There's an Craft to crowned stand-up comedy.
Forging community grin can be a rewarding and worthwhile pursuit, and to the gifted stand-up comedian, it's imaginable to arrive a Broad audience and cut a fame for yourself, as well. For some, wisecracking and stagecraft come basic, on the contrary regardless of your comedic gifts, there are matters you can complete to better your routine, strengthen your amusement and intendment your performance.
Instructions
1. Training all the continuance. Provided you yearning to be a first-class comedian, you admit to receive away and perform. Bang to airy mic nights in your district, slap karaoke or audition for an acting role. Associate a regular speaking congregation such as Toastmasters, a dialogue pair or an improvisation bunch, or yet dispassionate conceive a speech or crack a scarce jokes at weddings and parties. As an aspiring stand-up comic, it's most foremost to receive outside of your consolation band and one's damndest outside your routine.
2. Comedy can change from room to room, venue to venue.
Write strong, relatable material. The adage "write what you know" works just as well for the fledgling comic as it does for the aspiring writer. Woody Allen's early career in stand-up was based on personal material. Some of the best material working comedians have comes from their wry and astute observations of their day-to-day lives. Crowds will laugh with you if they can relate to you. Being alienating can work too, as it does for comics like Stephen Wright. There is no magic recipe for universal appeal, but identifiable material in a contemporary setting is a good starting point.
3. There is a good chance that your city has a thriving community of comics and improv groups performing regularly; seek them out. Network and socialize with these other comics and groups and learn and grow with them. This a good way to meet like-minded artists, test material, get some valuable critiquing, and build an audience. The best way to go off on a Robin Williams-style tangent and add zip to your material is to know it inside and out. The best way to stray from the script is first to know that script to the letter.
4. Getting a laugh is a reward in itself.
Accept that some performances you do will not work out. Just as no two crowds will always laugh at the same jokes, not every night is going to have the audience rolling in the aisles. When the set that last night toasted the town tonight falls flat, use it as a learning experience. This is how a performer learns some humility and also begins to get a feel for reading the crowd.
5. Develop a thick skin. Just as many comedians build a schtick around sometimes confrontational or obnoxious antics and sarcasm, be prepared to be heckled from time to time. However you choose to respond to booing and taunting, it is always best not to let it taint your performance.
6. Make your routine appropriate whenever possible. Being crass can be very funny, but if it generates feelings of discomfort or potential hate-mongering, you risk damaging your career. If your material is heavily sexist, racist, homophobic, or hateful, even if ironically so, be prepared to face the consequences. Comics such as Michael Richards, Tracy Morgan and Andrew Dice Clay have damaged their credibility for being too risqu and scathing. There is a fine art to being a shock comic and not everyone can master it.
7. Be supportive of your peers and go to lots of shows. Get your routine down. This goes hand-in-hand with practicing, and a good comedian always knows his own material. Don't be so rigid in your delivery, however, that you don't allow room for spontaneity and improvisation.
8. Classic comics have a lasting legacy.
Study the greats and emulate them in little ways. The list of genius comics is far-reaching and expansive -- among them Woody Allen, George Carlin, Groucho Marx, Eddie Murphy, Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers. Watch, read about and familiarize yourself with the techniques of your favorite comics to gain insight that you can apply to your niche.
