Quote:
Originally Posted by PuddinOnHatz
Spaceman,
Oh yeah, I meant to ask you about this. Also, Noodle if you see this, I'd like your opinion too. You guys have seen a lot of first timers get up for open mics. What you said about my 2 examples is about what I expected (or at least hoped for). Which is that they were funny premises, but the phrasing or other structural elements weren't there and would cause the bit to fall flat.
Is that a lot of what you see from first timers, or do you see a lot of first timers that go into more insane ramblings that leave you asking yourself, "What did they ever think was funny about this?"?
Thanks again.
First timers tend to not realize that a funny premise does not make a bit. So many open mic'ers just talk about funny things that happened to them recently, but they don't really do anything with it. Sure, a funny idea will get your first laugh, but then what? You need to explore the idea. Find something to compare it to. Do an act out. What other areas in life would this funny thing that happened not work? Hypotheticals.
A lot of people go up there with an idea of what they want to talk about and hope that by riffing on stage in front of an audience that they'll find the funny things to say. And sometimes they do. But the majority of the time they don't. It takes special individuals who are performance level witty off the cuff to be able to consistently find the gold in this manner.
When I find a new bit, I work it at home. I'll talk about it out loud and see what other thoughts come out of it. Once I do it at a mic, I'll break it down and find new ways to completely rephrase jokes or ideas. Figuring out when to move onto a new beat, when to sacrifice a joke for the sake of the flow of a bit, when an idea has been fully fleshed out and any more would be repeating yourself, etc. etc. It takes a lot of time to develop this skill (and obviously it's never perfected).
I have so many bits that I've struggled with to get just right, and sometimes I need to try something completely different. I've had 3 minute bits that I suddenly woke up one day and had an epiphany that I just need to turn it into a one liner. And vice versa, I've had one liners that just don't hit that hard that I then had an idea to try it as an act out bit, and it killed.
Seinfeld is both right and wrong when it comes to getting better. It's just like anything. Talent plus practice makes it a skill. Of COURSE practice makes you better at it. But it takes a comedic sensibility (I suppose this could be called talent? idunno, I'm not really a fan of that word but whatever) to get a sense of the kinds of things i was talking about above.
I have comic friends who I'll run a bit by, because I'm stuck on a certain way to get an idea across, and they'll have the answer for me immediately. And I am sometimes able to do that for them. Sometimes, a fresh perspective is all it takes, because when you roll an idea over in your mind over and over and do it at a thousand open mics, you can lose your sense for it.
It really is amazing though, how so many open mic comics do the exact same thing ad infinitum, and never improve upon their delivery style or ability to recognize how to construct a bit.
A word of advice: have actual jokes in your material. Not necessarily set up punchline, but have actual parts of what you say be intended to elicit laughs. Most beginners just talk about something that is overall kinda amusing, but doesn't have any actual intended laughs, so they don't get any.
Also, don't be discouraged if you don't get any laughs. Open mics, ironically, are the worst possible place to get a sense of what is working based on audience reaction. Most mics are other comedians, who are either working their own material in their head, or on their phones, or getting up regularly to get another drink, or they don't want to laugh at you because they're miserable losers, or it's their third mic of the night and they're burned out because they've been listening to 5 hours of bad open mic stand up already. The mic is for you to hone your own sense of what is working, by putting it in the actual forum that the art form takes place in. You can only do so much saying the routine out loud at home.
Definitely report back! Maybe we do need a new thread?