and counting), syndicated it on a New York radio station, and featured guests such as Janina Gavankar and Pooja Kumar.
11. Recorded and released a plethora of sketch videos, including the Life’s a Trip series, that showcase my acting ability.
12. Launched speaking career in earnest… gave hour-long Power Point on corporate diversity, hour-long talk on innovation and risk, hour-long speeches to high school and college on comedy/humor, co-led day-long workshop on personal branding, etc.
13. Released several new standup videos and got widespread visibility of standup videos (Indian Comedy DVD on Netflix and several on YT of well over 100,000 views).
14. Recorded “the” submission set for TV… what I thought was a very strong 30+-min performance at the Improv.
15. Completed the core curriculum for improv at UCB.
16. Wrote over 15 minutes of new, TV-ready material… for when it matters… ha.
17. Designed and launched store and Flickr page for merchandise, including T-shirts, bumper stickers, mock album covers, and more.
18. Managed Melanie Kannokada for her first full year in entertainment… it’s only a question of time before she pops off.
19. Wrote several good blog posts and got syndicated in the Brand Me Live newsletter, This Generation, and Live Absolute.
20. Kept Funny ‘Cause It’s True by pitching a large corporation in December.

Yep.