"What is the best comedy advice you’ve ever received?"
Vulture asks up-and-coming comedians for words of wisdom.
Misguided Meditation with Matt Ruby makes its Brookly debut tonight (Friday 11/22) at Second City in Brooklyn. It’s a deep/funny dive into mindfulness, woo woo wackos, therapy, and death. Featuring sounds from Steve Pestana and live visuals by Sophia Sobers. Tickets available here.
Some raves:
“Original and entertaining.”
-Dr. Lisa Levy“Funny, moving, powerful.”
-Nick Gillespie“Brilliant and fantastic.”
-Shawn Leventhal“Riotously funny.”
-Matt Levy
“Captivating.”
-Cierra Burton“Humor that will leave you believing in the power of connection.”
-Kevin House
Comedy advice
Comedians You Should and Will Know is Vulture’s annual survey of dozens of industry insiders on the comedians who are about to be household names. The 2024 edition asks all the comedians for the best comedy advice they’ve gotten. Some examples below…
• Write a punch line that’s true: When I was starting in Minneapolis, there was a weekly joke workshop where you got seven minutes to do whatever you want, ask for feedback, whatever. And having more experienced comedians there felt so precious. One of them, Turner Barrowman, who went on to become a producer and development exec in L.A., encouraged people to not fall into the trap of trying to paint the nuttiest picture when building out a joke. He was constantly returning to the most precise, accurate details of what makes an idea funny. In so many ways, that’s where I learned how to write comedy, and it’s probably no coincidence that I sometimes run into the problem of remaining too grounded now.
• Write everything down: Five or six years ago, Vulture ran an article asking comedians to give advice to their younger selves. The Lucas Brothers answered in a little list of short suggestions, which I could look up,Ed. note: It’s here. but I’m not going to bother, because the one that really mattered was “Document everything.” That stuck out to me because I was not good enough at the habit of writing down any funny ideas and, more crucially, I felt a dearth of funny ideas, so every possible concept felt precious and valuable. I’ve never felt like the idea fountain that I think a lot of creatives are. So, five years ago, on a train to Boston for a day-job work trip, I made a shitty iPhone text edit that says “document everything,” and it has been my phone background ever since. And now it’s a great tool, because when I interrupt a conversation to write something down — not just a funny idea anymore; now, I write down literally anything I would like to remember and keep with me — I can show my phone background to the person who I’m interrupting and not seem so rude or annoying. Also, my shitty edit has the exact same vibe as the Brat album cover, but I did it first, I didn’t copy anyone.
• If you’re going to quit, quit now: About a year and a half into comedy, I was in Seattle for a family thing and decided to make it a week of doing stand-up. It was my first time performing in a different scene. My very first night, I did the booked closing spot on an open mic, and a guy named — and this is a faithful reporting — Jet Black, talked to me after. He asked when I was going to move to NYC or L.A., and I said, “Well I guess if I don’t quit, I’ll move at some point.” And he got curt and said, “Don’t say ‘if I don’t quit.’ You’re good enough to make a career in this, so either commit to it, or if you’re going to quit, quit now and don’t take the space that other people want really badly.” And I needed that kind of no-nonsense directness (I had an old speech coach who would say, “Radcliffe, don’t fuck this up”). That night, I decided to actually pursue this as a career. Now, did Jet Black become a little weird later in the week? Sure — who didn’t see that coming. But I will forever credit him with saying exactly what I needed at that point in my career.
A comic named Ken Boyd told me something along the lines of “Confidence is the only way through,” an axiom I saw him prove nightly by starting sets off by asking someone in the audience to give him gum and then proceeding to effortlessly kill while loudly smacking his lips. Sure, it’s stressful to do stand-up comedy, but you know what’s only slightly less stressful? Watching stand-up comedy. So I’ve found that in order to do well, I have to, at the very least, make the audience feel like they’re in capable hands, even when I know they are not. Ken Boyd also used to boo me from the back of the room (see my previous answer) and bring me onstage with, “This next guy is the gayest comedian I’ve ever seen,” which I can only assume was to help hone my confidence even more. Thanks, man.
This isn’t my story, but I tell it as often as I can with full credit: Geoff Asmus (a great comic and dude) was doing a show somewhere in the Midwest, and a magician was opening for him and I guess just absolutely crushed, and as he was getting offstage and bringing Geoff up, he whispered to him, “They’re pigs. Feed ’em slop,” and it’s become a motto amongst a bunch of our friends. It’s just so perfect. It’s so funny for a magician to have that amount of darkness in them. I truly think about that like once a week.
And the best advice was from Jared Thompson, who’s the owner of the Comedy Attic in Bloomington, Indiana, which is my home club, and it’s literally just “Be funny, be nice.”
The best comedy advice I ever received … Well, I have a lot. My sister told me to try again when I quit three weeks into doing stand-up. Derek Gaines told me never play to the back of the room. A lot of comics try to make other comics laugh. Focus on the crowd. Sam Jay told me if my only source of income is stand-up, I won’t let myself take the type of risks I would take if it wasn’t my livelihood. When your whole livelihood is stand-up, there is a small voice in your subconscious saying If I bomb, I might not get booked again, so you take smaller risks. Roy Wood Jr. told me to keep the word “diabolical” in one of my jokes. It sounds simple, but he followed up by saying “Never stop letting them know just how messed-up they (white people) are. Words like that are cutting and sharp. Diabolical.” Von Decarlo told me to keep doing the style of stand-up I do and eventually the industry will come around.