Most people who land on this blog are under the impression that all they really need to get off to a great start as a comedian is to find a few solid stand-up comedy tips and they are good to go!
If that describes you, I wish you the best of luck in your stand-up comedy adventures because luck will be most of what you will be depending on.
Don’t get me wrong – the right stand-up comedy tips can provide a variety of insights, perspectives, career considerations, etc. along with other basic and foundational information about the process of becoming a comedian.
However…
To depend on stand-up comedy tips alone found online as the sole resource for the development and delivery of a stand-up comedy act that will actually generate laughs is a formula for disaster — kind of like trying to transport a bowling ball across a room using a wet paper towel.
I would have to say that some of the biggest overall mistakes an individual can make as they are considering taking a stab at stand-up comedy is this:
They falsely assume that stand-up comedy is as easy as the pro comedians make it look and/or they assume that there simply cannot be that much involved with putting together a stand-up comedy routine.
Subsequently, they make the tragic assumption that some carefully selected stand-up comedy tips should be enough to do the trick. Not a smart move.
It is only after they hit the stage armed only with a few non-actionable stand-up comedy tips they found online resulting in sucking horribly in front of friends and family that they are rudely awakened to the fact that there is much more involved with becoming a comedian than they thought.
Unfortunately at this point the damage is done — the public humiliation of having an audience simply stare during a new comedian’s act or even worse, start yawning, talking among themselves or even heckling is enough to stop many new comedians dead in their tracks.
I know this from firsthand experience. It took me almost 10 years to even consider attempting stand-up comedy again after a single embarrassing 3 minute performance on stage (more like a 3 minute disaster) in my early 20’s.
But that was “back in the day”, you say. Today we have the internet so one should be able to find more than enough awesome stand-up comedy tips for FREE to help them get the big laughs on stage in record time!
Here’s the reality:
Developing and delivering a stand-up act that actually generates noteworthy audience laughter is a process. It is a process involving the proficient application of actionable knowledge, the sharpening of existential comedy talent coupled with the drive and desire to dominate the stand-up comedy stage.
For some, that process is long and difficult. For others, it is not as long or as difficult.
But it is a process none the less — one that involves integration of a number of critical aspects that must work in harmony together in order for a comedian to achieve the desired effect which is to get big and frequent laughs.
It involves work, testing, adjusting, editing and rework that most new comedians are not even remotely aware of.
I’ve said this before and I will say it again — anyone can suck as a comedian. One need only attend ANY stand-up comedy open mic night anywhere on the planet to easily verify this.
So if you think that just a few stand-up comedy tips are going to put you over the top when you finally hit the stage, again I wish you the best of luck because you are seriously going to need it.
I offer my stand-up comedy tips on this blog for these reasons:
- To demonstrate that there is much more involved with developing and delivering a stand-up comedy act that will actually generate laughs than what most believe is involved.
- To provide a largely unique perspective when it comes to the process of becoming a comedian, especially in the beginning.
- To demonstrate that much of the information usually provided to new comedians is not only worthless, but may actually limit a person’s abilities in their quest to become a comedian.
- To provide a means for individuals to verify information, ideas, concepts that I have to offer for themselves whenever possible.
- To provide insight about stand-up comedy and becoming a comedian that is simply not available from other sources.
- To introduce new and perspective comedians to my online course for those who are serious about pursuing stand-up comedy professionally.
However as you review the articles on this blog, keep this in mind:
I want folks who review the articles on this blog to understand that what I provide here is largely informational in nature and NOT step-by-step actionable like the information that I provided in my online course.
And if you make the decision to step on the stand-up comedy stage armed only with stand-up comedy tips from ANY source…
Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you when things don’t go quite as you would have liked.