[Here’s a guest article written by Chris Stiffler, a professor of economics and author of Economics In-Other-Words. He’s also a standup comedy open-mic-er in Denver, as well as my Funny Muscle podcast partner and coaching client.]
When I was working on my comedy lens – Adventurous Economics Professor – I had this exchange with my comedy coach:
Coach: Quick, define what an economics professor does in one sentence.
Me: Systematically points out the costs and benefits of every situation.
Coach: Good, now write that sentence down and use it to guide your material so it matches your persona.
Me: Are you sure the benefits of writing it down outweigh the costs?
Coach: Geezus, Stiffler, are you always on?
So when I asked Mike if I could write an article for FunnyMuscle.com, we had this exchange:
Mike: Quick, in one sentence, why did you want to write the article?
Me: Uhh, so I can promote my book.
Mike: Too honest.
Me: Uhh, because I was bored out of my mind on the 3rd zoom call of the day. And there were more “Hey, Caitlin you’re on mutes” than there was actually managerial business.
Mike: We’re not going to mute-shame Caitlin on this site.
Me: Because I’m an open mic-er but also a teacher at heart, and I’m excited to share all the tactics I’ve gathered over my first year of comedy with people on the same journey as me.
Mike: Nice. Let’s post it.
Me:
Mike: Hey, Stiffler, you’re on mute.
Me: Whoops, my bad.
Caitlin: See? It can happen to anybody!
Me: *mutes Caitlin* Okay, here it is…
10 Things I’ve Learned Doing Comedy in my First Year That I didn’t Know at the Start
1. There’s a difference between a Funny Concept and a Joke.
Joke structure has a premise, set-up, and punchline.
Normally the punchline satisfies the original set-up in a different way than the audience is expecting.
There’s a level of misdirection with a joke. Funny concepts, on the other hand, can be the start to a good joke, but they need to be developed.
I see a lot of open mic performers get disheartened because their new material failed to get a laugh.
Frequently because their ideas are inchoate. (Or maybe they tried to use vocabulary they hoped would impress the audience).
Edit your funny concepts with an eye for misdirection.
2. It’s useful to have a clear demarcation (in my head) of premise, set-up, punchline, and act out.
In golf, if I’m shanking the ball, I ask:
Should I change my grip? Should I adjust my takeaway? Should I fix my down swing? Should I take up bowling?
Not knowing the parts of a golf swing would make it harder for me to improve my swing. The same is true with comedy.
Understanding the different parts of a joke gives you a much better ability to know why a joke didn’t work.
“Check your set-up” is the golf equivalent of “check your grip.”
3. Get the first draft down and chisel from there.
Jokes hardly ever come out of your mind fully formed.
Give yourself permission—like the Denver Broncos do—– to have a bad first draft. But get a first draft down because it gives you something to work from.
The first time I tried stand-up comedy 10 months ago, the material I was using was on its 15th edit. I had vomited 1,500 words onto the page for my first draft which I chiseled into 700 words after several weeks of pondering, editing and rearranging.
So get a draft down, let it sit for a few days as you incubate ideas in your head. Then re-work and re-write it.
Each additional pass through, your brain will notice new ideas and it will get better and better (unlike the Broncos). But you must have a starting point.
4. You’ll get the light.
Having never participated in an Open Mic before, I didn’t know that the host would flash a light (usually the light on their phone) at you when you have one minute left in your allotted time.
At a 5-minute open mic, it’s pretty standard to see the light at the 4-minute mark.
It means you still have time to eloquently wrap up your set, but you should get to it.
Which begs the question: Why isn’t there a light system for people who talk too long on Zoom calls?
5. Don’t step on your laughs.
You’ll see this a lot when you start to look for it: open mic comics adding extra syllables after the key word in the punch line, similar to these extra words….that I’m adding….here.
In this case, the audience doesn’t know when to laugh.
The good news is that this is often an easy tweak: just rearrange your last sentence so your last word is the punch line.
You should aim to have as few syllables as possible after the punch line.
For example, if the key word of the punch line is “at the trailer park” your joke shouldn’t end with “I’m used to drinking beer at the trailer park with my friends.”
It doesn’t take much extra work to re-arrange that sentence to say, “I’m used to drinking beer with my friends at the trailer park.”
And then pause to give your audience time to laugh.
This one goes in line with the next piece of advice…..
6. Tiny tweaks can make or break a bit.
Don’t give up on a bit too soon.
It could just need a few extra syllables.
Or maybe just a well-timed….. pause.
I have a bit that likens what gazelles do to signal to lions that they can’t be caught, to how women signal in bars the high costs and low benefits of pursuing them.
The tiny tweak was between these two versions:
“Women do this at bars…..” vs “Women do this to me at bars……”
The simple addition of two syllables: “to me” makes me the butt of the joke; I’m the loser and they do this to me.
The first version makes it sound like I’m telling you what women do.
That version doesn’t work. Especially if they know you’re an economist.
7. Don’t forget to heighten your bits with additional punch lines.
Open mics are full of new comics that spend too much time setting up a premise for a mediocre laugh and then they move on.
Meanwhile, the audience is subtly saying, “You’ve just spent 30 seconds setting us up to consider what Walter White from Breaking Bad would be like during the American Civil War, give us more than just one punch line!”
Heighten that bit into a fun piece with multiple tags and punch lines. Don’t stop at one idea.
(Soldier 1: I get it Walter, you’re the one who knocks, but I’m the one using the latrine.)
(Soldier 2: Excuse me, Lieutenant Heisenberg, why does my blue crack have gangrene?)
8. Use the “What if….” entry into a hypothetical situation.
The audience probably won’t believe you if you tell them that you had a threesome on the Pittsburgh to Denver flight (especially if they know you’re an economist), even if you have a great bit about it.
Don’t lie to the audience.
Instead use a different entrance into the bit. Use a hypothetical: “What if I did……” or “Imagine if I did have a threesome….” “Can you picture me in a threesome on a plane….”
If the audience doesn’t believe you, they won’t be laughing.
So talk about that fictitious situation as a hypothetical.
9. You don’t need to do a new 5 every time.
You wouldn’t tell the same story a second time at a party to your same friends, right?
(Party-Goer 1: “Stiffler, you told that donkey story at the last Vernal Equinox Party!
Party-Goer 2: We’re at a Vernal Equinox Party?)
Shouldn’t that same logic apply to comedy?
No!
You’re allowed to do the same material again.
That’s how it gets better!
Now…. who wants to hear that story about my ass again?
10. Work with a comic teammate.
Writing jokes alone will never be as fruitful as workshopping jokes with another comedy buddy.
Find a give-and-take environment where you and fellow comics can have equal time to workshop your material with each other.
It’s also helpful to have trust in that relationship.
This will help avoid fighting over who owns what jokes.
That trust might result in you promoting your book on your teammate’s website.
(Click here to get your own copy of: Economics In-Other-Words; What your boring economics professor tried to teach you)
Chris and I break down this listicle on episode 10 of the Funny Muscle Podcast. Click to listen =>
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