how to become a stand up comedian

If you're the hilarious guy in the office or you were the class clown back

in school, you may be pondering about trying out stand up comedy.

The first thing to do before you sit down and try and write a sketch,

is to watch and read as many other comedy sketches as you can. Go to

the library, borrow books, videos, tapes, records, lock yourself away

and watch sketches until they come out of your ears. Study the masters

of the art. Monty Python, Mel Brooks, The Fast Show, Saturday Night

Live, French & Saunders, and so on. Doing this will help to teach you

what is funny, but more importantly it will teach you what has been

done before.

Go to a comedy club and watch a accomplished stand up comedian. Notice

how a dry comedian delivers his material and observe how a high-energy

comedian gets into his bits. If you meet other new comedians at the

show, be sure to ask them where the open mics are in town.

Make notes. If you break up at something, try and figure out why you're

laughing. What was it that pushed the funny button in your brain?

Something visual? Something to do with the way words were used? Or was

it because the joke reminded you of something funny in your own life?

Start to watch comedy in a different way. Take it apart and put it

back together again. You'll soon start to notice that the same tricks

are applied again and again and again.

There is no real art to joke writing. It's just observation. One of

the stars of observation is George Carlin. His famous, "when I order

jumbo shrimp am I getting a large shrimp or a small jumbo?" George is

a person who has observed absurdities in life and can play off of

them.

Not everyone will laugh at the same jokes or find the same situations

entertaining. Before you decide to write your scene it is important to have

a few points thought out.

Most jokes are based on surprise. They take convenience of a confusion

of language, or a twist in logic, or a contradiction of some perceived

truth, or sometimes just saying something so shocking and offensive

that the audience will gasp and then (hopefully) burst into laughter.

As with all comedy laws, however, the opposite is also true. Some

comedians make a terrific living doing material that is completely

anticipated, that reminds people of things that they already know or

jokes that they are already familiar with.

Good comedy writing begets laughs but is serious business. Churning

out good comedy can be a very exacting and tough job. A lot of hard

work goes into writing material that can get good laughs. The core

idea of a piece of comedy may be gleaned in a moment of inspiration,

but putting it into the right words takes some doing. Phrasing,

reviewing, rephrasing and then reviewing again- a few rounds of this

process is essential for a good piece of comedy to see the light of

day.

Comedy writers need to analyze their strengths and weaknesses and

decide which kind of comedy they write best. Types of comedy varies

from one liners to a lengthy ramble popularly referred to as a

routine. A routine could be made of several "gags" or have just one

main theme that is worked upon. Sketches are long pieces of comedy and

need to be prepared well with a generous sprinkling of gags. Comedy

writers who write good sketches are a much sought after lot.

See How To Write Comedy