In the Business of Stand-Up Comedy, Laughter equals Money.
How much Laughter are you Forecasting for your SET?
The old method for discovering this was to write your JOKES and then take them to an OPEN MIC NIGHT at the local Comedy Club. The "Forecasting" came from the makeshift audience who happened to be there.
Did they laugh?
As technology progressed, the ability to record your OPEN MIC NIGHT Performances and analyze the laughter (or lack thereof) was helpful.
But as audiences for OPEN MIC NIGHTS waned, was the data reliable?
Today, COMICS can use the C.L.A.P.S. / H.B.O. Comedy Cane as a tool to help them Forecast the Laughter of their JOKES and better place each JOKE within their SET without the need to rely on disinterested OPEN MIC audiences.
It works like this:
The Cane identifies different types of reactions of an audience. It starts with a CHUCKLE, builds to a LAUGH and peaks at APPLAUSE. Back down from the top comes the PEE-EWW (otherwise known as a Groan) and descends to pure SILENCE. At this point it creates an Arc and is either positive or neutral reactions. Dropping below the Arc are HECKLE, BOO and OUT! (which means get off the stage now!) These final three are negative audience reactions.
With this in mind, look at each of your individual JOKES and answer these two questions:
What type of LAUGH are you expecting?
Where are you expecting it to come?
To help discover the answers to these questions, write your JOKE on a piece of paper. Now circle the last word before you expect your AUDIENCE to LAUGH. Just above that circle, write the letter of the type of laugh you expect: C.L.A.P.S./H.B.O.
Now when you PERFORM your JOKE on stage and record your PERFORMANCE, look back and learn if you Forecasted correctly.
You may have predicted a LAUGH but received a CHUCKLE.
You may have expected a PEE-EWW but got an APPLAUSE.
Knowing what you actually get as a response will help you determine what JOKES to keep in your ACT and where to place them within your SET.
Now with this information in hand, give the AUDIENCE what they want... and end up profitable in the end!
