stand-up comic.

Even if you only intend to give serious speeches, the same writing rules for putting points over apply.

Jim wants you to bear in mind throughout all his online tutorials this simple:
creed

If you are comfortable with the purpose of these tutorials, cool!

As you come up against various comedy

"walls to push through,"

it may be helpful to take another look at Jim's keynote principle.

Let us begin:

Ask yourself this question,

on paper or just in your head,

"What do I hope to get out of this online tutorial?"

Ok: now, for a blazing fast lesson in joke editing: restate your goals in
as few words as possible.

Good.

Now ask yourself,

"What is my favorite joke?"

STOP

Before continuing with this tutorial, tell that joke to someone.

In person or on the telephone.

Must be someone who has never heard that joke before.

(tell your joke)

Ok, now go ahead and

CONTINUE with tutorial,

by taking QUIZ ONE:

How many sentences long is your joke?

Click on answer:

1 2 3 4 5 More than 5

How did you do on Quiz One?

If you did well, pat yourself on the back. If not, check out the alternate answers.

From now on: every time you hear someone tell a joke, especially right after you hear the funniest jokes, get in the habit of counting the number of sentences:

How many?

Do this ongoing exercise immediately, or
later on
it will be hard
to remember that joke's
exact words.

Is there any relation between
length of joke and
power of audience response?

Hint: while you are listening to a joke being told, you can easily count sentences on your fingers. Sooner or later, you will hear a speaker tell a joke
that is so long . . ..

When you try to count the number of sentences, you will run out of fingers and toes!

That's the time to test the negative effect this verbosity has on a live audience.

Quickly, sneak a look around the room.

See if anyone else in the audience is either starting to nod off or also
looking around.

When your eyes meet,

winking is allowed.

Now, let's start to set some standards: separate yourself from the rest of the world.

Create your profile for the

"ideal stand-up comic,"

then live up to your own standards.

When watching a comic, always begin by noting only his

good

stand- up comedy behavior.

Why?

Anyone can be bad.