Stand-up comedy help: Constructing your first 5 Page 7

Thanks everyone !

Quote: zooo @ August 28 2010, 1:19 AM BST

So you had no trouble remembering any of it?
A background in drama and memorising scripts must be a huge help for being a standup.
I seriously don't understand how anyone can memorise a massive script. It's literally super-human. I can't even remember one line of stuff.

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I once played Blanche DuBois in Streetcar Named Desire. I had 2/3 of the lines of thw whole play

No problem at all remembering it actually. As soon as I got up, I went into autopilot.

Quote: Ben @ August 28 2010, 9:06 AM BST

How were the crowd?

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They were great. It was a good mixed crowd of about 40 people by the time I was on. Friendly but not too forgiving. Didn't want to interact at all, which was okay for me as I purposefully included very little interaction !

A guy came in half way through my set and I worked him into a joke, which got a massive laugh.

My fear would always be that only I found the highlighted bits funny. I imagine that's all part of taking the plunge though.

I had that worry though, but you've just got to trust yourself. Luckily for me people laughed at the parts they were supposed to

Quote: sootyj @ August 28 2010, 10:45 AM BST

well done nat knew you could do it and kudos on getting offered gigsthat's pretty rare

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Thanks Sooty, I am fairly pleased

Quote: Tony Cowards @ August 28 2010, 10:57 AM BST

Oh and before I forget, well done Nat, glad that it went well for you and hope to bump into you on the circuit sometime, great stuff.

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Thanks Tony, I'm sure our paths will cross one day (in the distant future!).

Quote: Tony Cowards @ August 28 2010, 10:57 AM BST

Of course this is the unpredictable side of stand-up. I've written what I thought were killer lines which got very little from the audience but on the flip side have included "filler" in sets just to make up my time which have ended up going down a storm.

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Have had the same experience. I think it's 'cos if you like a line you can't help but ham it up a bit so the audience expects a good gag; when you throw something out off-the-cuff it benefits from the surprise.

Quote: Michael Monkhouse @ August 28 2010, 2:48 PM BST

Have had the same experience. I think it's 'cos if you like a line you can't help but ham it up a bit so the audience expects a good gag; when you throw something out off-the-cuff it benefits from the surprise.

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Absolutely, my girlfriend is always telling me to deliver the jokes as if I'm just tossing them out there rather than hamming them up in preparation for a killer punchline.

A couple of my one-liners get their biggest reaction when I pretty much pretend that they're not really a joke and I don't even realise they are funny, like you say it's the element of catching the audience off guard, they don't have time to realise that they've been manipulated into laughing.

Have you seen a book of heckler stoppers? Do you use anything in particular?

Quote: Tim Azure @ August 28 2010, 4:45 PM BST

Have you seen a book of heckler stoppers? Do you use anything in particular?

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"I know you are, but what am I?" always goes down well.

My favourite put-down was early Jack Dee: 'Oh f*ck off will you?'

Quote: zooo @ August 28 2010, 1:19 AM BST

So you had no trouble remembering any of it?
A background in drama and memorising scripts must be a huge help for being a standup.
I seriously don't understand how anyone can memorise a massive script. It's literally super-human. I can't even remember one line of stuff.

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It's easy Zooo and easier still when you walk on stage, the adrenaline kicks in so much so, that one could quote the whole bible verbatim....[that's if you've not sh*t it out meanwhile] well, not really but you know what I mean.

Well done Nat, how fabulous

You just have to re-read a lot. It sinks in quite easily. When I was working on our sketch show pilot, I ended up memorising whole sketches due to the fact I heard them repeated so many times.

What really amazes me is when people memorise entire plays, really wordy ones. Like the other year when David Tennant was performing Hamlet and Loves Labour's Lost at the same time. He had both plays in his head and was able to switch back and forth from day to day. It just seems impossible.

Quote: Tony Cowards @ August 28 2010, 4:24 PM BST

Absolutely, my girlfriend is always telling me to deliver the jokes as if I'm just tossing them out there rather than hamming them up in preparation for a killer punchline.

A couple of my one-liners get their biggest reaction when I pretty much pretend that they're not really a joke and I don't even realise they are funny, like you say it's the element of catching the audience off guard, they don't have time to realise that they've been manipulated into laughing.

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The first laugh I got was by accident. I was at Footlights and the stuff wasn't going as well as hoped so in my nerves I slurred two lines together: 'He's shy but he has a bit to drink then he's f*cking irritating.' The juxtaposition took the audience - and me - by surprise and it garnered my first big reaction.
Bob Monkhouse - not in slimy game-show host role, but as tip-top stand-up - once quipped, 'I wind my wife up on purpose. I do things deliberately just to irritate her. Like in the morning I wake up, God she hates that, and...' The seemingly throwaway comment was far funnier for being just that. Imagine if he'd gone, 'Do you know one of the things I do to annoy her? I wake up, that gets her in a bad mood for a start.' Doesn't quite have the same ring.
John Vorhaus' 'Comic Toolbox' argues that when a joke isn't working, usually it isn't the idea that's at fault but the way you're expressing it. Monkhouse again: 'I saw a porn movie that really raised my eyebrows but that's old age for you.' Beats 'Saw a porno and it didn't raise my nads, just my eyebrows, well I'm not the man I used to be.'
(PS Apologies to Nat for going off-topic but I found a very interesting article on Bob Monkhouse here www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/comedy/7927089/Modern-comedys-unlikely-hero-Bob-Monkhouse. Worth a look.)

Don't apologise, it's very interesting. I reworked the hell of out of my material and the structure of the jonkes for that very reason.

Bob Monkhouse has a great skillful use of the English language.

Then you may enjoy this article I wrote ages ago. Won me seventy-five quid! http://www.chortle.co.uk/correspondents/2008/04/04/6607/the_language_of_comedy
(PS Hope it's okay to link other comedy sites, but it's relevant.)

Thanks fella, have bookmarked. *thumbs up*

Quote: Michael Monkhouse @ August 28 2010, 6:33 PM BST

(PS Hope it's okay to link other comedy sites, but it's relevant.)

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It's fine.

New blog post up in anyone's interested.

http://comedyvirgin.blogspot.com/

a full account of the gig.