Your Set
Practice talking and thinking out loud. Anticipate responses to what you're saying, more importantly, anticipate ways someone could roast and mock you and then you can meta-humor it and say all of it first. Take advantage of your own inner critic. This is key in why comedian's brains when scanned show more blood flow to the sentence planning areas. When you're properly in the zone, time slows down, you can finish people's sentences and in the time you have, think of funnier endings or responses. And have add-ons to your own sentences "Word? That's pretty unique. Actually it probably is for around here."
The special needs to seem like a stream of consciousness like a really long conversation.
Also read and write more regularly to improve articulation.
Unique, interesting persona. 1-3 main traits. Then you can speak and interact with a direction. A goal in mind. The audience needs to be able to process you. Normand "You've gotta have a hardcore persona to sustain attention for an hour."
People are more likely to laugh if they like you. Come off as humble (self-deprecating), smart/clever (wordplay) kind, honest, relatable (observations), vulnerable (embarrassing truths).
Build and release tension.
Build vibe at beginning of set. Address anything interesting about the night prior to you getting up, the environment, town, last comedians, break 4th wall, self-deprecate. Be very perceptive, like the 2 signs at foot-loose.
Always be trying to make yourself laugh. When you are good at that again, you will find/build your audience.
Fearing failure will ironically stifle your confidence. Confidence puts the audience at ease.
Have some ideas and templates already sitting into prepared slots in your head for the right moment, eventually you will unlock more slots. Like how I start my set with multiple comments on prior transpiring's. "Well it's a bad day to be..." "You see this [object]? This is [prior understanding of prior event]" like what Pete did with my windshield.
Focus on the externals, the audience, not yourself. It's supposed to be conversational.
Hyper-self-awareness. A comedian should wield their insecurities because trying to keep ourselves together makes us fall apart.
Memorizing your set gives you freedom to vary. And properly practice the jokes too. Vary the tone, prosody, pitch, facial expression and tempo until it's funny just because of those things alone.
How long are your sentences? how much tone variation is there?
Laughter is a tool that can be used to encourage laughter. Luke Kidgell, Pete, Burr, Chappelle.
Remember Mark Normand was nervous for the first 3 years and even when he's trying new stuff it feels hard and bad.
Crowd Work
C.K is ruthless with hecklers/interruptions because his show is so to the word. Kidgell, Chappelle and Gillis can mess around more. More conversational comics do tend to get more interruptions though. Because they make it feel less like a performance.
Practice trying to make strangers laugh more by trying to make yourself laugh. You have to have courage and faith that every moment has a joke to offer. When you really believe it your brain will really find it. Force yourself into that giddy mood by smiling and laughing. This requires following your impulsive gut, in every split second it’s like you’re asking yourself what is the funniest thing to say/do right now? And because the brain is a problem solving machine it will find it.
Bombing happens when you are disconnected, treat them like an individual, crowd work is about forming a connection not immediately seeking the gag. Ask questions because they also buy you time. I riff best when I genuinely find something funny, and I know other people in the room do too, and when I can feel the goodwill of others to be ready and willing to laugh at me. Picture the audience as Tara or Eddy and Sterling or family.
Another strong tool is sniffing out contradictions and incongruity like a blood hound. I thought you were an IT specialist and you can't even turn your ringtone off". Again, like flirting.
This can also be used with drawing a long bow, narrowing in on what they've said and isolating the implications of what they've said-false dichotomies, black and white fallacy, strawman. Think about how you would bully someone you felt was inferior to you.
Sarcasm, mocking parodying what someone's said.
Echoing their words "end the show"-"end yourself" and it's brother parallelism.
Throwbacks. If you're quick you can find a way to link them to something negative maybe in relation to a previous joke you said "speaking of bacteria" or something that they themselves have said. Or simply something that everyone has experienced from the night.
Reframing context of what someone has said.
Raw honesty. Saying what you think others will be thinking. But if you can, dress up the subtext so there is a little bit of logic leaping, it will make it that little bit better.
Word association (controversial edgy-America school shooting)
Idiom scrolling. You will land on some you may be able to keep in a mental slot for later.
Meta-humor. Stepping outside of the situation to critique it and commentate. Similar to add-ons I would say, being quick in the moment. “what do you do?” “Work” “Pretty unique! Actually it probably is for around here…
Gather data from heckler to weaponize (ask questions) or use anything said prior to the exchange as a weapon to smack them with. You could point out something negative about them or make something half believable up and then utilize human bias and presupposition to press anything into that narrative.
As soon as you notice something occur more than once, you've got a pattern, or an opportunity to manufacture a pattern or commonality "Mort's I've never seen this guy without baked goods!"
Quickly making up angles on the spot "man your parents must..." "What happens when you..."
Act outs for teasing. Mockingly putting words in people's mouths. "I drank so much laughter before!" "I didn't know which comedian I was gunna fuck with tonight but then this lanky cunt comes out and I just knew..."
If you want to be quick then you have to detach emotionally from intentions behind statements and focus purely on the words, and it all has to be unconscious too unfortunately, like trying to stare at the squiggly line in your eye and it disappears.
Put them in the wrong however you can even if it's artificial to get them on the back foot. "what did you expect?" "Do you always plan activities you hate? Etc.
Bombing
Don't stress, you'll probs never see them again. Always have more stressful situations in the back of your mind, like being tortured or raped. Also, your validation doesn't come from this.
Acknowledge the bomb. Have backup lines prepared.
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