When I started doing stand up comedy, I was unsure where to start so I could get on stage and tell jokes. It was almost as big of a mystery where to perform stand up comedy as it was to do stand up comedy.
So how do you get started doing stand up comedy? You should begin by going to a local open mic and watch. Afterward, watch or listen to your favorite comedians. Next, you’ll learn the structure of a joke, known as a setup and punchline. Then, you’ll write and perform jokes at the same open mic just a short time later.
- Go To A Local Open Mic And Watch
- Watch Or Listen To Your Favorite Comedians
- Learn The Proper Structure Of A Joke
- Write As Many Jokes As You Can
- Try Your Jokes Out At The Open Mic
- Repeat Daily, Weekly, Monthly, And Yearly
Do you intend to learn stand up comedy? You may not need to enroll in classes. All you need to do is to develop your sense of humor further and improve your performance and presentation skills. Practice makes perfect. If you aim to do stand up for the long haul be ready to encounter many challenges and failures along the way.
Stand up comedy isn’t a joke. Sure it’s fun, scary, unnerving, and sometimes even profitable, but it’s not easy. If you want to do stand up comedy, here are some tips to get you started on the right path.
Go To A Local Open Mic And Watch
Stay for the whole open mic. This will be the norm for the next few years. Open mics are the training ground of comedians. They are the dark, dreary places where comedians hone their craft and learn to fail on stage. Yep, open mics suck. Ask anyone. You will hear some of the vilest, disgusting, weird, and even uncomfortable material at an open mic.
Open mics are one part gym, one part torture. Most often, you will wait for an hour to several hours just to get 5 minutes on stage. That time should be spent observing other comedians, reading you set material, and making sure you are ready when they call your name. Every second on the open mic stage is precious, and you don’t want to lose even one.
The experience may be memorable and embarrassing at the same time. What is important is that you should take note of your performance and use it as a gauge so you know if the audience laughed and what they laughed at. If you receive good positive feedback from your performance, you know you have something. If not, you continue working to improve your craft, which you should do anyway.
You know how bad stand up comedians fare. They are booed or are disliked by the audience. It could be because they have a horrible sense of humor or just that they are not cut for the entertainment industry. You can avoid amateur mistakes that make your performance work well from doing sets at open mics.
One big note, do not bad mouth other comedians. It happens mostly at the open mic level. Doing so can be funny at times, but it can do more harm than good. There are ethics integrated within the community as you perform stand up comedy. Be friendly, and try to stay positive. Comedy is not a competition; don’t let anyone make you feel or think it is.
Watch Or Listen To Your Favorite Comedians
Watching or listening to comedy is studying. When you consume comedy, don’t just laugh at your favorite comedian, write out their jokes, and understand why they are funny. As you watch and listen to comedians, you will see how jokes are structured, how punchlines are set up, and how they add multiple tags getting laugh after laugh.
If you have Netflix or Amazon, watch comedy specials with subtitles on. Listen to the joke. Rewind. Play it again. Rewind. Write it down. Then break it down and repeat. This is similar to how a sports team study other players and teams. Watching, listening, and studying professional comedians will bring many a-ha moments and insights you may have overlooked in the past.
I found that listening to comedians sets helps me to write the bits down easier. You can also use transcription software and have it transcribe the bits for you, but it costs money and is not 100%, so keep that in mind.
Learn The Proper Structure Of A Joke
So you have been writing out bits and jokes from comedians you have been studying first off, bravo you are already in an elite class. That is only the begging of studying. Look at the jokes. What is the setup? What is the punchline? Can you identify each? Did they have tags in the jokes?
Once you can identify joke structure, try it on story jokes, longer bits, and sets. If you can write them out in a fashion where you can identify them, you will have a leg up on writing jokes.
Here is how I structure my jokes.
S: This is the SETUP. The setup can be one line or more, but you should shoot for no more than three setup lines before a punchline. P: This is the PUNCHLINE you mark it with a P so you can see them easily. T: This is a TAG. It comes after a punchline, but they can be added for as long as you can keep them coming.
Write As Many Jokes As You Can
Stand up comedy is not just standing up on stage part. Write 100 jokes. Yep, 100 setups, and punchline joke. Write ten a day or 100 at once. Or, however, you want.
Know your jokes very well. You may be tempted to use simple bits. Beware when you intend to do so. Some topics are just overly used by stand up comedians. These are referred to as hack bits and do not make good impressions among your audience or other comedians. Besides, you may not equal the level of delivery conducted by other stand up comedians who delivered the same topics as jokes.
You should also filter the overall content of your standup comedy jokes. If your audience mostly comprises of people in their early 20s, you should not deliver jokes about celebrities who are from the distant past. Not all people will know all celebrities or musicians and may not be able to relate to them. Instead, you want to deliver jokes about today’s pop culture figures.
Try Your Jokes Out At The Open Mic
Take those jokes and read them out loud. Some will be funny when spoken; some will not. Try them out and see if you get laughs.
Numerous bars, cafes, and nightclubs mount open mic nights. These events are opportunities where new and aspiring stand up comedians perform. Anyone can get the chance to be on stage instantly during an open mic. If you intend to showcase your talent being part of an open mic is an opportunity you should not miss.
The hardest part when learning stand up comedy and starting a career at it is beginning into the journey. You need to jump-start your journey. After some time you will have improved your humor and comedy skills. Next you’ll need to conquer your nervousness and learn how to perform for a big crowd. Open mic shows help you learn stand up comedy and at the same time, jump start your career in it.
It is also an amateur mistake to blame a bad show on the audience. You perform in the act, not the audience. You are on stage to make them laugh, not to expect their cooperation.
Repeat Daily, Weekly, Monthly, And Yearly
Do this every day, week, month, and year. Listen to comedy podcasts, read books, and find mentors.
Practice or rehearse your delivery. You may do so in front of a mirror. To get instant feedback, you might rehearse your set in front of friends or family. Listen to what they say about your performance. Do not take criticisms negatively and personally. Instead, use them to improve your set. As you learn, stand up comedy, make sure you spend more time rehearsing your delivery.
After the open mic, be ready to conquer comedy clubs. You will want to perform on bigger stand up comedy shows, where you can expect to face a huge crowd. You might consider putting up bringer shows, where you could bring in a number of your friends as paying customers and the audience of your show.
Prepare and deliver your jokes well, this is all about timing. You must make sure you are well prepared before facing an audience. Remember that you would always be judged based on your recent performance, so make every act your best. If you don’t prepare you could bomb.
First, try to get a feel for the audience. If it is impossible to gauge the demographics, strive to analyze the crowd using first impressions. It will be easy identifying priests, nuns, soldiers, and children. Deliver jokes that are appropriate for your audience. For instance, you should not tell adult and blue jokes if your audience is composed mostly of children and young people. You need to make sure the standup comedy material is very much appropriate for the audience. Applying common sense will help you a lot during the act. This is why
Simply following the steps above will get you on a good path in your stand up career. You have to learn to walk before you run and also how to perform for nobody before you perform for everybody.
