10 Good Things: The 7-38-55 rule, working blue, Anthony Bourdain, Jon Stewart, and more

"What’s hard is killing while being truly unique" and other wise words.

📌 Dan Naturman [mic drop emoji]:

Dan Naturman @DanNaturman

After many years in stand up I have come to believe that “killing” is a necessary, but far from sufficient, indicator of being a great comic. Killing is ultimately not that hard. What’s hard is killing while being truly unique.

📌 “A lot of standup is our rebuttal to a situation we didn't like. You're not gonna yell at CVS, you're gonna write a bit about it.”
-Neal Brennan to Sebastian Maniscalco on the Blocks podcast

📌 The 7-38-55 rule:

Peter Yang @petergyang

8/ The 7-38-55 rule 7% of the message is the words 38% is the tone of voice 55% is the body language and face Pay attention to the other party's tone and body language to see if they match up to the words. If not, use labels to tease out the objections.

📌 Video tip: Hard cuts that juxtapose two contrasting ideas are a great way to get laughs.

Caleb Synan @dumbcaleb

One of the funniest things in a non-comedy

Sometimes you don’t even need dialogue, the cut is the punchline.

📌 The only line comedy shouldn’t cross is the no-laughter line. Never knew this bit about “working blue”:

Moralising pushback isn’t new. As Kliph Nesteroff explains in The Comedians (2015), the phrase ‘working blue’ comes from the blue envelope that religious vaudeville operators would send to performers backstage, indicating off-limits content.

Kliph Nesteroff

📌 Joel Byars: “Andrew Schulz Just KILLED Netflix”

Ahead: The three boxes funny has to check, Anthony Bourdain on magic, Jason Alexander’s advice to performers, and a clip from Jon Stewart on Howard Stern.