Hackneying

The other night I saw a guy perform for the second ever time, he told a load of unoriginal hackneyed jokes, the sort your mates text you or you find on sickipedia, nothing he said I hadn't heard before, he even at one point did a bit straight from one of the Ricky Gervais live DVD's

This made me very angry, I am not really sure why, I support every comedian I meet on the scene even if they are not funny I respect them for writing their own material and having the balls to get up there and do it.

But this guy really struck a nerve with me, I am not sure if it was because he was trying to pass these jokes of as his own or if it was because everyone else had put the time and effort in to writing their own material.

He bombed which I guess was more than justified, I kind of wanted to have a word with him after though and ask what he was doing telling other people's jokes but he was a big fella!

Maybe I am being too harsh and he did not understand the concept of stand up comedy, maybe he thought this is what everyone does.

Perhaps I should speak to a psychiatrist rather than post here, has anyone else had a similar experience? do you think I had the right to feel angry about it?

I don't think you are wrong to feel angry about it.

However, he received his punishment - his act bombed.

I don't really know much about life. But I am slowly learning that worrying about what other people do/don't do/say/don't say gets you nowhere.

You just get angry and frustrated. The only person who really suffers is you.

So whilst plagiarism is always wrong, I'd let it go. Concentrate on being the best you can be and wipe the floor with him.

I hope he hadn't actually written all the jokes himself & they just got knicked by other people.
Poor sod, walking home thinking how can jokes that got 10,000 retweets bomb so badly.

Don't get annoyed, just laugh at him...oh, hang on that would not work would it...

A lot of people think this is how you get started in stand up comedy, they just don't understand that you are supposed to be original and not some sort of tribute act.

It's probably worth pointing it out to acts who do this, if only for their own good as once they get onto the circuit they'll find that promoters won't book them.

Thanks guys, your replies have made me feel a lot better, I just wanted to get it off my chest really, I guess I should have said something to him, but I was on straight after, which is part of the reason I was annoyed as he had made the audience very hostile, (if your curious I did manage to turn it around and got a mention as one of the best 3 acts of the night) and he apparently stormed straight out of the bar.

On a side note congratulations Tony on your audiogo thing, I listened to it, your one liners kill, wish I could write like that!

Thanks for the kind words Julio, it was a bit odd as I literally just spent a couple of minutes recording a bit of one of my routines on my iPhone hours before the deadline for the competition, so it's just me telling jokes with no audience, which, to my ears, sounds very odd.

Oh and well done on turning the gig around, it's a skill that will stand you in good stead.

It's interesting to note that before the 70s-80s, it was very common for comics to use other people's jokes. There were even sheets full of jokes shared amongst comics who were all essentially doing the same material a lot of the time. Well before the time of the internet, YouTube, DVDs etc. of course so the unoriginality wasn't obvious to the audience.

I must admit I did once (back in the day) try a 3 minutes of "old jokes" that I hadn't written myself. And it bombed big time - I never made that mistake again.

When you write your own stuff, it means something to you and you deliver it with conviction. When you're lifting material out of a joke list or (much worse) just stealing from another comedian's routine you have no emotional connection to the words you're saying.