30 for 30 — Day 7: Find The Pony

30 Days.
30 Photos.
30 Lessons.

Lesson #7: Find The Pony

This lesson is brought to you my a friend I did improv with in LA. Justin Baker is a hysterical guy who was a great person to lean on in improv because he said he always loved being the “setter”. He got just as much joy from setting people up to deliver the punchline of a bit as he did delivering the punchline. What a guy.

As a guy who has been through tons of physical ailments and moving across the country alone he could easily be a negative person…instead he is one of the brightest lights. He still has his dark moments I’m sure but his words on positivity have always stuck with me.

How I remember it: “Some people walk into a room that has shit all over the floor and they say, ‘Oh God this is disgusting. What the hell happened here?!’. Others walk into a room that has shit all over the floor and they say, ‘Ooo…where is the pony?’”
Find. The. Pony.

Sometimes it is a shit-covered room. I can acknowledge that. Sometimes you don’t want to find the pony and that’s okay. But when I’m able to take that perspective of pony searching the shitty room gets better a lot quicker.

When I moved to LA I worked many dumb production jobs for free to start my network. It was awful. I was burning through rent money at an alarming speed so I had to figure out what to do. I of course wanted some cushy job that had lots of free time — but those, I found out, don’t really exist for 22 year-olds.

I answered an advert about a job with the LA Dodgers. Yay sportz. What I thought was, of course, a lucrative opportunity — what if their 1st, 2nd, 3rd…14th string Right Fielder got hurt? If I was there then perhaps they’d throw me in to play.
The orientation leaders told me I was going to be a “Fan Services Representative” which I quickly learned on the first day of work is similar to “Chief Executive Shit-Taker”.

Most of the job was handing out programs and helping lost people find their ticket sections, then passing them onto the usher like baby cattle being led to the veal station, but every so often there was that one person who came to the ballpark after a rough day determined to make someone else have just as shitty a day. It wasn’t fun. We weren’t even supposed to watch the games! A sports job with no sports!

Our bosses told us “you are the backbone to the stadium’s operations” which was the most precious lie I might have ever been told.
“Clayton Kershaw thinks of each and every one of you before he throws each pitch!”
Okay, guy.

I rolled my eyes at our bosses, but looking back they were really enjoying it and I can’t fault them for taking what I thought was a stupid job and making something of it.

I eventually came to like the little things and “found the pony”.
- Watching the sun set over the LA Skyline (depending on what section I was stationed in).
- Learning about my co-workers and their LA dreams…and realities.
- Listening to a stadium of 56,000 people roar in unison as their team, this city’s team (sorry, Angels), won a game.
The job was trash, but the experience was pretty damn fun. I worked a game on my 23rd birthday and remember listening to Frank Ocean’s ‘Pyramids’ on the drive home just smiling. A 10 hour shift on my birthday wasn’t all that bad. It didn’t have to be.

I think that stupid LA job (which was necessary to pay rent) was one of my many “Find the Pony” experiences.

A man once came up to me and asked me where the bathrooms were. I stared at him a moment and then slowly turned and pointed at a 5' x 10' sign almost directly over my head that said “Restrooms →” and replied in my calmest voice, “Just follow the giant sign that says ‘Restrooms’ and they’re right there”. Full eye contact. Still pointing.
No pony to find here. Just a silly who then threatened to speak to my boss if I was “getting smart” with him. I WAS, SIR.

I worked that job for about 2.5 months.
(A long-term paying production gig came along…I didn’t get fired)
Yes, I did have to give back the sweet hat. Sadly.

Find the pony. A lot of stuff is going to suck. Sometimes there isn’t a pony…but that mindset gets you off on the right foot from the start and sometimes helps…manifest a pony? I don’t know…I can only take this metaphor so far….you get the point. Optimism is nice when possible.

Giddyup,
Pat