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About LinkBacksNo idea, but this video is fun to watch if you've seen the Darrell Bluett one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgE9x...watch_response
No idea, but this video is fun to watch if you've seen the Darrell Bluett one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgE9x...watch_response
What things are the MOST helpful to new Stand Up Comedians? Just getting up there, looking to this board for advice, books, Stand Up Comedy Classes, Toastmasters, Improvisational Clubs - all of the above?
Also Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
We don't know why.
Really, though, I'd say just getting up there frequently is what's helped me the most. It's all common sense, all things you're going to figure out eventually.
Really, though, it's the cinnamon swirls in every bite.
Just getting up there. If you can, especially make your first year as busy as possible. Find a place with a dedicated open mic, chat with fellow comic, and make friends. The more you go up, the more you'll be able to consciously note your mistakes. The more you go and form a circle of friends, you will be able to comment and speak frankly about your craft.Originally Posted by John Santana
Obviously, you are going to want to find more than one place but if you find a place with a dedicated crowd and friends, you'll be more comfortable and that will help as you experiment with your act. Switch it up a lot. Keep writing and testing new material. Go to different venues. Try different jokes on different crowds. The more you get up, the more comfort you will develop and the more natural it will feel to you.
Memorizing sets for open mics has improved my memory. On my first couple of shows I forgot material and had to pick up later in the set. Last night I went to an open mic that I hadn't signed up for and talked my way into a spot late in the night. Most of the crowd had left by the time I went up and there were people in the back drinking and talking. It's tough to edit because I can only hear like 2 people laughing, so i'll have to rely on those two people and my best judgement.
I hadn't spent any time in preparation. I did a set that I memorized over 2 weeks ago for a bringer show that i got canceled from because not enough people showed up. So I went through the set with very little problem. The only major mistake I made was on one joke I forgot a setup and just delivered the punchline and I was wondering why it didn't get a laugh and then I heard it this morning and I feel like an idiot.
I remember reading some book on comedy where it says you should think of tag lines as toppers. Only keep the ones that top the previous ones or advance the joke. That's why I have such a problem, a lot of times my tags get weak laughter so i take them out and stick with just a one liner. It doesn't hurt to try out your tag lines though, you've got to find out if they work and which are worth keeping.
Also, does anybody know any way to develop more of a storytelling/bit style. I write jokes and have tried weaving them into stories with little success. The only books I've found are about joke writing. I feel like I have no idea how to structure a bit/story.
I'm trying to delve into some more story-like jokes, but I don't know if I'm ready. I have so much to really talk about and so many points to make, and sometimes it feels like the jokes I make are just arbitrary and I'd really like to say something I want to talk about.
So, I'm working on this bit about death and how I want to be remembered universally by everyone, like nobody doesn't know Shakespeare's name and I want it to be like that with me, but since I don't want to do anything that worthwhile, I just want to plan my own death in the most amazing way possible. But not suicide, and I go into that.
At first I tried writing jokes related to it and tying them all together, and that kind of worked. But I realized it's easier for me to continually just talk out loud about it without planning it out, and see how I'd naturally flow, and the jokes come to me when I speak. I try to get a steady stream of actual jokes in there, or funny asides, that sort of thing... like, I don't want to ever go more than a 5-7 seconds of just talking, there need to be constant chuckle-bits at least. It seems to be easier for me to generate jokes if I just repeat the bit over and over again, always thinking of a new thing to add in.
I still haven't tried the bit on stage because it's not close to being good enough yet, but that's the method I'm trying and I figured I'd share.
Others probably have something better to offer on the subject.
I don't have much to offer, but I DO remember reading that in most clubs or bars lots of people have a short attention span and may be drinking a bit - further limiting them, so they tend to be likely to give up listening to you as soon as they perceive you to be long winded, or they may give up listening to you the first time you lose them a little. They also have the distraction of chatting with their friends and ordering more food and drinks. With short jokes it's easy to change gears and for your audience to pick up quickly on the new topic/joke.
If you're George Carlin or Artie Lange you can pretty much get up there and do long stories or short quick jokes and either way you can kill.
I learned very quickly that people who aren't specifically there for the comedy have terribly short attention spans. However, if they're there SPECIFICALLY to watch comedy, THAT'S when I want to be able to deploy some more story-oriented jokes.
I have very little experience (I've been in open mics 2x now) it seems that even at the "Comedy Club" where I performed both times, people find other stuff to do. There was a guy up at the bar a couple of weeks ago talking to his friend who was louder then the Comedian on stage. By the time I got up at the club last week (I was number 13) lots of those left in the audience were BS...ing amongst each other - the ones who were still awake. If it works for you to tell long stories and you're killing.....or getting your desired results, then by all means do what works. I guess the bottom line when all is said and done is "Did you make the people in the audience laugh". The goal is to make them laugh constantly to the point where they're almost peeing themselves.
I was just thinking..........the only times that come right to mind where I made people laugh to the point of almost peeing themselves was when they were laughing "AT ME" rather then "with me" : )
Well, I have no idea whether or not long stories would work for me or not. I'm only going to do that sort of thing if there are actual jokes every 5-7 seconds, as I said. You can still tell a long story and keep it funny, it's not like the story has to be boring and jokeless until the last sentence. In fact, it should NEVER be like that and I've watched some fellow starting comedians try that and fail miserably without even realizing it.
But yeah, even if I assimilate it into my material, I'd only pull it out in front of audiences who are actually paying attention.
Oh, and when I said people SPECIFICALLY there to watch comedy, I didn't mean a comedy club or a bar, where you're bound to get people that don't care, I meant an event or show set up specifically for the purpose of people going on stage and performing and an audience that showed up just to see that. We've set up a few of those on campus and those are always the most fun.
Well, first of all, if you're performing in front of people who aren't there to watch comedy, that show shouldn't exist. That show shouldn't exist, and you're going to fail, and it's not going to be your fault. It's the show's organizer's fault, for trying to foist comedy on people with no warning; this will never work, and he's doing comedy more harm than good. Don't go back to that place.
Second of all, the question isn't how long you go between punchlines. The question is whether you can retain the audience's attention. And punchlines are part of it, but you also need to work on your stage presence, your authority, and your confidence. Part of becoming a comic is not having to constantly throw punchlines at the crowd to keep them interested -- once you can do that, that frees up a lot of space for you as a performer. Which is not to say that having a lot of punchlines isn't good; if they're good punchlines, it is. If the punchlines come naturally, and they work, feel free. But trying to force a punchline where a punchline should not be is just going to make you look too jokey or too desperate, and impede momentum, which is the most important thing.
Think of it on a moment-to-moment basis; especially on an open mic or low-level booked show, the crowd is going into the set with a critical eye. They're trying to figure out whether they should care about you. If you hit them with a barrage of low-level punchlines that don't work, they'll probably think "this guy is making a lot of stupid little jokes", and they'll tune you out before you can hit any of your real punchlines. Conversely, if you speak with confidence and have enough stage presence, you can carry the audience into your first punchline, even if it's several lines in.
Everything that happens before/between the punchlines carries the audience into the punchlines. Think like an audience member. They're in the audience, they're looking at you, they're listening to your first bit. Why do they care about what you're saying? They're not going to care just because you say you're a comic; eventually, you can get them to care based on that, when you show them some punchlines. But you have to give them a reason to care -- a reason to trust you -- until that happens. Once you figure out why they care, or why they should care, or (worst-case scenario) why they DON'T care, you have a direction to proceed in. Work with that.
Yeah, I'm having the most trouble with finding myself on stage right now. Currently I'm relying more on my material than my stage presence, which works because that lets me be able to focus more on developing that. I can tell it's going to take me a while.
And just to be clear, I didn't mean a flat-out "punchline, I pause, audience laughs, I continue" sort of thing every 5-7 seconds, I just meant something small and light that causes a smile and keeps them interested while I talk.
Welcome to first seven years of stand up.
You know what I've been noticing lately is that many popular Comedians are doing the same material/jokes over and over and over and over. I noticed that when I was looking up Aisha Tyler and Norm MacDonald Stand up on Youtube. The backdrop would change and their clothing would change, but they doing the same jokes over and over again almost word for word. I have also read on a site about training new Stand Up Comedians that one mistake the Trainer thought new Comedians would make is changing their material and jokes too often or readily. It sort of got me thinking that I really need to have 6 minutes (since I only do open mics at this point) of my very best jokes and then try to get better and better at delivering the same material rather then changing it each week.
I decided almost right from the get-go that it's counter-productive to change your jokes every time when you're just starting out.
I still DROP a lot of jokes, and hardly do any of the jokes from the first few times I went up. But after I started getting some solid material, I let myself build on them.
It's harder for me because whenever I perform, my fellow stand-up club members are usually there and they see me do the same stuff a lot, so that encourages me to come up with even more.
That way I can build on the same stuff and only use certain jokes certain nights. I like to try at least one new joke every time.
I'm just starting out so I don't see the reason to constantly change and get rid of things. It's better to just develop a library of the stuff, I guess.
As far as professional comics go, I really like Louis CK's way of doing things: he drops all his old material after every special he does now, and starts fresh on tour. As much as I like that, it doesn't apply to me and won't for a long time.
So I use the same stuff, but only the strongest, and I'm sure to throw new things in every time because I'm constantly writing. I'd like to have about 5 seperate sets of a solid 5-minutes, and I can mix and match accordingly.
I actually disagree a bit with that. I've done it a couple times where I have about fifteen to twenty minutes that "work", and eventually I got so sick of telling the jokes that I decided never to tell those jokes again. It gives me an excellent motivator: fear. When I can't use what works, when I have to go and bomb and build a new semi-stable act day by day and mic by mic, that is what makes me get better.
When you start out is exactly when you should be changing stuff out! I'm not saying that when you have a showcase, you go up with virgin material. But when you have an open mic and no immediate prospects, that is when you can have a great time writing.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Do you guys sit down and get yourselves to do some writing, or do jokes and material just come to you at various times during the day/week?
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