I was very nervous and stressed out for the 3 weeks from when I found out I was booked to when I got to the comedy club. Just so much riding on this one chance. But once I got to Gotham, the production and club staff were very cool, and the other comics were extremely friendly and that put me at ease.

I wouldn't change much about this specific set because it all worked pretty well. I had a ton of bits that I obsessed over included or excluding, so I guess it would be interesting to see how they would've fared compared to these, but I can't complain with the result.

That sounds really cool. You should do a Norm MacDonald bit, since he is the man. The lottery bit is pretty good (starts at 5:57): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssJm06nUeKo

Actually, most comics I know seem to be pretty normal people. I think the stereotype that most comics are depressed weirdos isn't true.


There are some comments on my pacing, and that is one thing I would like to improve on if I could do this over. I had to rely on time cues from the director and I was running a little long when I got my "2 minutes remaining" card, so I had to speed up a little to get to the end. I did consider cutting the 80% joke for time, but I'm glad I didn't because the interaction with the woman in the audience was a nice surprise. I ended up going almost a minute long, but the director didn't put up the "wrap" card (meaning "wrap it up") until right as I was finishing my last joke, so he gave me some leeway since I had a couple long applause breaks. I've watched a bunch of episodes and timed some other comics, and it is pretty common for comics to go long on this show so this wasn't a big deal.

Yeah, that was a funny and smart joke. You seem like a person who belongs on tv.

I really enjoyed your delivery as well, I thought you sounded relaxed and confident.

Thanks! I'd really love to break into the industry, but just don't know how to go about it. I think I could be a pretty strong actor, maybe not leading man material, but definitely one of those guys you like and recognize, but don't know their name.

To illustrate how big this opportunity was for me, this is what I was doing the night before. Waiting to get on the late night show at the Comic Strip, where the audience was 2 Australian ladies, a guy from Chile, and a comic who was playing with himself.

I enjoyed your set. Nice job.

I will say that I remember a similar "hair piece/herpes" joke from a Cheech and Chong movie. I have no idea how much that matters, but thought you might want to know.

Thanks, that has been brought to my attention. I actually was made aware of the Cheech and Chong thing after I posted the joke on reddit about a year ago. But I researched it and saw it was used in an obscure film (anything other than "Up In Smoke" is probably known to less than 1% of the population) that came out before I was born. Then I googled the joke and basically only found some defunct website based on the same premise. Considering you could google just about any form of wordplay or punchline and find tons of hits online, I figured this was actually quite unused and therefore I don't have a problem keeping it in my set.

On the other hand, I had a joke that someone mentioned was similar to a Bill Engvall joke and I stopped using that joke immediately, since he is a very well known stand up comic and the joke was used in a TV special.

It is hard in stand up not to have similar jokes as other comics because of parallel thinking. I can't tell you how many comics I see doing "my wife got mad at me for something I did in a dream!" It's definitely something I try to avoid.

Personally the Sting prison joke was the only one that I thought didn't land well.

which one was it

Until the very end I thought it was about a Singh. Made sense with the tantric sex but couldn't understand why there would be singing involved.

Congrats on the opportunity. Some stand-up makes me cringe, and this was pretty non-cringey. Solid stage presence. One minor critique - at the end during the applause, seemed a bit weird that you were still holding the mic in speaking position as if you were going to have to say something else. Maybe you had to or something after it cut, but that looked a bit stiff.

Impressed though, based on what you said about your experience. Definitely wouldn't have thought twice that you were a pro if I saw that.

Something about mixing up the words "anecdote" and "antidote." The jokes were different, but it was too close to use. I didn't think I had ever seen him do that joke, because I'm not really familiar with his stuff, but I must have seen it somewhere and had it seep into my memory.

We were instructed to stand there at the end of the set and wait until they were clear to commercial. If you watch the show, every comic stands there like that and looks a bit silly.

I actually saw your set live on TV, it was solid! Good work.

How hard is it to get passed at a club like the comedy cellar?

Cool. I agree it is a pretty obscure movie and I probably only remember it because I had a friend who thought it was the funniest thing ever and repeated it ad nauseum when we were growing up.

Thanks! By the way, if anyone wants to watch it, they will replay it on Wednesday night at 12:30 AM. If you're not sure if you get AXS TV, you can check here: Find AXS TV

To get passed at the Comedy Cellar, you first need to be recommended to the owner by 1 or 2 of their regulars. Then maybe you get an audition and hopefully you kill it. That's all I know about it, so it might be more complicated than that. The lineup is dominated by the same regulars who have been there for years, like Nick DiPalo, Jim Norton, Colin Quinn, Keith Robinson, Godfrey, etc. But lately they've added some good young comics like Mark Normand, Harrison Greenbaum, and Sam Morril.

The audience groaned when he said it, and it likely had nothing to do with having their feelings hurt. It makes him look arrogant which is going to make a lot of people extra critical of everything you say. If it was well executed you can get away with being cocky but it wasn't that really that strong.

It's almost like you acknowledged how painful it was by having a pre rehearsed self deprecating follow up with "guess you can tell im not so great at talkign to the ladies"...but it was weak because it didn't sound natural or genuine.

Hmmm... I'll have to give it another listen then. Standby.

to expand on this and maybe go into a little more detail, you really do seem to have the same voice for just about everything. i went back and watched your best man speech and it was a lot of the same (as far as tone goes). i'd rewatch it and look specifically at how you time/tone your jokes and it's all very consistent. i feel like the best comedians are able to vary with tone and speed bc i feel like once you're doing longer sets it will all just feel very repetitive. you've always seemed like a super cool guy and i thought you did great so congrats , i do have two questions-

1) what is the process of writing a set like this like? do you work on jokes on an individual basis first and then try to tie them back together afterwards? i've always felt like the best comedy had context, so for example- had that girl said something about the 80% you could have still improv'd with your "she must be from NJ" and gotten a laugh bc of the NY crowd, but the earlier joke (obviously) made it that much funnier- how much of that goes into your thoughts when coming up with jokes?

2) how much of your set do you improve/mess with on the spot. like are you ever in the middle of telling a joke and notice something based on prior crowd reaction or just think of something in your head and tweak your jokes at all?

Elon,

Too bad the audience didn't have many Sting fans. I thought that was hilarious with the intro to that as the punchline to the joke, but less funny having to explain that he's into tantric sex.

Edit: I also agree with the voice comments.

I just set my DVR. FYI it is on Thursday 12:30AM, not Wednesday 12:30AM.

It's interesting you mentioned this. I always felt the same way. I could get away with some edgy stuff because I looked like a 15 year old and it also added some shock value I think.


Thanks for sharing. I usually just jot ideas down as well but always felt that wasn't enough. I really need to take the time to turn all of my concepts into jokes.

Would you be up for critiquing one of my sets? We have a similar humor from what I saw in this set so I'd love some feedback from you.

1) Every joke here was written individually. I'll look at the jokes I want to do in a set and arrange them based on how they fit thematically with each other so the transitions aren't too clunky.

I think without the earlier joke, the NJ put down would not have hit too hard. It definitely needed the context of the earlier joke. Most callbacks are planned, so if I have a good callback I'll try to put the first joke early in a set so the callback can take place near the end. You need them to be spaced apart enough or it loses some of the effect, but not too far apart where the audience forgets the initial joke.

2) In an important set like this, I try to stick exactly to what I plan to say. Crowd work or improvisation on live TV is a risky proposition. In this case, the NJ callback came to me after she made her comment and I decided that it was worth saying even though it was off the script.

If it's a normal show at a club though, I'll go off course if something pops into my head. Some of my jokes were improved based on lines that started as improv on stage.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8k2AAMTZKo

Yeah, never enough Sting fans. And then there are some people who probably think of Sting, the WWE wrestler.

Sure, send me a PM or post it here.

Elon,

Just watched the video and really enjoyed it.

If I were forced to offer a critique, I think it would be more of a rhythm of delivery rather than voice. But that said, I'd pay to see you in a comedy club and feel I had gotten my money's worth as is.

Good luck going forward and thanks for sharing your experience.

I watch a lot of stand-up and I thought this was quite good. I even laughed out loud a few times.

That was pretty funny. Great job Dr.