How do I start doing stand up comedy?

You can't get a style, just like that. It needs time and practice and I'm fairly certain you develop it as you gain experience. Comedy, more than anything, is a process of trial and error. Don't feel disencouraged if it doesn't go as wel as expected: you need to grow and no one lives up to their full potential the first time they do something.


Get yourself a notebook and a pen and keep it on you all day long. Whenever something happens that's funny or inspiring or simply a good topic for a joke, write it down. It doesn't matter if it ends up getting used - write it down anyway. What you don't want, is good ideas getting lost. It's what all comedians will confirm when you ask them this question: most inspiration comes from the daily little things. Those topics are unique (because it happens to you) and original.


Things that are important to write down are: - things that are typical for your school. What's recognizable? Are there things that all students and teachers are irritated about, like a lack of computers, a library that never has the book you're looking for, nasty toilets, squeeling doors etc. - things that are going on right now. What's in the news? What do people talk about? - things that are relatable. For instance: waking up early on monday morning, procrastinating your homework, failing on your new year's resolutions..


Jokes are nothing but mere concepts; ideas. You can change them and perfectionize them to make sure they fit in your gig.


Let's just say you have 15 minutes on-stage: Many comedians make the mistake of squeezing their best material in the available minutes. They're insecure (which is normal) and want to convince the audience of their talent and humor. For obvious reasons, they try to do that by bombarding the audience with the best jokes they can think of - but that doesn't always work out well. Make sure you have a well-balanced act. There are big jokes, where it takes several minutes to build up the story and prepare the audience for the punchline, and quick " inbetween'ers" that are way more frequent. They're little remarks and hints that you drop, usually at unexpected moments.

80% of the laughter isn't caused by the joke itself, but the entire structure that keeps it all together. Your attitude when telling the joke, you're timing and voice intonation. 2 big jokes that you take your time for and put effort into, will be more succesful than 6 jokes that you quickly spew out in a few minutes.

/r/StandUpComedy Thread