Writing Buddies: Dispelling the Myth of the Lone Comic

Writing jokes is not like your singing ability.  You are not better doing it alone in the shower!

Think about the times you were the funniest off stage.  Were you sitting at a desk, alone with a tape recorder?  More likely you were with friends, laughing and enjoying life.

This is why you need a WRITING BUDDY, someone to help you create and refine your good MATERIAL.

But choose wisely.

Not all buddies are created equal.

Choose the person who will give you the best chance of success on stage.

You may feel comfortable asking your spouse his or her opinion on a joke.  But unless your spouse is a Comic, the only thing he or she can offer you is support.  In other words: "For your sake honey, I hope that is funny."

Think of your WRITING BUDDY as a real life Bomb Squad specialist.  You are new to the team and tasked with diffusing a bomb.  If it blows... it's curtains.  You can choose to call someone else on the Bomb Squad team, who you've seen in action and trust can handle the situation... or you can call your wife.

Now if you choose to call your wife, you may want to tell her you'll be late for dinner!

Comics like to seclude themselves and work on their jokes alone.  This is because we want to spare ourselves the public insecurity of revealing just how difficult it is to write good, original MATERIAL.  We assume everyone thinks this is easy.  If you're funny, you're naturally funny and the jokes should come easy.  Right?? 

WRONG.

This is hard.  It takes work.  There is no shame in getting help from those you trust are working in your best interest.  And the easiest way to earn that trust is to be a WRITING BUDDY yourself.  This give-and-take from one Comic to another is essential to master joke writing and delivery.

So just remember: if you're determined to write MATERIAL alone, the outcome you are most likely to get is the same as the object of your Explosives Expert friend: a BOMB.

Your next show is coming, still feeling like flying solo?

Tick... Tock... Tick... Tock...

Who Am I? Finding Your Character

Ever hear the true term: "You have to consider the source"?

In other words, why would I listen to what you have to say if you have nothing to do with the subject?

This is why your CHARACTER is important.  It is the core from which your MATERIAL stems.  It is the glue that holds each BIT together into one cohesive ACT.

My friend (and excellent Comic) Kriss Bross is 6 foot 7 inches tall.  The first thing you notice about him is that... you guessed it, he's very tall!  It only makes sense then that Kriss' gripes about the world should be viewed through a tall man's lens.  Suddenly, the cramped seating on an airplane makes a lot more sense and is funnier because the audience can see exactly Kriss' frustration.

When your MATERIAL matches your CHARACTER... BINGO!

"Hickory Dickory Dock..."

Take Andrew "Dice" Clay. 

Surely misogynist MATERIAL had been done before this leather-clad-Fonzie-on-steroids hit the scene.  But when spoken through the CHARACTER of "The Diceman", the result was uproarious.

"When I played in the sandbox the cat kept covering me up!"

What about Rodney Dangerfield?

His one-liners about "getting no respect" are funny because of his bug-eyed lovable loser CHARACTER.










"Mom loves me more!"


The Smothers Brothers have made a long and successful career out of playing the CHARACTERS of older and younger brother.










So who is your CHARACTER?

How do you set yourself apart from the countless other Comics out there who make funny quips about today's current events?

To develop your CHARACTER you can look to your obvious physical attributes: tall; short; fat; thin.  The genes your parents cursed you with could be a blessing in disguise!  But it doesn't have to be just about what you look like.

EXAMPLE: My friend (and excellent Comic)Therese Comor is a Middle-School Teacher. Her take on students of today, dating, and life itself are very unique and identifiable.  I can already picture her sitcom on NBC's Thursday Night line-up!

EXAMPLE: My friend (and WRITING BUDDY) Matt Roberts made a name for himself as an excellent Comic in Los Angeles as "The Average Guy."  And while there was nothing "Average" about his MATERIAL, his everyday CHARACTER was a play on the stereotypical white male between the ages of 18-45.

ADVICE: Your CHARACTER can be completely made up, but the closer it is to who you actually are, the more BELIEVABLE it will be.

After Performance Night has ended and audience members are back at work regaling their trip to the Comedy Club, they may not remember Kriss Bross' name.  But they will remember "that Tall Guy was funny".  And after some time of plugging away at it, people will get to know (and more importantly seek out) that Tall Guy.

But Am I Funny To Strangers?

Oh sure, your friends/family/co-workers have all said you're funny.  They may have even suggested you become a Stand-Up Comic!

And they've seen you perform onstage and say: "You are really funny!"

But in the back of your mind you wonder:

"Am I funny to strangers?"

We assume this is the test for whether or not we should even pursue our comedy careers.  After all, if I'm only funny to people who know me then I must not be very good.

BUT THIS IS A MISTAKE.

You are looking at it all wrong. 

The GOAL is to build an audience (or fan base) not simply to be funny to strangers.

What's the difference?

• A FAN will follow your career. 
• A FAN is excited to see you perform.
• A FAN will pay money to see you.
• FANS will get you work.
• FANS will make you a PROFESSIONAL COMIC.

Many Comics start with zero fans by performing in secret, not wanting to reveal themselves.  This is needlessly difficult and usually results in the comic spinning his wheels... until finally giving up.

But it's smarter to stack the deck in your favor.

HOW?

SIMPLE: Utilize your premade fan base: your friends/family/co-workers! Get them to come to your shows and bring one or more of their friends.

You will get more laughs with your fan base than any random crowd.  This will make you funnier to your friends and friend's friends. 

NETWORK with your friend's friends and turn them into your FANS. 

Then watch your fan base GROW.

It is a lot of work to get your fans to come to see you, over and over.  They'll demand new material constantly (something I'll discuss in a future post).  You must strategically decide which shows to invite them to.  But don't confuse that with never inviting them.  As hard as it is to get your fans to come and see you, it's a Heck of a lot harder to get strangers to come.

There is one BIG secret to getting strangers to laugh.

Turn them into FRIENDS.

Your Open Mic Night Performance Bombed! You Must Be Horrible!

"Can you hear me now?"

Open Mic Night for every comic is as important as a microphone dectector is to Mel Gibson.

It's THAT important! 

There is no getting around this necessary tool. 

But a funny thing happened during your Open Mic Night performances.  You noticed you weren't getting many laughs.  Surely your material is HORRIBLE!  Or worse yet, maybe you're not as funny as you thought you were!  And so, you began listening to what the other comics at the Open Mic Nights were saying in order to get laughs.  Then, you began writing new material that would kill at the Open Mic Night.  The only problem was, when you performed THAT material in front of a real crowd, you weren't getting the laughs. 

What the HECK is going on?!?!?

SIMPLE: You fell into the trap of trying to entertain other comics and not real people.

What's the difference?

SIMPLE: One group has paid money to be there and deserve to be entertained and the other is filled with other comics desperately trying to discover what they can do to make themselves funnier to a real audience.

So who are you trying to impress?

To try to make your peers laugh is a very natural thing by the way.  After all, we got into this making our friends, family and co-workers laugh.  We assume this is a natural extension.

BUT IT'S NOT.

Other comics during an Open Mic Night are thinking about their own material, not listening to yours.  That's the best case scenario.  The worst is that they are competing against you for the most laughs and are purposely NOT LAUGHING.

The material usually devolves into filthy bits being performed in order to shock the distracted Open Mic Night audience.  Which, unless this is your natural style, will turn off a real crowd.

Remember why you are there: To gain experience working out your material on stage.

"Why can't I make a good movie?"

That's not to say if you're not getting laughs at an Open Mic Night then your material is great, or even good.  In fact, it can be as bad as the last several M. Night Shyamalan movies. 

But you'll have to learn this through performing in front of a real crowd.  I'm saying that to adjust your act/material/character/theme based on the reaction (or lack thereof) at an Open Mic Night will only get you one step closer to becoming another jaded comic who no longer knows what funny is. 

"Help!  I'm imploding on stage!"

EXAMPLE:  Look at what happened to Michael Richards (Kramer) when he lost sight of his material/character and tried to shock a crowd...

Open Mic Nights are a great tool.  But they are just a tool.   

"I'll burn this !@#$% blog down!"

Kind of like Mel Gibson!

So who are you trying to impress?