In anticipation of episode 4 of The Harlequin Room being released next week, here are my notes, reformatted for your reading pleasure. If you enjoy this and want to hear more you can find the podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to podcasts! Otherwise, consider subscribing here for updates on new episodes and on my live performances. Currently, working on my debut hour, so if you want to follow along that journey and see how the sausage is made then…
In the first episode I talked about getting started — about making choices despite fear.
Side note: above you will see an em dash, both I and ChatGPT use these excessively, and many have come to see them as reflective of using the engine, the implication being the product output is low-effort. I do use Chat to organise and bullet point, but this article and following article are my own research and work. “Ira why don’t you just use them less, so people don’t make that mistake,” because I feel a kinship with them, they’re great, and they make sense to me. They reflect my dramatic and adhd-flaired brain well, so you will have to pry them out of cold, dead hands. Rant over
Because once you know what you want, life becomes simpler… And much more terrifying.
When you finally decide who you want to be, you lose the safety of fantasy. You’re no longer the person who could have been great if things had gone differently. Now you’re measurable. Now you can fail.
Which raises a real question (that would ruin a game with your mates):
“Would you rather fail in reality or succeed in a hypothetical version of yourself?
It’s hard to answer, but don’t worry it gets worse; once you take that step forward, you need to take two steps back.
Because now we need to understand: What does it actually mean to be a creative?
There are two ways to define a creative:
Creative as a characteristic
Creative as a profession
The problem is that we live in a society that defines people by what they do. And over time, what we do gets confused with who we are.
You can be creative without being ‘a creative’.
And the more you think about it, the harder the professional definition becomes.
Are painters creatives? Obviously.
Actors? Yes.
Comedians, musicians, dancers? Sure.
But what about editors? Stylists? Set designers? Game developers? UX designers? Tattoo artists? Chefs? Dentists who design grills?
The truth is, the creative industries don’t have clear borders — because creativity itself is constantly evolving.
Which is frustrating when you’re the one trying to define it…
But for you, it’s good news! It means the opportunities to do something creative are expanding every year.
Side Note: I am currently a volunteer facilitator for an organisation called Routes In that runs a mentorship programme in association with Soho House that connects young people trying to break into the creative industries with those who have already succeeded in those same fields. If you’re reading this, that might apply to you, so if you want to learn more about that you can…
Before we talk about careers, it helps to ask a simpler question:
What is creative work?
At its core, creativity is expression.
It’s making something because something inside you wants to come out.
Yes, there’s entertainment value — for others and for yourself. But ideally (this might sound pretentious, but it isn't, so shut up), creativity starts as something closer to leisure.
Something you do because you want to, not because you have to.
Mild revolutionary tangent in 3, 2…
Because we live in a system that values production, output, and profit, a tension is created between art as expression and work as income.
They’re antithetical; they (like socialists) don’t work. Or at least they usually don’t fit neatly together.
They’re oil and water. They’re West Midlands cuisine and Caribbean seasoning. They’re toenail scrapings and trifle. They are an episode of Bridgerton taking place during apartheid-era South Africa.
Technically possible. Emotionally confusing.
And when your identity is built around creativity, being forced to monetise it can feel like turning your nature into a transaction.
That tension has driven generations of artists to insanity or testing the barrel of a 12-gauge by mouth feel.
The point of music is music.
The point of writing is writing.
The point of painting is painting.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand and wholly believe the point of all creation is expression and communication, but the method and process has value that is overshadowed. We’ve been trained to believe the reward comes after. We’re taught the reward should be money, recognition, or validation. We’re taught to seek output, not input.
Creative work and market value for the most part have nothing to do with each other. The people who created great work didn’t wait for permission, or because they were trying to….
They did it because they cared… or were bored; there wasn’t much to do before TikTok. Either way, they definitely didn’t do it just to make a “quick buck".
And most of what anyone creates isn’t exceptional. That’s normal and acceptable. The licence to work this way doesn’t come from the industry: It comes from you.
This brings us to the more useful understanding:
You’re a creative when you decide you are.
Not after you’ve been paid, or get a certain amount of followers, or some other arbitrary metric of validation.
You’re a creative if you:
Do the thing
Explore ideas
Express yourself
Care about turning something in your head into something in the world
People may make the argument that the word is pretentious, and if you come across these people, tell them that Ira has a message for them:
“Fuck off and die in a grease fire you moralistic prick” - Ira
Ignore them.
Identity often starts broad before it becomes specific. Consistency matters more than certainty. You do you at the pace that challenges your comfort level and isn’t unrealistic or an overstep of what you’re ready for.
We tend to think of leisure as entertainment.
But leisure is really how you choose to spend your time when you don’t HAVE to do anything.
That’s where your real interests show up.
For example:
I’m a comedian. But at the core, what I actually enjoy is:
Playing with ideas
Making myself (and sometimes others) laugh
Stand-up just happens to combine those things. But I also write, make sketches, and want to one day make films. Not necessarily as jobs — just because I want to. Especially the films and sketches, I can see things in my head clear as day and I want to get them out and show others so we can laugh together, but it’s on the back burner because there are other endeavours I’m focusing on first.
That’s a creative life. So the real question isn’t “How do I become a creative professionally?” The question is,
“What parts of creativity do I actually need to feel fulfilled?”
Let’s finally focus on the career aspect and an initial interruption to follow one’s ambitious desires. Ignorance. Not the sort of ignorance where your grandmother casually drops a racial slur as a term of endearment. Though similarly caused by a lack of awareness, many people are underexposed to what’s possible and fixate on very specific, usually glamorous though not necessarily inherently meaningful jobs.
“My calling is to be a…”
Painter… Journalist… Musician… Actor…
The problem is those roles are highly visible and heavily oversubscribed. Thus, when the door doesn’t open, people feel blocked and demotivated. But often, what you’re really attracted to isn’t the job — it’s the pleasure behind it.
If someone wants to be a journalist, what they might actually love is:
Exploring ideas
Analysing society
Writing clearly
Being intellectually engaged
Additional pointer here – I’ve never seen someone who, when adequately mentally challenged, wasn’t extremely happy…
Those same pleasures exist in many fields: strategy, research, education, communications, consulting, or even leaving increasingly creative and mean reviews on far-right-wing YouTube manosphere videos’ comment sections. I could spend hours bullying Nazis, it’s almost as fulfilling as my comedy career.
Creative interests are more mobile than we think.
When you understand what you actually enjoy, your options expand. Unless that’s bumfun, in which case it’s less your options expanding and mostly just your rectum.
Another common excuse that irks me because it misses the point. Factually and objectively speaking, we have more time than almost any generation in history. We live longer. We have electric light. We have technology that saves time daily.
Maybe there is the case that your life is structured in such a way that the moment you have free time, you are so physically and emotionally wrought that all you can do is collapse into a human-shaped mushy sludge on the floor while listening to far more privileged and/or lucky Gen Z twats on Spotify. Or maybe your time is constrained and you feel like you couldn’t complete anything to a satisfying degree. I’m not judging you – I understand it’s hard structuring your time, especially when not everything is iin your control. Bare in mind, even as I write this I need to leave for work in roughly 5 minutes, I still need to have lunch and I’m so fixated I’m probably gonna’ be late. However, I will tell you something needs to change because if either of the above is true the harder truth is this: Either you don’t want it as much as you think… Or you’re not willing to pay the price: Time, energy, discomfort, less TV, less scrolling, less convenience.
Real freedom comes being aware of the choices you’re making then asking honestly: Do I actually want this enough to live differently?
An aroused koala, and the fact you don’t need to be a professional creative to live a creative life.
Moreover, if you want the profession, you need the mindset first.
Because the industry will ask you to compromise, adapt, produce on demand, and turn identity into output, and a lot of the time it will demand you do it on their terms, not yours.
So before you commit to the professional path, ask yourself something uncomfortable:
Do I need this to be my career… Or do I just need creativity to be part of my life?
There’s no wrong answer, but there is an honest one, and the more honest you are about what you actually value, the more likely you are to build a life that feels like your own.
If this resonated, you can follow the podcast here or wherever you listen!
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