Category: Comedy

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Intro to Improv

One of my comedy goals for 2009 was to take an improvisation class as I heard it would help improve my stand up. I’ve already wrote about one improv game that doubles as a fun drinking game. This post covers the improv basics I learned during my class.

I remember the first time I saw an improv show, it was so funny that I was convinced it had to be scripted. This guide should help you understand how an improv show works and be a handy reference if you take a course. This guide isn’t a substitute for taking an improv class (which I highly recommend even if you have zero interest in being a professional performer).

For those that are curious, I took the class at The Pit in NYC with Steve Soroka as my instructor and I highly recommend both the school and Steve.

What is Improv? 

Wikipedia says that “improvisational theatre (also known as improv) is a form of theatre in which the actors use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously. Actors typically use audience suggestions to guide the performance as they create dialogue, setting, and plot extemporaneously. Improvisational theatre performances tend to be comedic.”

In other words, all of the characters and situations are made up on the spot as the show moves along. Chaos? Yes. But it’s organized chaos.

Improv show structures

In general, the two main types of structure are long form and short form. The difference is that long form tends to reuse the same characters and scenes multiple times throughout the show whereas short form tends to be a motley crew of characters and situations. (Here is a really good explanation of long form structure.) Both long form and short form shows run about twenty five to forty five minutes.

In my class show, our group of six got an audience suggestion, three of us each gave a forty five to sixty second monologue based off of the suggestion and then the six of us took turns doing two person skits (or scenes) based off of the monologues for twenty minutes.

Regardless of the structure, both shows begin with one of the actors asking the audience for a one word suggestion. The actors then free associate from that word for a minute (usually through monologues or some sort of improv game) until there are enough ideas to start acting and improvising scenes using techniques I’ll discuss tomorrow.

Wanna try stand-up comedy yourself? I teach a Comedy Class in New York City. I also do private one-on-one comedy coaching (in-person or via Zoom).

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Book Review: Fans, Friends and Followers

Fans, Friends and Followers by Scott Kirsner is a three part book about building and monetizing an online fan base.

fansIn the first part, Scott lays out the “new rules” of building an audience such as “Be remarkable and make remarkable stuff”, “Understand the power of the link” and “Help people learn to do what you do”. While artists new to social media may find this section insightful, this section is just a reminder of what the rest of us should already know. After reading Seth Godin and other online thought leaders for the past few years I found myself alternating between a state of “oh yeah, I forgot about that” and nodding along impatiently waiting to get to some new secret formula. 

But a secret formula to get a large following quickly isn’t the point of the book, and thankfully so. The real value of this book is in part two, where Scott interviews 30 creators from diverse fields such as singing, film production and comedy who have succeeded in building an online following (and in most cases, a monetary living) for their work. I found myself getting more ideas from creators that had nothing to do with comedy than I did from the comedians, and I feel this sort of “cross-pollination of ideas” will hold true no matter your medium. 

While the interviews were very insightful, I would have liked to read interviews from the following creators who have built a huge online following: Tucker Max, Hugh McLeod, Aaron Karo and Dane Cook. (Whether you love or hate Dane, he has always been way ahead of every other comic on technology and interacting with his fans.) 

In the third and final part, Scott provides a quick reference guide for getting started on using social media and the internet to one’s advantage. While you won’t really read this section, it will be a handy reference five months down the line when you decide you’re not going to post your new joke until you raise $50 and you want to find out which site can help you implement that technology. 

Overall, I highly recommend this book to any creator or blogger who is looking to establish or increase their online presence. Whether new to the internet or an experienced veteran, the people and ideas in this book will get you thinking about your audience from a new perspective. Be warned, there is no trick or quick way to build a following, it takes time, but Scott’s book will help you develop a more coherent strategy for the road ahead.

(Full Disclosure: As a comedy blogger, I was received a free preview copy of this book. I don’t think that influenced my opinion as it’s always easier to write a negative review than a positive review, but I thought you should know.)

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Performance Critique: April 1st

Another DC set, I think there were 6 to 8 people in the audience 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6EyYj56OIA

2m07s I have a habit of not putting in full energy if nobody is laughing to start a set. So when I said “this is more interesting than my jokes” I meant it. I think the truth got a reaction 

3m14s The guy in the audience cracked me up 

3m38s Maybe I should just be a talk show host… 

5m10s Try to rephrase/shorten to “I’m not being cruel, this is the only way to tell if someone is a keeper” 

6m19s I meant it, and I don’t even smoke 

6m38s My eyes are looking down at the ground too much 

7m05s I should try throwing in the Lehman Brothers thing as an additional line to the pizza pot joke 

9m25s I think I’m actually picking up momentum as I go through the set 

9m35s There’s one guy who keeps saying “wow,” I don’t remember it at the time but he made me dislike him while I watched the video 

Part 2

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqr48feuF6E

0m25s And there goes my momentum 

0m43s I like how quitting got an additional laugh 

Overall: I started out weak, got strong in the middle and ended weak again. I think I did better once I spent some time interviewing the audience

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How Do You Use Stand Up?

I’ve been thinking about Hugh’s comments regarding how art is used:

To me, the interesting thing about art is not the usual “Heroic, absinthe-soaked, vision quest lone individual archetypal artist crap”, but how the art is USED by the person who has it hanging on the wall. What’s it actually there for? Decoration? Showing off? A conversation starter? An ice breaker? A way of telling a story? Something to brighten up the room? A symbol of social status? An expression of individual worldview? An expression of emotion? A totem to remind oneself of something inspirational and/or important? Perhaps a bit of all these?

How would this viewpoint apply to stand up comedy? Do you use stand up when retelling a comic’s joke to your friend’s the next day? Do you want a take home souvenir after the show to put up on your wall to use as a conversation starter? Would you want a favorite comedian to send you a videotaped version of a joke personlized for your girlfriend’s birthday?

Thinking about making the stand up experience last longer than the show led to trying a visual representation of one of my jokes:

ex-on-st
I think many of my jokes would lend themselves to a similar form, but is this something anyone wants?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you use stand up comedy… and feel free to discuss comedians not named Ben.

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Pro Talk: 7 Tips for Ambitious Comedians

This is a guest post by Clayton Fletcher. Clayton is a professional stand up comedian who plays all over the country, has been on HBO, is a regular at Caroline’s on Broadway and has his own weekly show at New York Comedy Club. You can learn more about Clayton on his website here.

Clayton Fletcher

1. Get onstage as much as humanly possible
In my view, becoming a really good comic requires hours and hours of stagetime. When I started, I did every open mic in town and at least one bringer show every week. I would also ask to perform at family parties, office functions, basically anywhere and everywhere I could. There is just no substitute for stagetime. 

2. You will always be a bringer
What I mean is suppose that someday you become famous and you are asked to be the headliner at the Laughy Ha-Ha Club in Plano, Texas. They will invest fortunes in advertising your arrival, marketing your performances, and staffing their club so that you can have a great show. If nobody comes to see you, do you think you will be asked back? Always promote every show you are in. Especially in New York where there are ten million comics, one great way to get a leg up on the competition is to help the club out by letting your fans know you are coming! Since comedy clubs are businesses, they will appreciate the fact that you help increase their patronage!

To put it another way, if you were in a great band that had absolutely no following, how many gigs do you think you would be able to get twice? Why should comedians be any different?

3. In the beginning, stick to one club.
The other side of the coin is that if you are popular enough to have friends who want to come see your show, you should focus your efforts on one club. Many comedy club owners (Al Martin among them) pride themselves on developing young talent into tomorrow’s superstars. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a club owner say “I gave him his start and now he’s headlining for me!” or “Why should I book her? When she started out she did bringer shows and open mics every week at ______ Comedy Club! Now she wants to work for me?” You simply can not build a solid relationship with a club by spreading shows out in all the clubs around town.

Become associated with one venue and the rest will follow. If you are talented and you put the work in and show loyalty to a club and a producer, we remember this and look for ways to help you down the line. And then when you try to get work at Club B and C you can say “Well I do regular feature spots at NYCC and now I am trying to branch out.” It lends credibility much more than “I am doing bringers all over town” ever can.

4. There is more than one way to get there.
Many comics ask me what they should do if they do not have friends. Frankly, I am skeptical of anyone who claims not to know a single person who wants to see them perform, but if you are in this group, you still have hope! Get your stagetime in “non-traditional” venues. When I started out I did shows in sushi restaurants, pizza parlors, every bar in New York that had a back room, and quite a few that didn’t. Most of these shows were disastrous but believe me if you can kill at McMickerson’s Pub while the foreigners watch a soccer game, you will tear the roof off the Broadway. Again it all comes down to stagetime and finding ways to get it.

5. Write write write.
Comedians are writers. When you finally get up onstage, you should not be at a loss for words. Rework the old stuff, try to come up with new stuff. Never stop writing!

6. Produce your own show!
One of the best ways to get onstage early in your career is to put your own show together. You can learn to MC, you can begin to network with your peers, you might even create the next “hot new comedy room” in New York. Best of all, you will have the flexibility to do what you want for as long as you want onstage. But even then, if nobody comes to see you I doubt your neighborhood bar will keep Jeffy’s Comedy Night going for long. As I said, we are all bringers and always will be.

7. Be polite.
There are so many comics who seem to have never been taught manners. How many times haveI been dealing with a paying customer only to have a comic interrupt me: “What’s the lineup?” And howfew times have I actually been thanked for helping a new comic get an opportunity? Politeness is in shortsupply these days, so even a simple gesture of mutual humanity can go a long way.

In closing, I want you all to know that I am here for you and I am rooting for you. So build your act, find your persona, build your fan base, and we can all conquer New York City together someday soon!

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