Have you ever seen the movie Superbad? Did you know the guy who wrote the screenplay did it back when he was 13 years old? He signed up for a comedy class when he was just 12 and wrote the screenplay with a friend the following year. By the time he got to high school, people were paying him to do stand up comedy at bar mitzvahs, parties and bars. When he was 16, he won the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest. Then he got a small part on a TV show.
Today, he’s a movie star.
The difference between Seth Rogen and the typical class clown is that Seth actually worked hard at being funny. When a lot of other 13-year-olds were playing video games and watching TV, he and his buddy sat down and wrote a script that was later turned into a major motion picture. He took classes. He kept practicing. He kept seeking out opportunities to get better. That's dedication to your craft.
What would happen if you put the same time and effort into being funny, or dancing, or writing poetry, or playing the drums, or being a peer counselor, or training guide dogs for the blind, or running cross country, or solving complex math problems, or volunteering at your church, or anything else that you enjoy and want to be good at? Some activities demand total dedication (we notice that our students who are swimmers are pretty much never fully dry). But many–like stand up comedy–don't. You have to make the choice to spend the time to get really good at it.
Yes–for those who know his story–I know that Rogen dropped out of high school and never went to college (he moved to LA to try to make it in show business). I’m not suggesting you do the same.
But if had wanted to go to college and did the academic work to get there, he would have had some pretty impressive activities and accomplishments to list on his application. I’ll bet his college essays would have been hysterical. And a lot of colleges would have happily welcomed a professional comedian into the dorms to make other students laugh.