Comedy:
Keep it Clean or Not: A Comedian’s Dilemma
The truth about comedy is that there is no universal material which can be appreciated by all types of people. Some people may find a certain comedy act as hilarious while some people may find it overly offending.
It’s not a simple matter of personal taste when it comes to appreciating comedy acts. There are behavioral and societal forces that come into play when it comes to comedy appreciation. Race, age, affiliation, upbringing and personal experiences all contribute to a person’s view towards a certain comedy act.
A big dilemma that bothers many comedians is whether to keep their acts clean or go a little bit dirty. The tendency towards using dirty comedy springs from the fact that it is rather easy to do it that way than think of smart themes that are really hilarious. If a certain audience is very open and loose, then a dirty act will do just fine. However, this scenario, as we have discussed is far from reality.
In answering the question “should I keep it clean or not?” you should do some preliminary assessment about the setting that you’ll be in when you do your performance. Here are some tips on how to do that:
-Know the event
You can never really know the demographics of your audience before you actually face them. What you can do is to know every detail that you can acquire about the event. If it’s a first gig at a certain comedy club, then you might want to do a site investigation before your gig. You should try to attend the daily gigs for a week to be able to get a good feel of the general composition of the audience and hence get a good grasp of what works and what doesn't work.
If the gig is a party or a function, you might want to know more about the occasion. A group of lawyers would definitely appreciate some smart and funny discussions about general perceptions of lawyers. Just don’t be such a hard-trying comedian who tries to impress his audience with technical jokes which he can't deliver.
-Have an alternate act ready
Don’t go to a gig with just one act. Always have something up your sleeve if the time calls for it. For example, you have done your research and assessed that the crowd is a friendly one and you can use some of your dirty stuff on them, but when you get there, the scenario’s very different- a lot of conservative-looking people sitting in front with their grand kids. What do you do? You go for your alternate act.
Some comedians might think that it would be too difficult to have such alternate plans during a gig. But come to think of it, it’s really a test on how you can transcend beyond your capabilities and maintain your integrity as a comedian.
-Socialize before the gig starts
Whenever you go to a gig, always be there an hour before your call time. This allows you to mingle around with the people and get to know some things about them, so that you’ll have some idea if the people there would appreciate toilet humor or would rather stick with some clean fun.
You may want to get acquainted with the “who’s who” inside the room. You can easily make people laugh when you crack a certain joke that pertains to him.
-Is it really necessary?
If you made your assessment and you found out that you can actually use some dirty comedy to entertain your audience, you should ask yourself again, “is it really necessary?”
Most of the time, comedians just have the urge to blurt out certain toilet humor lines for the sake of saving them. You may want to use these lines on your close friends who can relate, but it isn't really necessary to use toilet humor most of the times in comedy gigs.
At the end of the day, it’s really all about the manner how a comedian packages a certain act. A great comedian can use dirty lines and still get away with it while sounding clean. It’s a trait of the great ones that should be imbibed by all comedians. It’s not really the material, but it’s all about the delivery.
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