Taking the Fun Out of It

Last Sunday I tried my hand at Standup comedy again.  Standup is something I've done a few times before, but have never been satisfied with and have never really given a solid effort to.  I've done sloppy, uncomitted, semi-improvised standup a couple times (with the results you'd expect).  I've also done an extended character based sketch as a standup act (also with the results you'd expect).

But since I've done it a few times and never walked away satisfied, standup has been something that has nagged me for a while.  As a result, I recently decided I was going to book myself a standup slot every couple of months until I put some solid effort into putting together an act and (hopefully) had a satisfying experience with it.

So last Sunday was my next attempt.  I'm happy to say that I was pretty satisfied with the results.  Barring some technical difficulties that in spite of making me extra nervous actually added to the experience, things pretty much went off without a hitch.  All but one of my bits hit with the audience.  Even though I must have been visibly nervous, I didn't pace.  Biggest surprise - I enjoyed doing it.

I learned a few interesting things putting the act together:

* I'm a storyteller, not a setup punchline guy.

* I'm more comfortable when the story is based on something true to life.

* In rehearsing the material, it clicked the most when I treated the material as if I was performing someone else's writing.  I worked on applying my own style in performance even though I wrote it.   Just writing in my own voice wasn't enough - it had to be taken further.

* Since most of my bits were extended stories with a low joke ratio I had to add some moments in the delivery throughout the story.

* While some of the jokes evolved as I memorized them, I also had to be careful in a number of cases to deliver the joke using the exact language I wrote.  Using what seemed like more natural language seemed to kill some of the jokes.

So against all odds I actually enjoyed doing standup for once.  And I've heard some decent feedback about the set as well.  I'm planning on trying it again and continuing to write.  It is another good outlet to keep my writing going.

Posted via web from bricomedy's posterous

posted by ricomedy  # 11:50 AM