Your Stand-up Comedy Material Is Written Down – Now What?

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 12:09 am

Should your stand-up comedy material be written down? Absolutely.

Let’s assume that you have your stand-up comedy material or jokes written down.

Other than for memorization purposes…

What do you look at in the written version of your stand-up comedy material or jokes for improvement and to increase your laughs?

Seems to me there are a number of important things such as:

1. Have you marked or identified each minute of your stand-up comedy routine as it in on paper?

As you are probably aware, this can vary dependent on audience size (longer or shorter laughter episodes relative to audience size).

But if you know roughly what a minute of delivered stand-up comedy is on paper, you can then look closely at this next important item…

2. Do you have an average of 4-6+ punchlines for each minute of your routine?

Seems to me one would want to identify any minutes in their routine that may be lacking in punchlines, set-ups too long, etc.

One could also use Comedy Evaluator Pro to measure the actual laughter impact of each punchline (relative to audience size of course) for adjustments after the show.

3. Are your punchlines structured for maximum use of the element of surprise and laughter impact?

Comedy Pro Members should login to the membership site to review this article about understanding the element of surprise and punchline structure:

Understanding The Element Of Surprise

4. Is your stand-up comedy material written like you deliver it, or do deliver your material like you have “written” it?

For the maximum laughter impact, it should be the former, not the later.

5. Are you keeping jokes/punchlines in your stand-up comedy routine that only generate telepathic laughter? I hope not

These are just a few of the critical things you may want to review in your written stand-up comedy material. Extensive performance evaluation checklists are included with the Killer Stand-up Comedy System.

Cheers,
Steve Roye
The Professor of Funny For Money

About the Author/Founder of The Stand-up Comedy Tips Blog

Steve Roye is the author of the Killer Stand-up Comedy System and author of the content made available in the Comedy Pro Membership Program.

Over the past decade, Steve has established himself as a leading, globally recognized expert in the field of stand-up comedy material development, delivery and entertainment business strategies for comedy entertainers as well as speaking professionals.

For more information about Steve, please check out the About The Author section on this site.