Comic John Roy recently posted about how to grow a bit:
If there’s a bit you’re trying to grow into a bigger chunk but not all of it works every time, cut all but the most consistent lines. It will be shorter but solid, and sprout new lines as you learn to tell it that will stretch it past its original length, like pruning a tree.
(I’m not being some old condescending Ben Kenobi jagoff here either, I’m saying this because I did it tonight and it worked in a professional club in the closing slot).
It’s hard some times to cut some of the original components of a bit and trust that what remains is worthwhile in its self and will grow into something better than what was discarded, but it always does.
Btw, Roy also has a really good (and free) online comedy class that he posted years ago. Def worth a look for newbies. Roy on why he put the class together:
I got important advice later in my career that I would have loved to have had access to at the start. Many aspects of this art form took me years of wrong turns to figure out. I would love to spare the next generation some of that confusion. They might get better quicker if I could tell them what they needed to know right when they needed know it.
Thank you for sharing this one.