For Your Information

I’m back in the game baby. Last night I returned from hearing what Woodbridge had to offer in the way of laughs. Jim Pate runs an open mic at a place called Brittany’s. I had heard about it quite some time ago, but this was my first introduction to comedy “in da hood… bridge”. Venue and comedic reviews are still to come.

Before I get into reviews I wanted to share some general observations of the show. These observations do not exclusively pertain to the comedians I saw at the Brittany’s show, but to all comics. I have seen many comedy shows in the Northern Virginia area. Granted, I do not claim to be a comedic expert but I am a consumer and an intelligent observer. I would also like to preface that I understand the point of open mics. Open mics, while sometimes you do, are not a place to go to hear top notch professional comedians. They are a place for new and seasoned comedians to work out new material and gain experience. So if you are a comedian and I give you a harsh review of your open mic performance, I realize that there is a bigger margin of error in that type of venue. I give negative reviews for you to learn from, not as a personal attack. With that being said, here are some general observations for all of you comedians that you might want to consider for your next performance. Take it or leave it.

1. Always be a professional
Please, if at all possible, memorize your material. When you have your material memorized you come off as more professional, and more confident. Professionalism and confidence affects your stage presence. Stage presence affects your delivery. And if you haven’t heard the old adage, “it’s all in the delivery”.

If you need to use notes, use them only as cue cards, not as a joke rolodex. When you take the stage know what material you are going to use and in what order. Once again, this makes you look more professional. A pet peeve of mine is when a comedian does a joke and then says, “Okay, what joke do I want to do next?” as he is rifling through his joke book. Not only does it not look professional, but it also hurts your rhythm. You want to stay in the zone at all times. When you are on stage you should feel a flow and a rhythm that can’t be interrupted. You lose the audience when your jokes are all chopped up. You don’t want to give the audience a break in between jokes. If there are gaps in your material you give them time look at their watch, make a comment to their friend, get up and go to the bathroom, order another beer or anything but pay attention to you. You want to capture their attention every second you are on stage.

2. Go down with the ship
If you are in the middle of delivering a joke and you can tell it’s going to bomb, don’t stop in the middle of it. This makes the joke even worse. When you back out on a joke you are telling me, “Yes, I know I am wasting your time.” Even if you are wasting my time, you sure should not be thinking that. Once again this comes back to confidence. Just finish the joke.

Furthermore, don’t waste my time with petty “saver jokes” to try to get sympathy chuckles. You all know what I’m talking about. Your gangster joke bombs and you say to yourself out loud, “Note to self… don’t do gangster jokes in Woodbridge”, or the standard, “okay… tough crowd” response. If a joke bombs, move on. When you do that, all you are doing is drawing more attention to the fact that your joke sucks. If you write your material to flow from one subject to the next, you might be able to get away with moving on to the next joke without the audience realizing your punch line failed.

3. You have to engage your audience before you engage with your audience
If you are not making people laugh, you have not connected with the audience. To them you are just some stranger running his mouth. Interacting with the audience is not a means of connecting with them; it is a way to further connect with them. The only way to initially connect with the audience is to make them laugh. Once they are laughing then you can start picking on audience members and go through your, “who here is on a date?”, “where are my Jewish people at?”, “what’s your name?” material. If you try that with people who don’t find you funny they are just going to give you blank stares. The only exception to this is when you first take the stage. There is about a 30 second grace period where you can interact with the audience and not be funny. Just don’t drag it out. If it goes on too long people start to be like, “alright, let’s get the jokes rolling.” I recommend, however, starting off with a bang and opening with a tried and true joke that will get laughs.

4. Don’t say, “I have my light, so I better wrap this up”
This is another pet peeve of mine. The audience doesn’t care, and it is just another way to draw their attention away from you.

5. Know the anatomy of a joke
If you don’t know how to write a joke, you should probably learn the basics. There is a setup and a punch line. [Why did the chicken cross the road?] = setup. [To get to the other side] = punch line. Make sure your jokes are actually jokes and not just sentences. Not all of us can make people laugh with our facial expressions like Bill Cosby, or have as funny observations as Dane Cook. Maybe some of us do, and if that is you, then more power to you. But it takes a long time to get good at it, so while you are perfecting your shtick, make sure you have good solid jokes in your bag of tricks.

I hope you comics who are reading this find it enlightening and helpful. So if you see me sitting in your audience, you know what I’m looking for. Good luck!