Tag Archives: writing

4 Ways Stand Up Comedy Makes You a Better Writer

Posted in Diary of an Amateur Comedian by

Writing is writing is writing, and no matter what kind you do, the goal is always the same. You want to get your point across as effectively, clearly, and concisely as possible. Unless of course your name is Herman Melville–geez, that guy!  I’ve tried to read Moby Dick like three times, and only ever get 12 pages in. Herman, read this post!

While my “professional” writing experience has been limited to stand up and sketch comedy and a couple of plays, the same rules apply. What I have learned from all this funny business is useful information for writing of all kinds.

1. Be Concise

The point of all writing is to get your point across in as few words as possible to make the most impact. Comedy is all about this. I’ve written before on the importance of being concise because, especially with stand up, no one wants to hear the five minutes of long-winded background to a joke – they want to hear the punch-lines. And if you want your readers to stay with you on your writing quests, you have to give them what they came for. Treasure!!

Cut out redundencies, choose words carefully, and create the best structure to accomplish max impact. BOOM!

2. Know Your Audience

While it may be a mutual dream for us all to write for our target audience (people with our same brains and funny bones), this is rarely the case. And we all want to spread our field of influence to gain a greater audience, right?  Right. Sometimes this means adjusting your voice to suit the type of audience that you are writing for in a particular case. I’m not going to go do a gig at a high school and tell all the dirtiest, cussiest jokes I know (I don’t actually have any…) because that would be considered “inappropriate”. Apparently. Depending on the assignment, you should adjust your tone, word use, structure, or length to accommodate a certain demographic.

3. People Pleasers

As with all art, writing is subjective and it’s impossible to please everyone with every single thing you write. There will always be some stupid dumb know-nothing idiot who doesn’t like your work or your opinion or your punctuation use, and they can all go straight to HECK!?!?!! But it is important to appeal to the audience with your writing and give people a reason to read/listen to your work.

People may offer you criticism, and you can take it or leave it, but rejection is and always will be part of the writing game. I wrote a post just last week about how accepting feedback helps you grow as a writer. Do what you love to the best of your abilities.  Keep your fans/followers/readers happy as long as it keeps you happy, and your audience will continue to grow.

4. Practise Makes Perfect

Most normal people have to really work hard to become great at the thing they are passionate about.  There are weird freaks who are naturally skilled at EVERYTHING (dicks), but they’re exceptions to the rule. Big, stupid exceptions. But as with comedic pursuits, writing is not something that people are just going to automatically start paying you for because you’re so wonderful. You have to pay your dues, do a LOT of free work, and practise perfecting your craft. But if you’re doing what you love, then doing it should be enjoyable, so no sweat!

Girls vs. The Boys

Posted in My Thoughts by

Comedy giant and utterly fantastic specimen of a man, Adam Carolla recently made a comment on The Talk about how women are “always the least funny on the writing staff…dudes are funnier than chicks.”  I hope my sarcasm came through.  Now, despite my immense distaste for his comments, I’m not going to bash him here because many people have already and that’s not the point of this article.

What is my point, you ask?  Are men actually funnier than women?  I say yes and no.

I say yes because men by nature are more uninhibited risk-takers willing to say and do shocking things.  Men are great writers because they can fearlessly say whatever is on their minds and not care what people think.

But more strongly, I say NO!  Women are freakin’ hilarious!  And clever and quirky.  Believe it or not, men and women think VERY differently and therefore have different things to say.  However, in my view, women write more clever, intricate, relatable comedy while men more often go for the immediate shock value.  I’m not bashing dudes.  Women are just thinkers by nature, so why wouldn’t our writing reflect that.

In the comedy world, you have to weed through a lot of junk in order to get to the good stuff.  Out of all the comedians you see maybe only 30% are destined for greatness.  Since it’s a male-dominated industry and there are fewer women, you may have to wait a little longer and look a little harder for those great women.  But having said that, I also believe that there are a lot more crappy male comedians than female.  Mediocre men can hang around for yeeeeears while the crap ladies are weeded out pretty quick allowing the great ones to shine through.

A big part of comedy, like with many arts, is that it’s a matter of opinion.  Mr. Carolla feels that men are funnier.  But he also co-created The Man Show.  He is probably a big fan of dick and masturbating jokes, using “fuck” as a noun, verb, and adjective, and Two and a Half Men.  Admittedly, there are a lot of women that joke about menstruating, idiot husbands, shopping, voting, liberation, having a voice, and other shit chicks are into.  And it’s fine!  Who cares!  Writers write about what they know and experience, and gender just happens to be another pond to draw from.  Lindy West wrote a very passionate article for Jezebel.com called “Hey, Men, I’m Funnier Than You” in which she argues against the societal assumption and “research” that men are just biologically funnier than women.  She makes some very good points and makes me feel proud to be a female writer/comedienne.  That’s French for funny lady.  *hoity, toity French guffaw*

But it seems to me that women are foraging their way into the comedy world with real force, this last decade especially.  In a recent Refinery29.com article, “A Field Guide To The Funniest Lady Writers In Entertainment”, a handful of up-and-coming lasses are featured and they all have big projects on the horizon.  Comedy Queen Bee Tina Fey, whose babies I would have if she asked, made a HUGE statement with ‘30 Rock’.  I love the writing on that show, it’s quirky, unexpected, and multi-dimensional.  Real genius comedy writing is going beyond the obvious, base level of an idea and making it into something that you could write a unique TV show or movie out of.

Innovative, brilliant women are as hard to come by as innovative, brilliant men.  But watch out boys because the ladies are a-comin’ and they’re F-ing BRILLIANT!  Here are some of my personal lady-favourites: Chelsea Peretti, Chelsea Handler, and Carol Burnett.  Oh, and check out my radio interview I did for Co-op Radio Vancouver on July 23 regarding women in comedy(ffwd to 35:22).  I’m pretty amazing.  Now get out there and burn your bras!  Girl Power!

Writer’s Block – Make it Stop!

Posted in Diary of an Amateur Comedian by

“What the HECK am I going to write about today!?” Vanessa asks herself as she sits down, uninspired, at her dilapidated computer.  Writer’s block happens to every writer at one point or another.  The tricky part is to get past it, but hoooowwww?

I find that it helps to do a “mind dump” – just start writing out anything and everything that comes to your mind.  Keep writing and writing for two or three minutes without letting your hand stop moving or your mind stop thinking.  Mind dumping clears the mind and makes room for your creative juices to start flowing.  Plus, when you read it back, you’ll see what’s REALLY on your mind (sicko).  Maybe there’s even something in that mind dump that you can use as a jumping-off point (with your psychiatrist).

Second, don’t think of writing as such a serious and daunting task.  It’s hard to think that way if writing is your job, but it will take some of the stress off and let your mind be free, man, to think whatever the heck it wants without pressure from The Man.  Do some doodling, or mind maps to help get the brain warmed up in a fun way. That’s why I make seriously unserious cartoons.  What’s that you say?  You don’t remember what a mind map is?  Here, I made one just for you:

It’s also important to write about things that you feel strongly about.  This is the first tip I ever received with respect to stand up comedy, but it translates into most any sort of writing.  If you want the audience to have a strong reaction to your writing, it has to make you feel something too.  This again can be difficult if writing is your job and people hire you to write stuff for them.  In this case you have to do some research and see what aspects of their business, etc. you are most interested in and can get excited about.  We all know how easy it is to see right through B.S. that someone has written that they don’t really believe in themselves.  It’s pathetic and boring.  And why should others get excited about something that YOU aren’t even excited about?!  What’s the point?  Whether it’s jokes or “real work”, your energy will translate into engaging material that an audience will have a reaction to.

In this same way it helps to write about things that you are familiar with, and things that a good portion of people can relate to.  Like yoga! ….right?  If you aren’t very familiar with a topic that you want to write about, MAKE yourself familiar.  Do a little research and get some facts (there’s a new thing called The Internet that is great for this), and you’ll become a wealth of knowledge.  I wrote a joke recently about black people – I mean eHarmony!  I wrote a new joke about eHarmony, which I don’t know that much about, so I looked it up.  Turns out there isn’t that much to learn from their website unless you are willing to sign up and find YOUR match today.  But I did learn that if you DO want to sign up for eHarmony, you have to answer a 400 question survey!  Pssshhhhaw!

Writer’s block sucks nards, there’s no doubt about that.  But whatever the damn cause may be for your blocked brain, you’ll get past it….eventually.  These tips have worked for me on several occassions, and I hope they will help you.  Now get back to work!  Aimless internet surfing isn’t going to write your material for you.  I don’t even know how you found my little website, but I sure am glad you did.

CONCISENESS!

Posted in Diary of an Amateur Comedian by

Now THAT’S a “to-the-point” title.  And it’s a good rule to live by if you are writing jokes.

People don’t come to a comedy club to listen to comedians tell long-winded stories for five minutes before finally getting to the three-second punch line.  And if that is the case, it had better be a DAMN good punch line.

But generally, like most things in life, jokes are best being short and sweet.  This is one thing that I am constantly working on, especially with new material.  A fellow comedian told me that, ideally, the audience should be laughing every seven seconds.  So trimming the fat off jokes, avoiding wordiness, and just getting to the funny part is key in maximizing funnies by streamlining and maintaining clear thoughts.  We don’t need to know that you and your significant other were in Calgary at your second-cousin-who-you-hate’s wedding last summer on a beautiful July day in your trendy, yet affordable, outfits from H&M.  Just get to the part where your grandpa got loaded and fell into the $800 wedding cake.  THAT’S what I want to hear about.  I may not be the biggest fan, but there is something to be said for one-liner jokes.  Give ‘em what they came for!

This is not to say that details should necessarily be chopped.  But ask yourself, do the tiny details make the idea funnier, or are they just extra words?  Details should add to your jokes, not take away from them.  Maybe Grandpa Mortimer fell into the cake because he had a few too many Glennfiddich single malts and was looking for his monocle which he kept dropping….down ladies’ cleavages.  What a scamp!  Chris James‘ joke about buying bulk foods is extra funny because he says that he uses the code for “dried split peas” and I don’t care where you’re from, peas are HILARIOUS.

Choose your concise words carefully and you’ll be twice as funny*.  A group of my friends and I were at a show last week where my pal Ivan Decker was also performing.  He has a way of saying things and adding details that make his jokes sound more colourful and clever.  Talking about how an eccentric sultan’s lion “ate most of us” sounds funnier than just a rich man’s lion killed everyone, and it made the joke more memorable for us.  The thesaurus has become a great friend to me.  My only friend really….ANYWAYS!

So keeping in the spirit of this post, cut fat+funny details+effective word use=success.

*not guaranteed