Thoughts on Stand Up Comedy while sitting down
Hi! I am done with the exclamation marks for this post.
I am a comedian. You know what a comedian is? I don’t know either. Okay, let me try. A comedian is a person who writes jokes and tells them for a living. Yeah, for a living. You know what living is? Living means to be able to eat sometimes while telling jokes.
I am based in India. You know where India is? India is in Asia. Asia is a continent.
I have been doing comedy full time since I quit my job to write jokes and try and make a living from it. That was about 3 years back. A few months less, which will be gone in a few months.
This is getting ridiculous with every passing paragraph. You know what a paragraph is? Oh, let it be.
So, let me come to the point. You know what a point is?
A point is this.
I am now going to talk about the few things I have learnt about comedy in the last few years I have been doing it.
1. Comedy is fucking tough
Now, don’t mind the penultimate word in the headline. Comedy is tough. I have struggled for a few years now to try and understand how it works. But, I am never sure if a joke will work on the stage. A joke when written, is always funny.
2. There are people who laugh loud and I want to buy them
I want to buy people who laugh loud so that I can place them somewhere in my shows. Laughter is damn infectious. If there is one person in the room who laugh loud, he makes everyone feel that the comedian is good. I love those people. Hey, how much you cost?
3. There is no bad audience
There is nothing like a bad audience, unless they have been paid to not laugh at jokes. It’s the job of the comedian to figure out the combination of his jokes that will make them laugh. Sometimes, he will succeed. Sometimes, he will sulk.
4. The best jokes come from real life
Life is the source of comedy. The best jokes which make people laugh come from situations which have been lived and experienced by the comedian in him. Life is fucking tough and it’s when one can look at it (mostly in hindsight) from a ridiculous perspective, one can make a worthy joke.
5. Jokes must be relatable
People laugh because they can either relate to the joke through the prism of their life or through the prism of a life they have known. If they can’t relate to the joke, they won’t laugh. They will stare at you blankly and you will wonder what the fuck is wrong with them. It’s not them, it’s us.
6. Make places lighter
A comedian when called for a show is expected to make rooms lighter, make situations easier and make people loosen up. That’s the job.
Life is tough for everyone. The comedian’s job is to make it feel more bearable than it is.
7. A joke may or may not have substance
Okay, so ideally a joke should have substance. Ideally. But this is not an idealistic world. A joke that makes people laugh is a good joke. If it has substance, it makes them think also. If it doesn’t, that it makes people laugh is enough.
8. A joke may work in one room may not work in another
A joke that works in one room may not work in another. To judge the room and the audience is one of the toughest jobs of a comedian. I mostly get it wrong, till I am forced to change my opinion on the stage itself.
9. Comedy is a community
The people who make people laugh are called comedians. Ha! They should ideally like each other because they understand the predicaments and challenges that go into making and successfully delivering a joke. It’s a small community of lonely and socially misunderstood people. So, they should ideally support themselves.
10. Comedy, no matter how difficult, is to live a life for
To be able to make people laugh is a blessing. Laughter is visible happiness. I am on a mission to make the world an inspired and visibly happier place. I will do it till I breathe and you should follow my work because if you do, whoever the fuck you are, I will find you and make you happy.
Thanks for reading.
Amar