Comedy Made Easy. David Kline Lovett

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СКАЧАТЬ general rule with a target is to aim higher. It’s better to make fun of the bank president than the janitor. The safer targets are the government, professional star athletes, top movie stars, your hometown, and food. Should you choose to make fun of a specific nationality, race, sex, or religion, it is best that it be your own. If you are a white Anglo-Saxon man, it’s not a good idea to talk about black Muslim women. When you choose an appropriate target you are more likely to engage and build rapport with your audience.

      Punch Premise

      Greg Dean, in his wonderful book Step By Step to Stand-Up Comedy, talks about a Punch Premise, which he clearly defines as, “What negative opinions do I have about some smaller aspects of my topic?” He turns it around to help create the next step, the Setup Premise.

      Setup Premise

      Dean instructs the comic to write what is the opposite of the Punch Premise. When you disapprove of a particular politician, you say how much you love him or her.

      Now you have an ideal setup where you can mockingly praise the topic that you’re upset about. Finding a punch line to state your real point of view will be easy. Here is an example: I really admire the way Joe Politician can…ignore the truth.

      Setup

      The set up is the story, the first part of a joke leading to the payoff, or punch line. The punch must contrast the setup with the unexpected. That punch contrast is what makes a joke funny. The setup is what gets the attention of the audience. Setups are informational and introduce a general theme. For the most part, a setup is realistic and factual, in contrast to the punch line that is exaggerated, crazy, and made up.

      The setup is the opening section of the joke. It leads to the funny, or punch. The setup explains what the comic is talking about. It’s like a sentence as it needs to be complete on its own. The setup should tell a story that the audience can follow and comprehend. A setup’s entire purpose is to lead the audience clearly to the promised land of the laugh. The setup needs more than anything to be understandable. It needs to be basically factual; otherwise the audience won’t believe you. You can embellish, but the basic story must be true. For example, you can’t talk about your dead mother who died when you were five and a minute later say you just had dinner with her last Wednesday.

      Assumptions

      What is it that is assumed by the setup? When the setup is written properly, there will be something that should be assumed by most everyone in the audience. At the very least there should be a major assumption. This first major assumption can be considered a story. This leads us to the next section, the clash of two stories.

      Clash of Two Stories

      A joke is where two stories unexpectedly clash together. One story could be the truth, and the other will be a surprise story. We have the first story (the setup) and the second story, which is the punch line.

      Think of the first story as a bus going down Main Street, Your Town, USA. Everyone expects it to keep going through the downtown along Main Street. All of a sudden, without any warning or expectation, the bus takes a quick, unexpected left turn. Story one led us through town on Main Street. Suddenly the second story takes us on a sharp and sudden left turn.

      Punch line or Second Story

      The punchline is the payoff, the last words or the second story. The punch line or second story is when and where the story takes a sudden and unexpected turn. The second story is what must have the unexpected surprise for your audience.

      Punch at End

      It is important to put your funny line, word, or phrase at the very end of your joke. If the key word isn’t last, you will be stepping on your laugh or speaking while the audience is laughing. YOU DON’T WANT TO DO THAT. Talking when your audience is laughing will train the audience to not laugh.

      For example, let’s use the famous joke by Henry Youngman: “Take my wife…please.” This is a classic joke and is perfect to use for learning. If he were to say “Please take my wife,” the joke doesn’t work. The punch word or phrase simply must go last.

      Exaggeration

      What helps with the second story is to make it big. Exaggerate as much as you can. The first story needs to be realistic and believable. In fact, if you are talking about yourself, your setup must be basically true. You don’t want to say you are single and five minutes later talk about your wife. With the second story all bets are off, the crazier the better. We love a good fish tale. An audience wants to believe the unbelievable. Make your second story bigger, harder, faster, louder, smellier, more colorful, and stronger.

      Surprise

      The basis for any joke is a surprise at the end. When the audience knows exactly where you are going it’s just not going to be as funny. It’s the shock that generates the laugh. It shows that you are intelligent for writing something that the audience didn’t expect to hear.

      Persona or Point of View

      Persona, or point of view, is a specific emotional attitude that a performer utilizes for their entire act. An example is Rodney Dangerfield, who never got any respect. His act was a perfect example of self-deprecating humor, which was his overall persona. Sam Kinison’s point of view was simple. He was angry, loud, and hostile. When a comic has a consistent persona or point of view, it is easier for an audience to follow and keep up with what the comic is saying.

      Two-Step Humor Model

      1. Write about a common problem, something at which you are annoyed, something about which you have hostility, and state it in the first story. Make sure it is a common annoyance so your audience will relate.

      2. Create an unexpected ending or surprise.

      Conclusion

      Any good building has to have a solid foundation; the same goes with a joke. With a foundation or structure you will have an easier time writing your jokes. With these basic structure techniques you will be able to build your jokes with ease. The 123 joke templates at the end of the book will help you do this.

      Definitions: Basic Structure

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Pick Your Topic:	what you are going to talk about.
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