Secrets For Tightening Your Stand-up Comedy Material
Training Module Five: Intro And Lesson Links | Members Area
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Introduction
At the very beginning of this course I made it clear that I would show you how to develop headliner level stand-up comedy material.
The information provided in this lesson will show you exactly how to tighten your stand-up comedy material to do just that — up to the point of taking your stand-up comedy material into the professional rehearsal phase of this course.
I should also mention that:
You DO NOT have to hold the “title” of headliner comedian in order to develop and deliver headliner level stand-up comedy material and stand head and shoulders above the competition.
Generating headliner laughter levels is NOT a function of any sort of title. It is a function of the audience laughter that you can generate — no matter how much time you are afforded to perform.
So, I want to start with a review of the laughter levels generated by headliner level stand-up comedy material and then…
Expose you to an advanced structuring guideline that will help you structure your stand-up comedy material as tightly as possible — right from the very beginning, before you hit the stand-up comedy stage.
Part 2
Objective Attributes Of Headliner Level Stand-up Comedy Material
As you have probably read before, there are only two primary events that occur when a comedian is on stage:
1. The comedian is delivering and expressing their comedy material or…
2. The audience is responding with laughter, cheering and/or applause (or not)
If a comedian is talking, the audience is not laughing.
If a comedian talks too long without generating a laugh, they are bombing.
Here are the basic objective attributes of headliner level stand-up comedy material:
Headliner level stand-up comedy material generates 4-6+ laughs per minute, which results in…
A minimum average of 18 seconds of laughter per minute (PAR Score 30).
Related Special Report: What Does It Really Mean To “Kill” On Stage?
While at first glance this may seem like a monumental task…
Don’t be fooled.
If you have developed your stand-up comedy as described in this course, you simply need to make sure your stand-up comedy material is structured in a way that allows you generate 4-6+ laughs (punchlines) per minute.
The structuring guideline that will help you do this is called the 3 Line Rule.
Part 3
Understanding The 3 Line Rule
First let me say this:
The 3 Line Rule is NOT a hard and fast rule per se — it’s more of a valuable guideline to keep you on track to generate 4-6+ laughs per minute with your stand-up comedy material and generate a minimum average of 18 seconds of laughter per minute.
The 3 Line Rule works like this:
You should have a punchline (reaction) to the comedy material you are delivering approximately every 3 lines or less whenever possible in your stand-up comedy material.
When I say lines, I am referring specifically to spoken word lines, NOT sentences from the beginning to the ending punctuation as described in a previous lesson.
There are exceptions to this rule, the main one being that when starting a brand new comedy bit, chunk or topic, it can take a few more lines than 3 in order to establish the foundational information you are delivering and expressing to an audience about any particular or topic or subject in order to react frequently to the remaining material in the bit (deliver punchlines).
The best way to demonstrate the 3 Line Rule is using the transcribed comedy material of Brian Regan’s “buying a refrigerator” routine:
https://youtu.be/dUh1eGf57DY
Now, let’s take a look at that stand-up comedy chunk as it is transcribed to see the 3 Line Rule in action, as well as an overall analysis of this bit…
Evaluating A Bit For Headliner Level Laughter Frequency
Below is Brian Regan’s stand-up comedy bit on buying a refrigerator transcribed word for word as he delivered it in the video.
Set-up Lines are identified with an S:
Punchlines are identified with a P:
Tag Lines (punchlines following another in succession) are identified with a T:
Comedy Evaluator Pro was used to determine the objective, minute-by-minute laughter generation analysis.
My comments are provided at the end of each minute of this transcribed bit.
Minute 1
S: We needed a refrigerator for our new place and
S: I’ve never bought a refrigerator in my whole life.
S: I went into the appliance store
S: There’s 900 of them lined up.
S: There’s a salesman there.
S: What’s this guy supposed to say about refrigerators?
S: Well you have this refrigerator right here.
P: This keeps all your food cold for 600.
S: You’ve got this refrigerator.
P: This keeps all your food cold for 800.
T: Check this out – 1400 – Keeps all your food cold.
S: So this guy’s working me on this one.
S: I’ve never seen a guy work so hard.
S: This one is a very nice refrigerator.
P: It has a meats drawer.
S: And uh, what you do with that
P: You would put meats
Minute 1 Objective Analysis
119 words | 17 Total Lines | 5 Punchlines | Seconds of Laughter Generated: 22
My Notes:
1. Since this is obviously the beginning of a new comedy bit during an extended performance, you will notice that it takes 7 lines to get to the first punchline.
2. You will notice that even with the additional lines needed in the beginning of the bit, Regan still managed to generate 22 seconds of laughter during the first minute of this bit (as measured by Comedy Evaluator Pro).
Minute 2
T: Whatever varieties that you would choose
T: These would be your meats
S: So there’s no requirement on the types of meats you could pick…
P: Bacon…
T: Marbled meats…
T: There’s an endless selection, endless.
S: And this one also has a crisper
P: For crispy things
T: Potato chips
Minute 2 Objective Analysis
43 words | 9 Total Lines | 7 Punchlines | Seconds of Laughter Generated: 35
My Notes:
1. There were more laughs recorded using Comedy Evaluator Pro (11) than there are punchlines identified in this minute as transcribed (7).
There are two reasons for this:
a. There are substantial laughs that are generated by set-up lines. That’s because of the delivery and expressions associated with those set-up lines as well as great timing.
b. There are substantial laughs generated without spoken words being used. Again, this is because of the expressions associated with the material and pausing to allow the audience to laugh.
This is a PERFECT example of how stand-up material transcribed on paper does not necessarily represent its true laughter impact when expertly delivered to a live audience.
2. You should also notice that most of the lines in this minute are Regan’s reactions as he expresses his impression of the salesman at work explaining the features of the refrigerator.
Most of the set-up needed for this bit occurred in the very beginning.
Once the audience knew what Regan was talking about (buying a refrigerator for a new home), the remaining set-ups for the rest of the bit were only 1-3 lines.
Last 30 Seconds
S: Look in the door when the door is open.
S: This has an egg area.
S: And that’s a very nice thing.
P: It’s an area for eggs.
S: You put them all in the egg area.
S: You come home and go where are the eggs?
P: Right in the egg area.
T: And they’re all written in cursive and that’s a real nice feature.
T: It is. That is a nice touch.
Last 30 Seconds Objective Analysis
66 words | 9 Total Lines | 4 Punchlines | Seconds of Laughter Generated: 14
My Notes:
While the last part of this bit was only about 30 seconds long, you will notice that almost half the time was filled with audience laughter.
Again, you will note that after the beginning of this bit (7 set-up lines), it only took 3 lines or less to get to the remaining reactions (punchlines) in the remainder of the routine.
Part 4
Tying It All Together
While the analysis of Brian Regan’s stand-up bit on buying a refrigerator may seem a bit analytical, make no mistake:
There are only 60 seconds in a minute. During each minute a comedian is on stage, there are two primary events that occupy that time…
The comedian is delivering and expressing their stand-up comedy material or the audience is responding to that material with laughter, cheering or applause.
If you want to generate headliner level laughter levels, you must deliver an average of 4-6+ punchlines per minute AND generate a minimum average of 18 seconds of laughter for each performing minute.
Otherwise, you don’t have a highly marketable comedy entertainment product to offer potential buyers of your stand-up comedy. End of story.
Here are some important things you should know at this juncture:
1. Once again, stand-up comedy material that generates headliner level laughter levels is NOT “written” literally from a blank sheet of paper, contrary to popular belief.
You transcribe your act on paper (or using a word processor) in order to structure what you want to say and express to an audience AFTER you have determined what you want to talk about and react to using your own sense of humor when standing before an audience.
Otherwise, you end up using too many unnecessary words in a format designed to be “read” in one dimension instead of being expressed in three dimensions (which requires far, far less words).
2. You use the 3 Line Rule as a guideline to ensure that you are delivering 4-6+ punchlines per minute.
But if you don’t understand how to accurately determine line length on paper in relation to how you are going to actually say and express your stand-up comedy material to an audience, then the 3 Line Rule is of limited value.
3. As demonstrated in the analysis of Brian Regan’s stand-up comedy material, your comedy material as it is transcribed on paper (or using a word processor) is not necessarily representative of the laughter impact of your comedy material, especially if your timing and pausing for laughter is on the money and/or you are generating laughs with non-verbal communication (body language, facial expressions, etc.).
4. The number of laughs you generate in any given minute of your stand-up act does not matter.
But until you are generating a minimum average of 18 seconds of laughter for each performing minute, you are NOT generating headliner laughter levels.
Note: I will cover using Comedy Evaluator Pro more extensively in the Training Module on performance improvement.
5. You DO NOT have to be animated like Brian Regan in order to generate headliner level laughter levels.
“Style” or type of delivery is not the issue — delivering stand-up comedy material that is relative to your “style” and personality in a genuine and is funny to audiences DOES matter.
Wrap Up
Your Turn
You are more than welcome to do the type of analysis that I did in this lesson for ANY established or popular headlining comedian — whether you like and relate to their stand-up comedy material or not.
But I can tell you now that the results that you get will be similar in virtually every case.
What I do want you to do as you are structuring your stand-up comedy material on paper or using a word processor is to:
Identify your set-up lines with and S:
Identify your punchlines with a P:
Identify your tag lines (punchlines that follow another) with a T:
Use the 3 Line Rule to edit and tighten your comedy material as you are actually going to say and express it on stage because…
- You can’t see words unless they are written down. You can’t see lines unless they are written down.
- You can’t determine line length unless your comedy material is transcribed the way you are actually going to say it.
- You can’t determine punchline frequency unless your material is written down (structured properly of course).
- You can’t see if you are using too many lines before a punchline unless your stand-up comedy is written down.
- And you can’t align your comedy material with the actual laughter results you get on stage using Comedy Evaluator Pro for performance benchmarking and improvement unless your stand-up comedy is written down.
You do want to deliver headliner level stand-up comedy material quickly and effectively, don’t you?
If, so — you now want to take your tightly structured stand-up comedy material through the professional rehearsal phase…