I’m a writer. Love writing. It’s a great way to collect ideas, process them mindfully, and present them to the world.
HOWEVER, writing isn’t always a great way to write jokes. Standup has taught me there’s a different kind of power that comes from speaking your ideas out loud. After all, standup is a verbal artform. And the way you speak is different than how you write. Until you say it, you don’t know what it really sounds like. You get a feel for the rhythm and the impact of words.
Also, it’s the path to surprise. Comedy is all about “aha” moments and when you write you’re less likely to get those since it’s an inherently slower process.
When you talk an idea out, your brain has to race to keep up with your mouth. You’re like Gromit feverishly putting tracks down in front of his train:
Speaking puts your brain in fight or flight mode. It starts grasping at ideas and making random connections. You have to come up with something – and that results in ideas that are surprising and/or random. And that’s the land where punchlines reside. There’s plenty of crap there, but also occasional nuggets of gold.
It’s why so many comedians like to “write onstage” and come up with material on the fly. (A good reason to tape sets and review them later.) There’s power in letting it all flow and seeing what comes out.
Talk it out. Do it in the shower, on the roof, or with a friend. When you nail a good idea, then you can capture it, write it down, and flesh it out later. You can even go back and forth between writing and speaking your ideas, a la Gary Gulman:
Write out a favorite joke word-for-word one sentence at a time. After completing each sentence, analyze each word. Why does it work? How do the syllables of the words create rhythm? How do the sentences build to the punchline? What’s the grammar of comedy?
If you’re married to writing via pen/laptop, you can try to recreate the free-flowing vibe of speaking by doing stream of consciousness writing (like in morning pages). You’re trying to bypass that rational, editor mode in your brain and let your subconscious rip. That way you get to random connections you might never have made otherwise.
Another plus for speaking: It’s easier. People rarely say they have “speaker’s block,” y’know?
Related:
touched on differences between speaking and writing here.In Writing Without Teachers, Peter Elbow discusses some differences between speaking and writing: “Writing has the advantage of permitting more editing. But that's its downfall too.” Elbow talks about how we pause to edit out awkwardness, wordiness, and errors and how pausing to deliberate and correct may not serve the writing.