Mastering the Art of Stand-Up Comedy: Tips from the Pros
It doesn't matter if you've never been up on a stage or if getting in front of an audience is the only thing you look forward to, all week long. If you want to master the art of stand-up comedy then there are important steps you have to take to make it happen. It's always going to be best to start learning the craft before you practice it, but if you're already comfortable on stage, there are ways to turn your passion into a successful comedian career.
The thing about stand-up comedy that most comedians dislike is the fact that most people think it's something that anyone can do and nothing could be further from the truth. Stand-ups understand that it's an art form you have to learn before you can claim to be any good at it. Yes, almost anyone can get up on a stage and do a stand-up set, but it takes skill and talent to make the audience laugh.
Stand-up comedy History
No matter what your craft happens to be, understanding its history is just as important as practicing it in a modern way. Stand-up comedy got its start in the 1840s as minstrel shows. These performance art sets included many things that you could never do on stage now, but they left a mark on the public consciousness and set up a performance art form that's been evolving ever since.
Oddly enough, what most people think of as traditional stand-up that you get in a comedy club started as burlesque shows in the United States. Nude shows were outlawed in New York, in 1937, and the performers had to come up with other ways to give their audience members the entertainment they paid for. They added suggestive acts and dirty jokes to appeal to the men watching them and stand-up comedy was born.
Early Stand-up Comedy Artists
These early days of standup comedy had many comedians creating the craft that you can still see on stage today. One of the most went by the name of Moms Mabley, who ran away from home at the of 14 to join a traveling minstrel show. She became the first woman to perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and acted as a maternal figure to other early comedians.
Following her were stand-up comics that you still know about today and can listen to their routines. These stand-up comedians were Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Fred Allen, and many others. They quickly gained prominence on the United States comedy circuit and in other countries and greatly influenced more modern stand-up comedians.
Modern Stand Comedy artists
Television helped bring stand-up comedy to much larger audiences and made it possible for stand-ups to do their routines right in the homes of the audience. It's turned the stand-up comic into a household name and some of the biggest have names that anyone can instantly recognize. These are the comedy veterans and any new comedian wants to be like.
Just some of the names that everyone knows are George Carlin, Chris Rock, and Jerry Seinfeld. They're all masters of joke writing and crowd work and many young comics start by simply watching their shows and trying to figure out how they write jokes. They're regular guests on the Tonight Show and are the results of many comics coming before them and refining the art form.
Stand-up Comedy Facts
There are lots of stand-up comedy facts that more people don't realize but any stand-up comedian hopeful should have a firm grip on what makes stand-up comedy the pop culture phenomenon that it is. The most important thing to understand is that comedy is hard and comic actors and stand comedians tend to die much earlier than other performers.
You should also understand that the comedy club, as an industry, was started by a woman named Mitzi Shore. She opened the first club that was wholly dedicated to comedy where stand-ups could perform new material as well as book shows by the night to earn a living. She's also the mother of stand-up comedian and comic actor Pauly Shore.
Learn From the Best
The best method for mastering stand-up is to simply learn from the best comedians that you can find and that means sitting in on lots of comedy shows, from the opening act to the final joke. When you sit in on their stage time, you'll get a sense of what makes people laugh and how to prepare yourself to be in front of a live audience. You can also find a complete guide to writing jokes and the art of comedy to read in between your shows.
It's also a great idea to keep up with current events and figure out different ways to turn them into jokes. Grab two friends and head to any open mics that you can find in your area. Your friends will be in the audience for moral support while you try out your material and see if you can get real laughter out of your comedy show.
What Is a Stand-Up Comedy Set?
No matter where you live in the world or what kind of comedy you want to perform, you're going to have to understand what a stand-up comedy set is and how to write your own. British stand-up comedy, American comedy, and every other comedy location on the planet uses sets and you'll need one before you get up on stage. How you plan yours out will mean the difference between a good show and one that you never want to think about again.
A comedy set is the entire show you give during your performance. It consists of all your comedy bits and should have a rhythm that your audience can easily get into. It should cover all the time in your act and not have too many jokes that make you run over your allotted time or end early because your time is up.
Start writing jokes
The best way to get working on your stand-up comedy is to simply start writing jokes and see where they take you. Just understand that not every joke you write is going to be funny to an audience. You have to try out your material before you know if it will land with other people or not and that's where your local comedy club comes into play.
Every new generation of comedians has to refine their work and give their jokes a point of view that can easily be understood by other people. It's the only way to turn your sets into laughs and getting up on stage can be some of the most fun that you'll have in your life. Once you break into the local comedy scene, you'll quickly find out what works and what doesn't while you test out the material that you've been writing.
Jokes from Your Life
The secret to writing great comedy material is to write jokes based on the story of your life without getting into the nuance that many new comedians make the mistake of using. For example, an audience doesn't want to pay to hear about the television shows you watched the previous night. They're spending their money on your entertainment and the material you perform for them should offer them a fresh take on something they can't get at home.
You can form material around something you see on television but it should come with a story that elicits laughter and can be seen as funny to someone you've never met before. That's why it can be so difficult to write for audiences, no matter where you live in the world. The job of a comic is hard but it will also be extremely rewarding when something you came up with really resonates with your audiences.
Stand Up VS Improv
Another form of comedy that's an art form all its own is improv and it's always an option to get into. The main difference between stand-up comedy and improv is that improv is something you create while you're on stage and in front of an audience. While some of your performances can be scripted, most audiences expect you to come up with something brand new while you entertain them.
Improv is at its best when you're part of a group that performs together and acts out scenarios that come from the audience. You have to be quick-witted while you're on stage and it's something that you can spend a lot of time perfecting. It's a form of entertainment that lets you create a joke on the fly, so it's unique to every audience that you perform it in front of.
Learning from Comics
As you explore the world of comedy and comedians, it's important to learn about the things that you can get the most use out of in your shows. That doesn't mean that you can repeat a joke that you hear from someone else, though. The idea of using a joke written by another comedian is seen as one of the biggest comedy crimes that a stand-up comedian can commit.
You can consider the joke that someone tells as their art and taking it for your show is just as bad as stealing a painting from a museum. Study the way that your favorite comedian crafts his or her joke, instead. That's how you can learn from other comics and get your laughs when you're on stage.
Getting onto Television
Most stand-up comics don't end up on television and that's something you have to understand from the beginning. That's something that's only reserved for the best and luckiest stand-up comedy artists around the world. That doesn't mean that you can't take your art into the TV realm and become a household name, though.
As a comedian, it's important that you don't pass up any opportunities to practice your art in front of an audience and local TV is a great way of getting your set on camera. It's important to understand that being funny without an audience can be very difficult, though. Playing to a camera in an access television studio, when you can't hear a single laugh, is something that every comic should work at and work toward.
Seeking out Local Clubs
Comics tend to start in their local scenes and that's because the clubs in your area will be much more likely to have open mics that you can use to test out your material. Take advantage of them whenever you can and save your time in major markets for later on in your comedy career. Once you have a set that makes the audience laugh non-stop, you'll be ready to move into the bigger clubs and play for larger audiences.
Being a comic isn't just about coming up with material at home and performing it in front of an audience at the comedy club, though. These clubs also offer many different classes that you can take to work on your routine and learn how to be a presence onstage. It's also the best way to become a part of the comedy community and talk to other people who share your passion for stand-up.
What to Expect from Classes
Every class from every club is going to be different but there are a few things that you can expect to come across, no matter where you're attending them or who's offering them. The first is that the classes will typically be taught by real comedians who know what it's like to get up in front of people and try to be funny. They've been in the industry for many years and have the experience that it takes to prepare you for your shows.
The next thing that you can expect is to be surrounded by like-minded men and women who want to become masters at their brand of comedy and you'll know that you're not alone in your endeavors. This community will offer you a sense of support and you'll be able to talk to them on the same level. That's not something you're going to be able to get if you're relying on non-comedian friends.
The Stand-up Community
One of the best things about the stand-up community is that it's always filled with people who are willing to help new arrivals and show them the best ways to ply their craft in front of other people, no matter what their particular brand is like. A seasoned comedian doesn't have to love your comedy to help you grow and refine your art form in front of an audience. They know what it's like to work on your jokes and hone them into something that other people are willing to pay to hear.
That's another reason why comedy clubs are such an essential part of the industry and why you should become involved with them as soon as you can. You'll meet men and women who have already done the things you're trying for the first time and they'll have plenty of advice to offer you. The more stand-up comedians you meet, the better your sets will become and you'll always have their support to rely on.
Audience Feedback
On top of what you get from the community around your local comedy clubs, it's always important to take audience feedback and use it to create a set that you can take on the road and use multiple times, in front of different types of people. That doesn't mean that should completely change your routine based on one night that doesn't go over the way you wanted it to. There are going to be nights that go poorly and audiences that you just can't connect with and that's just the way that it is.
However, if you have a joke that's consistently missing the mark then there's a reason it's not working and it's something that you have to address before you start playing in around the comedy circuit. Take the live feedback as genuine criticism and use it to reshape the joke or forget about it and write something else. No matter how much you love it right now when you look back at it later on, you'll fully understand why it didn't work and had to be replaced.
Holding Yourself in Public
While the material that you perform is the most important part of your show, you can't underestimate how much the way you hold yourself on stage is going to make a difference in your set. You have to show that you're confident in front of an audience and know that your jokes are worth the time and money of the people in the audience. If you get up on stage and make the audience feel that you're intimidated and want to be back in the shadows then your jokes will never land or resonate with them.
This is yet another area where the right comedy club is going to make all the difference in your journey through stand-up comedy and you can't ignore the positive changes that it can make for you. The more time you spend in front of people, the better you're going to get at it and that's a fact. Take the time to perform whenever you can and you'll have a show that you're comfortable with performing and that will make you much more confident when you're on stage.
Get Started Today
No matter how you choose to go about honing your craft and becoming the stand-up comedian that you've always wanted to be, the worst thing you can do is nothing and that's something that all performers have to learn at some point. Get started as soon as you can and there's no limit to how far you'll be able to go with your routines. Check out as many comedy club shows as you can and pay attention to what the performers do while they're on stage.
It's also important that you start writing your material and get as much down on paper as you can, no matter how good or bad you think it happens to be. The act of writing will always lead to more writing and you'll get into a habit of creating that will stick with you for the rest of your life. Writing jokes is something that you'll never regret doing and you'll always have material to pull from when get in front of a room full of total strangers.