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.
Related posts tagged 'Advice for aspiring comedians'
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Related posts tagged 'Advice for aspiring comedians'
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.
Louis CK once told me to never let go of a bit. I tend to throw away a lot of ideas if they're not working, but now I think I'm going to go back to stuff I once believed in, and see if I still find it funny and can maybe re-shape it into something good.
You will probably be copying something you think is cool. At first, I was just trying to be loud. My early stand-up was stupid and goofy and loud. A little immature. At 21, you think you know a lot of things. At 25, you think you know a lot of things. At 46, you think you know a lot of things. Turns out, you never know anything.
Start your own room. Build an audience. People in small cities get excited about entertainment options. You can run that town. Unless you suck.
Tell your life stories and add the jokes in. You will be original. All you have in stand up is you and the way you view things.
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.
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.
I started when i was 17. I got a good head start, skill-building wise, but I sometimes think I missed out on a lot of “Life” that I could be drawing from now. Try to go to college and get some knowlege. If you don’t do that, make a deliberate attempt to read a lot and educate yourself, so that you don’t just become a siv for American pop culture.
If you spend all your time on stage talking about the cover of People magazine, you won’t go far, you won’t last, and you’ll be bored before you get good. Take advantage of the head start you’re giving yourself by stopping as often as possible to live your life, explore America and grow as a person.
When you go to some shit town to do a one-nighte...
This is a very common problem for most comedians. Lemme ask you this - How bad was your childhood? If it was really bad, chances are you're already comfortable with feeling like a failure. So you're actually ahead of the game!
Stand up is You vs You so tell that scared little bitch to calm down. You aren't fighting in Afghanistan or battling cancer. You're just telling shit jokes to strangers. Good luck and godspeed. Go for it!
Finish them! DOn't be the guy that writes half a script. Write a full script or make a film and post it! you have so many cool avenues these days! But no matter what, finish! Even if it's bad, then you have something finished to work off of and show others and get their thougths! Finish, then show others and take their precious free thougths!
That guy, when I was in my early 20s, he’s not listening to advice…. [There’s] this story I’ve told before: I might have been about 18, and I was playing the Fort Lauderdale Comic Strip, and Rodney Dangerfield shows up. And he bumps everybody. So I go, “Mr. Dangerfield, can you stay and watch my act?” He’s like, “Uh, yeah, sure, kid.” So he does his show [and] I go up after Dangerfield—everybody’s scared to go up. And I fucking killed after Dangerfield, right? Then I came backstage and was like, “Hey, what did you think?” And Rodney was like, “Eh, I don’t know, kid, you talk that language, where are you going to go with that, talking about race stuff?” I was just shattered! Rodney had just s...
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.
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...
The thing I try to remember with hecklers is just to take my time and listen to them. I believe it was Chappelle who said, "A heckler's first punch is their best punch." They're generally not clever people. You don't see a lot of scientists going to comedy clubs and heckling. They're just drunk. And mostly women. So you just have to take your time and then eviscerate them.
The best thing you can do is write, write, write, and write. And read. A lot. And fail. The more you fail the better you'll get. At SNL you could have an amazing show and then just BOMB the following Wednesday at the table read. Stay tough. Don't compare yourself to other people. Just follow your path and have fun.
stop fuckin around. just get on stage. there's nothing else to do if you want to do stand up. you need to get on stage. figure that out and the rest will follow.
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