Stand-Up 101: The Fundamentals

welcome to comedy 101, the

fundamentals

that the laughter school hall offers you, we have classes that you can sign up for in

stand

up classes, calm down, the purpose of this video is to give you the

fundamentals

about comedy, what We have learned in the years we have been here. I've been in the business and so you can take these rules and mess them up however you want with that said, let me tell you this and comedy, there are no rules with that said, let's go over the first rule, the first rule is don't steal other people's material, if you find a little bit online or you add an open mic, excuse me or whatever it's worth, then it's probably going to circulate on video or whatever, at some point a meme and they'll catch you if it's worth stealing.

It's worth getting caught, you're going to get caught for it, so don't steal it. The purpose of

stand

-up comedy is to express yourself and find yourself on stage being honest and true to yourself and connecting with an audience, so when you steal from others. people's stuff that's not art, that's just being an artist, you know, in the old school they used to start stealing other people's stuff, that was very common, that's how you did it, but nowadays don't do it, don't steal other people's material, know the rule. is that you are going to do monologues. I firmly believe that you can talk about whatever you want on stage as long as you're not being malicious, you know, white people can tell racial jokes as long as you're not being malicious, you know, and that's what it's about, because really, If you're not being malicious and you know you can be honest all day, that's exactly what you should do, so if you're an idiot, then everything comes out and you're going to have a hard time, but I'm a, you know, I firmly believe that you want people to like you, you want to, you know, it's not like you're pandering to the audience, but you want to be a good person in my opinion and you know there's a lot of people out there that are angry, even Louis Black complains and that's his character is still likable, you know, even the guy you know if you're just pissing people off. the chances of them wanting to come buy tickets and see you in the future are very slim so like Johnny Carson said if people like you then you want 80% of the battle and I myself started out not being nice in the stage and I'm going to go.

From experience with this information, again, this is my personal experience. Take it, use what you want, you can completely contradict me on this or everything, but whatever, here's my story when I started. It wasn't very nice. I used to go up on stage. and he was right, the audience was wrong and I had my religious and political views and blah blah blah, and I realized I didn't want to argue with people after the shows. I wanted to make people angry. I didn't dream. from being a comedian at 7 years old to be able to, you know, argue with people.

I want to make people happy, I want to make people laugh, so that's what I started working on myself off stage and I got better on stage and one of the biggest compliments. It came from a comedian called Stuart Hough who said Marshall, you're the only comedian I know who's gone from unpleasant to likable on stage and that was a huge compliment, I wasn't being a jerk, I was being honest, and I was you. I know, flatteringly, I hope to be Michael on stage, but what occurred to me during that period of discovery is a formula for likability and that is that confidence plus humility equals likability if you meet someone who is overconfident but isn't humble, which is what I was when I first started out saying that it's not nice if you find someone who is very humble but doesn't have confidence, that's not nice either, you know, so you have to have confidence plus humility and that equals sympathy, so the secret of comedy is surprise.

Aristotle came up with that, which is why when someone hears a joke a second time, it doesn't work as well now, that excludes comedians like Jim Gaffigan who people pay money just to hear the hot pocket theme again because it's so solid that at some point comedians become rock stars. like Andrew Dice Clay was one of the first communions ever in a huge stadium and everyone was there to hear the exact jokes you've been repeating to your friends for weeks before going to the show, so ultimately when It's about comedy, the trick is The first surprise and the easiest form of surprise is misdirection.

Mismanagement is very common in the world. Magicians do a lot to get you to pay attention to the left hand while manipulating the situation with the right hand while disappointing their parents, so misdirection is very common. It makes you think, makes people think you're taking one path and then all of a sudden you take a different path and it works, for example giving 110 percent requires hard work, dedication and a complete disregard for math. Note that hard work and dedication makes you think I'm taking a path, but when I say disdain for math it's a surprise ending, you didn't do any cosney that was probably going to go with hard work, dedication, staying late, sacrifice, no, I came in with making fun of the fact that 110 percent is bad math or non-logical math is just an exaggerated number that you know historically, but if you notice that the trailhead works for the projected direction as well as the surprised direction, Excuse me, for example, that joke would not have worked if you had given 110 percent, it takes a lot of work, dedication and knowing how to fish for salmon.

Salmon fishing has nothing to do with 110 percent or the start of the run, which is to say, jokingly, the easiest way to divert attention is a rule of three. There are tons of different ones. ways to do the rule of three the easiest way is to be serious, serious, funny, the first two things are serious, the third is funny, like that joke I just made, giving 110% requires hard work , dedication, serious series and a complete disregard for math, funny or how math works, another common, once you're good at it, it's funny, funny or funnier, once you've been a good comedy writer for a while, you should be able to think about it and do it well, but here the easy as serious begins. it's funny, here's a typical joke structure, premise setup, punchline tag, act as callback, premise is a broad description that makes the audience remember where you're taking them, points from the right direction, the setup becomes more specific to that description you just gave and the punchline is a surprise, a tag is just another punchline, another surprise and then you can be very physical on stage and act out the punchline or the tag and then if later in your set you reference your punchline or tag or act, that's what's called a callback, so you know, it's very common to do it as a catchphrase, it's not so much a callback, but a kind of callback, but I think you understand what I'm saying here.

I'll give an example of one of My jokes I wrote when I started and I still do them for the most part anyway, the premise is like most comedians. I grew up too poor to ride, but we knew the airport because my mom always lied to us about it. I remember one. At Christmas, she tried to tell my sisters that I gave her dolls, the punchline, but they were really just empty bottles from Mrs. Butterworth's label and then she said no, no, that's the kitchen Barbie, which could also be an act because I am acting. my mom says that, but that gives you an idea, let's go from broad, I grew up poor to narrower, let's talk about how my mom lied to me about being poor and what she did to my sisters at Christmas for being poor. lie about being poor and then Mrs.

Butterworth is the surprise and that works because Mrs. Butterworth is poor too, you know, you imagine it empty, it could be a doll, you know, because it looks like a woman, now Jerry Seinfeld said. the trick to really surprising is the gap between the protein between the premise and the punchline if the launch is too close the landing is too close it's too simple a joke no one is going to like that haha ​​I saw this coming a million miles away Distance If the landing is too far from the launch, then people will not understand it.

It has to be the exact measurement that is real. The true art form. Do you know something? I just realized and didn't put it in this presentation, but I'll share it. with you now is that gap that perfect gap that I actually consider to be what we know as the subconscious conscious mind like the known unknown or the known unknown that's why sometimes when you hear a comedian say something and you say, damn I've been. thinking I just didn't know the words to say it, that's the known unknown or the known unknown whatever and also you know, speaking, you know, referencing something that's been referenced a thousand times in the past, something that's right.

You know, oh, I've seen that too, it's just that, in my opinion, that's really the trick of finding the right gap: to dive in and tap into the unknown or the unknown, which is a kind of subconscious awareness, if you will. . Enough of the hippie-dippie, let's keep moving forward. Another trick is to put the keyword at the end as close to the lady as possible. Butterworth's joke about Butterworth wouldn't have worked if Mrs. Butterworth had been in front, it's the word surprise, so if it was like that, my mom used to give my sisters empty bottles, Mrs.

Butterworth is because we were poor and it was Christmas, so she simply told them that as dolls it doesn't work so well, that the word surprise has to be the last word you say and also don't say it under the premise that it's the first. time you say that the word surprise has to be in the punch line and at the end and if it is not the last word, the second, third or last word is fine, like for example that rule of three in 1/3 that I shared with you. 110% requires hard work, dedication, and disregarding how math works for a while.

She was saying to leave out the math, but it was a little confusing in people's minds, just a little more specification would be how the math works, so the math is second to last. word towards the surprise and the joke and it's big on the punchline that you want to sell the punchline to many comedians they bury the punchline out of insecurity, typically in my opinion because you don't know if it's going to work and you really don't know. Sorry, you know, I do whatever, I can't believe I'm saying this, but you have to sell it, it's very important that you sell your punchline, you're working hard to get there, enjoy it, sell it and make it work for you and there's a lot of it. ways to sell that one of the ways you know when you're going to be on stage.

I once heard a great saying: if you're not going to be funny, be interesting and that means that whatever you're talking about, it has the audience so compelled that they stay silent and pay attention to every word you say. You are an artist. You have the audience on the edge of their seats. Fantastic. the more interesting you are without funny the bigger the hit has to be the bigger it has to be funny if it's interesting funny interesting funny if it's interesting interesting interesting then it has to be funny up to the square root of three or whatever so again it's well don't make them laugh as long as they pay attention to remember that you are an artist and also a great believer in the truth, the truth is funny now in comedy it is usually eighty percent truth and 20 percent lies, so 80 percent of truth is your truth - 20 percent is the surprise, if you know, yes, I grew up poor, yes, my mom lied to me about it and has tried to make excuses later in life, you know, and yet, I admit that I'm not poor, we weren't poor. as you know Dominican Republic is poor but still you know she didn't give the empty bottles to my sister Mrs.

Butterworth so it's a surprise so when it comes to finding funny and being funny I highly recommend stick with the truth, one of my favorite sayings and comedy is everything has been done except your life, from your life, from your truth, and that's where you can really find grace and authenticity, which is very attractive to people when they find authentic people. I firmly believe in one of the favorite sayings. in life is when you shine a light on a dark place, it's not dark anymore, so yeah, then your truth may have some deep-seated psyche, you know the drama or whatever, but the more you tell the truth and shine a light on the darkness. place the less dark it is and the funnier it is Christopher Titus is one of my favorite comedians and was known for taking on dark topics like his mother's suicide and writing jokes about it that the audience laughed at Amy Schumer is one of the best comedians and the biggest comedians today and she really focuses on being honest and that's where she comes from and she's very honest, so you know, I've seen other comedians, but I've been in the game for 15 years and when I've seen Some comedians go from being just a part of the group to standing out, is when they really start to talk about some truths, like thisthat when you turn on a light in a dark place, it is no longer dark.

There is a big amateur mistake here. Don't ask questions of the audience. the audience questions are asking for permission, hey man, everyone here works 9:00 to 5:00, hey, everyone has kids, hey, does anyone know, you know, any of those questions are basically saying, take it from me, you're there to act and thus be you and you. I know if you're going to talk about being poor, don't say "hey", no one else here grew up poor, no, I grew up poor and let me tell you, my mom used to lie to me about it, no, but, don't do it.

Don't ask questions like that to the audience, just go and also when you start asking questions like that to the audience, it makes them think that it's acceptable to respond to the stage and it's not like you know we're acting there on the stage, like you know, we never You go to the Fox Theater to see a play and people scream, no. I don't open the door, I don't know, but you know it is so I don't want to interact with the audience like that because then it trains the audience members to think, well, I was talking to comedians so I could talk to him, no, not that. .

Don't do it, so don't ask the audience questions. A big part of being funny is brevity. Brevity is a soul of wit. by William Shakespeare. You want to say as few words as possible. One of my favorite sayings about brevity is if I had. written less excuse me, if I had more time I would have written less, that basically means that brevity takes work, you know, it's like you don't have a write a book, edit a book, just throw everything out and then go back and edit edit edit so the brevity requires more work do the work to find the big truck of brevity Don the other side of the same coin of brevity is what I call breadcrumbs bread comes to help you lead your audience have you ever heard Someone tell a joke and no one laughs? and at the end they say oh I forgot to tell you the guy was a doctor, well guess which doctor was, very important breadcrumb.

Now you don't have too many breadcrumbs, you want to have just the right amount of breadcrumbs. help guide your audience remember brevity, breadcrumbs brevity, make sure you drop the right breadcrumbs, but not too many or too few for it to work, for example, when you know one of my most common jokes that I tell on the stage when I start in statement programs. These days I am married with two children, which means I am very happy to be here. Note that I don't tell you the names of my children or their ages or how long I've been married or who my wife is or how we met. just that you need to know the breadcrumbs married to children, the misdirection here too because you were not Father, guys and the audience will have to say something positive when they were children, but you know, obviously, you have understood the comedy club, if not you are. surprised but our surprise would say which means I'm very happy to be here bad direction arab like haha ​​I don't like being married and having two kids but yeah it's a great life.

I highly recommend it when my favorite comedian is a guy named Mitch Hedberg. I got to work with him several times and you know, look at this brevity, he was great at one-liner jokes and you know that, in my opinion, it's one of my favorites, which is one of the best of all, one of his most popular jokes. It's this shirt. dry clean only which means it's dirty the key word is dirty it doesn't mean this shirt is dirty and in the blink of an eye my story is because it's dry clean only once more, you know, its brevity is the soul of wit and you know if you want to see something. other great one liner jokes.

I would suggest looking into Mitch Hedberg. Another trick in comedy is to use words that have hard consonants because they stay in the air. Better words like pukka and pants are funnier than jeans and there's a cool, not a cool, but. There's a Simpsons webisode I watched once where Krusty the Clown realized that 2k's job sounds. Krusty the Clown has a lot of hard consonants in his name. He had a scarf wrapped around his neck and Lisa said, "Hey, what's wrong with Krusty's throat?" and someone said "Oh, him." He hurt his throat using a joke with too many hard consonants, so when looking for gains to use, I suggest he use words with hard consonants.

Tips, you can get away with it if we can make it work because that will stick. in the air and get a better reaction from people. You also want to see your set as a bank account. You want to keep it positive. So you want to start with a good joke and then you want to end with a great joke. If you're going to make two negative jokes upfront, they don't laugh, you're starting with a negative bank account, that means you have to tell two jokes that are positive before people start. laugh, so it's very important to start with jokes that you know are going to work or your best jokes that are going to work because then if you sandwich a new joke between two jokes that you know work, it's going to fit into a negative.

Okay, you stay positive and you get a positive result again, so looking at your set list like a bank account, you want to always keep it positive and with the same advice, the whole show should stay in a positive balance, like if you had three comedians that come up and eat it from the audience, the fourth guy has a huge hole to dig out of, so it's not unusual to know that someone actually ate it in front of a comedian who knows what he's doing, that comedian takes . the first minute or so to talk about how badly the comic did, that way he gets the audience back to zero and gets them on his side and establishes that emotional connection.

You want to make an emotional connection with the audience from the beginning, that's part of likability. Also get that emotional connection early if you notice my opening joke. I am telling you about myself that I am married and have two children. The first thing I say is that and then I make a joke about it, so once. It was Erbs' advice: If you can make jokes about yourself from the beginning, it's to tell the audience about yourself, get laughs from the beginning, show some humility, be self-deprecating, and make that emotional connection with the audience from the beginning.

So when you're putting together your set list, you want to structure your jokes that are suggestive like this, start with your funniest joke and end with your second funniest joke, your third putt should be your second, your fourth second funniest, lastly, and actually this one. I should say your fifth funniest joke should be your third, but I'd like to see the structure here of how you do this, so that's the suggested set, the structure do it how you will do it, not everyone sticks with this. I'm not left with this, but that. You know, when you're starting out, that's a good rule, you just want to have some kind of idea of ​​what you're going to talk about next.

Let me also give you a tip on how to remember your playlist, whatever the time. The theme is from the first joke, let's say it's cars and then the second joke is, say, Clinton and the third joke is about damn, let's say it's about trees and then the fourth joke is about tables, we get sidetracked a little bit. You have to believe that this has a purpose and then the last joke you're going to talk about on the subject is money. What you want to do is write a sentence in your mind with the keywords cars, Clinton trees, tables, money, a lot.

A lot of times when I buy cars they're usually Hillary Clinton's, she usually has them hanging from stray trees above tables full of money, so now I've given this a spin in my head with the phrase cars hanging next to Hillary Clinton and trees with tables. under them full of money, you can use it as a picture that you have in your head or you can even write the sentence okay, like many times one of the cars always sees Hillary Clinton sitting next to it, you know, under the trees when There are tables in front of them that are full of money and now you memorize that joke that phrase and now you know the structure of your songs for your setlist and then let's say that in the first joke the cars are seats, gear shift and brakes, then you write a joke or soon you write a sentence with brakes and gear shifters and whatever in the order it goes, that's how you can remember your setlist, a little trick and the fun thing about putting together your setlist and your jokes is to see it like a puzzle.

You know you are putting together a puzzle about yourself. I once heard a cool saying: Tom Dad is one of Jerry Seinfeld's best friends and he's a great comedian and you know the TV show was actually the only show or the first show that Jerry Seinfeld ever did. produced when he returned to television from Seinfeld was the marriage counselor played by Tom Dad, our marriage referee, and anyway they are good friends and the story goes that one morning Tom Pappas went to Jerry Seinfeld's house and was solving the crossword puzzle New York Times. and Seinfeld is like a comedian doing a crossword puzzle, your act is a puzzle figure, so you know, that's a tip from Jerry Seinfeld, a guy who writes every day a little bit, FYI, he has a calendar and every day he writes puts a A red the NFL as a professional football player, but you know, just doing the minimum or not doing the extra work you don't make it to the NBA without doing something extraordinary and their whole argument was first on the field, last off the field and they do that too The work, if you're going to be at that level, do the work and put your puzzle together about yourself and about your life, it's very, it's very rewarding on many levels, so with that being said, let me also tell you some kinds of jokes, this It is very abbreviated.

I just want to give you an idea of ​​the different types of jokes people write that you can start writing with bad direction. We already went over that thing about making people think you're taking a path, but there's a surprise term: the rule of three. I always want to also go over that serious, serious, fun topic, another kind of rule of three is lists where you just list a bunch of things you know and audience members will give you credit if you can quickly list ten awesome things, ya You know, Dennis Miller. he's famous for that, so you know, listen to another kind of rule of three and keep it fun and interesting.

The word game. Many people make word games. I'm reading a book on antigravity. It's impossible not to say BAM, so there's that one. I'm not saying it, I'm not endorsing it, I'm just saying that it exists using the exact meaning of the words as literal, you know, you can't be serious, you surely can't be serious, I'm serious and don't call me Shirley. and also notice again if you just didn't have the words Shirley at the beginning, right? You can't be serious. I'm serious, there are no comics, I don't really have the word prized in the first part of the joke, the premise, but that's part of the surprise that what makes the game exaggerated by taking something excessively was so cold polar bears we were wearing simile jackets comparing similar things to two different items this is actually a good way to talk about juxtaposition, you know, that really gets a lot of laughs when you know that you put two things together that don't normally go together, but somehow way you've made it make sense.

You know again the unknown known, like you can talk about driving on ice and traffic like this and now it's a the juxtaposition is like oh I've never thought about that, but they go together if you look at it from that angle boom boom boom sarcasm be sharp and bitter money is not everything in life, but now it keeps you in touch with your children. One important factor about delivery, one thing you didn't include here was when I was talking about the Mitch Hedberg joke, this shirt is dry clean only, which means it's dirty. Pauses are very important in delivery because that gives your audience a chance to process what you are doing.

You're saying, in addition to going the wrong way or writing your own punchline and then you give them a surprise and just keeping it rhythmic is also key, so the pauses are very present, but the most important thing about the delivery is that you are in stage. or the stage possesses you you have to be confident if you are weak the audience smells it and they are not going to respect you and they are not going to have that emotional connection with you and that is what you want little trick Harvard has done a lot of research that has been published lately by Harvard studies showing you can fake it 'til you make it when it comes to your body chemistry.

They have carried out all these tests among basic level people. certain hormones or testosterone or whatever and then you give them a series of things where they build their confidence, the testosterone goes up right away, so one of the easiest ways to build their confidence before you go on stage is to rip off a power pose for two minutes and then the chemicals in your body transform increase more testosterone and give you more confidence as a presenter. It's crazy to know that, butit works, there's Harvard research behind this, try it, it works and not just for standing, but if you understand, you know, going to a meeting or something would be good too.

Another way that I like to prepare before I go on stage is to meditate and try to be as calm as possible inside, so, as you know, I do power poses and then focus on my breathing, you know, and feeling the energy and get stronger. I don't think about jokes because I don't want to, you know, taint who I am, to actually, you know, be in the moment, I know what I have. Same set of jokes so you can start and then I can add new things as I see fit, but that's a good way to start prepared right before they announce your name on stage, just make sure you do it where people can't see it .

Another trick of the advice is to lose twice as much as you think. A lot of people come on stage really quickly and then when you see this tape, you're like, "Oh, wow." I thought it was going a lot slower than that, so go twice as slow as you think you'll go, trust me, especially when you're a new comedian, that's a big factor for you and don't dwell on the laughs you've had either. taken. a lot of time and energy to write these jokes and get on this show and get down there and whitewash your turn and then get on stage and go out and get the laugh don't step on it let it sizzle Jeff Garlin wants to give you some advice if you want to let your joke sizzle so get those laughs wait until those laughs start to fade and then start your next joke move on stage it's very good Chris Rock is known for being a comedian who moves up and down the stage and what he does when he gets ready to a stuntman who goes around the country and performs in comedy clubs and when he has a new joke he just stands in front of the microphone and tells a joke and lets the joke work on its own and if the joke works then he starts moving on and then he starts putting emphasis on It's because the joke is quite funny now that now the sugar and spices in the cake will make it even you know, really cool and also the movement is good because humans are animals and since we are hunters, so Lo We use when things move, our eyes are attracted to that, not to say that people who don't have much movement like Steven Wright or even Hedberg, still have movement, so movement is important and a good trick is that It's okay to write. going on and off the stage just make sure you stay in the center of attention, silence is okay again, like I said before, you can have silence and as long as the audience is paying attention, when you hear the silence don't start getting into your head unless it was right after the joke and no one laughs, so live in the moment and make a joke about it and one has another piece of advice that says if you don't do it, you know there will be no peace, was what I came up with later.

You know, talking to Jeff Garlin one time I was talking about Zen and meditation and the art of stand-up comedy and this more than that and he told me to just be on stage, so I took that and sat backstage at the fun farm I used to have and I booked and did five minutes there a thousand times, so I'm backstage thinking about this five minutes, I'm about to do that and I thought, wait a minute, I've done this five minutes or five. minutes on stage a hundred times good, I'm also worried about the setlist. Jeff says be it, so I say, if I realize it's not about the material, it's about the moment, so focusing on the moment is key and the material. helps you create that moment so you know that if during that moment you have silence, it's okay, you know if you have silence until the punchline, stay in the moment, refer to it and continue if someone drops a tray of plates and you don't .

I don't address that which shows you're not in the moment and disconnects from the audience so silence is fine when my favorite advice I've ever heard was from Patrice O'Neal, he says keep your jokes in your pocket and let them come out organically when you start, you'll have your setlist and you'll do what you're doing. You want to get to a point where you just have your jokes in your pocket and you let them come out organically and because you don't know how the audience is going to react, there's energy in the room and you change energy every show, so you know that if you see the same headliner three times in one weekend, it's very common Look, you know, 95% of the same jokes, but each show is in a different order, so now I'm going to show you what I came up with about this story methodology of how to punch a story, how to make a funny story a lot of people have funny stories if you're doing comedy what you like about comedy you have stories you want to tell on stage, but how do you know what the method is?

Think of a methodology for that after talking to a lot of comedians over the years and the methodology is this: you just want to write your story without trying to be funny, just write your story on a piece of paper and then wherever you want to put the humor , take that. sentence and put it on a separate sheet of paper and once it's on a separate sheet of paper, just work on that sentence, write as many jokes about the topic of that sentence as possible and then put that sentence back into the story and then just repeat steps two through four, find another place in your store where you want to add the fun element, place it under a separate sheet of paper and look at it on its own because that allows you to see it from many different angles and discover that you already know. where you can find fun information on that topic, a lot of people say what about step number three?

Well, I've devised a methodology for that too. The methodology is, above all, through its three steps with five substeps. methodology, the first step is truth statements, that is very important because remember we want to write from the truth and whatever the topic is, write as many truth statements in those sentences that are true about that statement, then the next step is write like many you list words associated with that subject nouns verbs adjectives what do you know I used the font calm when I'm in the step when I'm really trying to let you know go deeper but even though I have a good flow on my own once I run out the words I can associate it with for the list, I still calmly go to the thesaurus to see if I missed anything and see if anything gives me a spark.

The list is also just another way of thinking. mapping if my mapping is just to keep, you know, write it in the order instead of extending it so my mapping works well here too if you wanted to do that and you're used to that and then the third step is to write a sentence with the words of the lists from step two and you want to add a movement, this gives you perspective, a movement theme because, for example, emotions or hate, love, fear, enthusiasm, etc., and then what you do is finish the sentence with the chosen words from the list in step two, you don't have to use every word you know, if you are doing the work, you will have 20 associated words and your lists for the associated topic in your list step.

I'm really going to write 20 words, yes it would be great if you put in the work and did it Debbie, but what if you only want to do four or five? You should focus on the four or five words you want to use. to finish the sentence and I like to use hard consonant words, you know, look for those on the list and then finish the sentence with that, remember that the truth is funny and that in comedy 80% of the rule of thumb is eighty percent truth and 20 percent surprise. and the lie is a surprise, too you know, another reason to make the truth statements is that it also helps the water flow, you know, to get you the hot water, to make it work, to get over some of the things what do we do.

I'm going to use an example of this traffic-themed exercise when you think about traffic. What are some true statements about traffic? This is what I came up with. You can pause and read them if you want. Then I move on to the next one. I step over and say "okay", here are the words from a list associated with traffic and then the red check mark means those are the words I want to finish the sentences with. I hate traffic because it frustrates me. Notice that I am ending the frustrated traffic reports. frustrated traffic jam reports look how I'm finishing sentences using those words from the list and just putting a little perspective on it.

I hate traffic because when you get to everything you can see these words, look at these sentences if you want to pause, then I change it to love. I always like to end with love because I want to come from a positive perspective on these jokes on such a thin topic. This is where there may be some sarcasm. I love traffic because I like to start my day frustrated and friendly. to review everything, you can see it here, you can read them if you want, but then you can write these strokes here. When I think about traffic, I think about traffic jams and catching up on Facebook.

I didn't use Facebook and one of the red ones. checkmarks is one of my words, but I knew it from the lists because that's my truth. I know a lot of times in traffic I'll be on Facebook catching up, so there's a surprise too. Oh really. Siri is fun but also based. in truth and I hope to sit in traffic because a sense of community can only be found in traffic jam, a bit of unknown sub there, you know you're looking around, you get used to seeing the same people around you. and you're looking at other people or it's the cars, in my opinion and observations, it's a small sense of community, but the best part about sitting in traffic is starting your day with the sweet smell of solid carbon dioxide. traffic jokes, okay, so here's a formal review again, lists of truth statements, emotion topic because and those three steps, those three exercises together will help you find the funny and most topics do the job now again, then you apply your favorite prayer. the joke pronoun sentence remember to use as few words as possible if you can turn two words into one, do it, continue the sentences into one, do it, don't reveal the stinging verb in the setup, keep the funniest word until the end .

The precision of brevity makes an effective surprise ending, so self-deprecation is a fantastic comedic tool because you know everyone can laugh at themselves and we're going to go over this. There are two types of self-hatred: obvious and non-obvious. is what you can see in me, I'm getting so many gray hairs that people will soon think I'm Anderson Cooper's older brother, so it's not obvious, my apathy sometimes gets me into trouble, but I don't really care, so I'm self-deprecating has caused me It's been talked about in many places you know, here's Forbes magazine saying that self-hatred news is harmful, it makes others feel included again now that you're connecting with the audience.

The subtheme getting humor makes people more likeable, trustworthy, and caring, so again it helps. just make that connection and so the methodology that I came up with for writing disapproving jokes is similar to what we just did in those three steps, but we're going to add two steps at the beginning, which is writing the obvious and the No. obvious and then choose one of those traits then the truth statements the list I topic of emotion because we are going to use my characteristics Marshall Chows I have gray hair average height I looked like a flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers the non-obvious like I grew up poor, married and with two children.

I'm afraid of ending up on the wrong end of the food chain, so here are some statements of truth. I'm going to choose the gray hair. You can read them as you wish. Then, here you have the gray hair. list these are the words I chose to finish the sentences I hate gray hair because and you can finish, you know, press pause and read these if you want, then I change them to I love gray hair because and the same here, but then the jokes that Se It occurred to me that I know what most of you are thinking, so this is what running away from the Red Hot Chili Peppers with gray hair looks like.

I have so many gray hairs. Actually, then Anderson Cooper's older brother came and realized that he might have said run away. of the Red Hot Chili Peppers with their t-shirt, which I wrote the joke on in the original way, but then I had the joke about the gray hair, so I wanted to drip and guide the audience with the crumb and the gray hair, that's still the surprise, so all this. All said and done, look man, there is no substitute for getting on stage, you know, yes, professional golfers have coaches and you can take as many golf lessons as you want, but unless you are swinging, hitting the ball and playing golf, you will never go . to be good at this, you can master everything we just went over, but if you don't get on stage, you're not going to really master it, so there's no substitute for getting on stage and I know this is a lot of work to do, but this is what is needed.

You know, it's Ray Romano and Jerry Seinfeld and all those guys talked about how they saw writing as part of theirdaily work. It's ten o'clock, time for me to sit down. Write and write for two hours, like if you're an insurance adjuster, it's time for you to go out and do an insurance adjustment, so do the work of writing and then get on stage at night and do whatever you need to do to continue. These days there is a lot of time on stage in all cities. Comedy is on a huge upswing and I know it's a lot of work, but I'll leave you with this last line: "Be so good they can't ignore you, Steve Martin." If you want to sign up for our classes, you can go through everything and practice writing and what we do is at the end of your graduation, a six-week class, you end up with five to eight minutes of material that you can then go out and do open mics and you know. how to take your comedy writing to another level so that when you start going out and doing it you have a much better understanding of what's going on. butter song list and if you just started it yourself yes you can do it without taking lessons do it you can also learn to play golf without taking lessons but you know it helps you in my opinion that's why we do this and plus you want to make sure and try to influence people to do it the right way again, be true to yourself, do the work and it will all come to you so that you can be so good that they can't ignore you which way you go. standing classes contact if you want to register for our classes by