Doing Stand-Up Comedy

[Dan Carter]

Steve said in his newsletter this week Talk is Cheap. He also said in the beginning you're going to stink. Those are somewhat comforting to me because me and a buddy are going to try stand up comedy on amateur night next Monday. Obviously the idea terrifies me, but I've got to do it!

I heard that both Jerry Seinfeld and John Stewart were considered BORING by their friend when they started out. So hopefully that will apply to me too

Has anyone here actually done this before? If not, I challenge you to try it. Let's crash and burn and emerge from the flames better and stronger together.

I joined a couple toastmasters clubs in September, but I don't think they will prepare me for THIS. I have no solid material put together yet, just some ideas. But I've found jumping into something and learning while you trip and fall to be pretty damn rewarding. Am I crazy?!!?

Better get writing...

[JustinPopovic]

Nah Dan you aren't crazy at all. I love your boldness. I see so few people who do this kind of thing...it's great to see.

I did the same kind of thing with my coaching/speaking career. I had practically no experience speaking in front of people but set the goal to be a platform speaker!!!! That was just over 2 years ago. Like you, I joined toastmasters and started to learn. I crashed and burned in a few of my early talks but over time I got the hang of it. About a year ago, I did a talk to 400 college kids for about $1000 which was quite a drastic improvement compared to where I was when I started. I continue to increase my speaking abilities and it is way more fun than scary now that I have put the time in.

My only advice would be to prepare yourself to put in the work. If things go great this Monday...GREAT, keep going. If not...GREAT, keep going. Just stick with it!

[Amit]

Hey Dan,

My Experience....

I started doing-stand up comedy in 2007 and although I'm not a circuit comedian, I've improved heaps and I tend to do big pre-organised events now.

When I first started I didn't have a clue. I was actually Life Coaching someone who wanted to do it so I got them to get the ball rolling and organise their own night. He then asked me if I wanted to do it too and I was like..."HECK YES!!" (my mouth answered before my brain thought it through)

I actually went into it because I'd been to toastmaster sessions and I felt they were a bit too basic and I wanted a quicker way of getting into public speaking. Stand-up Comedy was the answer for me.

So before we had our first charity event in December 2007 we had a little practise session in front of about 15 friends. The guy I was coaching was a natural born comedian. It was his first ever taste of it and he'd written a 45 minute set and did it like a pro! I wrote about 5 minutes of material and got 1 laugh. Sufficed to say I was gutted but I didn't give up.

By the time it came to the gig I'd written a 30 minute set and we had a sellout night and we were a smash hit and I've never looked back!

If you want to hear more about my experiences of comedy there's loads on my blog but ever since I began doing it I can say honestly that it is one of the best life skills you can ever adopt.

Tips...

1. There is one basic paradox of Comedy in that when you write your material and continue to practise it you will get bored of your own jokes and might start to think it's not funny anymore. Don't let that get to you. If you thought it was funny in the beginning it will still be funny if performed well.

2. Make sure you write, re-write, re-re-write, re-re-re-write. There is no end to that process. The more you do it the better your jokes get.

3. Constantly practise your routine out loud. While you do it the natural process of performing will help you to identify better what will be funny and what won't be and you also bring in subtle improvements to your routine as you're performing.

I also brought one book called 'A step by step guide to Stand-up Comedy' by Greg Dean which was a fantastic book for understanding joke construction the basics.

Hope that helps!

[Matt Willard]

"The New Comedy Writing Step-By-Step" is also a fantastic resource I recommend checking out.

[Dan Carter]

Update time!

I did my first ever stand up routine last night. It was so nerve racking the entire day leading up to it, but after I got on stage, it wasn't so bad. The crowd was good. I found I got more laughs poking fun at my bad punchlines and joke structure than from my actual jokes.

Justin, that's totally awesome that you're getting paid for speaking now. I definitely want to keep going with this. Now I want to learn the structure of being funny because I feel alright in front of an audience. Just curious, what did you do for work and money while you were working on your speaking skills?

Amit, that's pretty much what I did. I signed myself up before I had anything prepared. I'd rather go unprepared then never go at all How in the heck did you go from no laughs to a great 30 minute routine? Did the book you mentioned help out a lot? I really want to learn about joke structure and comedy writing because that is my biggest area to grow in.

Thanks for the support guys!