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Keep a pad and pen on you at all times. Most people actually think of tons and tons of stuff on any given day, they just don't write it down. Then, during a writing session, take those ideas and run that poo poo into the ground. Material isn't usually the problem. You can read the phonebook on stage and it'll work if you present it right. Literally. A comedian actually did that at Edinburgh,for like 20 minutes, and it was a hit. People really will laugh at any old poo poo, so long is its presented well. We live in a world where loving Friends is considered comedy gold by many.. Don't lose too much sleep about material.
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Nov 30, 2012 01:20
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 10:33 |
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inthesto posted:Another goon who's thought about trying the comedy thing without knowing where to start checking in. loving hell, this post ran away from me. Wall of text time, folks. I don't really see the upside as an exercises over spending time working on your own material. Timing and material are interlinked - Doug Stanhope couldn't do Michael Mcintyre's material, no matter how he reworked it. There's no 'bypassing' the problem, I'm afraid. Fortunately, you've already solved it, and have been solving it since you were like 2. You already have you material, delivery and rhythm. Every time you've ever made a friend laugh, you've delivered a good joke with great timing. That's all it is. Stand up is about transplanting that moment to the stage. To do that firstly you've got to remember it a week later - Keep a pad and a pen in your back pocket at all times. A smartphone won't cut it - I tried it, and I just ended with pages of meaningless shorthand that can be rather disturbing to read back. Why did I have a note that simply said "PEOPLE ON TRAIN in capitals letters? Why did I have a note that simply said "Jews"? I mean, I'm not that sorta comedian. At least I don't want to be. I guess the world will never know. Seriously, I can't emphasise that point enough. Keep a motherfucking pad and pen in your back pocket at all times. Forever. Always be writing stupid poo poo down. Always. This here Ted talk nails it, albeit in the most pretentious way possible. Feel self-concious scrawling away in front of your mates? A few deaths on stage will quickly put that poo poo into focus. That's the trick. Notes. Notes notes notes. Notes notes notes notes notes. Motherfucking goddamn notes. When you come to sit down and write your set, you should have a solid bank of dumb bullshit to draw on. Pick the bits that still seem funny (That'll be about 1% of your notes - thats why it's important to take so drat many), repeat the joke outloud and then write down the wording. Make sure you do say it out loud, it'll help you write with your own voice and not in the style of Shithead and friends who were DJing the radio on the drive home. Then rehearse it. Again and again. Your mind will go blank on stage, this poo poo needs to be borderline instinctual. Once you've got to the point that your murmuring nob gags in your sleep, you'll be able to recall it at a whim. This is good - When you panic on stage and your mind goes blank (it will) your mouth can start running this poo poo off on automatic while you brain figures out what's going on. The audience will never know. Then do it on stage, feel awkward as gently caress because your talking to 20 silent strangers you can't even see, fluff it, feel terrible, drink yourself into oblivion, repeat, and hope you get good and make a living by the time your liver implodes. Welcome to stand up comedy, shitheads. ----- Since people are asking for writing techniques, I figured I'd share a few I picked up when I was gigging. I'm in two minds about sharing some of these - they work, but they're more designed for panel show writers who have to come up with 75 gags a week (No, comedians don't write all the jokes on those shows themselves. Also, Wrestling is fake and there is no tooth fairy). Some comedians, at least on the British scene, rely far too much on these techniques and end up sounding like generic middle class white guy on stage #263. Why Yes Mr Open Mic Comedian. I, too, have noticed Boris Johnsons crazy hair, but I'd never have the balls to mention it outloud. Well done sir. You have my axe. And my bow. The two steps of association So, the idea goes that you take a blank piece of paper and write a thing down in a circle. It can be anything. Since this thread will inevitably turn into a graveyard of broken dreams, lets take the word "dreams". Now, with a spider diagram, do a bit of word association. It can be anything, funny's not the point yet. Done? Now take those words you've come up with, and do the same exercise on them. You'll have something that looks a bit like this, only hopefully not written in my hideous rodent-man hybrid scrawl.  You then take two areas that are far away from each other on the diagram, ram them together and see if theres a joke there. I've only done a expanded in a couple of areas because whatever, but from this limited example alone there I've got: "The problem these days is that Martin Luther King wouldn't of had a dream, because he was up all night playing Mafia Wars" "I don't understand. I'm a guild master and a level 56 elf, but my parents still tell me I don't have any ambition" Not great, but then it was like 5 minutes work. If you kept digging there'd be some gems in there. I'm sure there's something on Martin Luther Kings Wet Dream, an ambitious bed, a wet nightmare (There's probably a whole loving set there) facebook for pillows...... Breaking memes for fun and profit I'm tempted to go onto kickstarter to campaign for the funds to buy advertising on Reddit that simply says "THAT'S NOT WHAT MEME MEANS". By meme, I'm referring to a widely culturally accepted phrase or idea, so something like "It takes two to tango", or "A watched kettle never boils". This exercise is about simply subverting a meme. So, one that always worked well in my set goes: "They say a problem shared is a problem solved. Now I have the clap" I wrote a shitload of them a few years ago, but that was the only one that worked. Which pissed me off: "A watched kettle is still better than BBC3" was way better. Audiences are poo poo. The Thank You list Simple. Have a near nervous breakdown on paper about all the poo poo that pisses you off day to day. Then find a way to 'thank' those responsible for it. This technique will also allow you to understand British people. The goddamn motherfucking rule of goddamn three I hate this idea, because it's based on the same concepts that form a key part of every creepy NLP, hard sales and PUA course out there. But it does work, so whatever. Theory goes that the brain abosrbs things that are presented in groups of three. In adverts you'll often get slogans like "Bigger, better, faster!!!". The comedic technique is to do the same thing, but throw in something subversive. "I love my girlfriend. She's friendly, funny, and has finally stopped trying to escape the basement" - It's not an open mic set if it doesn't include at least one poorly thought out rape joke, folks. It's been a while since I gigged, if any other tricks come to mind I'll post 'em. But please please please don't rely on 'writing techniques' alone, unless your goal is to be a completely forgettable hack, in which case carry on. Trust me though, the poo poo you talk about with your mates is far more genuine and therefore funny than anything you'd get out of any 'writing technique' - comedy is about being the funny person in the pub. In front of a room of judgemental strangers. While blind. Pastamania fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Dec 11, 2012 |
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Dec 11, 2012 21:33
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Zero Star posted:I'd like to recommend the series of videos that veteran Irish comedian Ed Byrne made for FHM as part of their Stand Up Hero contest. They cover aspects such as wording jokes, how to conduct yourself on stage, and so on. I used to gig around London, most gigs and networking tends to be done in Facebook round here on a group called 'the comedy collective', which also doubles up as on of the most hilarious dives of Internet drama queens you'll ever find. Ask there if your looking for gigs in London. You can literally gig every night of the week in London, but be aware that people so tollarance for shock value is somewhat higher than elsewhere - it's worth getting out of town every few weeks as well if you can, you'll be a better comedian for it.
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Dec 26, 2012 14:26
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Smerdyakov posted:Standup is kind of a solitary journey that many people don't find rewarding because the concrete circumstances are kinda ugly and repetitive. So I guess it's not too surprising this thread hasn't really taken off, but it's still a shame. Other than generic drunken redneck crowds and a couple of comic friends who have the same sense of humor as me, there's not a lot of opportunity to get people to listen to bounce ideas off, or just listen to my stuff and see if it's funny to strangers. The other reason standup threads don't tend to take off is that standup should be inherently undoable in written form, which is what we're largely limited to in a thread. If you watch a lot of comedy you'll notice that there's an almost musical element to a lot of it - 3 beats of setting up an expectation for the audience, and then a beat subverting it for the punchline. Sure, the greats know how to subvert and play with that form, but if you watch stuff from earlier in the careers, they almost certainly mastered it first. Standup is like being a musical conductor, only change a classy music hall for dive bar, replace the orchestra with bunch of drunk angry rednecks, and replace that little stick you have with a poorly thought out knob gag. It bares repeating, one guy got rave reviews in Edinburgh by reading out a phonebook on stage for 20 minutes. Talk to non-standups - most of them are most impressed when the comedian 'improvises' and deals with the public. Literally, the most impressive thing a comedian can do in their eyes is hold a basic 30 second conversation. The reason isn't that its 'funny material', but because most people are loving terrified that you'll try and talk to them, and so when you do it introduces a tension to the room that makes the most mundane bullshit seem like comedy gold. That's the sort of energy that's unique to standup, and it doesn't really translate into threads. I'd argue that your 'drunken rednecks' are the perfect feedback. Learn to handle them without compromising your own material, and you're set for every audience on the planet.
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Dec 28, 2012 13:48
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Dick Holden posted:Here is the latest set I've done (sixth time getting up), which is awful since now it is over two months old. I really need to move out of this place. http://soundcloud.com/richardjburke/20121028-234940/s-M5ycE (I just relistened to this and it was a terrible experience, a lot of it sounds so hacky) There's some good stuff here mate. Yeah, it's wank and poop and buttsex all the way, but its good wank and poop and buttsex. The 'number 3' stuff made me laugh. Is it normal for the Compare to heckle during a set over there? I mean, he wasn't trying to break your act or anything but I could hear where one of his quips towards the end led you to losing your flow. Dunno if its just a cultural thing, but that's a big no-no on this side of the pond. I'd of been pissed if I were in your shoes. Overall, I'd say the pacing was good and you kept in control of your audience. You said it sounded 'hacky' and...yeah, wanking and the poopies are well worn topics. You sound confident enough that I think you can get away from that sort of easy, scatalogical material a bit without losing the audience. You might not get as many 'shock' laughs, but you won't lose them at all. There are some bits in there that you could maybe run with to take it well off the beaten (heh) track - for example, you quipped that you came up with 'number 3' to hide doing it at work. I really liked the number 3 gag, but you hinted at a whole weird working life that you didn't then touch on. Some ideas that popped into my mind that you could explore - Is that some sort of accepted code with your boss, and if so does, how far and absurd can you make that relationship? What's a number 4? 5? What if it's something absolutely mundane, like 'Eating a tuna sandwich'. Or sad, like 'a good cry' What sort of ridiculous conversations can that lead to? What happens when you combine them? Or, what about being at work makes you want to have a number 3? Is it a reaction to something? Wanking in the toilet at work is a pretty extreme and absurd visual, can you find something about the world of work that it is equally as extreme but in the opposite direction? I used to work in a call centre, and I started coming up with some half-formed quip about being now so dead inside now I can only get off if someone over the age of 80 calls me a oval office before 9.57am. Or, what about the language itself of the phrase. Workplaces are full of code and weird corporate language - having setup to the audience what 'Number 1,2 and 3' means, you could use those terms to act a conversation with, say, an invisible member of HR, that is incredibly scatological and offensive while juxtaposing the content with incredibly polite corporate doublespeak.
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Jan 5, 2013 15:05
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 10:33 |
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Dr_Amazing posted:Is consider myself a funny guy but I'm terrified that I'm completely unable to separate jokes that are funny to my friends or co-workers and things that a room full of complete strangers would laugh at. Being a 'funny guy' and being a 'comedian' are two different things, and once you meet some you'll find that there are plenty of really good comedians out there who are the dullest, most depressing motherfuckers to ever walk the planet. You write a little, you gig a little, you get a laugh or two, you junk the other 4 minutes and 45 seconds of crap, you gig a little, you write a little, and by the time you've got a viable 30 minute show 5 years and 1000 gigs later your pretty much too emotionally dead inside to care. Congratulations. You're now a professional comedian. Enjoy your early, alcohol fueled death, rear end in a top hat. Also, don't worry about your material. Material means diddly poo poo. Nobody cares about your oh so loving important opinions or the that clever bit of wordplay you came up with. The dumbest bullshit on earth can work if it's presented right. It's the little things that go into the presentation - the pause between words, the expression, the tone, reading and playing with the energy in the room - all of that combines to make a bit of material work. Developing that instinct, modifying a pause, or making that stare a little bit more intense; that's the real craft of Stand up, and you only get that from stage time. Basically, every set you write will be poo poo until you've done it a few dozen times anyway. Just loving nut up and get on with it. Bombing on stage is way more fun than an evening in front of the TV anyway.
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Mar 29, 2014 23:36
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