I want to give you an example of the incredibly lame information that is provided to new and prospective comedians in popular stand-up comedy books, workshops and classes as well as on online stand-up comedy tips sites.
The Standard Blah Blah
Here’s the anatomy of a stand-up comedy joke that you will get from almost every resource:
A stand-up comedy joke has 3 primary parts:
1. The set-up lines. These are the informational and unfunny parts of the joke.
2. The punchlines. These are funny lines or parts of lines that generate laughter from the joke.
3. The tag lines. This is an additional punchline or punchlines (optional) verbalized after the initial punchline in a joke.
Now that you know the “traditional” anatomy of a stand-up comedy joke, answer this question for yourself:
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Steve,
You often say that your system is not designed for one line comedians if I’m not mistaken. I have purchased and used your product. Don’t you think one could still apply your theories to one line comedy, as long as they were passionate about the topic? This is the style I like best.
Hi Tim,
Virtually everything in my system applies to stand-up comedy regardless of “style” with the exception of the material development process, which one-liner comedians tend to “write” what may or may not be funny as opposed to expressing what a comedian wants to say in a structured way.
No matter what “style” is used, a minimum of 18+ seconds of laughter generation per minute average is still needed to be performing at headliner level.
Hope that helps and thanks for your question!
The Prof