Standup: How Do I Start? (From a Beginner)
“the only way to find your voice is to use it.” (Kleon, 2014)
(Left: Phyllis Diller; Right: Bob Hope, 1967 Vietnam)
Standup is chock full of contradictions. The intimacy and the distance. The incessant lying and the truth. The specificity and the freedom. Over the past four months, I have embarked on my Standup journey, learning so much from the comedy community in Chicago. The more trial and error I go through while developing material, the more curious I become about the form itself. How do you do it? Come along as I catalog what I have learned thus far.
Develop a Persona (*it can change)
Because the form of Standup is bare bones, (i.e. standing onstage alone, microphone in hand, telling a story) the thing an audience pays attention to the most is not WHAT you say or HOW the joke is delivered, it is WHO says the joke. An unserious, Chelsea Peretti style comic doing a bit is going to land completely differently than a “tell it like it is,” Samantha Jones / Joan Rivers’ inspired standup doing the same. Even the ones who are “just being themselves” have a persona, is it you at your most confident? Awkward? Controlling? In terms of material, everyone I talk to writes their standup differently. I talk outloud to myself while making dinner and then write it down verbatim. My friend Juliet Davidson writes her bits down on index cards. Some people write bullet point lists. Even when the joke is mundane, the “commentary” or “subject of the joke” still changes depending on who says it.
Keep in mind, as Austin Kleon in the book “Show Your Work” points out, “the only way to find your voice is to use it.” (Kleon, 2014)
Try Not to “Show Your Cards”
I have found that a successful Standup tends to have a COOL FACTOR. Because standup has elements of improvisation, the audience buys into a fantasy that the standup is speaking off the cuff. This unspoken contract creates is the belief that the standup is a tad dangerous; they could say or do anything at any moment. That danger is magic. Some call this quality a “comic secret,” as my talented friend and fellow Comedy Studies alum Jordan Baker puts it, “an audience can tell that a [performer] has something up their sleeve (…) they want to know more.” Despite the fact that standup has prep to it, the prep cannot be visible. If it is visible, the audience does not feel the onus to laugh.
An example of this is when a Standup decides to bring their notebook onstage. When they refer to the notebook at the beginning of the set and then never again for the rest, the fantasy of danger is still intact. However, when the standup looks down at the book after a riff, the connection is broken. It feels like a betrayal, almost. This is why I would rather totally forget everything I had planned than glance down.
(Hannah Gadsby: Nanette, 2018)
Get in Those Reps! *(try to have someone spot you)
A standup needs their audience. More than trying to “listen” like actors, the standup is on their knees, begging for as little as a scrap. This is because the standup cannot do it alone. More than any other art form, a bit is utterly useless without it being worked out in front of an audience.
Standups use the same language that “gym bros” do with each other, and for good reason. Just like weight training, you have to get those reps in, consistently and overtime, in order to get better. And, often times, it helps to have others hold you accountable. When collecting intel from the audience, the standup is developing the muscle of discerning what the audience is feeling. Are they uncomfortable? Or is this material just unfamiliar? All of this is helpful.
Learn How to Mind Read
What do you do if your bit doesn’t land? Anne Libera, the director of Comedy Studies at Second City suggests that it may not be the joke that is not working, the frame is more often the problem. How can you adjust how you present yourself to make the focus of the joke where you want the focus to be?
Find a Persona
And…the cycle continues. Rewrites and rewrites and rewrites!
*Disclaimer: Try to Stay Out of Your Head
Like anything worth pursuing, there is not exact formula. Every time I think I have figured it out, a standup will wow me who is doing none of the things that I have deemed necessary for a successful set. Conceptualizing a “formula” helps me try to get inside things that feel untenable, but for others it can feel stifling. If this is not helpful, throw it out. Once you get onstage, trust that your body knows enough. Break the rules, play around, and let me know how it goes.
Suggestion: Highly recommend a Phillis Diller deep dive if you haven’t already.