Funny How: Letters to a Young Comedian

Funny How: Letters to a Young Comedian

Your antennae are always up

A great joke is something that’s interesting and surprising.

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Matt Ruby
Jun 12, 2026
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Some gems I dropped during a recent interview…

🎙️ Being a great stand-up comedian — it’s a lifestyle. Your antennae are always up. You’re always looking for that thing that’s weird, or scary, or stupid, or hard, or hypocritical. You’re just living your life all the time, picking up on that, noticing things, having a conversation where you’re like, “Wait a minute. I think what I just said…let me write that down. There might be a bit in that.” There’s this constant process of “wait, let me write that down so I don’t lose it.”

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