Things I miss that used to irritate me
I got to thinking about all the things I missed that used to irritate me – and I came up with a huge list! Here’s 10 of them. As a comedy writing exercise, make a fun list of things you wish you had to deal with.
Hidden Humor
Bette Davis had funny advice when a reporter asked her what for advice to actors in LA. She said Take Fountain. People thought it was some secret code, but actually she meant to literally Take Fountain. Fountain is a street that runs parallel to Hollywood Blvd. By taking Fountain, you’d miss traffic and make it to your audition on time.
Comedian Stories Podcast
If you haven’t listened to my podcast, titled “Comedian Stories – Tales From the Road in Under 5 Minutes,” then please click on this link and listen in! I’ve been doing it for 19 months and it’s going GREAT! I kick off with a joke from my live comedy show, then I tell a quick short story from the road, and I end with a take-away tip of what I learned from the story. Below are some quotes from listeners. Click here to listen:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/comedian-stories/id1446046198
Comedy Writing Gigs part 3
Hilarious jokes are all set – you’ve got some samples of jokes you’ve written and some real live people – radio, TV, comedians, etc. . who will vouch for you that you’re, or at least the jokes you write, are funny! So where do you now go to actually write...
Watching Comedy
Comedy burnout? Does that really happen? Kind of! When I started out, I think I was performing in a comedy club or sitting in the audience of a comedy show just about every night for the first 2 years. And then I quit my job and kept on a steady stream of...
B. Research Techniques
What Have You Laughed About Recently?
In thinking about this comedy blog, I asked myself, “what have I laughed about recently?” Luckily as a comedian, I’m always looking for humor, and so I had a big list of funny things from just the past 7 days. Life goes by way too fast which means it’s...
Humor in Pain
Funny jokes come out of pain. . . if you can stay present and see the humor. When we’re sick, we don’t feel like laughing, but that’s precisely the time we need to pay attention to finding the humor – because you’re looking at life from a different...
Take The Road Less Traveled
As for funny things, that's not only the name of a popular book, but it's a philosophy for finding humor. One of the shows I performed at this week was for 600 women at a church. The crowd was so big that they turned the men's room into a ladies room. . ....
C. Humor Delivery
Dialing For Dollars
In my line of work, there's a lot of cold calling. Sure I get work through agents and bureaus, but the majority of my work i get through "dialing for dollars." And while you may not need to make cold calls to bring in an income, you still will need to...
Judging Jokes
There aren’t many hard and fast rules in comedy, but one comedy rule you can’t get around is that comedy is subjective. . . everyone has a different idea of what’s funny and what’s not. For example, a friend of mine just had a liver transplant. He’s okay,...
Remembering Your Funny Jokes
So you’ve worked and worked on some killer material. Great! But you’ve got to REMEMBER the joke in order to, well, get people to laugh. I have a couple of memory techniques that I use. Say it out loud FAST. Run through your jokes fast, so that you can get...
Improv Comedy
Okay, I’m not too keen on Improv comedy. Maybe because I spend too much time writing jokes, or maybe it was my experience with an Improv comedy troupe years ago. I was doing a show at a comedy club, and the Improv troupe who was going on ahead of me took...
D. Appropriate Humor
A Comedian on Being Genuine
Joke material and funny stuff these days is all around us. . .especially if you’re a comedian and you write political humor. Between “alternative facts” and bringing your own cheering section to a briefing, the current president is opening himself up to a...
Clean Comedy Pays Off
I’ve known that my clean humor is a huge bonus! It’s allowed me to work more of a variety of entertainment venues, and it’s allowed me to work at well-paying corporate and association conferences and conventions without having to be a big star. If you’re...
Using Stock Jokes
Two guys walk into a bar. . And find that this is not funny. Okay, should you use stock jokes, or as we comedians call them HACK jokes? I’ve talked about joke formulas like “he’s so big” or “top reasons why. . .” and I think that’s okay. You get...
Joking with Small Groups
9 People??? This week had I had the opportunity to be in front of a small group. . . 9 people. That’s NINE – single digit. . .no, I didn’t miss a zero. Before this, the smallest I’d spoken to was 12. . . a little bit of a drop from the 4400 people I was...
Funny Jokes
Political Humor
I chatted on this comedy blog infrequently in the past couple of months. . .okay not at all. I’ve been in the middle of some comedy projects that are exciting but taking more focus than I can handle. So for funny this week, I thought with all the politics...
LETTING GO!!
Letting Go . . .Of joke ideas that aren’t working that is. And this is a hard one because, as we comics say when we come up with an idea for a joke we just know “there’s something there.” I’ve been working on a joke about “tribute bands” – you know bands...
Joking With Names
Sometimes the humor is not in researching the subject thoroughly, but rather in stepping back and looking at the big picture – their name. Companies name themselves and their products all sorts of whacky things, for all sorts of whacky reasons. Watch any...
Comedy and the Olympics. . . the humor I see.
humor in the winter olympic games
G. Topical Jokes
Comedy Writing gigs part 2 is up next
Welcome to part 2 of comedy writing opportunities. In my last blog I mentioned that you should network at comedy clubs. Yes, Comedy clubs are great networking avenues, but I also suggest networking to others who are in need of comedy material every,...
Wedding Toast Jokes For Laughs
In previous blogs I’ve talked about using topical jokes to bring in some current humor, and I’ve got a great example of it. I’ve started writing topical jokes for a wedding toast website for the best man:...
Joking & Disasters
Okay, so the east coast now experienced what the west coast has been exposed to for years – EARTHQUAKES!!! I’m originally from VA now living in CA, so I had to laugh at all the “check ins”. . “are you okay???” that people were doing. I’ve woken up in my...