If you managed to find this article because you were interested in information on:

How to write a joke or how to write a stand-up comedy joke

Let me ask you a question:

Are you trying to figure out how to write something that “reads” funny or are you trying to figure out how to write something that is funny when you express it to an audience?

It’s a very important distinction because “writing” in a way that is designed to be “read” is very different than developing stand-up comedy material that is going to be communicated verbally to generate 4-6+ laughs per minute.

Audiences read books, articles, short stories and greeting cards. They don’t read stand-up comedy material — they experience it as it is delivered.

Related Article: Are You Using A One Dimensional Approach To A Three Dimensional Performing Art?

But let me be more specific when it comes to the significant differences between comedy material that is designed to “read” funny and stand-up comedy material which is delivered and expressed.

Maybe exposure to just these three stark differences between “writing” and communicating verbally will help you understand why “joke writing” in the literal sense as it is taught and perceived today simply DOES NOT WORK for most talented people on the stand-up comedy stage:

1. We are formally taught from a very early age how to “write” in a way that is designed to be “read” by others.

We are not formally taught how to speak or communicate verbally. Subsequently, there are numerous important individual nuances and non-verbal communication aspects that are used when we speak (and that significantly influence laughter response) that simply cannot be expressed in mere words and sentences alone as they are “written” on paper.

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For more information about Steve Roye, author of this blog and the Killer Stand-up Comedy System, click here.