Since I have taken it upon myself to name the “World’s Funniest Comedian” based on PAR Score (Positive Audience Response), it seems appropriate to talk about how to go about improving your stand-up comedy PAR Score.

But before I go there, let me say this:

If your PAR Score is 45 or above, only the very best comedians could even follow you on stage. The “average” headlining comedian delivers stand-up comedy material at a PAR Score rate of somewhere between 30-35.

I should also mention that having an outrageously high PAR Score is no guarantee for “Hollywood” type fame and fortune, if that is your goal. As a matter of fact, you don’t even have to be that funny if you have the attributes a producer or director is looking for. But in my humble opinion, being as funny as possible could be a catalyst to get you recognized in the first place.

But if I have it my way, within the next 5 years PAR Score will be the PRIMARY factor used to hire comedians or comedy entertainers, with the type of content the comedian delivers as the secondary consideration.

No matter what, your PAR Score is a BIG DEAL and an objective measure of your ability to generate laughter from an audience that you should be concerned with.

So, how do you improve your PAR Score?

Here are the top three things you need to look at when it comes to improving your laughter power on stage:

1. Shorten your set-ups. I am so sick of talking about this, but I am going to repeat it like a broken record…

The longer your set-ups are, the less laughter you will get on stage. Period. Providing the audience too much information or information that has no real added value to your comedy material is like a cancer that plagues this industry.

[ ** Sorry... This content is available exclusively for SCP Blog Members ONLY. Please Login or Register to access this MEMBERS ONLY content ** ]

2. Don’t be in a hurry to get to the next line when the audience is laughing. The second you start talking, the audience stops laughing.

I can’t even tell you the number of videos I have reviewed where the comedian was at a 25 PAR Score and could have been at a 35 PAR Score if they just didn’t cut the audience off from laughing by moving to the next line too quickly.

3. Understand that punchlines DON’T have to be words — they can be gestures, a look on your face, hand and leg movements etc.

Unfortunately, too many comedians are STUCK on verbal punchlines alone, which automatically decreases your laughter power.

That last statement is the main reason “joke writing” comedians will NEVER hit the higher PAR Score marks like Killer Stand-up Comedy System comedians do.

When you maximize (not over exaggerate) your body language and facial expressions, you don’t have to use as many words and they can become punchlines themselves.

If you want to know how J. R. Redwater was able to attain an overall 62 PAR Score over 9 minutes, just watch the video and count the number of laughs that are related to facial expressions and body language. If that doesn’t illustrate what I am talking about, nothing will.

Here’s the video again, which for me is a killer training tool to illustrate what I teach in the Killer Stand-up Comedy System:

Cheers,
Steve Roye
The Professor of Funny for Money

About the Author/Founder of the SCP Blog


Steve Roye is the author of the Killer Stand-up Comedy System and is a globally recognized expert in the field of stand-up comedy material development and presentation strategies -- for entertainers as well as speaking professionals.

Please check out the Featured Articles page for direct links to articles on this blog for pro comedians, comedy entertainers, and speaking professionals.

Last 5 posts by Steve Roye

Link 2 This Post!
1. Click inside either code box
2. Right-Click then Copy
3. Paste the code into page

Thank you for linking to us!
Direct Link (Facebook, MySpace, Hub Pages)
HTML Code (Blogs/Web Pages)
Share This Post

Tagged with: • • • • •

Filed under: Performance Improvement

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!