The most important thing to remember when writing material is that there is no formula, no rules, and no brief. While most comedians use similar structures, comedians as diverse as Mitch Hedberg and Richard Pryor have used unusual styles to great effect. So in comedy the main thing is to do what you think is funny. If it does, great; if not, play with it, tinker with it, change it or even junk it. But to be yourself, in fact and matter.
There are sure to be hints, tips and tricks to help you write new material and improving existing material. This format is too short to cover them in detail (please see a list of recommended books for this topic – JUDY Carter’s The Comedy Bible and her link here), but we can cover the basics. about jocular writings, and about the common mistakes I know writers make with their material.
Where does the funny come from?
Pity, who does not know? He was famous for the pranksters who fell on the plane, Johnny Carson who were certain of his jokes the monologues were funny. and they were wrong. Sociologists, comedians, writers, and others have all explained humor ad nauseum — and little progress has been made.
In terms of standing, one thing to remember is that “funny” comes from “serious”. Lenny Bruce attacked racism and the Catholic Church (among many, many other targets); George Carlin attacked the censors and the war on television; and one of Richard Pryor’s most famous bits was played at the time he was nearly burned. They also make jokes about weddings, travel, money, and other serious common subjects, often mundane. Telling a funny story about your friend going crazy after a dozen shots of whiskey isn’t funny (and probably won’t even be funny on stage). Write down the material of your life, society, all your troubles.
Setup and Punchline
Although a common complaint is that standup-comedy is defined more by “attitude” and less by writing style, most of it is still funny. follows the standard structure setup by the punchline. The program “sets up” the joke by providing the audience with information and direction for the joke. The punchline provides humor. To use an old joke that would be imitated, “My Aunt Lucy is so old.” The punchline would be “Her Social Security number is 7.” Beginning comedians make the mistake of taking too long with their comments. No matter how good the punchline is, the store may not be influencing if your sales take thirty, forty-five, or even twenty seconds. One of the best tips I was ever given was, “take your best fifteen minutes and cut it to ten.” Even if you can’t cut this much, you can cut a few minutes for a tighter, funnier set. Limit the setup to the information required by the game. If it’s a joke about your aunt Lucy, you don’t need to tell us that it’s your favorite, or that it’s cute, or that it’s not really your aunt but your mother’s aunt. The audience probably doesn’t care enough (and neither do you, apparently, joking about your poor sweet old Aunt Lucy).
In the punchline, it is important to remember that it needs to be funny. It sounds basic, but I’ve seen so many comedians set up a perfectly funny scene, only to follow it up with “Can you believe it?” or “I didn’t know what to do.” You know well. Now you’re a comedian. Your job is not only to find humor, but to bring it out. A good friend of mine, who is not only a comedian, but who plays comedians in New YorkYork once commented on the audience circle, “Everybody thinks they’re doing observational humor, but it’s just observations. There’s no punchlines there.”
Tags
A ‘tag’ means something added to the joke after the punchline. Usually a quick one liner, or second or third punchline, the tag keeps the moment of the joke going and builds on the humor of the original punchline. Tags are relatively advanced content – even established comics take weeks, even months, to create a new joke to a large extent – should be considered to review your material. Can you add another punchline? Can you add a self-deprecating comment, or your own short joke? Three punchlines are better than one, and three laughs are definitely better than one.
Tags are important to consider, as they emphasize the fact that the best source material for new content exists. I recently sat down and watched a tape I made a while back – back when I only had about ten minutes of decent (the relative term decent) stuff. I discussed six topics in ten minutes. I now discuss seven topics in thirty minutes – all of which he leaves six places from the return. One of the jokes was made about the Four Mountains; One of the jokes about the wedding is made in three parts that take about five minutes. The point is, as you grow up to be a comedian, your existing jokes are born. Once you’ve hit on a theme, it’s easier for the audience to get to the next joke, and easier for you as a writer to find more nuggets of humor.
If you’ve made one joke about prescription drug commercials (a common theme these days), try it for two. If that trade was funny – can you attack others as well? What does the commercial language say about our company? Is there a common thread across many commercials that you can comment on?
Unique and Common
Stand-up comedy, with the latter, is essentially about finding common ground in common experiences. The reason why comics constantly draw on subjects like relationships, television, and politics is because they all have common experiences that are easily identified and related. It’s important that your jokes cover topics that your audience can understand. If you make a joke about feeling sorry for your old Aunt Lucy, the joke can’t just be funny around the Thanksgiving dinner table. What is it about Aunt Lucy that everyone, or even most, of the audience can relate to as their aunt or grandmother? Too many comic book principles seem to make jokes that fit the old cliche answer, “I guess you’ve been there.”
On the flip side: it’s important to remember that your joke is unique. Sure Michael Jackson is weird – but why is your joke worth saying? What do you have to wear? What do you bring to the table? It’s important to watch other comedians to get started. Do they like your jokes? If so, you might want to consider dropping those jokes. It’s painful to cut two minutes when you only have six, but in the long run it will propel you to become a unique, successful comedian.
“Hack”
“Hack” is the most powerful word in stand-up comedy. “Hack” jokes are jokes about topics that are covered ad nauseum. One example is, “If the black box doesn’t break, why don’t they make the whole plane out of the black box?” (For a complete list of hack jokes and themes, you can see the great list at http://www.chucklemonkey.com/hacklist.htm). “Hack” jokes are a perfect example of the need for a comic to be unique.
On the other hand, it means to be a comedian who steals the fun from other comedians. I cannot emphasize strongly enough that this is not acceptable in any way. I’ve read and heard elsewhere that comedians are starting to “re-write” other comedians’ jokes to learn their voice or style . This is completely false. There is no such thing as “borrowing” the fun, and even taking part in the fun is not wrong. If you break your reputation, comedians will disown you, and rightly so. What’s more, you’ll never be able to look at yourself in the mirror, or proudly refer to yourself as a stand-up comedian.
It is true that two comedians can come up with similar jokes independently. The comics refer to this as “parallel thinking”. Your reaction to this matter depends. If another opener in another town has the same fun, maybe you can save yours. But if you see Chris Rock or Louis Black making a similar joke, you need your junk. It is a trick, of course, but a solitary joke is not enough to be suspected as a caballo by either the audience or the fellow-comedian.
Trial and Error
For all books, seminars and articles like this, comedy is a personal process. You need to find your own voice and style. The most important thing to remember is that it takes time. Ask someone for a headline, feature, or MC, and ask how good their act has been six months, or two years in. I’m horrified by the machines from six months ago and some jokes that now seem weak.
If you write a joke, and you think it’s funny, try it on stage. If it doesn’t work, try again. Play with tradition, tinker with design. Change “eleven” for “thirteen”; stay in another place It is amazing that in tradition, time or material can make a seemingly small change.
Stand-up is unfortunately a trial-and-error proposition. You write jokes that you think are funny, that you’ve always written, and they just don’t make it. And you write jokes that you don’t even think are funny and they kill. But you have to try everything on stage. Not friends, or mom, or significant others, but shows. If they don’t work, they suck and go. But when they work, you will quickly understand why the comics were so exciting and exciting.
This article was originally published on Suite101.com, although subsequent changes have been added.
