Starting Stand Up - Inspiration / Approach

[rocko24]

Hey all,

I'm new to stand up and trying to get a foothold on the entire deal. All my background is based in improv and screenwriting, and I'm rapidly finding out stand up is a completely different animal. I've gone up twice, doing well my first time, and terrible the second. I'm nervous on stage, desperately trying to find my approach in writing, and being told numerous times to simply be myself.

I want to be able to riff ( playing off my strengths in improv ), but I feel I need topics to get me going and, more importantly, confidence on stage.


I was wondering a few things, I'm hoping AST Members who are performers could help with:

1. What mentality helped you most when first starting? How did you reach that mentality?

2. What albums, films, concert vids, etc. helped you most to study while starting out?

3. What were some of the biggest misconceptions you had starting out?



Thanks everyone,
Andrew

[thegreg]

Check out the sub forum: http://aspecialthing.com/forum/f41/

A ton of ground has been covered in old threads

[Adamonius]

Check out the sub forum: http://aspecialthing.com/forum/f41/

A ton of ground has been covered in old threads

And while you're there, you may want to help out Squall in the "Help Us With Our Jokes" thread--he's having a wee bit of a dog-cock-in-the-mouth problem.

[soulcruncher]

You'll need three things: A table, a hammer, and your balls (ok, four things).

Pull out your balls, gently place them on the table, and start hammering them. Keep hammering. Now STOP. STOP HAMMERING YOUR BALLS. You know that awesome feeling of when you stopped hammering your own balls? That's the EXACT same feeling you'll get when your first joke goes over well with the audience. AND you'll have all this new material about that time you hammered your fucking balls!

[SoSure]

Be amazing.

[Goodspaceguy]

From Mr. Benson:
"It's harder than it looks. Good luck!"

[Cupid Stunt]

"Zen and the art of Stand Up comedy" is good for clearing up early misconceptions. I read it after I had already started, but I'd recommend it to any first timers.

I read a lot of posts on AST...."Open mic experiences" is really long now, but if you have the time, skim it over.

The biggest misconception I had when starting out was that people care about every open mic performance. Try as much stuff out as possible and don't worry about killing every time.

as for "mentality"....don't take it too seriously; if you aren't having fun, don't do it.


My biggest piece of advice would be to not invite friends to see you until you know you can have a good set. And write as much as you can. Any time you think "hey, that might work" write it down.

[Vercetti]

"Zen and the art of Stand Up comedy" is good for clearing up early misconceptions. I read it after I had already started, but I'd recommend it to any first timers.

I second this recommendation. As far as stand-up how-to books go it's got some good insight.

To answer the questions...(I'm a sucker for a poll)

1. What mentality helped you most when first starting? How did you reach that mentality?

I think going in my attitude was basically "fuck it." I had no idea at that point whether or not stand up was for me. So I went in, free of expectations, and just concentrated on having fun. And I found that I really, really liked it, so I kept at it.

2. What albums, films, concert vids, etc. helped you most to study while starting out?

My earliest influences were Carlin, Bill Hicks and Steve Martin. Those were the guys that got me into comedy initially. But nowadays, honestly, I get something out of everything. I just straight up love comedy and appreciate anything funny.

When I first started doing comedy Louis CK's 'Live in Houston' and Todd Barry's albums were big influences in terms of style and approach. Every joke was short and punchy, which I liked.

3. What were some of the biggest misconceptions you had starting out?

Well, the first time I went up I lucked out because the audience was huge and really receptive. To my shock, I actually did well. That made me think every week was going to be like that. The next week I went back I was like "Hey, where is everybody?". So I realized at that point that audiences will always vary.

Couple general tips from my own experiences:

Try to keep the jokes short and structured. Premise, set-up, punch, tags. There's different styles for everybody, though. Mainly just listen to what people laugh at and use that as a guideline.

Talk about things that interest you, or pertain to you. Basically just be true to yourself.

Remember that the audience is there to have a good time and laugh. They're on your side. Just make sure you keep them on your side.

Learn how to take criticism. Honestly, this will help you get better in the long run. Listen to any and all feedback, use what pertains to you.

Cliched to say but HAVE FUN. It is comedy, afterall.

[Jono11]

1. What mentality helped you most when first starting? How did you reach that mentality?

2. What albums, films, concert vids, etc. helped you most to study while starting out?

3. What were some of the biggest misconceptions you had starting out?

1. Whatever mentality motivates you to work hard at your craft, as much as you possibly can. For a lot of people, that mentality is an overwhelmingly negative attitude toward your own work that makes you keep refining it and refining it until finally you just have to call it god and trot it out for the masses. Sometimes, you'll over-polish something and kill it, taking it to the point at which to go back and refigure where your polishing went wrong isn't even tenable. But most of the time, you'll be glad you worked your ass off. For a great example of how this works, listen to some standup comedy bootlegs. You can get great insights into how much better a bit by Carlin, Louis CK, PFT, or David Cross can sound on a released record compared to how it sounded maybe a year or two earlier.
2. Patton Oswalt said, somewhere in some thread on this site, that you should try to watch and/or listen to comedy every day. He noted that even bad comedy helps because you learn what not to do, and that's maybe the best creative advice in terms of what you allow yourself to be influenced by, that I've ever heard. I've found, in my efforts to be a better comic/writer/poet/actor, that bad comedy/fiction/film/poetry is actually VERY helpful, because a lot of the time, you're not going to be realizing that something you're doing sucks until you see how bad it sucks when someone else does it.
3. That I was innately good and I was going to blow people away with my raw talent and genetically programmed comedic skill. Had a couple of good outings, but the third or fourth time, when I ran out of indie/alty/collegey rooms in my area of central Kansas, it didn't work out so well, and I quit for awhile.

[Cupid Stunt]

Also....I DISTINCTLY remember after getting up the first time, thinking

"wow that was nowhere near as scary as I thought it would be"

[ErikNielsen]

1. What mentality helped you most when first starting? How did you reach that mentality?

Honestly, I started with the basics: write some funny material, bring it to the stage, write some more funny material.

For my first month or two, I used to bring my entire set with me, typed out longhand, on stage. I don't recommend literally doing this... I had the material memorized (I do recommend this, of course), so I didn't have to refer to the paper much, and also I read really quickly. I ended up basically using it like a more traditional set-list, so I just converted to that.

I treated my first shows like a poetry reading or a performance of a play. I'm not saying that's always the best way to go about performing your stand-up, but it certainly worked out for me.

I remember telling myself, "the least embarrassing thing you can do right now is to keep saying your material." And I did well in my first few shows, but telling myself that got me through the rough patches that did occur.

I also remember telling myself "okay, you don't know any of these people... if you bomb, you can just sneak out the door and never think of this again." This might have helped to cut down on the pressure, but I don't know that I'd endorse it as a way of thinking.

2. What albums, films, concert vids, etc. helped you most to study while starting out?

None of the above. If you mean "inspired my early work", well, there was Woody Allen's essays, Monty Python, The Simpsons, Steven Wright, Robin Williams (oddly enough)... honestly, I was never a big stand-up fan growing up. I only had a vague notion of what it was, really.

But once I got going, I mostly learned from watching live shows. That's the closest to "studying" I did, and it's probably the most efficient way. Like, you can watch Louis CK's new special or listen to an old Cosby album, and that's better comedy than anything you're going to see live most of the time. But you can't be in the room and see clearly how Cosby works off the crowd, and you're not going to be able to ask Louis CK any questions after the show.

I was in Boston, surrounded by veteran comics who killed on a regular basis, and who were more than willing to offer advice, so I learned a lot very quickly. I'm not sure what comedy is like in North Carolina, but if you can find some veterans whose work you respect, they might have some things to say. (Don't pester them... most comics will offer advice pretty freely, unless they think you're being a nuisance.)

3. What were some of the biggest misconceptions you had starting out?

I recall thinking I couldn't re-use material. I told myself that I would do any given set only once per venue... this notion lasted until my fourth 5 minutes in 3 weeks, which was the point where I ran out of ideas for the first time. So it was a pretty ridiculous notion, but at least it pushed me to build up a decent stock of material to work with at the beginning.

[MJEH]

"Wow, that was nowhere near as scary as I thought it would be!"

I had this exact same thought after the first time I masturbated.