One of the biggest things I've learned and adapted to over the last couple years is how to change my act depending on the audience.The comedy club audience at certain clubs in Manhattan is 50-75% foreigners. And if you want to make foreigners laugh, you need to take out most pop-culture references, and change the wording in jokes to things that they'll understand.

For example, a good comic that I'm friends with does a joke where he references his "W-2". When he does that joke with Americans, it usually gets a laugh. When he does it for tourists, it falls dead. I told him he should change it to the phrase "income tax form," because no one from outside of this country is going to know what he's talking about. And if an audience member even has to take 2 seconds to think about the context and deduce what you're talking about, then they've stopped listening to you and it'll be hard to get them back on track.

For that reason, I rarely do the shark week joke in my club spots. Foreign tourists don't know what shark week is and they don't know what black history month is. I also used to close with a Wesley Snipes reference, but switched it to Denzel because he's more famous.

The New Jersey joke works really well with foreign crowds because they know enough about the geography of the area to know that New Jersey is right next to New York, and a joke making fun of people from a neighboring town is universal.

As far as acknowledging the lone cheers -- probably shouldn't have done that -- it was just an involuntary reaction.

My focus has been on always having a tight set. There are jokes that are more to my personal taste, but if they only kill half the time, and the New Jersey joke kills 90% of the time, then I'm definitely gonna go with New Jersey on TV. I did try to have a mix of joke types in this set so that I could display the different types of things I can do. I have the Starbucks bit which is a nice long-form joke with lots of points of laughter. I have the shorter, old-style jokes like the New Jersey one and the math formula one, which have gotten me compliments for their old school feel. And then the sort of weird ones like the shark week joke that I think show some more out of the box thinking.

I wouldn't say I love every joke I do, but if a joke can make the audience laugh which helps warm them up for a joke that I do love, then that's a good joke to have in a set. Everything has a purpose, and sometimes you have to compromise a little to make it the best set it can be.

Twitter is definitely where I post weirder stuff, and stuff that isn't necessarily a joke at all. Some of the jokes in this set came out of tweets that I expanded on: shark week and hairpiece. Some jokes in the set wouldn't work in a twitter format, and vice versa.

An example of a tweet that I like but that couldn't work in stand up:

Marvin Gaye tried to block the release of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" after learning about the existence of Mt. Everest.

Some that I tried to turn into jokes but didn't work:

Dr. Chlamydia's family cursed his vanity. Why couldn't he have named the disease after one of his patients instead? Why? WHY?

In high school my nickname was E-Train-- not because I was big and strong like a train, but because I let homeless guys piss on me.

And some that are just super weird but I like personally:

**** you Lance Armstrong! I just found out the #LiveStrong onion rings I've been eating for the last 9 years are actually plastic bracelets!

"Zack Morris is so hot we'll need air conditioners later...ACs later...AC Slater!" - Peter Engel, SBTB writer's room, 1989 #savedbythebell



Some people are amazing writers but not great at stand up comedy. It's possible that the comics who you were better than were actually really qualified to be TV writers.

My best-case comedy endgame would be to be a writer on a late night TV show in NY, and also be good enough at stand up to perform at the Comedy Cellar and get some more TV gigs. I don't dream of superstardom, nor do I want it. What I would like is to have the respect of my peers, and to make a good living without having to hit the road too hard.

Where are those foreigners from? We have Discovery in Euroland too you know.

Was the first girl you ever had sex with really from New Jersey?

Spaceman,

That's hilarious. Have you ever tried a bunch of one-liners on stage or have you always done just story/narrative type stuff? One-liners, especially just boom-boom-boom back-to-back, always looks super hard when I see guys doing it well.

I know it exists in the UK, and presumably other places too. I can't explain it, but enough of them don't get the joke. Maybe it's the Scandinavians...

No, just needed to take creative license for the joke.

Also, although cops did come to our class every year, they never told us we'd be raped by a fat man in prison -- I got that from a Fugees song: "those who fake they break when they meet their 400 pound mate."

The Starbucks joke was inspired by a real incident at the Starbucks in the Borgata where my cup was horribly misspelled:



And the venti mocha frappuccino is the only thing I drink there.

Elon,

Thanks for the suggestion. I did the Norm lottery bit and the crowd loved it.

The only one that was mixed was the Bill Burr one about how being a mother is the most difficult job on the planet. A bunch of hipsters probably not the best crowd for it, especially with no lead in, and a good percentage of people were uncomfortable with the material. Did get a lot of laughs as well, but definitely mixed.

I'd strongly recommend a stand-up-cover party for anyone. It was amazing. We had a wide variety of acts and levels of preparedness.

Cool, I'm glad it worked! Did anyone record it?

I've had two sets where I followed complete bombs. One was the type where it was so god awful that the M.C. cut the guy short and escorted him off stage as he was cursing at the audience for booing him. I think the best way to deal with this goes back to something you said earlier in this thread. You need to get your first laugh as soon as possible. This is even more important when following up a bomb.

The second time I had to do this the guy before me had brought his cousin up halfway through the set and they did a tag-team Haitian themed set that got exactly zero laughs. I figured the best way to get the crowd back would be to make an immediate joke about the previous set that was both funny and didn't offend the two guys who were still in the room. I think that worked out really well and got the audience "in my corner" right away.

Putting video in spoilers. I don't want to hijack Spacemans thread and my skills are not near the level of his. Just thought this was a relevant example to the discussion.

Yeah, it's a good idea to acknowledge that something weird just happened, so the crowd can get a laugh and then put that set behind them. Kind of the same idea as the advice that if you have an odd physical feature, you should make a joke about it right away to put the crowd at ease.

One time I was doing a guest spot on a "funniest Jewish comedian" contest. The contestants were just anyone who answered a newspaper ad, so their experience ranged from seasoned amateur to first time ever on stage. This 75 year old lady got up there and told the most deranged, bizarre stories. It was terrible. So I went up right after her and said "this is embarrassing, but she just stole all of my jokes."

Nice!

well done! I liked that set...

really nice job! big balls to get on stage and chance a bomb

what is your ratio of good jokes to regular jokes? not necessarily the ones in your set but the jokes you try on on friends and family or everyday situations

how often do you edit or improve your jokes based on feedback?

can you think of a bit that you thought was hilarious but you were convinced not to use it because the general consensus was 'not funny'. can you share that joke?

This is actually quite interesting to me...

A friend of mine who knows several comedians told me he had often heard that the approach to great acting and great comedy is opposite. In that a great actor must do everything they can do portray someone different from who they are, while a great comic will essentially leave themselves out there on stage being brutally honest to their character.

Is there any truth to this? Or is it just level 0 nonsense?

Very nice. I know you didn't post for feedback but I thought it was very good. I did a five minute open mic thing about six or seven years ago at the Improv in Tempe, AZ. I did it on a dare and spent about six months ironing out that five minutes. Most terrifying experience of my life. I only got through it because I rehearsed it so much I was probably mumbling it in my sleep. Though, the few laughs I got was a great high. I have it on video that I have never watched. Just can't bring myself to do it. I kinda always wanted to do it again. But I just can't put myself through that again. I have mad respect for you guys.

Sorry, no questions.

So this probably belongs in the stand-up thread, but I don't feel like looking for it, so here goes:

For years, I've toyed I've toyed with the idea of putting together a few minutes and trying my hand at an open mic. It's REALLY been gnawing at me lately, so I decided to get serious about it and decide to stop wishing/dreaming about it and actually do it. I'm not in the habit of going to comedy shows (I work nights), and I've never been to an open mic, so last night I went down to see what it was all about. It was absolutely *nothing* like I imagined it would be.

I guess I imagined it would be a lot like karaoke at a bar--most people are competent, some are God-awful, some are clearly first-timers, and a few would be so awesome that you'd wonder why we didn't have to pay money to see them perform. Above all, it would fun for everyone.

None of that happened.

No one killed. No one was a trainwreck. No one made you think, "This is clearly their first time up there." Everyone got laughs, but no one brought the house down. Some guys only got a few laughs, but even the jokes that didn't draw audible laughter weren't terrible--I mean, you could see what they were going for, and why they thought it would work.

But for me, the striking thing was, none of the comics seemed to be enjoying themselves. None smiled offstage, and very few smiled at any point onstage. I found this terribly upsetting--the whole reason I wanted to try this was because I thought it would be fun!

Clearly, a lot of these guys (most of them?) are trying to make a living at this, and this was more a day at the office than a night on the town. And so many of them made jokes about riding the bus, waiting tables, and shopping at Goodwill, that I'm guessing business isn't booming nowadays.

But that whole "no fun" vibe probably killed my dreams before I even wrote my first joke....unless some of the experienced comics ITT care to change my mind.

Oh yeah, one other unexpected thing: there was almost no profanity. Didn't hear the f-word until about an hour into the show, it came as a shock....and that guy only used it once. Is this the new state of stand-up?

1. I don't know what you mean by "good jokes to regular jokes." If you mean what percentage of jokes that I write actually end up being good enough to become a part of my repertoire (not my every day repertoire, but jokes that I can use situationally)? Maybe 25%? It could probably be higher than that, but a lot of them I perform once or twice and then I forget to work on them further because I'm focusing on other material. The percentage that become great jokes (those that can consistently generate a big laugh, and not just a small or medium laugh) is much lower. In everyday life, my good joke % is much higher; it's much easier to make people laugh in the context of a conversation than it is to make strangers laugh in an audience.

2. I'm always editing based on audience feedback. If a joke that I believe in isn't doing as good as I think it can, I'll keep changing it around to see if I can find a way to make it work. After a few tries with no progress, I'll consider it a dud and move on.

It's not too common to get advice on your material from other comics, but when I get it I do take it into consideration and I often make the change. It's usually small things, like the order of jokes in a set or a suggestion on changing a word in the set-up. Sometimes it's something bigger like "hey, you should do an act out at the end of that joke."

3. A bit that I thought was hilarious but the consensus was "not funny"? Good question! I'm trying to think of jokes that I just can't get to work right. One joke that I like a lot, and sometimes does well and other times totally bombs: (abridged version) "They say chivalry is dead, and it's true that men don't do the nice things we used to do. For example, back in the 1950s, if there was a puddle in the street, a man would lay his jacket down on top of it so his wife could walk over without getting her feet wet. Which sounds like a really chivalrous gesture, until you remember that back then the wife had to do the laundry." And I've tried a million ways to finish the joke and so far I haven't figured it out. I still think there's something good there, so I'll probably keep working on it from time to time.

Another one that I thought was pretty good but never got a good enough response: "They say it's good luck when a bird poops on you, but I think it really depends on the type of bird. If a penguin poops on you, you're probably passed out drunk at the zoo. And if big bird poops on you, you're probably at a strange fetish party." I tried it another way too: "Some people are into the weirdest fetishes. I would never let someone pee on me. And the only way I'd let someone poop on me is if they're dressed in a bird costume, because then it's good luck." Hmm...I still like this joke, maybe I'll try it again soon.

Being honest about who you are is important on stage, but that doesn't mean the material has to be true to your life. (You should present it like it all happened to you, but chances are it didn't. Or at least, it's a very exaggerated version of the truth.) What honesty in stand-up means is that your personality on stage, or the point-of-view of the jokes you tell represent who you really are. Like, a million comics do similar material about relationships. But the great comics make it unique by telling it in their own personal voice. It's sort of like the difference between being a cover band and creating your own songs. Cover bands may be amazing musicians, but the guys doing original songs are the ones who will become famous.

Hey, at least you can say you tried it. I'm the same way about watching myself on tape. It's really cringe worthy. I have audio recordings of just about every set I've ever done, and it's still hard for me to listen back to them.

I don't know if it's true that most comics at an open mic are trying to make a living at it. A lot of them have similar motivations to you, or they just think of it as a fun hobby. It's strange that nobody seemed to be having fun on stage. Maybe you just got a particular group of comics that night who all had subdued stage personas. If they seemed to be having a bad time in the crowd too, that's often because they're stressing out over going up on stage.

That's also weird. Open mic comics say some of the most vile things I've ever heard.

One of the funniest nights I've had was an open mic where a ~50 year old white guy came on stage and proceeded to monotone a version of Foxworthy changed to a horribly racist, "You might be a crimigrant," set (combining criminal and immigrant, of course). Delivered with no stage presence, almost like reading from a non-existent sheet of paper, one-liner after one-liner of things like, "If you have to pull over on the highway and a bunch of Mexicans jump out of your truck... you might be a crimigrant."

Each was worse and more non-sensical than the one before, and as he went on he got more and more worked up. Just remembering it kind of makes me want to go to more open mics.

I think this is a really good point, and something people who haven't done stand up miss a lot. When you're watching something on Youtube you usually don't have a good sense of the venue/audience

Question for you: when going into a show like an open mic or a show you don't know the audience as well, do you prepare a few different sets/bits and just see what's working and adjust your material while you're up there, or do you try to stick to what you're bringing in that night to see what works/doesn't work?

When I do open mics it's just to try out new jokes, or to fix old jokes, so I have a specific plan and I stick to it whether they like it or not.

At a comedy club, I usually go in with a good idea of what the crowd will be like. If I notice something unusual about the crowd (family with kids, obese women in the front row) then I'll make changes to the set to avoid certain jokes that wouldn't work for them. But I usually make those decisions before I go on stage.

Tonight I'm doing a show that I've never done before, so even though I don't know what the crowd will be like, I'll try to do material that I think the other comics will enjoy. I know that the comics who run this show are big hip hop fans, so I'll definitely do this "Baby Got Back" joke I've been working on for the last month.

I'm no authority on comedy, but I do know what I find funny, so I'll give you some feedback on this, knowing that the joke comes across differently in print.

No one did this in the 1950's. You've got to go back farther. When I hear something that is obviously incongruous, it re-routes me from being entertained to becoming "intellectually" involved.

Also, most audiences probably regard doing laundry in the '50's as it is done today. Throw clothes in a washer, then a dryer, and voila'. It might come across better set farther back and with some hard hand-scrubbing involved.

And I'm not so sure that a more generic or different description than "wife" wouldn't work better.

/Unsolicited advice.

BTW, I loved your line when following the lady who totally bombed.

Thanks for the thread and good luck!

Yeah, maybe going farther back would work better. I used 1950s because the joke was usually prefaced with a line about my mother saying chivalry is dead. So I wanted to go back to when she was young. The joke probably doesn't work because nowadays women are still expected to do the laundry in most households so it doesn't sound unusual.

I wonder if any men really ever put their jacket over a puddle for a woman. I kind of doubt it, unless she was an actual princess. Seems like something that was put in a movie once then took off from there.

When my mom was around 21 years old (1976), a stranger lifted her up and carried her over a puddle. She is very small, and at that age she looked about 14 years old. (I don't know if that makes it seem less weird or more weird) But anyway, she said it wasn't creepy, just surprising.

Wow I'm late to this thread. Awesome job! I laughed out loud several times which I don't usually do. It must be infuriating when someone in the audience throws out a random comment which they think is hilarious but just serves to kill the flow of one of your jokes - congrats on handling it like a pro.

To 'try out' jokes do you find you can run them by friends or do you have to be on stage?