Experiment

Experiment

There is no rule that you cannot try anything you can think of. Avoid anything that get you banned from the club or get you thrown in jail.

But what the hell, you have got push the envelope, take chances, try new ideas. I discourage props and costumes but I have seen a lot of great bits using that sort of thing. In the 1970’s I went to the Improvisation in

Hollywood one weeknight and saw a lot of comics. There weren’t ten people

in the crowd but I saw Jay Leno and Andy Kaufman that evening.

Andy totally blew my mind. He played a kids record player he had strapped around his neck and he lip-synced “Old McDonald Had A Farm” while a young girl danced back and forth in front of him in a grass skirt.

What the hell? Who is this guy? Needless to say I rolled on the floor. I read

that Jim Carey was doing notoriously bad on stages and one night decided to go ape-shit, act completely out of his mind and exaggerate all his actions. The rest is history. He has more fame and money than God.

Rewriting

I have heard from many reliable sources that writing is actually rewriting. Very few writers can put their ideas into words without making revisions. Especially when you have the luxury of an audience to let you what is funny and what is not, please oh please take the feedback to heart. Do not scrap the material but see if and how it can be improved.

Proven material can often be tweaked and added on to. Ideas can spring new directions and concepts that can be developed to fill out your act. Write, write and rewrite. Stand up comedy is a craft. You are attempting to gain and expand your ability in.

The process is a learning experience. You must be patient. Patience will serve you for many years. Be willing to make mistakes, try new ideas and techniques. What is the worst that can happen to you? People will laugh at you. Oh, right, that was your goal to begin with.

Baby Steps

Many people who have no aspirations of being a professional standup comic. Some of them are trying to fill a yearning for a creative outlet. Mom and Dad told them that they would never earn a living as a musician, artist, dancer, sculptor, singer or any other type of vocation.

Their parents were probably right but how many creative people missed their calling and went into conventional professions only to find themselves miserable? I am not suggesting that the lawyers, nurses, teachers etc. give up their vocation and pursue a career in comedy. For most people, if you don’t start early in your life, it will be very difficult to have the time, energy and luck it takes to break into show business.

There is an age bias in the industry because most comedy club patrons enjoy comics who share their point of view, are young and have disposable incomes.

Another issue is that successful professionals in almost any field find it difficult to start out at the bottom of the heap. They think that because they

are lauded as highly proficient doctors or salesmen that they are full of the

qualities that are required to succeed in any field. Even actors and speakers

who try to get into standup comedy are certain that their previous experience

will automatically launch them past their competition. This is not the truth in most instances. Like any craft, you must first admit that you are a neophyte and most likely have no idea what it will take to progress through the ranks.

The ranks are plentiful and highly competitive by the way. It takes luck, study, hard work, persistence, tenacity, tough skin, foresight, luck, and the ability to accept failure as a part of the game and above all: Practice, practice, practice. Succeeding in standup comedy reminds me of when I was trying to quit smoking cigarettes. I would backslide, quit for a year, pick it back up when under stress, quit for two years and so on. What finally enabled me to give up smoking altogether was my will to quit, even in the face of failure, even in the face of feeling hopeless and helpless. I knew I had to quit and was going to accomplish that goal whatever it took. This is what it takes to get to the higher levels of the craft and to begin to approach mastery and artistry.

Vincent Van Gogh never achieved fame or fortune as a painter. He sold only one painting during his lifetime, yet today his paintings sell for tens of millions of dollars. I have visited the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam several times. My most memorable tour was when they put on a special exhibit of some of his most famous art works. What fascinated me was there were often three copies of some of these paintings.

You could see how the first painting was a bit vague but the main principalwas present. Then the second painting had more clarity and character andfinally, the third was truly a masterpiece.

Considering that these masters usually made extensive pencil sketches of the work before ever putting brush to canvas, can you even begin to imagine the labor it took to achieve the final goal? And he did this out of his love for the work, not for fame or money. You can achieve many levels of proficiency at any craft and there is nothing wrong with getting good enough to entertain at company or family gatherings or even a lower level of professional performance. You do need to know what you want to accomplish and have an idea of how you will fit this into your life.

You must maintain a balance in your life and sacrifices need to be justified at least in your own mind. As long as you are clear about these matters, you can accomplish many things. You can add a needed facet of creativity into your life and have a great time at it.

Fu*k This and F*ck That

For many beginning and even working comics the line between acceptable and unacceptable material can seem very fuzzy. You will see comics doing jokes on questionable topics and using vulgar language. It is still difficult me to draw a clear distinct line between what is acceptable and what is not. This is a free society after all. We have a constitutional right to say how we feel in almost any kind of words we chose to employ.

I have had comedy club managers who I have approached about giving a break to a promising new comic tell me, “sure I’ll give him some stage time, just tell no shit jokes.” That is just one example of language being controlled by who ever is in control of the stage time. I know comics who have been “bleeped” on national television or even had their segment cut from the show altogether. I don’t always agree with these decisions but it is not my say-so that counts. I am not calling the shots or controlling the network censors and I have very little leverage with club owners and managers.

I think of the issue much the way the Supreme Court views pornography. “I can’t define it but I know it when I see or hear it. You may push the envelope at open mike nights and if you are lucky often a club manager will tell you when you have stepped over the line. You have to know your audience and especially when you are working a corporate gig, you have to play to the most sensitive ears in the room. If you really piss off ONE person, you can ruin your chances of ever coming back, getting a referral and making the incredible money they pay these performances. Invariably the person you piss off will the one who controls the money.

Jerry Seinfeld is a good benchmark for determining if a joke will be appropriate for ant given audience. Go ahead and write the joke. Even try your joke out at open mike night if you will, but be willing, under the right circumstances to ask yourself, would so-and–so go this joke for this crowd?

Work clean if you are auditioning for a television show or prestigious comedy festival. They won’t like anything they can’t put on the air. They may laugh their asses off but they will no jeopardize their jobs for your sake.

Open mike and lower echelon comedians will often laugh at material that is unacceptable. They like to see the envelope pushed. They appreciate that you are willing to take chances. They are used to the most pedestrian types of jokes and will only be stirred by something that shocks or wows them.

You cannot depend on the comics in the audience to give you a good reading of you material. Some of them will give you bad advice simply because of the competitive atmosphere that exists and they will use any trick they can to gain an advantage. Usually the ones who encourage you to do the riskiest of material would never hazard such a risk themselves.

I am not personally offended by much of anything said on stage. I am a salty old geezer and a bit of a rebel. I never cared that much about making a lot of money or I wouldn’t have taught comedy classes for over 25 years. I do know that if you want to succeed at a high level and achieve fame, fortune and acceptability to most crowds that you must appeal to a broad spectrum of the population.

You are a commodity and your marketability is all that matters to agents, produces, booking agents, club owners managers and the like. They may like you but if they can’t sell you, you are just a lovable mutt to them who is good for an occasional scratch behind the ears.

You may eventually be smart enough to make sensible judgments about your material and the crowds you play but at the start you are better off letting go of your ego go and be willing to ask club managers and comics that you respect for their opinions about your material. If you are new at this and you don’t know beans about these issues and it will take you a lot trial and error to discover the right path.

A “feature act” also known as the “middle act” is contracted to do thirty minutes of stage time. It is up to the manager’s discretion to add or subtract time to the feature’s time.

If the comic has more material and the opener is a bit weak or if there is a ten minute “guest spot” which if often an audition, the time may come out the feature or opener’s time. The time is very seldom taken away from the headliner unless there are some serious problems with the headliner’s act.

I have even seen a manager switch the feature and the headliner’s positions. This happens when the headliner has a hard time following a strong feature act. It is a very awkward situation and feelings are hurt. Animosity can be created that lasts for years. Sometimes if the acts are equal they will “co-headline” and alternate nights as headliner.

Clubs will often book two good features and end up paying a smaller talent cost and tell the comics that they will be “co-headlining.” This too can cause hard feelings and the competition can either help or hurt the show and the back stage atmosphere. Comic egos are notoriously over-developed. The fact that the feature usually does thirty minutes or less enables them to hit the stage at a fast pace, keep up the high energy and sprint all the way through their act with a big climax at the end. This will often leave them exhausted at the end of the set. It is like running a hundred-meter foot race. A headliner however, will often have two or three climaxes in their forty-five minutes to an hour show. They are usually contracted for forty-five minutes but egos will often prevail and the comic will go for an hour just to show that they can. It is an ego thing. Leno and Cosby 2 hour shows because they are stars and can do as they please.

Some clubs have two shows on Friday and Saturday nights. A few clubs will have three shows on a Saturday night, all of the acts will be on a strict schedule because the early crowds have to be cleared, the room has to be cleaned and there is usually a crowd lined up outside waiting to be seated.

It is a hectic series of events and everyone from the staff to the performers are left drained.