How to be a stand up comedian
So you have decided you are funny or your friends heard you tell a joke and they said hey you could be bigger than Trevor Noah. Or you wife laughs at everything you say then you my friend are not ready to be a stand up comedian. Thankfully this is article will give you the 10 steps to becoming a stand up comedian.
Understand the Craft
A joke is basically made up of two parts. A setup and a punchline. A setup causes an audience to make an assumption and the punchline takes them on an unexpected route which causes the involuntary response of laughter. Once you have understood this then you need to understand that this setup and punchline is the single unit of comedy we call a BIT. Once a related set of bits are put together they become a chunk, a set of related CHUNKS of a subject together become a set. The quality of your set will largely depend on how well you put together those components to achieve a reasonably high laugh ratio. People don’t know why they enjoy or don’t like certain comics and that is largely a laugh ratio.
Where to start: The Open Mic
You need to immediately find an open mic night somewhere close to you. This is going to be your home for a while. Get used to it and don’t be a cry baby about it. Open mic re a safe space for new talent to grow. Prepare a 5 minute set and go onto a stage.
Listen to the audience
The audience is the only gauge of whether you are funny or not. So pay close attention to when and where they laugh. record your set each time you perform paying attention to the quality of laughter, duration and volume.
Respect the order
In a comedy club scenario there is a certain order to the gigs you will perform in and it’s important to know your place and understand the role you are playing in the show. There is the host: This is the boss of the evening, I say boss because sometimes this is the person who runs the comedy night and is the person who may connect you to more gigs. This is sometimes an experienced comedian or just a good business mind or has a great database of comics so many different types of hosts exist. The hosts job is o warm up the audience introduce the comedians and at times the host is working out material for a one man show. There is a paid spot, usually given 10-15 minutes. Then theres some open mic, thats where you fit in. Being given a chance to showcase what they are doing. At this point consider yourself lucky to get some stage time and boy are you going to need it. Usually the audience cut you some slack and if you do well the hosts will ask you to come back to do some more open spots till they are sure they can book you.
The Set
It is important at this stage to not get carried away trying out too many things at this point. You want to start with your 5 minute set for open mic. Making it better with each performance. Great jokes go through editing and tightening. Removing the fluff and getting to the punchlines as quickly as you can as well as the most important thing…getting your laugh ratio up. You typically want to be at a respectable 4 laughs a minute. For a new comic this is easier said than done. Time and experience will get you there but you must be honest with yourself. Listen to the audience.
The Laws of Success
you must remember something one of my mentors Stephen Rosenfield once said to me “Get Good, Get Seen, Get Paid” this is my all I’m favourite piece of advice. do not worry so much about the money until you get the fundamentals right, understand the craft, get funnier, better, write more. The funnier you get the more people you get to perform in front of the more likely you are to getting paid.
Playing the circuit
Vary your audiences as much as you can at this point. Get any and every opportunity to perform. Most of the bad places to perform are great to perform in at the beginning because it teaches you once of the most valuable lessons of all which is to learn how to pick the right audience for your comedic voice. I can tell you now that even after 10 years of doing this “you are never going to be funny for everyone”.
Travelling Comedians Make the most interesting comedy
If you watch a lot of comedy you will notice a lot of great jokes start with location “when I travelled to” the funny thing about X country or when I was in Y country. The reason is that comedy allows you to travel but when you travel pay attention and immerse yourself because everything is content. Late flights, broken down buses, lockdowns are all going to be fodder for your comedy. Travelling is also good to create bigger networks which brings me o the important point….
Build networks first audiences later
I have been a stand up comedian for 10 years and I haven’t even started working on building my audiences yet. What do I mean by this? For example I get booked by comedians and promoters so that is my target audience at the moment. These two make sure I get to be seen by the right audiences. I am not booked by Facebook likes and comments. I record my videos of performances from comedy clubs and send to promoters and other comedians. I then perform to actual paying audiences in as many countries as I can. In comedy clubs there agents scouting for talent, advertising execs and corporates. The power of my network means that I now have great representation around the world ad don’t rely on comedy in Zimbabwe alone.
Becoming the comic you want to be
Remember that stand up comedy is a door to other opportunities. It is important to make the right decisions on the comedian you want to become and to have a plan towards it. You can be a writer, comedic actor, master of ceremony a television presenter, radio presenter, celebrity, influencer. Even in the stand up arena theres comics that perform Arena shows, theatre shows, comedy clubs, underground comedy scene theres so many things. Do not put yourself under pressure o be everything for everyone. For example I know what my areas are as a comedian I enjoy the club gigs and some theatre shows I do not do arena shows, I present on radio and do blue chip corporate events and I absolutely love motivational speaking at schools, institutions of learning.
So where to start if you are in Zimbabwe? I would highly recommend looking up Simuka Comedy Show dates in Harare or Umahlekisa comedy if you are in Bulawayo. Contact them through their pages and send a note saying “Greetings my name is….I would like to try out stand up comedy. I would like to request an open mic slot at your comedy nights” be nice and not rude like some youngsters who inbox me. Good manners will get you far in this industry. Once you get a slot get a friend to record you performing each time and edit your 5 minutes and keep going back till one day they book you for a paid slot. Use every open mic you see online as an opportunity to grow yourself…That’s all you need to do to get started.