You might have attended dozens of comedy shows and noticed that every comedian has different skills, but have you ever thought that there are some traits that comedians have in common? There are several common traits that all comedians have which unites them as comedians and separates them from just funny people. Sure they make you laugh, but most people have some form of humor that can make others laugh. They all get on stage and cam perform for strangers, but again that can be taught. So what really separates comedians from just funny people?
After a lot of research, the conclusion is that all the great comedians were not actually “great” because they possessed some powers, but because they were creative in nature. They could make simple events occurring in one’s life comical.
So what traits do all comedians have in common? There are five traits that all comedians share that make them great comedians.
- Idea Association
- Open-Ended Questioning
- Observation Skills
- Experimental Ideas
- Idea Networking
So as we go through those common traits of comedians keep them in mind and check off the ones you share and which one you can foster along the way. If you study comedians and compare the traits listed here you will have a clear view of what you need to be like in order to be a great comedian.
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Common Traits Of Comedians
Let’s come back to the topic, every comedian has different skills but there are some traits that mostly every comedian have in common, the following are those 5 common traits of comedians.
Idea Association
One skill that is common to all the comedians is their ability to link various unrelated ideas together. If you have ever been to a stand-up comedy show you would have definitely experienced the use of metaphors or analogy.
Comedians not only write what they simply see but combine ideas. You may interpret it as two different stories combined to form a single story that features the content of both stories. The comedians simply form the framework to which they add or subtract small segments.
To make something different out of already existing material is where the creativity of the comedian is tested. The competition to generate more creative ideas with higher consistency than their peers is what every comedian works on.
Open-Ended Questioning
Another skill that is common to all the comedians is the way they put forward questions.If you watch a stand-up comedy show of a recognized speaker you will definitely observe that the person will put forward tons of open-ended questions that can have more than one answer, and maybe different for different people.
Questioning is responsible for raising new possibilities and gives new perspectives. It is not easy to come up with new ideas very frequently so questioning gives the opportunity to come up with new topics for the next show.
Comedians question themselves to bring about a change to their podcast. This was observed in two case studies.The first one is about the American actor Steve Martin. He once asked himself, “Why is comedy so serious?”This led him to pioneer something called “anti-comedy”. Who could have thought that there could be something called anti-comedy?
The second one is again of an American stand-up comedian, Richard Pryor. He had put up the question “Why can’t comedy be personal?”Imagine what, he became the first comedian to ever lead an audience deep into the dark shadows of their psyche.
From the above two case studies, this became very clear that questioning is the route to innovation.
“Quality questions lead to Quality career”
So, with that quote, let’s move on to the next common trait of comedians.
Observation Skills
What do you infer from observation? Observation is simply raising your level of awareness. Your parents, mentors, or anyone whom you look up to must have been after your life to be aware of what is going on in the world.
If you dream to be a comedian one day then never ignore this term “OBSERVATION”. It has a deep meaning attached to it and plays a crucial role in a comedian’s life. Keep one thing in mind, without observation there is no creativity. Creativity and Observation are two aspects that go hand in hand.
A comedian doesn’t start producing ideas by sitting in front of a laptop hoping that something fascinating comes to him. They work on the basis of what they see around them. In addition to this, they add their own perspective to make things look appealing.
In the first point, we talked about combining various ideas and producing something special. The more ideas you have in mind the better will be the outcome. You have options in front of you.
Experimental Ideas
Another trait that you find in all the comedians is their ability to experiment. Experimenting with something which is completely new comes with some risk but this is what makes one comedian different from the rest.
Although the risk associated with it is very high because you don’t know how the audience reacts to it and you can’t determine whether it will be accepted or rejected by the audience.
You will great comedians always experimenting ideas, taking feedback, and then incorporating the required adjustments to their ideas. They don’t work on pre-planned ideas. They start it with small experiments, which could be a joke or even a new style of delivering the content.
“If you have wildly original material, a full plan becomes secondary”.
If you are a comedian or you want to be a comedian, then keep that in mind.
Idea Networking
By saying networking in the right sense I mean to say don’t violate the meaning of the term “NETWORKING”.
I have met a lot of people who understand networking as sharing business cards or following each other on various social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and many more.
Networking refers to sharing new ideas and perspectives with the right people. Creative people which include comedians connect with people coming from diverse backgrounds. This is how they are able to come up with something new every time.
A single person no matter how creative he may be, would not be able to think from all different perspectives. Each comedian walks a different path and comes with different perspectives. Listening to each one with the utmost alertness could do wonders. This is the strategy most of the famous comedians work on!
So, these were the traits that comedians have in common. I hope this journey was remarkable and you are not in a dilemma that comedians possess special powers. All they have is creativity which when used in the right way creates wonderful and hilarious comedy that entertains.
