Comedians Dave Waite and Grant Lyon have created the “It Gets Worse” project, a parody of the popular “It Gets Better” LGBT project. Their series focuses on the jubilation felt by stand up comedians after their first performance and the subsequent spiral into the “reality of crying alone in a Red Roof Inn after a terrible road gig.”

“The It Gets Worse Project’s mission is to communicate why being a stand up comedian is simultaneously the best and worst job in the country. Comedians submit themselves to constant abuse from audiences and their own inner demons, and yet they keep coming back, continually inspired to write new jokes and try new stages. They are either noble artists or complete idiots,” says its creators.

Here are a few more episodes:

[via Laughing Squid]