stand up comedy tips
Stand Up Comedy Tips
Laugh and make people laugh! Is it so easy? Read this article to get some useful stand up comedy tips.
Someone once said, "Laughter is the spark of the soul.", and so, with a good comedy, one can burst into peals of non-stop laughter. In a stand up comedy, the comedian performs for a live audience. He communicates with them directly, and gears the show with his sense of humor. The performer is known as stand up comedian or comic. To make the show completely entertaining, the comedian has to be spontaneous and should possess every skill to make the audience laugh.
History
This type of entertainment has its roots in the late 19th century, in vaudeville, music halls, minstrel shows, etc. The most popular comedians of United States were Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Fred Allen, and Frank Fay. Such shows ruled not only in the US, but all over the world. And today, the most renowned comedian of this genre, Jerry Seinfeld, has been ruling the telly box. The art of making people laugh is indeed commendable.
Tips
To receive a handful of applause from your audience, you need to develop your skills to make people laugh continuously. Here are the tips for the same. Remember this quote, "If every word I said could make you laugh, I'd talk forever.."
- Right Attitude The masses shall evaluate your skills. To develop a right attitude, be observant about comedy shows and performances of renowned comedians. In every performance, learn from constructive criticism. This helps to improving the performance.
- Do not Copy The piece you perform should be your own creation. Never imitate others. Do not copy a joke from others or rephrase the language. Even if you do subconsciously or unintentionally, you can be caught by audiences. You can retain your old work, and try to innovate new ideas and scripts and build a solid ground for performance.
- Listen to Yourself Since you are a beginner, record your performance. Observe your own performance and the spontaneity in your act. This will give you the opportunity to examine yourself, and make changes for future. Reflect on your performance, and be a self critic to get the best out of it.
- Communication Skills Your thoughts, your gesture, and your sense of humor must be well communicated to people. When you observe yourself on videotape, emphasize on your oratory skills. Analyze if you are speaking too fast or slow, and how people are responding to your gestures. You need to study the minds of the audience as well.
- Observe Comedians Hang around clubs, theaters, and festivals to see live performances of comedians. Observe good shows and movies. Scrutinize their performances, observe their styles and their professional performances. This way, you can improve your skills.
- Write down any humorous or odd event in your life in details. You can also write about any of your crazy hobbies.
- Now, add jokes, funny punch lines, and humor to the script. Compose the jokes that strike you, and pen down immediately. You can also insert characters in your script.
- Connect ideas that are antagonistic, or they can be an intersection of two events, succession of humorous events, and open mic events.
- Research on the script and analyze visually. Improvise wherever needed.
- Memorize it well so that you do not falter during the performance. Be spontaneous, and your gestures must be capable of making the audience laugh.
- You know you're getting old when you get that one candle on the cake. It's like, "See if you can blow this out".
- Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them's making a poop, the other one's carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge.
- Why do people give each other flowers? To celebrate various important occasions, they're killing living creatures? Why restrict it to plants? "Sweetheart, let's make up. Have this deceased squirrel".
- The big advantage of a book is, it's very easy to rewind. Close it and you're right back at the beginning.