May 2008
8 posts
Moving on Up: What next?
This was in response to a question about moving on to “the next level” in comedy.
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It sort of depends on your intended career path. Typically you put together a press kit (bio, resume, quotes, headshots, you can download one from Eugene Mirman’s site to see an example). Road comics will send that to clubs around the area they want to perform, presumably the same is true for comics living in a...
Heckler Handling
This was in response to a question about what to do if someone’s heckling.
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Heckling usually happens when there’s dead space in an act. I keep my sets pretty tight, so I don’t get heckled much. Even if someone doesn’t like one of my jokes I’m usually on to the next one by the time they think they have something to say. Because of this my advice here is mostly based on what I’ve seen with other...
Theories of Humor
This was written in response to a question about superiority theory and other theories of humor.
If you’re interested in the psychology of humor then I’d definitely recommend reading that book I was talking about: http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Humor-Integrative-Approach/dp/012372564X I don’t have as much faith in superiority theory as you seem to, I think that status and power is involved in...
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Don't Forget to Memorize
This was in Response to a question about memorization.
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I’ve been involved in theater for years, so this is something I have a decent amount of experience with. For memorizing material, something that I fucking hate but is hugely necessary: Decide on the order and then break it down. If I’m doing a set of 20 jokes, I first decide on the order (putting together jokes that have similar topics,...
6 tags
Developing a Process
This was in response to a question about how I prepared and my method when I first got started doing Stand-up.
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I’m going to write a lot here, some of which may work for you, some of which may not. Obviously everyone is different, but these are the things that I’ve found that help me produce and develop, so I hope you won’t think I’m saying it’s the only way or anything like that. Before I...
Opening Crowd Work
This was in response to a question about opening and crowd work.
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This is something you may just have to experiment with to see what works for you. I like to sort of interact with the room a bit, so that they know I’m there and present. If I’m commenting on the bathroom or on the crowd or something they know that’s not something I could prepare any time and it puts them at ease. A couple of...
Why I was Posting A Joke Every Day
This was in response to a question about what went into my Joke Every Day project
— I’d say that when you start a project it takes a while just to figure out what you want it to be, so you have to establish stability before you can experiment or tweak it. The first couple of months my focus was just on setting things up and keeping myself going, I remember being amazed after the first month that...
Is Anything Off-Limits?
This was written in response to the a question I received asking if I thought comedians should talk about certain touchy subjects.
I think that Comedians can and should talk about anything they want to. No topic is off limits. But that doesn’t mean that anything should be said. Dave Chapelle and Carlos Mencia both talk *about* race, but their points of view could not be more different. One breaks...