How to memorize stuff? Visit the memory palace.
How do you remember all the jokes in your set? Some techniques...
How do you remember all the jokes in your set?
One option is to bring a set list up onstage and put it on your stool. Every time you take a sip of your drink, you can subtly glance at the list.
Or you can just be upfront, pull out your notes, and look at ‘em as needed. Maybe you can even have a zinger to explain what you’re looking at (e.g. Mark Normand’s sarcastic, “Don’t worry, these are just swastikas I’ve drawn.”)
Obviously, memorizing your whole set is the more professional route. Some comics use the memory palace technique. Here’s an article on How to Build a Memory Palace. Excerpt:
How to Create a Memory Palace
Step 1: For your first memory palace, try choosing a place that you know well, like your home or office.
Step 2: Plan out the whole route — for example: front door, shoe rack, bathroom, kitchen, living room, etc. Some people find that going clockwise is helpful, but it isn’t necessary. Eventually, you will have many memory palaces. You will also be able to revise the memory palace after you test it a few times, so don’t worry if it’s perfect on the first try.
Step 3: Now take a list of something that you want to memorize — a shopping list of 20 items is a good place to start: carrots, bread, milk, tea, oats, apples, etc.
Step 4: Take one or two items at a time and place a mental image of them in each locus of your memory palace. Try to exaggerate the images of the items and have them interact with the location. For example, if the first item is “carrots” and the first locus in your memory palace is the front door, picture some giant carrots opening up your front door.
Step 5: Make the mnemonic images come alive with your senses. Exaggeration of the images and humor can help.
FYI, comic Myq Kaplan just wrote about this too: how on earth do you remember the order of all the jokes in your set??
P.S. I’m headlining in NOLA tomorrow night. Come through. FREE Legal THC Gummies for the audience. 🤯
hey, thanks for the nod, friend!