getting paid does NOT make you any better at standup, trust me. i wish it did. it's all about getting as much stage time as possible. it took me 2 years - my first gig, i got paid $20 and i drove 8 hours to do it. worth it.
advice: get onstage, however possible. there are no shortcuts. you need to put in the time.
Related posts tagged 'Advice for aspiring comedians'
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Related posts tagged 'Advice for aspiring comedians'
The best comedy advice in the beginning of my career was get onstage every night, as many times as possible. It’s the only way to get better. You can’t practice stand-up alone in your room. You can’t find out if a joke works by asking two of your friends.
I do have advice. Fill a page every day with notes on possible sketches. Don't write 'em up yet...just make notes and try to expand on them. Then, the next day, look back at your notes and take a run at one of the sketch ideas. That distance can help, and too often young writers just dive in to writing a sketch (or feature, or spec tv show, etc) without first picking their best idea or taking the time to find the best angle in.
Start a show. Host the show. at a bar or any space. then you have guaranteed stage time and you do other comics favors by giving them spots so then they will give you spots on their shows. also hang out a lot at comedy clubs.
Go to the open mic and befriend whoever intimidates you the most and just work as hard as they do. It’s what helped me. I always had this group of people I could call and be like, should I stay at home and write? And they’d be like, you’re bullshitting yourself. Stop avoiding it and go to the mic.
1 get on stage as much as you can 2 do the comedy that would make YOU laugh 3 ask yourself WHEN would i laugh if i was listening to myself? if the answer is "i don't know" then neither will the audience 4 hang with people who don't tear you down or break your spirit 5 listen to the greats, let them influence you, then shed them when you find your voice 6 don't be a dick!
i don't think standup is a place for networking or getting discovered too quickly. it's really something you need to spend a lot of time on before getting good, and it's a good idea to hold off before exposing people to your work. there are a couple of times when it felt like a break, but you can't tell a break when it happens to you. you just hope people see your work and like it. And keep doing it. About 4 years into comedy is when i got filed from my mail-sorting job and relied on comedy. it still feels like a frightening risk.
Start your own room. Build an audience. People in small cities get excited about entertainment options. You can run that town. Unless you suck.
Find other people who make you laugh and spend as much time with them as you can. They'll make you better and keep you motivated.
I never had a plan. I just sort've ambled along, doing exactly what I wanted every day of my life. It turned out well. I could easily be sleeping in a ditch now. I'd say always follow your passions. Even if you fail, you've had a great time trying.
I got started in comedy writing because i would write serious things and people laughed. My advice is growing up exactly like me with my brain and body.
A lot of people want to get into comedy and talk about it, but you don’t realize the first step to getting into comedy is actually going to do it. You can’t do things that you don’t put actions behind. So sit down, take a piece of paper, write out your thoughts and then go to an amateur night and try them. If it doesn’t go well, see what worked, what didn’t work and go back and try it again. But don’t be a talker, be a doer.
I can't help you at all. The only road to good shows is bad ones. Just go start having a bad time and if you don't give up you will get better.
First of all, sit your parents down, and tell them that you want to be paid for something the rest of your life that you have passion for. And tell them, "Let's make a deal. If this doesn't work for the first five years, then I'll go and be a doctor." That's kind of like the deal I had with my dad, because I was on full athletic scholarship, and I wanted to quit to become a comedian. Basically... I just quit and became a comedian and he didn't approve. But he DID approve after he saw how funny I was.
In saying that, if you want to be a writer, then concentrate on being a writer. If you want to be an actor, concentrate on being an actor, because they're two different things. I got hired as a...
i would say do it. i would say be brave. you only lose by not trying, you dont lose if you dont achieve fame or glory.
Well, it didn't seem like I had much of a choice. I don't think that - you know, I don't think that my hand would have cooperated with my brain if my brain was telling my hand to write something it didn't really want to write. But I remember when there was some interference from NBC with "Seinfeld" when we first started doing it. And fortunately I didn't have a family at the time. So it's - it was very easy for me to say to them, no, I'm quitting; I'm not going to do that. I don't want to do that, and I can't do it.
And for me, it wasn't a big deal to just pack up and go home. Like I said, I hadn't - I didn't have a family. It's much harder. That's the first piece of advice I'll give anybod...
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