How to make your comedy more interesting
Cruel but good advice ahead...
Story about writer Barry Hannah, told by Rick Bass in the introduction to Boomerang and Never Die:
Another passed-down tale: a student getting her story back from Barry, with the honest criticism on it: This just isn’t interesting.
As I understand it, the student, a whiner, complained, What can I do to make it be interesting?
The cruelest advice I ever heard, but also the best—advice that I do not think I could have withstood had it been given to me directly, but which I have remembered. Barry, I am told, looked long and hard at the student, decided she was earnest about becoming a better writer, and told her the truth[:] “Try making yourself a more interesting person.”
Related: Have you tried making yourself a more interesting person?
Here are Jessica Hagy’s How To Be More Interesting (In 10 Simple Steps)…
STEP 1: Go Exploring
Talk to stangers. Roll the dice.STEP 2: Share What You Discover
Offer to help. Expand the group.STEP 3: Do Something. Anything
Go outside. Sign up.STEP 4: Embrace Your Weirdness
Get sidetracked. Capitalize on your quirks.STEP: 5 Have a Cause
Do the best good. Be the hero.STEP 6: Minimize the Swagger
Drop the titles. Admit goofs.STEP 7: Give It a Shot
Overstep your bounds. Tackle the hard stuff.STEP 8: Hop Off the Bandwagon
Question ubiquity. Crawl into niches.STEP 9: Grow a Pair
Lead the mutiny. Make a mess.STEP 10: Ignore the Scolds
Jettison toxic cargo. Learn from all examples.
And some advice on how to be less interesting:
1. Tell everyone you meet that you're trying to become more interesting. For bonus points, ask them what makes them interesting.
2. Keep a diary in which you make entries like, "Today I climbed the Matterhorn. Really excited to tell people how hard it was."
3. Learn everything there is to know about a subject most people never think about. Like the history of man hole covers. Then you can lead off every conversation telling people something interesting about this fascinating subject!
4. There is no four. Do you really want more?