One of the biggest problems most new comedians encounter is that the “set-ups” to the punchlines in their comedy act are way too long.

You simply cannot have lengthy set-ups if you are expecting to achieve an average of 4-6 laughs per minute—minimum.

So, what can you do to tighten your stand-up comedy material?

I have developed a rule of thumb that you can use to evaluate your stand-up comedy material called the 20 word rule.

This rule is NOT a hard and fast rule, but more of a guideline you can use to tighten your stand-up comedy material. Here’s the 20 word rule in a nutshell: Read the rest of this entry

For more information about Steve Roye, author of this blog and the Killer Stand-up Online Course, click here.

The whole concept of tightening stand-up comedy material is simple — tweaking your material get the most (or biggest) laughs possible for each and every performing minute.

But what kind of tweaking can you do to tighten your stand-up comedy material?

Let’s assume that you have your stand-up comedy material or jokes written out word for word on paper or on your word processing program.

Here’s a process you can use to squeeze the most laughs out of your stand-up comedy material, provided that you video or audio record your performances. This way, you can associate laugh levels and frequency with your material as it is written on paper. Read the rest of this entry

For more information about Steve Roye, author of this blog and the Killer Stand-up Online Course, click here.