Does anyone have any tips for linking jokes, for instance is it better to just have a line that links them or should you make that line funny or is it better just to leap into it, with this I'm mainly talking about one liners with very divergent material not short story's.
To give an example on my current set list there is a joke about Inception followed by one about interior decorators.
All help appreciated. Thanks
Links are vastly overrated, generally the audience couldn't give a fig if one joke is about quantum mechanics and the next is about a banana providing they are funny.
If, like me, you're doing lots of little jokes or one-liners then the linking is mainly for your benefit as it makes the set easier to remember.
I generally try to group my jokes together in little sections which are roughly linked together, in my case loosely chronologically, growing up, family, relationships, etc.
As a personal preference I'd rather an act just goes from one subject to another without referencing it self-referentially (e.g. "well that was a seamless link" or some such throwaway line), I don't care, just get me to the funny.
Quote: Tony Cowards @ June 1 2012, 1:04 AM BSTLinks are vastly overrated, generally the audience couldn't give a fig if one joke is about quantum mechanics and the next is about a banana providing they are funny.
Speaking as part of an audience, I must say I don't get on well with a series of disconnected one-liners. Maybe I'm unusual, or maybe it's because people like me choose to see performers who do link stuff, that you never see us in your audience?
Linked jokes are awsome especially when they are use like a sort of stealth joke like a call back.
Stewart Lee does an awsome link/call back about crisps. The joke is deliberately terrible, but the way he keeps referencing it is hilarious.
I do a link joke about a tramp eating a dog. That I worked into a later joke about a racist flatmate with a small cock.
I swear an audience member exploded, seriously they had to hose the ceiling down.
Quote: Nogget @ June 1 2012, 11:43 AM BSTSpeaking as part of an audience, I must say I don't get on well with a series of disconnected one-liners. Maybe I'm unusual, or maybe it's because people like me choose to see performers who do link stuff, that you never see us in your audience?
Possibly, of course, my predilection is for one-liner comics so I'm totally biased. Backtracking slightly, I'm not saying that linking jokes isn't a good thing to do just that, IMHO, it's not as important as performers sometimes think and if it's a choice between unlinked and funny or linked clunkily and less funny, I'd go for the former every time.
I think you need to find out what kind of comedian you are, and what works for you personally, before you start trying to create a style. You will probably already be delivering your jokes in a fairly natural way, but wondering how it could be funnier and less disjointed.
I, personally, like linked jokes. I like a good storyteller who makes his story hilarious. Try watching both styles and listen to the audience's reaction to each.
Disjointed jokes will have the audience staying quiet for a bit before laughing at a punchline. This gives them the chance to recover from the last joke and decide if the next one's worth laughing at. If your material isn't as good as it could be, you'll find a few silences that might knock your confidence.
Linked jokes will have audiences chuckling throughout (hopefully) because they're wondering how on earth what's just been said can get any funnier. They already have a funny picture in their head and a stifled laugh in their belly and, once you've got them in that state, you will be able to pour humour on to it and have them rolling about. Also, you can really get your teeth into a story and will probably tend to remember it more easily than a whole string of unrelated one-liners.
Saying that, it is possible to have a few different scenarios (mini stories) going on that can be cleverly linked. This is great to do, especially if the last story can be a finale that rounds up the previous ones and allows the audience to relive the laughs they've already had, as well as the new ones.
As already suggested, if a few stories can be in chronological order for memory's sake, there's a lot of scope for a good build up beforehand.