Subjects to Avoid Page 3

Quote: SlagA @ June 28 2009, 10:19 PM BST

Don't confuse audience with a writers's eye. People remember the belly laughs. A general audience doesn't over-analyse and then declare the act was crap, despite making them laugh. Writers do that. A comedian who consciously avoids a big laugh? It's like a songwriter choosing the most obscure and unpleasant chord progression (even if it jars) just to demonstrate their musical acuity. Macca has used the same intuitive musical tricks for years and been a critical and popular success. He didn't shun the audience, he exploited them, if anything.

View original

Yes, I agree with your basic point, but there again, Macca built his reputation on bringing innovation to pop. He used those very 'obscure chords' to great *critical* and popular acclaim. Later, he made a career out of things like Mull of Kintyre to great popular acclaim.

On the News Quiz a few weeks back, Rory Bremner did a gag which required the audience to know about the music of John Cage, and he got a big laugh for it. That audience wanted to feel it was clever, and their laughter seemed to be saying 'look how smart I am, I understood it'.

So certainly, keep the belly laughs, but some of us prefer Sgt Pepper to Frog Chorus.

Quote: jdubya @ June 28 2009, 11:41 PM BST

is a 'killer heckler put down' better than a 'lazy opener that follows a dull standard formula'

Seems self evident really, when you put it like that.

i understamd where you're coming from, but there's a number of factors at play here and you are making certain suppositions about what stand-up should be in order to be good.

you're supposing that a 'killer heckler put down' is automatically a good thing, but what if the person who heckles is being friendly? if you go in too hard on them you can lose the room and fook the night for everyone.

View original

Yeah, but I was talking in the specific context I was replying to - drunken nutter who might turn the room against you. You fit the response to meet the heckle, but then that's true every time.

I don't think there's anything wrong with opening like that - I don't do it personally and never have - because it can warm an audience to you right away. It sets a certain tone for the act. it shows an element of self deprecation and that you don't take yourself too seriously.

Maybe that's why comics who take themselves far too seriously don't open with it.

I think that's somewhat loaded and unfair. I think it's more about avoiding doing a joke that's basically the same as a lot of other comics do.

I don't think any subject should be avoided. in fact picking a 'hack' subject and finding something new to say about it can be a beautiful thing.

I don't deny it - but I'm talking about the times people don't do anything with it. Certainly, there are interesting things you can do with this opener - I saw one act start with one person she resembled saying 'a little bit x', then a bit of another, 'a little bit y', and then just going on and on for about a minute with a variety of names, getting increasinly random and nothing like her.

But that's just it - if you're going to undermine or do something new with a hack joke, you've got to be aware that it's a hack joke in the first place.

sorry. that line was a bit loaded and unfair. I apologise. I was a bit tired when I wrote that.

i agree with you.