Memorize or improvise? Also: How to develop a stage character.
Some gems from John Roy’s online comedy class.
Recently linked to John Roy’s online comedy class, a great primer for new comics. If you’re wanting an out-of-the-box framework for how to get started doing standup (from a legit pro comic too), it’s a super resource – and free.
A taste of his approach: Here’s Roy on whether you should memorize bits verbatim or improvise along the way…
Some people like the certainty of knowing the words by heart. It’s one less thing to worry about, and besides, they’re proud of that wording so why not make sure to show it off?
Others find memorization a source of stress and would rather not have another thing hanging over their head they have to remember not to screw up. For them, a loose idea they can sort of “jam on” is better.
Whichever sounds best to you is how you should do it, as starting out in stand-up is all about increasing your comfort level as you do something that provokes intense anxiety.
However you choose, I have found that whether a joke was written out verbatim the minute the idea appeared or whether it took ten tries through informal riffing, a “right way” based on brevity and the strongest, most colorful word choices begins to suggest itself. By the time a joke is ready to be recorded, even the “jazziest” comics tell it pretty similarly from night to night.
There are advantages and drawbacks to both approaches. A memorized joke sounds polished and can be delivered with confidence, each syllable emphasized for maximum power. You may discover interesting language sitting down and writing that your onstage riffing brain would never have landed on in the moment.
On the flip side, there is a directness and energy to an improvised wording that a memorized bit can lack. It sounds like you’re just hanging out with the audience and that’s powerful.
When you script a bit out verbatim, there can be a tendency to think of it as “set in stone.” You deliver the lines like an actor and only those lines. You can forget that there is always room to add things because you are not talking “in the moment.”
Personally, I go up with at least one written-out punchline for each new bit that I intend to work on. On a fresh page, I write down all the punchlines and premises in a list before I go up…
After it’s all written out, I take the list up with me and riff. No matter what, I always make sure I hit at least one prepared punchline for each subject I bring up. That way, bomb or crush, the audience will know I had a purpose to each bit. You will test their patience if they feel you are just meandering around with no payoff. They will check out. I feel I owe it to them to reward their attention with at least one thought-out comedic idea for each of my premises. They should know I respected them enough to at least have a point to each of my ramblings, even if the jokes don’t all land.
If they happen to really like one of those punchlines, I will keep talking, in case I find something else funny. They seem to like where this is going, so let’s find out what else is there. This has lead to great stuff, but if it’s a dead end, at least they got a solid joke they liked before I went exploring.
Over time, as the repetition and trial and error process continues, I find my jokes inevitably find their way into a series of words that changes little from night to night. It’s the best way I have found to get that idea out, and I know it by heart.
Here he is on stage character:
How does my stage character feel about what they are saying?
You may find yourself objecting to that frame. “Stage character? My stage character is me! What are you talking about?” I just mean the slice of yourself that you are presenting on the stage. Your “stage character” is the persona you are giving to the audience in the time you have to perform. It’s the part of you that you want them to see during your set. This could be as close to you as it is possible to be while being under lights and talking through a sound system. It could be as radically different from your day to day self as Bobcat Goldthwait’s early persona was from the way he ordered food at a restaurant. How does this version of you feel about what they are saying? What is their emotional viewpoint towards their words? Do they love that “Their mother is always on Twitter” or do they hate it? Are they afraid when people talk to them in the gym or are they flattered.
Once you are sure which feelings you want to present in your material, ask yourself, “How can I convey these emotions using my face, body, and voice?”
Thank you for this. I am taking that class week by week. Your newsletters also inspired me to get back to my morning pages exercise from the Artist’s Way. This is so helpful and i am really grateful that you make this newsletter. I am also very happy I subscribed!