British Comedy Guide

What to do with my jokes?

Hi folks, as most of you know I'm a fairly prolific writer of silly, mostly pun based, one-liners and, at the moment, I am writing far more than I can put into my stand up, now what I'd like to do is to showcase them in some way so that I can "show" them to anyone I might want to demonstrate my gag writing skills to.

I currently post a lot of my new jokes up on Twitter and this has proved a great way to get feedback but I now feel that I need to do something else with them and was wondering if anyone else had any advice?

For instance one idea I had was to post up a short video on my YouTube channel every week (1-2 minutes, possibly a little longer) with a mini-routine, the only problem with this is that it would be filmed in my house rather than a live environment and may sound very odd without audience reactions.

Otherwise I thought about doing a short podcast, but this would suffer from the same problem as above.

I guess I could just try to film a short set at a comedy night as often as possible but this would be a logistical nightmare and would probably impinge on my normal stand up bookings.

Basically I want to make sure that I've got a record that they are MY jokes and also have a way of showing them off to potential "employers" (whether they be producers, comedy bookers, etc, etc), any advice would be welcome.

Tricky one. You're right, stand-up looks so wrong without an audience. This sounds a bit silly, but could you just get a bunch of jolly mates around at home/ a studio whatever, ply them with booze and do a mini rooutine to be filmed? Or was that a really silly idea?

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ February 22 2010, 4:12 PM GMT

Tricky one. You're right, stand-up looks so wrong without an audience. This sounds a bit silly, but could you just get a bunch of jolly mates around at home/ a studio whatever, ply them with booze and do a mini rooutine to be filmed? Or was that a really silly idea?

I thought this also. So it may well be silly. Could work though. So may not be silly.

Quote: Tony Cowards @ February 22 2010, 4:08 PM GMT

Hi folks, as most of you know I'm a fairly prolific writer of silly, mostly pun based, one-liners and, at the moment, I am writing far more than I can put into my stand up, now what I'd like to do is to showcase them in some way so that I can "show" them to anyone I might want to demonstrate my gag writing skills to.

I currently post a lot of my new jokes up on Twitter and this has proved a great way to get feedback but I now feel that I need to do something else with them and was wondering if anyone else had any advice?

For instance one idea I had was to post up a short video on my YouTube channel every week (1-2 minutes, possibly a little longer) with a mini-routine, the only problem with this is that it would be filmed in my house rather than a live environment and may sound very odd without audience reactions.

Otherwise I thought about doing a short podcast, but this would suffer from the same problem as above.

I guess I could just try to film a short set at a comedy night as often as possible but this would be a logistical nightmare and would probably impinge on my normal stand up bookings.

Basically I want to make sure that I've got a record that they are MY jokes and also have a way of showing them off to potential "employers" (whether they be producers, comedy bookers, etc, etc), any advice would be welcome.

Do it in the style of a news broadcast.

Quote: Marc P @ February 22 2010, 4:18 PM GMT

Do it in the style of a news broadcast.

Hmmmm... not a bad idea but I'm not sure a lot of my jokes could be adapted to fit into that sort of style.

Something to consider though.

Quote: Tony Cowards @ February 22 2010, 4:19 PM GMT

Hmmmm... not a bad idea

I beg your bloody pardon? Angry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTNwW9rs2mM&feature=related

You could do something low-fi like Demetri Martin's Window's Vista videos?
Or work them into a short little monologues like the Armando Iannucci shows. Or a little slide show thing like Milton Jones did on his last DVD?

Quote: Tony Cowards @ February 22 2010, 4:08 PM GMT

For instance one idea I had was to post up a short video on my YouTube channel...the only problem with this is that it would be filmed in my house rather than a live environment and may sound very odd without audience reactions.

Just add a laughter track. Problem solved.

or do it in the style of a video diary

advertise in the Stage newspaper that you write gags....and charge for them

Or build a website - not a amateur thing like myspace - I mean a real dotcom website, (tonycowards.com) promoting YOU the writer.
Put up a few example gags, scripts, a bit about yourself, etc.

Cheers folks, a lot of good ideas there.

Will definitely be getting a website sorted out in the very near future and will look into putting an ad in The Stage.

Enjoyed your set tonight in Oxford Mr Cowards, was going to introduce myself however you vanished not in a magic act sort of way you must have left in the break.

Quote: Daddy Maz @ February 24 2010, 12:21 AM GMT

Enjoyed your set tonight in Oxford Mr Cowards, was going to introduce myself however you vanished not in a magic act sort of way you must have left in the break.

Apologies for shooting off during the interval, I've got a load of gigs this week so I was happy to have the opportunity of getting home at a reasonable hour, usually prefer to stick around.

Were you performing? If so hope you enjoyed it, the audience was fairly small but lovely, it's a nice room that would be rocking if full (about 50 people).

I enjoyed it, was able to try out a whole load of new stuff mixed in with some tried-and-trusted bits.

Quote: Tony Cowards @ February 24 2010, 9:37 AM GMT

Apologies for shooting off during the interval...

It's okay Tony a lot of comedians get over excited.

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