Commit to the bit

The audience wants to know you believe in whatever you’re doing up there.

Come see me in Pittsburgh on June 7. Tickets/info here.

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I mean, this is just Comedy 101, but commit to the bit. That’s what people want to see. They want to know you believe in whatever you’re doing up there. And if it’s dumb, that’s even more true. Sell it. You’ll be amazed at how much that confidence will help you get over.

Here’s a comedy show producer on the power of commitment:

Commitment for comedians is really owning what you do up on that stage and selling yourself and your idea to the audience. There’s a certain honesty that is exhibited.

Whatever you’re saying could be totally false or nonsensical, but if you believe in what you are saying or doing, the audience will believe in it too and laugh with you. That’s true commitment and really is the scale of who is doing better than others.

Commitment makes you stand out.

Too many times I have seen comics perform half-heartedly. Some even take the frustrations of their poorly executed performance out on the audience and blame them for having a bad set because they were not laughing (seriously, that happened).

When you don’t commit, people will notice. There have been many times where I witness a comic do an underdeveloped joke only for it to receive a tepid response because they didn’t believe in it as much as they should. Then they work on developing that joke and commit to it on stage and it’s like night and day. Sometimes I even wonder if it was the same joke.

Three of my fave examples of funny people committing to the bit below…