Now I'm not professional comedian in any sense of the word. I Like to write jokes and have been to a few open mic nights. At my young age my material is a but niche but I'm still working on my act. Actually I'm well behind at my age, Eddie Murphy was off filming Delirious and RAW when he was my damn age, but then again Eddie Murphy was and probably still is a stand up wizard. My first time up was terrifying, but I didn't go in totally unprepared. Here's some tips for people that I've picked up reading various books from comedians, listening to podcasts, watching interviews with famous comics and just studying the art of Comedy. This isn't really a how to guide, this is all I've learnt so far.
But first here is some footage of now famous comedian doing some early stand up.
This is Seth Rogen at 14 preforming... That's Fucking Insane, He's earned my respect for getting to where he is. He's been working at his craft for some time now and look at him, he's starred in and written multiple movies. He's a successful comic and here he is at 14. That's truly amazing.
STAND UP TIPS
1) Embrace the Fear
Doing Stand Up is a fucking scary experience. they say cursing is the sign of a bad writer... Well Fuck those people, Live Stand Up is FUCKING SCARY. There is no way around the fact that you; a single person will be up on a stage with a spotlight on you holding a live mic and your job is to try and get people to like you. Hell Laughing is a bonus as far as I'm concerned. Just make it seem like you didn't waste their time... or at least try to look like you didn't mean to waste their time on purpose.
Just bite the bullet. Everybody still gets scared before they go on stage. You don't think someone like Louis CK doesn't get a little nervous before he goes out and preforms in front of THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE? They've just gotten use to the stress and fear and turn that nervous energy and redirect it into their act. It takes a lot of the next tip to get over your initial fears.
2) You're going to suck at first but It'll take Practise
Your first few times up on stage you will probably just brain freeze and blurt out your jokes nervously without any comedic delivery or timing what so ever. You may bomb at the start of your journey into comedy. Hell there are comedians out there that say that it took them 20 shows until they got their first laugh. But they got use to fear, they get looser on stage, more confident in themselves, their material and their act as a whole. When people watch an unconfident and nervous comedian on stage they just feel sorry for the comedian. You just got to believe in yourself (as cliché as that sounds) and keep practising. Be confident... or fake it, whatever. Of course leading into the next "tip".
3) Work on your act
You will need to invest a lot of time into comedy if you want to be good at it. Which of course still means practise. Practise everywhere, stand in a mirror and say jokes out loud if you have time. Run your material by your friends, see if they laugh at the jokes and if you can do open mics. Remember if you're preforming in a comedy club, people have come out to have a good time and are there to laugh, they're on your side. Just keep working on your act. It helps to record your own set so you can listen back on yourself and you can listen in on your mistakes and eliminate the fat from your act. I'm sure you have a voice record app on you damn phone, use it for once.
But you're going to need material first, or something to talk about. Sure you may already have material but that doesn't mean it can't be improved upon. So just think of jokes or funny aspects of life. If you don't think it's funny, it's not funny and forget about it. But if you think there is something funny in the thought and that if you just looked at it in a weird enough perspective, then think about it you could get something. Just work on it, if there is a joke there, Find it. Finding those jokes are all the more rewarding.
Then of course there is "Stealing", the idea of stealing a bit or someone gag is a common misdemeanour committed by pretty much every comic at one stage or another in their career. But of course there will be crossover jokes or waves of thought shared by people, you just going to have to work on those thoughts and these jokes and them your own. But stealing jokes is for assholes... If you can get away with it, good for you. I'll see you in Hell, I've done bad stuff too.
4) Write shit down
When you have your material, Write it the fuck down. Anywhere, your phone, your hand, preferably in a notebook or some kind of notebook application you have on you. You won't remember those jokes and now that you have it written down, you improve on it when you look upon it later. Make sure you work on jokes and the best way to do that is to write it down and think of ways you could improve upon it or how you could make it work better for you and your act.
5) Work a Style or a Character and diversify your act if need be.
Now that you have some material or at least some assemblence of an act, you're going to think about how you present it. Think about how you'll deliver your punchline, what do you think the funniest way to tell this joke is. Try it other ways, use stranger tangents to get to your punchline. If you don't feel confident or comfortable, Create a Character. An On stage persona, Works for the pros. Look at Stephen Colbert, the best comic character actor on television. The real Stephen Colbert isn't the loud mouth fast thinking American satirist all the time. It's a character, sometimes its just easier to deliver jokes under the guise of persona.
You're having a one side conversation with yourself in front of people. If you don't feel comfortable with that confident find a different version of you that is and make sure he's the one talking. Hell it isn't just a character you can use, you have talents, you can use those too. Can you do impressions, write a joke around using it, if you think you can get a laugh out of using it, go for it. Make sure you get a feel for the audience before you just let loose with impressions, that's a good way to piss off a whole bunch of people if you aren't careful. But of course if being a racist asshole is part of your on stage character then by all means, your just going to need to back up some of the things you say up there. Some People are crazy and can get easily offended... So you just never know.
It doesn't just have to be accents, voices or impersonations. It could be anything, anything that you think you could get a laugh with.
Carrot Top uses Props, you can smirk at a prop comedian all you like but if you get good at this like Carrot you can also have yourself a cult following and a Vegas Showroom gig. He was even in some freaking movies at one point, he got that good with his Comedy that he was offered movie roles.
David O'Doherty is an internationally acclaimed comedian, his style of comedy incorporates his skills as a song writer and musician. His musical low energy delivery has made him a rather loved Comedian all over the world.
Then there is a comedic legend like Andre 'Dice' Clay who not only created this supreme Dice character of just a loud mouth blow hard asshole character that was famous for his dirty poems and limericks. He preformed to stadiums of people dying to hear him and his dirty poems. That's amazing if you ask me.
Just shows you what happens when you can make a character and build an act around your skills.
6) Don't Just Stand there... MOVE
Be exciting, move. Don't just stand there talking. Act out your jokes if you can, pace around rather than standing still. Your audience will follow you which will make your act more interesting, in fact you can stop pacing and face the audience to deliver the punchline, Don't be boring! You can have some of the best material in the World but if you're boring to watch then people will stop paying attention. Be expressive use your face and body language to help accentuate your punchlines.
Just move around, standing still is like death. Being animated can make jokes funnier. If you joke relies on certain emotional reaction, make it with your face and body language. Pulling faces is funny when you're talking about various things like sex, embarrassing scenarios or just everyday occurrences. Heck if your joke starts with you walking down the street, it doesn't hurt to phantom mime walking, shows you're confident and loose on stage.
7) If You don't think that'll Work, Save it
If a joke doesn't work on stage save it for another medium. Don't just throw gems away, write it down and turn your idea in a video skit if need be. It helps to show promoters and would be talent scouts that you are a versatile act and you can do more than just stand up in front of people and tell jokes. Hell if need be you could always just throw the joke away on Twitter or a blog or a facebook status update. Just make sure you've saved it away in case you come up with a better way to either incorporate it into your act or be able to use it in another medium.
8) Don't take shit from Hecklers
Being Heckled is awful, I have yet to be heckled yet but from what I've been told those people are morons. Coming in to a Comedy show just to interrupt and talk during your act is just plain rude and should not be tolerated. What kind of person would just take that away from a performer? They'd have to be a pretty insecure person to make it all about themselves during a comedy act. Its okay to abuse those people if you're clever enough to turn it into a joke or a make a verbal barb back at them then by all means do so, it just shows you're in control and you aren't there to be stepped on.
Really its up to you how you handle Hecklers, but it shouldn't just be tolerated.
9) Keep Practising
You won't become a megastar over night and you won't be discovered immediately, Comedy takes a ton of work and if you want to be successful at it you're going to need to practise. Write as much material as you can, get up on stage as often as you can and be sure to perfect your act. Get comfortable and stage and develop a stage presence. Be able to read an audience and tell whether or not it's appropriate to tell a rape joke or two, leave room open in your act to riff and let that creative side of you brain just run loose in the moment.
Good Luck to you fellow Comedy Traveller, hopefully I'll see you in a dingy basement someday complimenting you on your set.
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