I have entered a small local talent competition being run by our local paper.
I put my act as "general observational comedy" cos I wanted to try something new & they said they were looking for local talent, especially comedians.
I have got a couple of themes & a few ideas. I am ok writing but I have never performed before.
I know it's only a few minutes at a small local event but I would like some advice how to go about it.
I am getting nervous, but I am determined to go through with it.
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A quick tip
start with a really good short one liner. This tells the audience you are funny and they can relax. Maybe one about your own physical appearance?" I know what you're thinking (insert celebrity you have a passing resemblance too) has let himself go......".Or a joke about the venue??
imagine the audience naked.
Agree with Freddie about starting with something strong and quick to get the audience on your side.
As far as conquering nerves, there's no easy way really. One thing I've learnt from dying on a number of occassions is that even the worst gigs aren't so bad. The important thing to know is that even if your jokes don't work you can still wring out laughs by appealing to an audience's sympathy. The crowd don't want you to fail and will be only too happy to laugh if you smile at your own flubbed joke and apologise for it. It's not ideal but it's a simple trick of tension/release. I usually go with something like "can we please have a moment's silence for all the punchlines that have died tonight" or "in my group of friends, I'm the funny one!" I've seen comedians keep an audience laughing indefinitely using this method without having a single decent gag to tell. Personality goes a LONG way in stand up.
Good luck with it!
Have you tried recording your act (whether on video or audio) on your own and watching / listening back? It's can be a great way of tightening it up.
Let us know how you get on!
Thanks for the support, guys.
I now know I have approx 10 mins from start to finish, including intros & feedback time.
I will now work on timing a main theme with other general & topical obs that, hopefully, the judges will find amusing at the very least.
A quick bit of advice, write out your set in full on a bit of paper, then go through it and mark with a highlighter everywhere that you are expecting to get a laugh, then look at the page and if there are huge gaps between the laugh points re-arrange it so that they are closer together.
The longer the gap between "laugh points" then the stronger the next bit of material has to be to get a laugh, if you talk for over 30 seconds or so without the audience having something to at least chuckle at then your punchline needs to be pretty damn strong otherwise you will lose their attention and confidence in you.
If you watch comedians who are storytellers rather than one-liner merchants you will see that they still have "laugh points" (be it a joke, an aside, a clever and funny turn-of-phrase) every 10-20 seconds.
Momentum (along with confidence) is everything in stand up comedy, if you can keep the laughs coming then they get progressively easier, the audience gets into the habit of laughing.
I see a lot of new acts and just think "which bits were you expecting the audience to laugh at?".
Quote: Mezz @ May 14 2010, 9:29 PM BSTThanks for the support, guys.
I now know I have approx 10 mins from start to finish, including intros & feedback time.
I will now work on timing a main theme with other general & topical obs that, hopefully, the judges will find amusing at the very least.
Confidence is the thing if you can fake that you're laughing.
Quote: Marc P @ May 16 2010, 11:35 AM BSTConfidence is the thing if you can fake that you're laughing.
In all walks of life.
Indeed.
[quote name="Tony Cowards" post="619518" date="May 16 2010, 11:06 AM BST"]A quick bit of advice, write out your set in full on a bit of paper, then go through it and mark with a highlighter everywhere that you are expecting to get a laugh, then look at the page and if there are huge gaps between the laugh points re-arrange it so that they are closer together.
The longer the gap between "laugh points" then the stronger the next bit of material has to be to get a laugh, if you talk for over 30 seconds or so without the audience having something to at least chuckle at then your punchline needs to be pretty damn strong otherwise you will lose their attention and confidence in you.
If you watch comedians who are storytellers rather than one-liner merchants you will see that they still have "laugh points" (be it a joke, an aside, a clever and funny turn-of-phrase) every 10-20 seconds.
Momentum (along with confidence) is everything in stand up comedy, if you can keep the laughs coming then they get progressively easier, the audience gets into the habit of laughing.
I see a lot of new acts and just think "which bits were you expecting the audience to laugh at?".
[storytellers rather than one-line merchants sums it up perfectly/quote]
Thanks for the advice. I have 10 minutes of stuff to hone & tweak.
Sorry for the last post. I don't have the hang of quoting a bit and replying yet!
Some things that I think can easily lead to a poor act (though you may plan on using some or all of these things and be the exception that proves the rule!)
BERATING THE AUDIENCE
A comedian, panicked by a lack of laughter, resorts to berating the audience for not finding them funny. As if an entire audience, at once, are unable to see the sheer genius of the comedian's act. I've seen it happen so many times, normally by an edgier comedian who is tackling some "serious" material. It has one major effect: it creates an adversary. Suddenly the audience is inclined to laugh even less as an act of defiance. Now the comedian may very well be aware that that is the only likely conclusion to the attack but still revel in the battle mentality.
MAINLY A MINORITY
On the open-mic circuit in and around London the vast majority of acts are young (ish) white men. It creates the following minorities:
Women
Disabled
Norwegian
Ginger
Old people
Black men
Black women
Homosexual
Cylon
Asian
American
General foreigner
It's not that I have a particular issue with material about minorities. Some are really, f**king funny. Daniel Simonsen devotes a decent chunk of his act about his being Norwegian and he is one of the funniest men I've gigged with. The key is that it doesn't swamp his set, he doesn't reduce himself to just being a Norwegian.
Sometimes there is value in tackling a minority issue and doing so through comedy can be an effective way of doing so but I imagine that there are a host of acts who talk about being a minority because it's easy. It's even quite successful with audiences. It just feels divisive, it feels cheap. Being in a minority broadens perspective but seems to result in material so narrow that women look at the material and think: "I wish I was that narrow." Because women want to be skinny and are self-conscious and eat Special K.
PREVIOUS GIGS
"I did this joke at a gig the other night and no-one laughed. Probably because it was in Islington." Cue further laughter. Comedians spend so long on getting timing right and the delivery spot-on but then decide to reveal to an audience that they told the same joke to another audience previously. If I was in the audience I'd feel a little betrayed.
"I thought you and me shared something, I was really enjoying you making me laugh but now you say that you're gad about the country, using this very same material, to make other people laugh? HOW DARE YOU!"
And while the response may not be that extreme I imagine that a scaled down version of that feeling may sweep across an audience whenever it is revealed that you just do the same material night after night. As a post-script to that it is also quite boring. Who cares about your other gigs?
NEW MATERIAL
This follows on to the comedian who reveals to the audience that they're trying new material.
WHO CARES?
It acts as an apology before the material even begins. To the audience everything you are saying is new material so why not just slip the new material into your set, unannounced, and see how it gets on without a framing device? If you want to be ruder to the audience then after delivering the "new material", take out a pencil and tick or cross next to the relevant heading on your list of material. Just so the audience no you don't give a shit about making them laugh you could say out loud: "that's a keeper" or "re-write that one".
SHOCKING ENDLINE
I haven't used the term punchline here because a shocking joke with a funny punchline is a great thing and I'm a big fan. It's no excuse to smuggle a weak joke or concept into your set just because it makes an audience gasp. This area also falls foul of the great comedy cliche that is "and then I got off the bus" that Herring & Lee talked about excellently on This Morning with Richard not Judy.
Some excellent points from Chopz, I very much agree about the "new material" thing and also would say never apologise, if a joke falls flat move on, don't draw attention to it, chances are the audience won't even realise that you were expecting a laugh unless, of course, you make a big deal of pointing it out.
Sometimes comics use "savers" to get a laugh when a joke fails, things such as "Just me on that one!" or "That was a new bit of material making it's final appearance", but whilst these can get a cheap laugh out of a joke which didn't work they also draw attention to that fact. You can only ever do that once or possibly twice but IMHO it's better not to use them because everytime the audience realises that a joke failed they lose a little bit of faith in you as a comedian.
Remember, you are the only person who knows how your set is supposed to go, to the audience it's all correct unless you point out otherwise, ignore mistakes or failed jokes and plough on regardless, chances are the audience won't even notice.
Excellent points, Chopz. I have a real problem with the "new material" excuse too. Just tell the damn joke, no-one gives a shit if the ink's dry or not.
In my view it's best to reference a failed joke rather than marching on regardless. Audience's are smart enough to recognise where a punchline was supposed to be and they know when one failed. Like Tony suggests though, if you're going to reference a failed joke at all, keep it to a minimum.