Home

Comedy

Comedy: Getting Your Routine Together

Having a routine is essential for stand-up comedians. Yeah, it definitely helps to be a comedy natural who can make your buddies and girlfriend bust a gut laughing after you've got a beer or ten running in your bloodstream and doing all sorts of things to your brain cells, but being naturally funny is only the first part of becoming a good comedian. Getting a routine ready is a necessity if you're planning to take your show out of the bar room and onto the stage.

Okay, you may be wondering why you need to build a routine. Adlibbing wisecracks is all well and good, and you can probably slam most people down in a dissing match when the urge to trash talk hits you. Yeah, these definitely help on stage, but trust me, there's nothing worse than being on the stage and suddenly having one of those rare but annoying attacks of "dummyfication", where your neurons suddenly go on strike and leave you with an IQ that's roughly on par with a flea's toenails. Then you're left there on stage looking like a slack jawed doofus, with your eyes bugging out and your wit suddenly as sharp as a spoon. A wooden one.

Your routine pretty much shakes hands with your wits; the routine allows you to send your brain into autopilot, firing off jokes without straining your brain. You can save the spontaneous cracks for those times when members of your audience decide to get overly interactive, and start to trashtalk you. Then you can feel free to return fire and let the rest of the audience have a laugh at the poor sod's expense.

Okay, that said and done, here's the first thing you need to know when you're making a comedy routine. Have a stage personality, but make sure it meshes with your real life personality. There are different types of humor, ranging from subtle jokes to sharp barbs and witticisms, to self-deprecating humor, to parodies of famous people. These are just a few examples.

Ask yourself what type of wisecracks you toss off best; make sure that you go with the ones that make people laugh, NOT the ones that leave them trying to decide whether they'll laugh or beat you senseless with a nearby stool. Save those kinds of wisecracks for on-the-fly shots at the audience once you've got them warmed up.

Keeping your routine in line with your personality puts as little pressure on you as possible, allowing the flow of your jokes to come naturally. Trying to adapt a style of humor that's different from your personality can come out forced. Definitely NOT a good thing.

Start with writing a 5-minute routine designed for your buddies. Since they know you best, they'll actually be both easier on you AND harsher than a real life audience. Easier in the sense that, because they're your buddies, their personalities mesh with yours and they probably already find you funny to begin with. Harsher also because they're your buddies, and will probably take every opportunity to smack your butt down while you're performing for them.

Having a routine made for your friends is also a good thing because your buddies will probably be there at the bar for your first performance. Most likely, they'll be leading the audience in laughing, but will also likewise be tossing their own share of barbs at you - at which point they can be the first victims of your anti-trashtalker material.

Once you got a 5 minute routine down, practise in front of a mirror. Make sure that whatever stage personality you're conveying, your body language and facial expressions match. These little things count for a lot when carrying an act. be animated. My friends, for example, say that I always remind them of a living cartoon, like someone went into a looney tunes video, pulled a victim out, and dumped him in the real world. Expressiveness, even in as simple an act as tossing a rougish grin or waggling your eyebrows, can make the difference between sending a room into gales of laughter or getting showered by tomatoes. Canned tomatoes, unopened.

Also practise pitching your voice to match the jokes of your routine. While occassional lapses into using a monotone voice can actually add an edge to certain jokes, doing it all the time is a sure fire formula for flatlining your audience. Modulate your tone, keep it hopping all over the place. Speak in a bouncy, lively fashion and adjust your tone for special situations in your routine like doing a parody of someone.

Okay, now that you've got these tips down, get to writing your routine! And be sure to warn your girlfriend and buddies that you'll be using them as test-bunnies (I think guinea pigs and lab rats are too durn small to properly experiment on) for your first routine.

Comedy Articles:

Comedy: Learning from comedians by watching comedian shows 

Comedy: Why become a good comedian aside from the money 

Comedy: How to Build a Convincing Promo File (for Comedians) 

Comedy: Dealing With Other Comedians Stealing Your Material 

Comedy: Ways to choose your comedian persona 

Comedy: Cleaning Up Your Act – Comedy Doesn’t have to be Dirty to be Funny 

Comedy: Nine Mistakes Amateur Comedians Make 

Comedy: Is a Dead Chicken Always Funny?  Using Props for Your Comedy Act 

Comedy: Creating an Alter Ego with Your Comedy Puppet 

Comedy: Getting Competitive Comedian Salary 

More