Mixing styles

[Insertsomethingfunnyhere]

I couldn't think of a good thread name but w/e

I am just starting out and I want to know if you guys think it's important to be a comedian who only sticks to one style because I have a side of me that is very passionate about social issues and another side that is still young and just wants to tell stupid jokes about things that don't matter

I also don't want to be a political comedian or a guy who just goes up there and rants because I don't think it fits my personality so do you think it's okay to mix two different styles together in one set

for example the 5 minutes I have been doing lately I start with a bit about 50 cent or a bit about the Real World and then I do a joke about how I have a problem with Homophobia and share my opinion on that

[$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$]

Will It Blend?

[Michael Williamson]

Especially when you're first starting out, it's pretty impossible NOT to be all over the place! I feel like I've only very recently discovered what type of comedy I'm really best at, and I still have a ways to go before I perfect it in any way. As much as I hate the term, finding a comedic "voice" is tough work and can only really be acheived by experimenting and having fun with the artform. But, of course, that's part of what's great about it. It takes years to get anywhere in standup, stylistically speaking, but it's pretty goddamn rewarding.

Also, as long as you put your own personal touch on your material, it should hold together
well no matter what. Good luck, dude, and have fun.

[AceHole]

I think that you shouldn't even worry about styles of stand up. It seems to me like you're basing them on what other comedians have done before you. It seems to me like you're using what they've done and are comparing what you're doing, to that. Throw that out the window. Don't even think about that when you think about what you do.

The only thing that matters about your style is that it works. And sometimes it won't, but play around with it. If it works it works, if it doesn't work it doesn't work. That should be the only thing that you worry about. If you just finish killing, no one from the audience is going to go up to you after the show and say "excuse me, I noticed at the beginning you did one-line jokes, then at the end you finished with a couple long stories". Bottom line is it doesn't really matter.

I heard this quote from a comedian, I have no idea who said it, but it was something along the lines of "just be yourself on stage, because if you're yourself, no one can copy you." That may not be 100% applicable in this case, but I take it as meaning "do what you want to do." If you want to be political, and then tell retarded jokes that's fine, do that. The thing about stand up is it's all about you. No one is going to tell you what to do and how to do it. You can (almost) do anything you want to do. To take something that has no rules and try to put up a lot of make believe rules and restrictions on yourself, seems conterproductive.

It seems like you're still in the mind frame that you need to follow a certain protocal when on stage. I used to think the same thing, then one night I bombed, misserably. It was the worst night I've ever had, but I realized from that night, that I was too stuck in the mindset that I had to do a certain thing with the time that I was given. That I had to go on stage and tell these jokes, that were arranged in a careful order, and there was to be no deviation from exactly what I planned to do. I feel like you need to open yourself up. Open yourself up to doing different things on stage. Again it is your five minutes to do what you want, and to worry about the kind of style you are doing seems weird.

It would be like if there was a highway where you could drive as fast as you wanted, no speed limit at all. And instead of trying new things and seeing what worked the best, you instead drove 55 because that's what everyone did before you. But then sometimes you wanted to drive 70. Then sometimes even 65. How about sometimes you drive 30, and sometimes 57, and sometimes 89.

Basically, to wrap this whole thing up, you are the person putting together your set, you can do it any way you want. Go ahead and mix things up. Do not be afraid to change. If your approach doesnt get any laughs, it doesn't get any laughs. Don't be afraid to try it though. That is the bottom line. Do what you want and don't be afraid to change.

[MJEH]

I am just starting out and I want to know if you guys think it's important to be a comedian who only sticks to one style. I have a side of me that is very passionate about social issues and another side that is still young and just wants to tell stupid jokes about things that don't matter. I don't want to be a political comedian, or a guy who just goes up there and rants, because I don't think it fits my personality. So do you think it's okay to mix two different styles together in one set? For example, the 5 minutes I have been doing lately I start with a bit about 50 Cent or a bit about the Real World, and then I do a joke about how I have a problem with homophobia and share my opinion on that.

It seems to me you have already deduced your comedic angle-topical commentary. Don't try to be too selective at this early stage in your comedic career. Write/say what's funny/interesting to YOU; the rest will follow.

[nixonjames]

Write lots of jokes.
Tell lots of jokes.

If some jokes work better with others tell those in a 'set'.

Evaluate various styles and how the responses are for each.
After several years and hundreds of sets you MIGHT be able to figure out that voice.

Part of me wants to do comedy OF comedy and that's a nightmare b/c I still have so many techniques to figure out that it's not worth worrying about.

I'd say just write 'n write 'n write. All I can speak of is my own experience and after a year I've found I have a natural propensity for swarthiness (word?) but that doesn't mean that will be the best persona/character/voice/angle/perspective whatever the hell you want to call it. So I continue to try out every kind of joke that I wrote that I think is funny.

I think on some level your style will initially be dictated by your influences and the humor you find funniest personally.

[ErikNielsen]

Nobody worth his/her salt just does one kind of joke.

Well, except deadpan one-liner comics. They pretty much do deadpan one-liners.

But in most cases, you're not going to emerge as a fully rounded comedian unless you do a variety of stuff.

Look at Patton Oswalt. He can do a deliberately absurd/fictional joke about midgets or something, then some political comedy, then some commentary on a stupid TV show he saw, then a story about a place he went once. He can do all of that in ten minutes, and it holds together brilliantly.

And what holds it together isn't thematic consistency, it's stylistic consistency. Patton is going to talk about a bunch of stuff, because that's what interests Patton. But he's going to talk about it from his own perspective, in his own comic cadence, and that's what makes him great. And he's not the only one... a lot of acts are like that.

I mean, you have some opinions about politics, and some opinions about stupid stuff, and then you also thought of this other thing. Guess what? Everyone's like that. You go up there, you are just representing yourself as a person who thinks about varying types of things, and that's the only kind of person there is. Nobody's going to be like, "what's this? I thought he was a politics guy, and now he just said baseball!" As long as your opinions are coherent, and your writing style is coherent, you're cool.