Comedy Questions From Beginners For Experienced Comics

[Just Brett]

Thanks guys... just needed to hear (read) some words of encouragement. I'm gonna kill tonight. KILL.

[pg13]

getting up the nerve to talk to random chicks out at a club. Once you do it enough it becomes 2nd nature. The hotter the chick the more nervous you're going to be but not everyone experiences that. It's different for each person. Some people welcome a fight, some people run and some people stay but are shaking inside at the possibility of what might happen. But as soon as you get punched 4 or 5 times, or get told the piss off from a hot chick a few times you may find out it's not as bad as you built it up in your head.

You might be doing it wrong.

pg--Hot chicks always politely declined my wooing...never as violent as your experiences...--happytobemarried valley

[Vercetti]

Thanks guys... just needed to hear (read) some words of encouragement. I'm gonna kill tonight. KILL.

That's the spirit!

And yeah, everyone bombs sooner or later. So don't sweat it too bad.

[ErikNielsen]

Thanks guys... just needed to hear (read) some words of encouragement. I'm gonna kill tonight. KILL.

I don't have the energy to scroll back a page, so I'm going to assume someone gave you dating advice here.

[Just Brett]

Close... they gave me tips on how to make comedy love to an audience.

[spoonflipper]

I'm sorry if this has been discussed. I'm trying to catch up with this thread, but I thought I'd throw out this question anyway. I understand that a lot of material is worked out onstage. I tend to have a writer's brain. All the best material I've written was written and rewritten carefully in a notebook and then I play with it somewhat on stage, mostly in the way I perform it.
I feel very blocked right now though. I'm wondering about writing strategies. I'm going to try working on some old material first -I read about that somewhere in this thread. Lately, I think when I try to write I'm restricting myself or something.
Anyway, how do you guys write?

[Michael Williamson]

I take pretty extensive notes on every joke idea I have - I literally write down every idea I have even the ones I know are awful. Then I'll talk it out to myself (which means I can never write in public places) and keep the good stuff. Then, inevitably, it changes and morphs onstage into what becomes the ultimate joke.

It's that idea part that isn't always easy.

[Cerak]

Ok, so sort of a follow up to a question I asked awhile back:

I have merch! I made bumper stickers and magnets, that both promote me and the local comedy scene in Albuquerque.

The thing is, I seriously have no idea how to price these suckers.

The magnets, after shipping, cost me $2.20 each to make. They are bid'ness card sized. I have 25 of them.

The b. stickers, after shipping, cost $3.45 each to make. They are your average, white oval stickers. I have 10 of both designs.

Pictures! First of the bumper stickers:


Then, of the magnet design:


I know this is setting itself up like an insane algebra problem, but how much should I charge for each to re-coup my investment? How much do you think people would even pay?

[Vercetti]

The inventory guy side of me says do a 30% markup on the cost, but maybe average it out. Like $5 for the stickers and $4 for the magnets. But that's just me.

Looks good, by the way. Just curious, what's the logo icon thing?

[Cerak]

Thanks for the quick response! I'm pretty sure I AM gonna price them right around the $4, $5 mark. Also, I'm doing 2 shows on Friday, then 2 shows at the same venue Saturday, so if the prices don't work Friday, I can mark it down the next day!

The logo is a stylized version of the Zia symbol that's on our state flag:

http://joemonahansnewmexico.blogspot.com/NM%20flag.jpg

[pg13]

If they had your website address on them, I'd have suggested giving them away... I think they'd be better used as promotion/advertising than they'll be a money maker for you...

Let me know how selling them goes. I'm curious to see if they move.

pg--Not being negative. Honestly curious.--sioux falls (temporarily)

[punchdrunkblake]

those stickers are a brilliant idea. i should get some done up for myself...

"I SHUN MEDIOCRITY AND MAKE TERRIBLE CHOICES IN RELATION TO MY COMEDIC CAREER

blakemitchelltellsdirtyjokes.com"

now, a question to keep this on topic..

i went to a room tonight where i know the guy that runs it. i can rock up out of nowhere and get on for 10 minutes. however; i was informed there were 35 people who were out on a christian singles night in the audience. now, i don't do material that would be acceptable in a church by any means.. i don't have a clean set. i was amped up to talk about my time in israel and gay marriage tonight. i spoke with another (more experienced) comic who suggested that it was probably better i sit it out. i thought this was the best option.

the more experienced comic gets up, tones himself and his language down without losing any of his integrity or the themes of his bits and does pretty well. i still decide not to go on because i'm worried about offending the christians in the audience and getting banned from the place.

now i'm sitting in a pool of hate and i need someone (erik, pg13, anyone?!) to justify my actions or tell me that i was wrong and i should've taken on the challenge to try and be 'nice' even though fucking it up would've probably meant getting banned.

thank you, anyone that responds to this.

[myq]

i went to a room tonight where i know the guy that runs it.

i was amped up to talk about my time in israel and gay marriage tonight.

tell me that i was wrong and i should've taken on the challenge

thank you, anyone that responds to this.

4) You're welcome.
2) I don't know your material, but what did you do in Israel that Christians wouldn't like? Did you murder Christians there?
1) Would you really have gotten "banned"? You say you know the guy that runs it; could you have asked HIM what he thought about how your material would go over, and whether he wanted the night to be clean?
3) Sincerely, without having more information, I would almost always err on the side of performing. Challenge yourself to perform in front of different types of audiences. That's how you get better. Also, you might be surprised that some Christians either don't care about gay marriage or support it or that whatever you're worried about might not be the case. (Again, unless your material is "All Christians are stupid, and everyone should be gay and get married and murder Christians at the weddings. 'Til death do us part from the Christians. Speak now or forever fuck you, Christians.")

[punchdrunkblake]

2) i urinated on a german guy who was studying to be a priest, thereby winning one back for the holocaust. i talk about it.

1) i talked to him. he said 'if i get any complaints you won't be welcome back.' and, y'know, people are fickle and i'd be able to go back eventually but i have no idea how long that would be. i made the call not to go onstage.

3) i like this thing about performing in front of new audiences and i try to do it as much as possible. most of the time it's trying to find restless audiences or tough crowds and trying to win them over. the concern came tonight from me theoretically getting up, not getting laughs and then flying off the handle which would of, to make things worse, sent me into some spiral where i would blame that they weren't laughing on the fact they were christians and not because i was being stiff, nervous and terribly unfunny. that's how it played out in my head, at least.

(the only back up plan i had when i was considering going up was screaming the lyrics to "new york new york" and seeing where things went from there...)

[myq]

Perhaps the grander lesson to be taken from this is to learn how not to fly off the handle when things go awry, then.

Maybe you should be actively seeking out rooms full of Christians to test yourself?

You could start by doing it in real life, if you don't want to burn any show business bridges. Just go meet people who might make you angry, and don't lose your shit. And try to make them laugh. If it works, you get even more stagetime. If not, you get banned from churches, which will put you in some decent company.

[xoxoStephxoxo]

Have my first stand up gig next Friday. It's not an open mic night per se. The headliner is a close friend and asked me to do 5 minutes. Of course I said yes! Advice for a first-timer?

[Smiles Davis]

This isn't a question from a comedy beginner, but instead from a comedy fan.

If you are a comedian that is selling merch, how beneficial is it to have someone buy directly from you after a show? Is it more profitable than online sales? Are good sales consider a sign that you have a fan base in town and make it more likely you'd be booked again?

I grew up in the punk rock scene where buying something from a touring band often meant that they could eat and buy gas the next day. In the comedy world things don't seem quite this dire, though I'm curious how much these type of sales help you out directly.

[pg13]

If you are a comedian that is selling merch, how beneficial is it to have someone buy directly from you after a show?

I grew up in the punk rock scene where buying something from a touring band often meant that they could eat and buy gas the next day. In the comedy world things don't seem quite this dire, though I'm curious how much these type of sales help you out directly.

Generally, if a comedian is selling his/her own merch--they NEED the money (and yes, in the comedy world things are often that dire.)

...and, generally, if a comedian has other people selling his/her own merch--they're milking their popularity while they can.

pg--Comedians rarely ever WANT to sell merch...but those that have incorporated their "sell" into the bit right before their closer REALLY need to...--pacific northwest

[pg13]

Have my first stand up gig next Friday. It's not an open mic night per se. The headliner is a close friend and asked me to do 5 minutes. Of course I said yes! Advice for a first-timer?

You could always say "No, thank you."

pg--Write what you think is funny. Be yourself. Don't expect it to be great or fret that it'll be horrible. Don't overstay your welcome. Good luck!--pacific northwest

[thisbetterwork]

I know this sounds weird but, what do you guys do when you get complimented?

After sets, if someone comes up to talk to me, my social anxiety shifts into high gear and I have a really hard time knowing the line between beingajerkbynotbeinggraciousenough and beingajerkbecauseI'moverllygracious.

Social anxiety and interacting with other people has been the thing I think I've been worst with at the open mic I've been frequenting. I just have a hard time striking up a conversation with any of these people, in spite of the fact that I'm Facebook friends with many of them and I know them and I've been there enough that I assume they know me.

I found that I was a lot more approachable the one time I brought some friends with me. It probably didn't hurt that they were fairly attractive girls. But I feel like I am, generally, missing out on the networking part of it. I'm pretty sure the guy who runs the night I've been going to is not a fan of mine (and we had an awkward e-mail exchange not long ago), so that doesn't help.

I'm not sure there is a question here. Hm.

I guess I would ask: at the beginning of open mic'ing (I've done it 4 times, all the same place) is networking important? Or is it OK to just keep my head down and go up and do it?

And also: I have done it all at the same venue, as I said and I can't really seem to find another place to go that fits my work schedule unfortunately but at the same time I feel weird about recycling my sets, even though there are now 2-3 I want to work on further. Should I just go up and do it? It just makes me antsy to think I'll be doing the same thing in front of largely the same crowd. I've been trying to work on new material too but it's like I haven't really polished anything but a single chunk that I've dropped into 3 of the sets.

(For what it's worth, I'm in the Southern NH area and I've been doing it in Manchester - for whatever reason it's impossible for me to figure out where to go in Boston to do open mic online, so if anyone has any resources for that, I'd love to hear about it, because that seems like an obvious way to go... or even Vermont, RI or Maine, I guess)