Introduction

If you fully understand that comedy mechanics — the attributes of verbal communication that generates laughter — are exactly the same in everyday conversations as they are on the stand-up stage…

In this lesson I’m going to show you how to easily turn the comedy topics that you developed in the last lesson into mounds of bulk stand-up comedy material.

When you go on stage, you want to simply appear as if you’re sharing and expressing your thoughts with a friend or group of friends and making them laugh their rear ends off in the process.

That is the end goal.

So we’re going to start working from that last stage first — at the end.

I know that may sound backwards, but I warned you that I had an unconventional approach to stand-up comedy.

So how do you start at the end? Just get up on stage and “wing it”?

Nope. That’s called “being stupid” and a great set up for failure.

Let’s say that one day you’re in the park, and you see a mother and her toddler. The toddler is eating a hot dog, but drops it on the ground.

Without giving it a second thought, the mother picks the hot dog off the ground, wipes the dirt off the hot dog using her armpit, and sticks the hot dog back in the kid’s mouth.

You can’t believe your eyes, and you can’t wait to tell your friend about it.

So what do you do?

The next time you meet up with your friend, you tell him about it. You just let loose, describing what you saw, making fun of the situation, being a smart aleck, imitating the mother, describing how the kid felt, etc.

Your friend laughs, partly because the situation is funny, and mostly because the way you describe the situation is funny, just you being you.

What you have just done is perform a stand-up comedy routine, and you didn’t even know it.

Well, that’s exactly what you’re going to do in this lesson — tell an imaginary friend or group of friends about the topic that you selected in the previous lesson.

Why are you going to do this?

Because when you get on stage, you don’t want to look and sound like you’re just telling a string of “jokes” written from thin air.

You want to look and sound like you naturally would when you’re cracking people up in an everyday conversation.

Those are the moments when people have told you that you should think about being a stand-up comedian, aren’t they?

Well, then why would you want to deviate from that?

I’m here to suggest that you shouldn’t.

The main difference in this course is that I’m going to show you how to tighten and improve on what you have to say with the techniques I will reveal as this course progresses.

But you never want to lose that initial passion you had when you “performed” for your friend.

Let me provide you a visible example of what I am talking about.

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Stand-up Comedy Video Example

Here is that video clip of a “finished” stand-up comedy routine by comedian Brian Regan.

You will notice that the “topic” itself is somewhat mundane (looking to buy a refrigerator).

What is NOT mundane and absolutely hilarious is how he describes the process (passionately I might add) as seen through his eyes and his sense of humor:

While this is a very tight, funny and “finished” stand-up comedy routine for the stage, here’s what I need you to know:

1. It’s certainly not the “topic” itself that made this routine funny.

Most people would not see anything funny about trying to buy a refrigerator.

By itself, it would be difficult to fabricate “funny” from a blank piece of paper simply trying to work with the “premise” of buying an appliance.

But it was Brian’s personal experience as seen through his eyes that created his passion for talking about and expressing his experience, using his own sense of humor to describe what happened.

2. As you will soon see, it’s not simply words “written” on paper that make this bit funny — it’s primarily his delivery and expression about what happened that makes this material funny.

3. I can assure you that this stand-up comedy routine did not start out of the chute as a “tight”, ready for the stage stand-up comedy routine…

• It started out as a potential stand-up comedy topic — specifically, an experience that Brian Regan had that he had passion about and in which he saw the humor in through his own eyes.
• Next, all the possible talking points and sense of humor aspects associated with that topic (or experiences) were then identified.
• Next, the “raw” or “bulk” stand-up material was then spoken out loud and edited down to only the most essential talking points and sense of humor reactions to make what he wanted to say about his experience when buying a refrigerator as tight as possible.
• Then, the bit was professionally rehearsed in order to cement Brian’s natural delivery style, expressive comedy traits, body language alignment, etc. to what he wanted to say and express to an audience.

I can also assure you that this routine was delivered at least a couple of times on stage and adjustments were made before it became the “finished” bit you see in the video.

But here’s something else:

What you see in the video as a killer stand-up comedy bit could have simply been Brian Regan at a day job, on a break — standing at the water cooler with co-workers when the topic of shopping was brought up.

Next thing you know, he gets a turn to chime in on the conversation and he says:

Had a shopping experience myself with the wife this weekend
We needed a refrigerator for our new place and…

Presto! He’s into the bit, right there at the water cooler with co-workers — simply describing what happened while shopping for a new refrigerator.

Now before you begin the process of turning turning the comedy topics you listed from the last lesson into “bulk” stand-up comedy material, here’s what you need to know…

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Why You “Write Down” Instead Of “Write” Stand-up Comedy Material

I have said from the very beginning that there is a HUGE difference between “writing” and “writing down” or transcribing what it is you want to say and express to an audience and structuring that material in a way that generates headliner level laughter.

Well, we are at the part where you will begin “writing down” what you want to deliver to an audience about any particular topic.

Specifically, I’m talking about developing bulk stand-up comedy material.

But before I continue, here’s what you need to know:

1. You will ALWAYS want to write down or transcribe what it is you want to say about any topic the way you would actually say it — not the way you are trained to “write” for others to read.

2. Words, sentences and lines on paper will NEVER fully represent your expression of those words, sentences and lines.

What you write down or transcribe is merely a road map for what you are going to say to an audience.

You cannot see words as they leave your mouth. But you can see them as they are written down on paper.

3. As I mentioned before, there are multiple reasons why you want your stand-up comedy material written down or transcribed:

• To professionally structure your stand-up comedy material to reflect your actual spoken word line length
• To ensure that your set-up information is not too lengthy before you get to a punchline
• To ensure that you have 4-6+ punchlines in every minute of your stand-up comedy material
• To provide you with a basic “script” based on the way you actually talk that you can easily edit and adjust as needed
• To provide you with a professional rehearsal tool
• To provide you with a very valuable performance improvement tool when you begin evaluating your performances using Comedy Evaluator Pro

Please notice that “writing down” what you want to say and express to an audience has NOTHING to do with trying to manufacture, fabricate or “write jokes” from a blank piece of paper.

I’m telling you this now because:

If you were able to thoroughly embrace and apply the information in the lesson on identifying topics along with the information provided in this lesson…

One last thing…

Before you begin the process of “fleshing out” your comedy topics into bulk stand-up comedy material, please review this special report:

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Saying Your Material Out Loud

Notice that I’ve used the phrases “tell a friend” and “perform for a friend.” I haven’t said anything about writing.

A very important part of “starting at the end” is saying your material out loud during the development process just like you would to a friend or a group of friends.

How you will actually say and express what you want to share with an audience is much more important than how it looks on paper.

When you go to a show to perform, you will not be handing out brochures with your act written on them; you will be performing your act out loud in front of a live audience.

And the ideal situation when you perform in front of that audience is for your material to sound the way you would normally talk to a group of friends.

The best way to get your material to sound the way you would say it is to say it out loud the way you would normally talk, over and over again — from the very beginning of the material development process all the way to the very end.

It’s about creating, working out, and improving your material naturally ahead of time, rather than waiting until the performance to find out if it sounds right or not.

If you get into the habit of doing this during the initial development of your material — before you ever hit the stage — your act will progress much more quickly to the level you want it.

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Working With Talking Points And Reactions

You should have a single topic from your topic list that you will want use to create your initial bulk stand-up comedy material.

And you will ultimately want to transcribe what you want to say, the way you speak naturally because you will need a road map — because you can’t see words coming out of your mouth.

But instead of thinking in terms of set-up lines, punchlines and tag lines as you are transcribing what you want to say to an audience…

Think in terms of “talking points” and your sense of humor “reactions” to those talking points as you express what you want to say about your chosen topic out loud, the way you naturally express yourself when you speak.

Hint: This is exactly what happens in casual conversations when your sense of humor is engaged — a talking point is presented then sense of humor reactions to that talking point follow.

On paper or using a word processor, it would look something like this:

[Talking Point]
[Talking Point]
[Sense of Humor Reaction]
[Talking Point]
[Sense of Humor Reaction]
[Sense of Humor Reaction]
[Talking Point]
[Sense of Humor Reaction]

Let’s take a look at the very first part of Brian Regan’s comedy material about buying a refrigerator in terms of talking points and reactions as it looks on paper:

Talking points are shaded light green; Reactions are shaded yellow.

We needed a refrigerator for our new place and
I’ve never bought a refrigerator in my whole life.
I went into the appliance store
There’s 900 of them lined up.
There’s a salesman there.
What’s this guy supposed to say about refrigerators?
Well you have this refrigerator right here.
This keeps all your food cold for 600.
You’ve got this refrigerator.
This keeps all your food cold for 800.
Check this out – 1400 – Keeps all your food cold.

Note: There are more talking points at the beginning of this bit (often referred to as the initial set-up).

However, once the initial topic foundation is set up, fewer talking points are needed to get to the rest of the reactions with this bit.

Let’s assume that you have selected a few things that you want to talk about on stage with an audience, such as:

• The accident I had driving to work
• The differences between me and my spouse or significant other
• Different crappy jobs I’ve had
• Why I can’t stand my in-laws
• Why my brother or sister is cooler or more hip than me
• Experiences I have had on vacation
• How I would react to things if I was a certain animal or insect
• The incredible TV commercial I just saw
• Stupid people I have to deal with on a daily basis

I can’t choose your comedy topics for you — they should be personal to you and trigger the emotional and mental states associated with those topics.

Your unique point of view, perspectives, sense of humor and expressive traits are what will make your comedy material unique to you, not the topic itself because comedians tend to talk about the same things that most people can recognize and relate to.

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Your Turn

Here are two techniques that you can use to generate bulk stand-up comedy material:

Technique #1: Communicating With A Friend by Email

I want you to pretend you’re telling a friend all about one of the topics you selected to develop into stand-up comedy material in an email.

If it helps you, start by jotting down some things about your topic that you want to talk about (talking points). You may find this easier than just starting your email to your friend out of the blue.

You don’t have to start the email with “Dear John” or begin it with the usual introductory chitchat.

But it is very important that you visualize writing this email to someone you trust and can tell anything to. Someone you can be honest and open with.

This is not a cover letter for a resume. As you are transcribing what it is you want to express about a topic, I want you to:

• Use complete sentences, but don’t worry about proper grammar or spelling.
• Use standard punctuation.
• Be as detailed as you possibly can. The important point here is to identify as many things to say about this topic as possible (talking points that you can react to) in relation to how you feel about that topic.

While the order in which you talk or write about the topic is not critical right now, just organize your thoughts just like you would do in a real email.

Don’t use any profanity. (It can be added later if necessary.)

Again, I wouldn’t be concerned about it being unnaturally funny or witty on purpose.

Just be honest about what you are transcribing and let your natural sense of humor take over by itself as you are writing the email or dictating into an audio recorder (ie: your smart phone).

Technique #2: Talking To A Friend

Another approach to producing bulk comedy material quickly is that you can pretend that you are simply talking to a friend about the topic you’ve chosen.

You can either pretend to be talking on the phone (in which case you would just talk into your phone with a recording app activated) or just verbalize your thoughts out loud and then capture them as you go in a written form, either on paper or using a word processor.

Use whichever method you feel most comfortable with. Again, the most important aspects of this part of the process are:

• You are communicating in a way that is natural with regard to how you actually TALK and…
• You are producing a visual version version of this talking (a written version) that you can use for formatting, editing, deleting or any other adjustments that you may want to make with your initial comedy material.

Make sure you thoroughly describe your thoughts, views, opinions, and feelings specifically on the topic you selected (this applies to either technique that you use).

Just say whatever comes into your mind, and don’t worry about being funny in a forced or unnatural way — your sense of humor should come out automatically.

Later on, I will show you how to tighten and focus your material specifically for the stage.

In either exercise, don’t hold back. Say what you want to say.

If you used pen and paper or your audio recorder — transfer your material to a word processor.

That way, you can save the document for later use because I’m going to show you how to structure your stand-up comedy material for maximum laughter impact as this course progresses.

Once you have completed one of these exercises, you will have the initial “bulk” stand-up comedy material you need to hone and polish into tight stand-up comedy material.

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