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The very best stand-up comedy tips on the planet for new comedians!
The very best stand-up comedy tips on the planet for new comedians!
This post is for archived comments that have been moved from other posts.
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Sounds like my life all right! Foxcraft
Name I used for humor satire column Daily Iowan (U. of Iowa – Writer’s Workshop)1969 so President wouldn’t kick me out of school!
Another factor that can affect how your material works is how YOU feel. I recently spoke at a social event with about 80 adults (and some children — and that’s another factor for out-of-club speakers to consider!) in the audience. While I was confident in my material and couldn’t wait to get to the mic. However, I had been feeling unwell and took medicine that left me muddled and somewhat confused. Although I got the anticipated laughs in the right places, I “blanked out” with some of the tags and some of my biggest laughs which I felt were set up well with smaller laughs but, unfortunately, built up to a climax that never occurred!
My point here is this: Sometimes, even when everything else is ideal, how YOU feel can be the factor that has the biggest effect on audience reaction to your meticulously-prepared and well-rehearsed material. I’m not sure how I will handle it next time, but just being aware that it CAN happen will help me deal with it next time.
People who are professional “joke writers” must become an expert on the comedian they are writing for. It’s like a sitcom writer who is part of a writing team. When one writer writes an episode, the characters have to talk and act and react the same way as they would when a different writer writes an episode. All the writers on the team become experts on every character who appears on the show. Why do people think that anyone can write material for any other comedian without studying that comedian? That would be like me writing an episode for a sitcom that I have never seen, let alone watched on a regular basis. It wouldn’t work, and neither does genetic jokes!