Does great comedy have to come from a personal place?
Jerry Seinfeld, Mitch Hedberg, and Steve Martin show it doesn't have to be that way.
Judd Apatow's advice: “Always make sure that your comedy comes from a personal place.”
You hear that a lot. Make your material personal. Talk about your family, your fears, your childhood, your secrets, etc. Think Louis CK talking about his kids or Mike Birbiglia discussing sleepwalking. In fact, I recently posted this:
Mike Birbiglia: "If you're not telling secrets, who cares?"
Mike Birbiglia talked to Pete Holmes and Gary Simons about telling secrets onstage on the “Working It Out” podcast. A few of the standout lines: “In the best case scenario, you’re telling secrets to the audience. And they’re laughing.” “Are we gonna save our best stories for when we're dead?”
But what about observational/absurd comics?
However, there are great comics who never get personal. Jerry Seinfeld, Mitch Hedberg, Zach Galifianakis, Steve Martin, Todd Barry...their material rarely touches on intimate details about their lives. Do we know what these guys are truly like at home? No. Do we care? No.
They show a personal side based on how they tell their jokes and how they see the world. When Mitch Hedberg talks about Pringles or bananas, you're getting deep insight into his brain and worldview. A strange joke about koala bears can reveal as much about you as a story about how your dad yelled at you or whatever.
While you generally forge a stronger connection by revealing secrets/personal stuff, you can still be great by choosing a different path – feels like the key is finding another way to be singular and peculiar. The goal: Uniqueness.
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