My Personal Opinions Regarding What I Do
Hi everyone -
One of the comedians around NYC I’ve always tried to watch and learn from is Gary Gulman. He’s fantastic, and if you haven’t watched his bit about the people who abbreviated the states, please do so now. I’ll wait…
Gary’s incredible, and he’s been posting daily tips on stand up comedy writing and performance for months now. They are invaluable and I if you’ve ever wanted to be an artist, I encourage you to just bail on reading this and go read his at:
Seriously, his tips are worth way more than mine. So if you’ve only got a few minutes and you’re looking for actual advice to get your gears turning, his thoughts on this are way more valuable and I bow down to them.
That being said, I’ve been keeping a list of my opinions on comedy for a few years now. These are the things I cross-reference my own ideas and writing against, to try to guide myself towards work and behavior I’m proud of. I texted Gary and told him about this list and said he had inspired me to publish it and that I was well aware I was ripping him off. He was very kind about it, as he is in all ways, and gave me the thumbs up.
I’m putting them here. These are just my thoughts. Many of you may think some of them are wrong. That’s ok. Take what you can from the ones that work for you and throw out the rest. And again, these are just opinions. Not rules, not even guidelines, just things I’ve found work for me in the context of comedy. I don’t plan on defending any of them if you flip out and act like an internet maniac. If any of them are confusing though, leave a comment and I’ll do my best to explain.
And again, for God’s sake, go read all the tips Gary left. I check them every day.
MY PERSONAL OPINIONS REGARDING WHAT I DO
It is never the audience’s fault. Never.
There is no type of comedy that sucks. Only shitty versions of it. All types are shitty sometimes.
It is weak to have points with no premise. It is cowardly to have premises but never have a point.
The best stand ups are the ones who can go into any environment and figure it out. Alt, club, college, festival, rock show, etc
Jokes aren’t truly good unless they’re universal.
Work for free until you don’t have to work for free anymore. Then never work for free again.
Going up at a small/low key/new/loose show to try brand new shit is not work, it’s workshopping. It’s ok to do that for free.
If a comic before you tells the audience they suck, that comic is weak. Try starting your set like this afterwards: “Thank you guys for being here tonight. And thanks for giving me a little bit of your time.” You will instantly feel their guards come down. They’re just happy someone (specifically, a mediocre comedian) is not calling them dumb for being there.
You work for the audience, the audience does not work for you.
The hardest type of gig, by far, is opening for a band on an all music bill.
When you don’t take enough time to live a real life, your jokes start to feel stale and thin. Sometimes the best joke writers demonstrate an insane amount of skill at writing and telling a joke, but the joke isn’t about anything since they don’t go and live life. (I have the opposite problem. Too much bouncing around life, not enough discipline in writing.)
Making jokes about the clothes you chose to wear on stage is cheap.
In New York, comedians can be too cutthroat. In Los Angeles, they can be too cocky. In the United Kingdom, they can be too sad.
When you go on the road, sign up for a frequent flier program and stick with that airline.
Sometimes you won’t sell tickets on the road. They’ll give away a ton of tickets (paper the room). Those shows can be fun because if you get them on your side, you know you’ve appealed to them more than the mozzarella sticks.
Never underestimate young people. If you feel like young audiences are too PC, there’s something to be said for “Maybe you need to find a smarter way to make your point.”
Comedians are allowed to say whatever they want. But comedians forget that the other side of that is that audiences are allowed to be offended.
Being a comedian is not a hard life and we need to stop claiming that it is. It’s insulting to people who have actual hard lives. Working hard in an industry where success is unlikely and where your ego gets shredded is daunting, but it’s not hard. Being a miner or an auto plant worker is hard. That’s why it’s an honor to make the working class laugh.
We need to give each other as artists some element of a magicians’ code.
Go all-city, like the old school graffiti artists.
I have no interest in bad art with good politics, or good art with bad politics.
Being an artist is not an excuse to sleep all day and drink all night.
Try other forms of art sometimes too. In college I took a modern dance class as a joke, and was stunned to realize it was probably the first period that I had accelerated growth as a comedian.
If you want to live a life with no rules imposed via others, it’s on you to install your own discipline into your routine.
No show is more important than any other show.
Imitate your heroes in your early days, but remember that the best type of imitation is emotional imitation. At it’s best, you won’t imitate their writing style. You won’t imitate how they behaved. You will imitate how they made you feel.
The true art of stand up comedy is learning how to burp into a microphone without anyone in the crowd hearing it.
Don’t act like a comedian, act like yourself.
*
That’s all of them for now, though this list is always growing and changing. I hope you get something out of it. And like I say in the list, I write a lot of comedy. At the time of this writing, I currently have upcoming shows in HUNTSVILLE,ALABAMA and NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE and ATLANTA, GEORGIA. You can get tickets for all of those at www.chrisgeth.com
