Standup Comedy

They say that I’m a woman of many talents.  But being funny is not one of them.  When I took on this dare, I knew I was in for a real challenge.  The one thing I am good at though is studying.  I’m a good student and when I put my mind to something, I can usually make good progress in a short period of time.  That said, I have no delusions of ever becoming a comedic genius like Chappelle or Mike Birbiglia.  I figured putting together a five minute routine is within reach.

I approached it like I’m studying for the SATs.  The first step is to find the best source to learn from.  After I did some research, it seems that the book Step by Step to Stand-up Comedy by Greg Dean was widely considered the comedy bible.  In the book, he details a systematic approach to joke writing.  Systems?  Did I say I love systems?

It goes something like this.  First, select any situation, or setup.

This morning I got up and ran five miles. 

Then you list out the unspoken assumptions made by people when they hear that statement.  One assumption might be that she ran to get exercise.  Next, what you want to do is to break that assumption.  You can brainstorm some alternative reasons to why she was running.  Perhaps because she was dragged along by something against her will?  Perhaps she was chased by a scary person?  This line of thought might prompt the following joke.

This morning I got up and ran five miles.  You would’ve too, if you rolled over and saw the troll I picked up last night at the bar. 

In this manner, I wrote several pages of jokes.  I tried a few of them on Dan and got some laughs.  Unfortunately, they were not laughs prompted by my jokes but cackles at me and my jokes.  The sad part is, I completely agreed.  Even I can tell those jokes weren’t funny.  Flipping through the pages of “jokes” I generated, I couldn’t help but become discouraged.

Normally, I consider myself someone with above average discipline and ability to get things done.  But writing comedy was just low-priority enough and discouraging enough that I couldn’t get going.  After tabling the project for a few month, I finally decided to get some extra help and signed up for a comedy class.

The class met once a week for eight weeks.  I did my homework diligently.  At the end of the eight weeks, I had some jokes ready and performed a five-minute set to a sold-out audience at Improv Boston.

On the day of the big event, I was nervous and unfocused.  I was the fifth performer in the lineup.  On one hand, I was glad that I wasn’t the first to go because it’s a well-known fact of comedy that a crowd needs time to warm up, but on the other hand, going fifth meant I had to fidget through four people’s routines.  As each comedian went and my turn got closer, I got more and more nervous. 

When a comedian said something funny, I would be nervous that my set wouldn’t be as good.  When someone made a hiccup, I would get nervous for them and worry about me doing the same thing.  All in all, the wait was excruciating.  I stood in the back of the room and practiced taking deep yoga breaths in and out to keep it together.

Finally, it was my turn.  I took another deep breath and walked onto the stage.

I was high on adrenaline and it almost felt like an out-of-body experience.  When it was finally over, I floated off the stage.  My entire body was flooded with a mixture of euphoria and exhaustion.  In the final analysis, the experience was definitely worth all the work and the nervous torture leading up to it.  If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of doing standup, I say go for it!