(Part 2) Top products from r/Standup

It's a bit tricky to explain, but here goes:

I'm in my third year of a 4-year Drama & Theatre Studies masters course, so you have 3 years to get your standard bachelor's degree and then an extra year that upgardes it to an 'MDrama'. The final year has always offered stand-up comedy as an area of specialisation, where you do weekly gigs in front of a student crowd (with new material each week) as well as going into London to do open mics.

Up until now the third year had a module that was all about stand-up theory, but they changed it for our year so that it became half theory, half practical. The first six weeks we studied academic stuff on comedy (all the way back to Freud), the history of stand-up, comic devices, personas, etc etc etc. We had to write an essay about a chosen comedian, analyse one of their routines and explain why it was funny academicly.

That all set us up for the last six weeks which was purely practical. Weekly workshops where we'd be set different tasks (like, write some surreal material or instant character stuff or audience participation) and do it in front of the class. Then we took our best stuff and crammed it into 5 minutes, which we performed in a show on the last day of term (hence why I was asking about warm-up rituals for 10AM comedy). The focus was on getting us to produce something that we could easily take to open mic nights if we wanted to, and also to give us a taste of it to see if we wanted to do the specialisation next year.

The guy who teaches the course was on a BBC documentary about stand-up the other night, and he's also written a few books and journal articles about teaching comedy.

This one here has got some stuff about teaching stand-up: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Getting-Joke-Stand-up-Comedy-Performance/dp/0413774767

Hope that helps!

someone said watch dick van dyke which is good advice. I am about done watching every single SNL and I want to watch every Cheers and the Bob Newhart show. You can study and study and the great thing about studying comedy is its super fun. You laugh a lot, read a million books, READ Abjection in America http://www.amazon.com/Stand-up-Comedy-Abjection-America-Americanists/dp/0822325462 so you'll know your history. Bot don't only study comedy.

at some point you really need practice, I'm sure Philly has some great opportunities. Try to start your own show in Philly at some bar or coffee house you can get your friends to make it out to , start going to New York and Chicago on weekends and over the summer and try to make contacts. try writing an hour a day or if you're already doing that do something else like take a writing class, an improv class, or learn an instrument. i think the most useful comics are the ones that can do everything: write, act, edit, animate, shoot, draw, be multifaceted. think of yourself as an artist, above all. get a camera, tape a clip, scour for shows on the internet figure out who books what, and send out a million booking requests. nothing could be simpler.

I'm on twitter https://twitter.com/420BinLaden69

This is a terrific book for teaching you one aspect of one style of jokewriting. It focuses on the setup-punch, 'misdirect' style joke (ie "For years I've been looking for my girlfriend's killer... but nobody will do it." -Jeselnik) and is a little dated, and it's just one guys creative process for writing a particular style of joke, but it's definitely worth a read. But it won't cover every aspect of writing and performing good comedy.

Also, this one is a great book about mindset and pretty much everything other than the actual jokewriting: http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Stand-Up-Comedy-Sankey/dp/0878300740

I love this question. All writers, no matter the medium, have faced this question. You're doing the right thing starting and ending strong with what you've got. You can tell where your week points are. That honesty is good!
It shows you have a high standard for yourself. A certain level of taste, if you will. And you're trying to meet it. So just keep working on generating new material.

Always be writing things down. You should have a notebook stuck to your hand like glue that's a constant stream of funny things you encounter, whether you said it or it was a daily experience. You might not write every day but keep it handy. Not writing something great that popped into your head is a huge missed opportunity. You never know what will build into something great. These don't come often. So most writers seriously sit down an hour or two a day for the express purpose of thinking about their material and coming up with new bits. Stories from childhood they can reflect on as an adult, recent personal or world events, you name it.

Figure out what your rules are for what works for you. Don't just curse to curse or be gross to be gross. It has to convey a story or an insight into life or who you are. Keep searching for your style, your voice.

Also, and this is gonna sound totally high school stupid but it helps... Remember why you're doing it. Why are you doing it? It's not just to make people laugh, that's why all comics are there. But why are you doing it. that's a different answer. A very personal one. Get this on paper to your satisfaction. Let it be your driving reason for creating material.

Test your new material out in the middle of your set. See how well you can work the crowd differently each night based on the vibe and city. You know you can't settle for chuckles. You want full guffaw. That's what sitting down with your stream of consciousness writing is for. To filter and edit what you have newly discovered. Don't stay out too late. Be well rested every morning (or whenever you usually get up) so you can continue working on your material and writing things down with a clear head. Watch how Jerry did it. When you get stuck, check out a book on how to write comedy. There are many. Good luck!

This is something I juggle a lot. I'm not sure if I'm really good at it or not - time will tell. My approach tends to be to spend a few months emphasizing my focus on one thing at a time and let others kinda 'simmer' on the backburner. Not necessarily totally avoid them, but put a lot less effort in. It's impossible to do everything at once and it's also not practice to do 'everything a little bit at a time'. Because even though you may be able to break up a 40 hours work week into 4 projects by working on each 10 hours at a time... there's all that "offline" thinking you're doing in the shower, on the toilet, hiking, running, whatever and that can't be distributed well into 4 different projects. Same if you are delegating any work or collaborating with people - its tricky to coordinate these types of schedules with a bunch of different people (especially if it requires in-person meeting).


There's a great book called "The Renaissance Soul" which discusses how to collaborate multiple projects. This was really helpful in calming my discomfort and to find a strategy that worked for me. For example, some people focuses "seasonally" on different projects. Some people will combine multiple passions into a single project (I'm doing that with a physics sketch comedy show". Another example that's "working" for me is that I'm involved in mental health activism and an advocate for self-directed learning for teens -- so, big surprise, a lot of that content ends up making its way into my stand-up comedy. So that sorta combines some passions.

I know this goes against your original question, but I was told by comedy teachers to not get too caught up in reading comedy books (ex: how-to's). Before I started doing improv, though, I read "Bossypants" by Tina Fey (I do stand-up now). It's a quick, easy read and the writing's awesome. Ellen Degeneres: also a great writer. Found [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Seinlanguage-Jerry-Seinfeld/dp/0553569155/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414942127&sr=1-1&keywords=jerry+seinfeld) too.

I don't think you need to read the whole book (there's a small summary that's a few pages out there), but I found Greg Dean's book helpful for learning how to write simple setup/punchline jokes.

For improv (and it applies to sketch too imo), the UCB manual is the best book I've read.

For writing, this book from one of the founders of The Onion is really good. I think if I had to recommend just one comedy book, it would be this one.

My buddy bought this book for me to make fun of me saying I wasn’t funny. Jokes on him, I am now not only not funny, but also have all of the fundamental knowledge of what makes stuff funny and the tools necessary to grind out jokes.

The Comic Toolbox: How to Be Funny Even If You're Not https://www.amazon.com/dp/1879505215/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_AKFPCbCDNY86N

Seriously tho it’s a great book and gives you the formula for creating quality bits

I've heard lots of people recommend "The Comedy Bible" by Judy Carter.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Comedy-Bible-Stand-up-Sitcom-The/dp/0743201256

There are plenty of other books about stand up comedy and comedy writing in general, grab one and random from your local library.

Any or all of the things you mentioned are good first steps, but eventually stand up comedy boils down to standing up in front of a crowd and telling jokes.

Do what you need to get yourself started, but remember that you aren't going to be completely comfortable the first several times getting on stage.

Wow thanks, I really need to hit a bunch of open mics and suffer some bombs to neutralize all of this validation.

I'm still trying to develop a solid writing habit to be honest, it's very difficult for me to maintain a steady productive flow.

I'd recommend reading Poking a Dead Frog by Mike Sacks and Sick in the Head by Judd Apatow, both are collections of interviews and advice with amazing comedians and comedy writers. You can get some fantastic advice there but mostly it's just inspiring and motivating.

For writing specifically, the only book I'd seriously recommend is How to Write Funny by Scott Dikkers, he was a founding editor of The Onion and it's a slim, no nonsense book.

This one is fantastic: How To Look Like A Winner. https://www.amazon.com/Look-Like-Winner-Dorothy-Woolfolk/dp/0590313320

I just finished reading "Steal Like An Artist" (http://www.amazon.com/Steal-Like-Artist-Things-Creative/dp/0761169253). One of the key points is that when you first start, you try and copy from your heroes. Have 4-5 of them.

By copy, I don't mean word by word, but more like the general topics, style of delivery, how they do act outs etc.

Check out the wiki pages of some famous comedians (Louis CK, Russell Peters, Kevin Hart, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Dave Chapelle). They have "Influences" on the right panel where it lists all the different comics that they looked up to - and undoubtedly tried copying from.

After a few years of that, you'll start developing your own style.

I killed is out of print but very good. Jerry Seinfeld's intro describing what standup means to him ("there's no rules. It's like being a pirate...") is one of my favorites.

This is that show. It is called Inside Jokes. It is from a few years ago and follows folks in NYC and L.A. It is the Hoop Dreams for comedians you have been looking for.

I really loved this book And Here's The Kicker.

Also Andy Kaufman's biography Lost in the Funhouse

Fred Stoller maybe? I guess he kinda looks like John Tuturro, but he's certainly guest starred on practically everything. (He even has a book called Maybe We'll Have You Back: The Life of a Perennial TV Guest Star)

> A little about myself: I'm 18 years old, have been writing for a few years but have never gotten on stage.

Get one stage. Theoretical physics is only powerful once practical physics can make use of it. The stage is the lab.

There is a book by Gene Perret. Though, the internet may have changed everything that book would tell you.

Ken Campbell's solo shows are published in book format:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Bald-Trilogy-Recollections-Happiness/dp/0413690806/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1333890914&sr=8-2

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0141025158/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491928978&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=the+naked+jape&dpPl=1&dpID=51Z6%2BBzbHWL&ref=plSrch

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0571254810/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491941534&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=stewart+lee