Jim Richardson's
“Fundamentals of Stand-Up Comedy Workshops,”
Course descriptions for Lessons 1-4
Introduction to Lessons 1-4
Lesson 1: How to Tell a Joke | Lesson
2: How to Write a Joke | Lesson
3: Character |
Lesson 4: Editing
Introduction:
Covers the major
bases in today's rapidly expanding
comedy business,
and strategies for breaking through
personal barriers.
- Write more jokes faster
- Video feedback—see how to do it right,
and with power
- How to grow a new skin without radical changes
to your current act/talk
- Timing: what it is, and what it isn't
- Make your jokes memorable by making them
more dramatic
- Keep your older jokes fresh for every performance
- The myth of the "natural" comic
- Why it is important to match jokes to character
- Video examples of successful first “Tonight Show”
and other national TV appearances— analysis of what works
- Tomorrow's comedy challenge:
what is going to sell next!
My workshops are highly interactive:
You will be required to get up on stage many times during the Lessons.
Your efforts will be video recorded.
Why?
If you accidentally create a great joke,
we will have it on tape.
Not to worry:
No one will have access to our recordings of you after the
Workshop.
However, for a small fee, you can arrange for us to make a copy of only your
work.
Or you may record yourself, but you may not record other attendees.
Why?
Because the goal of all my Workshops is to create a safe
place to take risks, where
you can freely try new writing and performance techniques.
Hopefully, this process will get you used to recording all your future
performances.
This habit is crucial for monitoring your progress.
There will be absolutely no pressure to be funny today.
If you are funny, all well and good.
But my main goal it to teach you as many writing and performance techniques
as possible in the time allowed.
So, bring at least your brain with you today.
Funny bone is optional.
Hopefully, this process will get you used to recording all your
future performances.
This habit is crucial for monitoring your progress.
No wallflowers at this dance!
You will learn by doing.
And often.
Note: I will be offering definitions of common terms in stand-up comedy which
will expand your current understanding.
So, if some things in this outline seem odd to more experienced performers,
it will make sense soon enough during the Workshop.
These are the
first 1-4 of 35 proven lessons that I have used for decades
to train both
beginning and even much more experienced folks
into becoming more successful
comics and keynote speakers:
Lesson 1-4 registration.
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Lesson One:
“How to Tell a Joke:
on stage, during a speech and in the work place”
- Open
mic, how to tell jokes
Creating your profile
for the "ideal
stand-up comic,"
then living up to that profile
Why you can only learn from good stand-up comedy
Why "cocktail jokes" do not work on stage
What you and the audience already know before you even step on stage
- Professional Performance Technique
Nervous comics make audiences nervous. Ugly!
Focus: what immediately prevents you from appearing nervous.
Confidence: audience size matters . . . not.
- How
to make the audience like you
Does somebody
out there like me?
Skip: "The
Face"
- Timing:
What timing is and
what it isn't
Adding seconds of laughter
Phrasing, eye-contact and panning the audience;
learn: "The matador principle"
- Ideal
Joke Form
Set up lines:
what the audience does and does not know
“But my
friends think that's a funny joke!”
- What is a joke?
Where is the punch in that punch line?
Trying out new jokes:
first step toward your re-writing for the logic of
the laugh alone!
Why you must study and appreciate prosody.
- Target the punch word
Why is boxing an essential metaphor for stand-up comedy and all great joke telling?
Once you have found the punch word, hit it!
"Why not? It's legal!"
- Getting
three jokes for the price of one
Topper: creates the illusion of improvisation!!!
Second topper: Example
- Editing Symbols
Audio or video record your act EVERY time you perform
Light vs. heavy audience response
- Editing to make
the act tight
Do the joke's punch line, topper and second topper all get solid laughs?
If so, what must you do next to effectively control the "build"
within
each joke?
- How to mark up your script
When? Immediately after every performance.
Why? To lock in each joke's consistent laugh pattern.
What to keep, what to toss.
Automatic assignment for: every time you invent a new joke.
- Memorization: work backwards
Write and deliver SERIOUS speeches better,
just like comedy: every second or third line must evoke an audible reaction.
- Avoid self-sabotage: cut all "tag lines"*
*Note: "tag lines" = extra words after the joke has been told that
prematurely and idiotically cut off the audience laughter.
Some people use this term incorrectly
when they really mean "topper;" a topper is an even funnier
joke.
If a joke does not top the initial joke, the shorter laughs build-the-bit-down
which disappoints the audience who are programmed to expect longer laughs to
build-the-bit-up.
You can find examples of this common mistake in most acts, even headliners goof
this up a lot.
Sad, but true.
Listen to George Burns: "If I'm talking while they are laughing,
then I should be taken away!"
There are no transitions in either stand-up comedy or serious
keynote speech writing.
Whatever you learned in school from writing essays or
working on the school paper:
forget about it already yet!
I will show you how segues are invisibly accomplished.
- Playing the Laugh"
If there is no immediately audible response to your joke,
how long should you wait before starting to set up your next joke?
Why must you never let laughter completely die out?
- Big Laughs
When everyone knows the punch line is coming
When no one knows the punch line is coming
- Pushing back the
laugh: “You've
got a roll going”
Sustaining audience response.
- Professional Microphone Techniques that Immediately Separate You from the Amateurs:
Story of how
one very frustrated writer escaped Writer's Block! (00:54)
•iPhone/iPod/iPad
version
•Computer version—that
can play on
most desktop and laptop computers: Apple, Windows, etc.
Plus, it also plays on
most Android phones and tablets, Kindle, etc.;
but this Flash version for computers
will not play
on Apple iOS devices like: iPhone, iPod and iPad.
Why these distances can easily change from night to night, even at the same club.
- What do you do if the mic falls apart?
How not to get caught flat-footed:
Learn how to smoothly solve predictable techie issues long before you step
onto any full time comedy club stage.
You are not to comment or draw attention to technical issues.
You are expected to be able to solve all technical problems on the
fly!
- What is your plan of attack if the house loses electricity such that
both the sound system goes out and the lights shut off?
Hint: you must execute said plan without interrupting your routine.
Bring your own solution to this hardly hypothetical problem to Lesson One.
No:
The answer is not in my Workbook.
After you make your best guess, write it down.
Then, see what I did when Rob Schneider tried to run out on me!
Relax: this story has a very happy ending.
My answer can be found in both a "Comedy
Kitchen" video
and "a trip down memory lane with Rob Schneider."
- The
Power of Great Microphone Technique
How loud is too loud, or too soft on a mic, and why?
How to achieve normal sound, avoid distorted sound.
On mike, off mike jokes.
Common beginner mistakes which tip off club owners "this is a rank amateur" vs.
how to appear more experienced than you really are!
Tip: Wow everyone by wading into the crowd, aka "When I walk amongst
them!"
This, while
still smoothly
sharing your mic with selected audience members.
Where the stand must end up before you exit the stage, and why?
- Researched
material available in Index to Jim's workbook "The Fundamentals of Stand-Up
Comedy," pages 353-608
Old jokes you can use: dangers to avoid.
Quotations you can use, if you credit the authors.
Jim's related Audio/Workbook Packages
Performance, Marketing, Character & Joke Writing
- Video
feedback: get notes on your open mic performance at the beginning of Lesson One
—
Now, you can see how to do it right, and with power!
Lesson 1-4 registration.
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Lesson Two:
“How to Write a Joke: the
7 basic joke forms”
Sometimes trying to find simple answers to complex questions . . ..
You just end up being silly!
- Exclusive
interview with Jim Giovanni—a Workshop favorite over
the years!
- Writing
Jokes for a Speech vs. Stand-Up Comedy
Whether your speech is serious or humorous, it is an act
Seven specific
one-liner joke forms:
- The basic yes/no joke form, plus Exercise
- Similitudes: Simile, Examples vs. Metaphor, Examples, plus exercise
- Acting techniques that helps you sell the joke
- Puns: Literal pun vs. Aural pun, plus Exercise
- Hyperbole, plus Exercise
- Malaprop, plus Exercise
- Review exercise: identifying the seven joke forms on the fly!
Escaping "Writer's Block":
- By "photographing" yourself
- Through discipline
Use the seven joke formulas two ways
Making a reasonable writing contract with yourself:
- Check for variety
- Write what you know about
- Thinking in terms of opposites:
Inspirational
topics for story bits, plus exercise
- Getting started writing a "bit":
24 days to SUCCESS!!!
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Lesson Three: "Character:
your main character, minor characters”
Make your jokes more
dramatic:
- How to become a national celebrity
Myth of " natural" comic.
- Images of favorite comics.
Physical character traits.
- Point of view, or attitude.
How much does he mean his attitude?
Guessing famous comics from their image
- Keep your older jokes fresh for every performance
Phrasing.
Clarity.
Character analysis:
- Why is it important to match jokes to character?
- Playing your character
- The underdog character.
- Your narrative character, a.k.a. your stage persona or image
- Character as mask.
The purpose of art:
"Poetics" by Aristotle.
I) Action
II) Character
III) Thought: Spoken argument vs. Implied argument
"Character Analysis Work Sheet:"
Begin a characterization by working on your new character's walk
What animal does each comic's walk resembles?
Who has more character in his/her walk?
Puppet and ventriloquist game:
basic character contrasting made easy with
one little trick.
Punching up old jokes = Savers!
Character history: Choices
1) moral: something is either right or wrong
2) likes and dislikes
Obstacles -- Winding the internal spring tight
"Laughter," by Henri Bergson,
the eternal Jack-in-the-box
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Lesson Four: “Editing: Your Comedy or Serious Speech into an Act”
"This
is where the money is."
Discover the real
math that makes the difference between the Little League standards
of your local comedy scene and the Major League standards of national broadcast
television.
Compare/contrast all the comics we have studied in Workshop Lessons 1-4.
What separates the character of the comic having a successful first time
national TV appearance from those not so successful?
What makes these budding comedy stars so very different from the “saloon” players
whose acts do not translate into the “big leagues” of
national television?
In other words, by this point in our study of “The Fundamentals of
Stand-Up Comedy,” what is your current personal profile of the “ideal” stand-up
comic?
iPhone/iPod/iPad version | Computer version
- Ordering the bits
within the act.
- Polishing
- Number of laughs per minute.
- Number of lines per laugh.
- Bringing "the curtain down" within your act.
- "Nevada Smith" kinda comic: counting total response
Editing symbols
- Why record your act every time you perform?
- Marking light vs. heavy audience response
- Graphic representation of the laugh pattern: examples
- Explanation of sample "Editing Work Sheets:"
- Winning the SF Comedy Competition,"Star Search," etc.
- Game plan for getting your act together
- Minimum standards for TV appearances: score 8 points!!!
- Score like a baseball umpire: TV examples, comparisons
The real standards for "Big League" comedy —
Comics who had successful first appearances
on
NBC-TV's "Tonight Show with Johnny
Carson"
Which launched their enduring national careers.
- Why does this almost forgotten Johnny Carson era still matter?
I don't know:
Maybe it's because all of today's late night comedy hosts
cannot
stop talking about it?
What, if anything, does it means to the future
of Stand-Up Comedy?
(No matter what that drunken open micer told you at the bar last night!)
- New documentation:
The PBS "American Masters" series now features an online
2-hour documentary which debuted May 15, 2012,
"Johnny
Carson: King of Late Night" which points out this interesting historical
fact:
"Quite possibly the biggest star that television has ever produced,
Carson commanded,
at his peak, a nightly audience of 15 million viewers – double the current
audience of Leno and Letterman – combined."
Why?
- Because
standards were measurably higher during that era
in terms of both laughs per
minute (LPM)
and joke writing that had class.
Here is a for instance —
After a new comic performed his first very, very successful set on "The Tonight
Show starring Johnny Carson,"
instead of going directly to a commercial break,
Johnny as "King" would hold up his arm to make the sponsors wait.
Instead of selling more product,
Johnny would
invite said comic
to take the seat directly to stage right of the King on "the
panel,"
and tell some more jokes.
For that comic's career, it was considered the equivalent of being
knighted!
- To panel, or not to panel:
Steven Wright,
Louie Anderson revisited—
Ideal 1st joke
- Good and bad taste
- Callbacks have
an often ignored, but obviously built-in aesthetic:
done right, this is not a lowly tag but a brilliant topper!
Now, update your profile of the "ideal" stand-up
comic!!!
How to get more laughter without more jokes!
- What are "takes?"
Examples of extended takes.
- How another performer can help you get more laughs
- Telegraphing —How great comics "play the laugh."
Character in stand-up comedy vs. rock and roll
music:
- Jann Wenner of "Rolling Stone":
Moral statements = "The way that they wanted to live life"
End of Fundamentals of Stand-Up Comedy Workshop!!!
4 Lessons down, 31 Lessons to go!
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updated: Thursday, January 3, 2013, 3:21 pm PST. Copyright © 1997-2013
