so im taking i guess what you would call a stand up class at this spot in royal oak out here and michigan the first class was pretty cool. My instructor seems like a good guy. he mentioned laughs per minute and that its all about laughs per minute, i just don't totally agree with. the terms just sounds outdated too me...
what are you guys thoughts on it
if anything i know ill benefit from becoming a better at public but i digress what are ya thought on that term laughs per minute
If you're on this board...enjoying the type of comedy championed here...then you're absolutely right in thinking that measuring your comedic ability in any arbitrary way is silly.
As a metric "laughs per minute" fails on many fronts--it doesn't indicate the kind of laughs you're getting, the size of the laughs you're getting, the dramatic tension that can be built up by delaying laughs...it fails to account for the circumstances of your performance, how a hot audience can laugh more readily, how a small audience can be more difficult to get even natural reactive laughs from...it can't even define what a laugh is...
I HAVE heard some comedians talk about upping their laughs per minute--but you're right, charles, they do seem to be comedians who came up in a very different time...and they seem to have a machine-like, almost anti-audience approach to their comedy. I couldn't begin to guess if they have this attitude because they use laughs per minute to measure their ability or if they gravitate towards using laughs per minute because they have this de-humanized attitude.
(It reminds me of when I was a nightclub dj...and I'd meet a handful of dj's that felt that you needed to match the exact musical key of the songs you wanted to mix together. Granted, it MIGHT sound nice to do so...but there were so many other factors involved that made more of an impact on the dancefloor that it seemed silly to most dj's to do all of the work necessary to "key" all of their records.)
Now--recognize there IS an inherent benefit in caring about laughs per minute. As a performer, you SHOULD get as many laughs as you can...and they should come pretty regularly...and most any comedian would probably do well to EDIT their set-ups down for maximum impact.
The problem is when you become a slave to the metric.
pg--Bottom line: You can't measure your artistic worth with a number.--seattle
I took a stand-up class. It got me into doing comedy full-time when I'd discounted it before.Originally Posted by aenemaTron
I now teach a number of stand-up classes.
I think they can be worthwhile...but know what you're trying to get out of it.
No one can teach you how to be funny. Perhaps you can be taught how to be funnier...but most classes, I've found, are like pre-school.
You might hit the ground running...but even at best, you're still in kindergarten...with a LIFETIME OF LEARNING yet to go.
pg--ONE PERSON ON THIS BOARD--seattle
I think in some ways the term "laughs per minute" is really just a trite and simple way to express the idea that you need to keep the audience invested in what you are doing. One of the best ways is to keep the laughs coming.
This is not always needed, but I find a lot of people (myself included, to some degree) tend to structure their set with idea that if you can hook them with a strong opening then it tends to help to use the middle of your set as a place to do some quicker, more rhythmic comedy so you can take advantage of what you have set up.
But for anyone to suggest that this is somehow a "proper" or "desirable" way to go about things is fooling themselves by pigeon holing themselves into a set, ridgid structure. And while the idea might be a valid one, comedy needs to be a living, breathing art which changes from moment to moment and place to place.
Besides, while concerning yourself with the laughs is important, it cannot be your sole focus. You need to consider what the art form means to say and what you are trying to say and accomplish.
Whenever I hear people talk about laughs per minute I can't help but think of the first season of Last Comic Standing and all of Dat Phan's crazy charts and graphs. Don't do that.
I find the idea of laughs per minute derivative.
...sorry.
is this gonna be one of those threads?
Didn't Demitri Martin's CD open with a line about LPM? That's all this thread has me thinking about
i might have to check that out. ...
it was just like when he said that my face kinda scrunch like ehh i don't think that's the right to approach it all.nice to know you guys share the same feelings as i did. a special thing forum wins again
charles
Last edited by charles; January 23, 2009 at 9:02 PM.
http://www.imeem.com/jukeboxmusic9/m...ese_are_jokes/
go to 1minute 54 seconds for the start of it
I'm curious is/was your teachers name Chris??
Only two kinds of people wear sunglasses inside: the blind and assholes - Larry David
my teacher is bill bushart
Ask your teacher for more information. I'm curious about this. How do you count? Big laughs only or also include smaller chuckles? I've heard that professional comics tend to get at least 5 laughs per minute.
Professional comics call them "LPMs."
yea, I would have to agree that if you are in the biz of making people laugh they better be laughing when u r up there...
wouldn't think you'd have to make 'quotas' and stuff, though...maybe producers do that kinda stuff...i dunno..
Last edited by zE bOp; January 24, 2009 at 1:03 PM.
r@NdUm...
You guys are the sabermetricians of alternative comedy. Bill Hicks probably had the lowest LPM of the great comedians. He was like a guy with a high on base percentage, he's all meat and substance, the real run producer.
Yes laughs per minute are important to keep the audience's attention and gain trust. btw if you want to try a great comedy class you should look up Chili Challis' stand up comedy class usually in Ann Arbor at the Comedy Showcase or Funny Bone comedy club in Toledo. Chili is a former staff comedy writer for NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno' and a long time headlining comedian.
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