Well I jumped the gun a bit and applied for a newcomers short set at a local comedy club.... It scares the crud out of me but I think sometimes you need to do something that scares you. I might not even ever hear back but who knows.
How I am with Criticism depends on what I am doing, being new at this I don't care too much
I have in the past recorded a small set but cant find it, its kind of hard to do as there's no feedback so you don't know if to shut up or carry on with a line/story.
Yeah I don't think id ever get big doing it would just like the experience and to try it out , to do the odd small thing now and again and be able to add it to the list of things I can say I am would be kind of good, well actually it would be blooming wonderful, if I did it and people laughed and I could do a 5 minute set once every 3 months id be as happy as larry.
I'm a huge fan of stand up comedy, I've read the autobiographies of most of them. Obviously, it's incredibly competitive and you have to be one of the few to actually make a living out of it, unless it's just going to be a fun hobby?
Also, what sort of comedy would you like to do?
Definitely try it as a taster, though. Nothing worse than thinking 'oh, what if'.
And even if you stink up the place, you'll have an anecdote. That's what I think every time I go for something new. Or for a poo.
Abacus wrote:I'm a huge fan of stand up comedy, I've read the autobiographies of most of them. Obviously, it's incredibly competitive and you have to be one of the few to actually make a living out of it, unless it's just going to be a fun hobby?
Also, what sort of comedy would you like to do?
Definitely try it as a taster, though. Nothing worse than thinking 'oh, what if'.
And even if you stink up the place, you'll have an anecdote. That's what I think every time I go for something new. Or for a poo.
Yep definitely a Hobby no way id be cracking it big. The sort of stuff Id want to do would be the observational talk about my life and what's in the news sort of thing, more stories and observations than quick jokes, people I admire a lot are like Billy Connolly and Frankie Boyle , I like my stuff pretty dark
The one thing I would say, is that most stand ups aren't the one that makes all their mates laugh. They usually all have a funnier friend.
But that's easy when you know everyone in the room. When you've got a group of strangers in different moods, you need to know how to get people on board fast and that's a totally different skill.
So, say a favourite joke bombs, you might start to panic. But that's when you need to improvise, tell them you knew it wasn't going to go well, make them feel they're in safe hands.
The tricky thing with comedy is that you need to pretend to be confident, convincingly, when often you're not and are secretly craving a laugh. Otherwise, your nerves and need for a laugh transmit to the audience and instead of being your normal funny self, you become nervous and they sense that.
The best comics either establish a rapport straight away (which opens up the best mate laughter channels ala Peter Kay), or become a mock enemy by challenging them from the off and taking them out of their comfort zones so they aren't thinking about parking tickets (ala Stewart Lee).
Or else being a gag merchant like Tim Vine, where you wear them down with LOTS of clever material and a bit of madness.
Most stand up comics go through the same process early on don't they? (A lot of the successful ones talk about it). Dying on their arse repeatedly in front of small, unforgiving audiences in shitty clubs.
But slowly they build up their shtick, what works what doesn't work. Then the laughs start to appear a bit more regularly.
Worth giving it a go though, if you have the constitution for it.
Best thing to do is to type out your routine here and we'll film ourselves performing it and you can see if it works without the risk of looking a tit.
Billy Connolly and Frankie Boyle are such different styles!
Connolly could cover dark material, but he was always everyone's friend. He brought you on made you a friend like possibly no stand up comic ever could.
Boyle is exhausting in that he figures out how to offend folks until the point that he becomes funny.
I guess it depends if you mainly want to tell stories or make gags. And I suppose that depends on whether you'd like to talk about the absurdities of life or drop the mic like a Frankie Boyle after some brilliant wordplay.
LewisD wrote:Best thing to do is to type out your routine here and we'll film ourselves performing it and you can see if it works without the risk of looking a tit.