WHAT STANDUP COMEDY AND BEING A LAW SCHOOL DEAN HAVE IN COMMON.

What Bob Saget practiced was emotional stage diving. He would fall face-first into the audience’s arms. If the audience didn’t trust him enough to catch him with their laughs, it would be worse than smashing onto a concrete floor.

The Beat poet Allen Ginsberg understood that this kind of gamble was intrinsic to great art. He is said to have said, “The poet always stands naked before the world.” I think there’s more to it. The artist must bravely say, “I am going to show the world who I am, and I trust that someone will understand.”

Real art, beautiful art, is always a scary act of trust. We look to art to see another person’s heart. That human connection is all that matters. For me, it is a reason to live.

I first got to know Bob when we were shooting The Aristocrats, an arty documentary from 2005 where we recorded comics telling the filthiest version they could of an inside comedy joke. …

Bob was as naked and vulnerable as any artist I’ve ever seen. He stripped down. He showed us his insides. His comedy proved his nice-guy image. Bob said the most offensive things anyone had ever heard, and we loved him not despite it, but because of it.

Another thing they have in common is that only a few people are really, really good at either, but a lot more attempt it.