Sam Morril: "Follow the joke."

On getting laughs in between jokes and why he doesn't want to be "your guy."

Sam Morril has a great new special on Netflix. And his YouTube special “I Got This” is now over 11M views.

On A Good One, Sam discussed how he gets laughs on the way to the “real” punchline.

It’s almost like a hesi move in basketball. Like, How can I get my jump shot wide open? Gary Gulman is great at getting laughs out of places you would never think to get laughs. I remember that he had a joke where he just said “ka-ra-te.” That shouldn’t be that funny, but it is because it’s very honest to his voice. He would just say, “I don’t know why you guys are laughing. That’s the proper pronunciation.” You learn to get laughs in between the jokes, and the more you write, you need those because holy shit. Storytellers — guys like Tom Segura or Jim Jefferies, people who write these long stories — they have to find those little laughs. But joke writers need that, too. You learn how to bring yourself to a joke, so that it’s not just a “joke like a joke book” joke.

And it was cool to see Sam on the Daily Show and watch Trevor Noah reveal his fandom…

Interesting bits from both guys in the interview about how to be an edgy comedian who still gets over:

• Try to make it so the crowd never knows which way you’re gonna go.

• “Don’t make me your guy.” Don’t be spokesman for some tribe, follow the joke.

• Intention matters. Don’t intend to hurt anybody. Be edgy in a fun way, but don’t play it safe.

• Realize people get offended by everything. Most people are smart enough to know your intent. Some won’t. Oh well.

• When you become too emotionally attached, you lose funny. Good comedy comes from a place of detachment.

• Where you place a joke in the set is key.

• Social media is a package deal: If you’re getting love there, you’re also getting hate.

Great line from Sam about context online: “Social media is like a comedy club where people come in at the wrong time. ‘That’s not when you were supposed to enter.’”