Introduction

Stand-up comedy is a very unique performing art in that it is designed to generate multiple audience reactions (laughter) on a minute-by-minute basis.

As I mentioned before, there are two primary activities that occur when a comedian is on stage:

• The comedian is delivering their stand-up comedy material or…
• The audience is responding (or not responding) with laughter

Each of these activities are objectively measurable and can be used to establish performance benchmarks as a comedian is honing their stand-up comedy material and sharpening their skills as a live entertainer.

Performance benchmarking is very easy to understand provided you are fully aware that…

It doesn’t matter whether you measure your overall laughter generation results using smartphone apps or using Comedy Evaluator Pro:

Let me put it this way:

Let’s say that you record a 3 minute stand-up comedy performance.

That means that in order to produce headliner laughter levels, you will need to generate a minimum of 54 seconds of total audience laughter (3 x 18) during that 3 minute performance.

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Understanding Performance Benchmarking

In stand-up comedy, performance benchmarking represents a comedian’s overall laughter generation results for any given performance.

Let me use a sports analogy to help you fully understand performance benchmarking.

Among track and field events, there is a race called the 440 relay. Teams comprised of four individuals run 110 yards, each passing a baton to the next runner in the race — competing with other teams for the fastest time to win the race.

While some runners on a team may run slower and some may run faster, the end goal remains the same which is to produce the overall fastest time possible.

Stand-up works in a similar fashion in that some minutes of stand-up comedy act may produce more seconds of laughter than others.

But the end goal is always the same, which is to generate a minimum average of 18 seconds of laughter per minute for each show that you perform.

Now, let’s talk about how this specifically applies to you.

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Establishing A Performance Benchmark

I have already mentioned that you need to be recording every performance that you do, especially in the beginning of your stand-up comedy adventures.

Let’s say that you do a 4 minute performance and you manage to generate 40 seconds of laughter during that performance — an average of 10 seconds of laughter per minute.

That means that you have established a baseline performance benchmark for yourself upon which you can now use to tighten and improve your stand-up comedy material before your next performance because…

In order to produce headliner laughter levels in a 4 minute stand-up comedy set, you will need work towards generating a minimum of 72 seconds of total laughter during that 4 minute performance.

Note: Minute-by-minute performance evaluation details are provided in the next lesson.

Now here’s something you need to be acutely aware of…

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Beware Of What Other Comedians Will Tell You

There are a number of comedians that you will run into who absolutely despise the fact-based concept that stand-up comedy performances can be “ranked” based on measuring laughter generation, for a number of reasons:

• Many comedians simply cannot generate a minimum average of 18 seconds of laughter per minute for their performances, even though they may have been performing for years.
• Some comedians will tell you that stand-up is “subjective” and that there is no way to “measure” a comedian’s performance on stage. As a general rule, this is merely a means to justify less than optimal performances.
• A good number of comedians have struggled for years and want others to do the same.

In other words, they don’t want any other comedian to have any sort of “advantage” when it comes to developing and delivering a powerful stand-up comedy act.

Subsequently, they may discourage you from measuring the laughter levels you get when you perform, especially if they think it may help you improve more quickly. So here’s the solution to that issue:

You need not share with anyone that you are conducting objective performance reviews of your stand-up comedy material. You can do that privately and no one will know unless you tell them.

All I can tell you is this:

It’s not a very intelligent position to take to deny that audience laughter can be objectively measured — it’s like saying water is not wet and rocks are not hard.

Headliner laughter levels have been demonstrated by countless numbers of comedian for decades.

I didn’t set those levels.

I exceeded those levels when I was actively performing and figured out how to measure and quantify what headliner laughter levels are.

But here’s what is really important to know:

Unfortunately, many comedians are in denial about the level they can actually perform at and have unrealistic expectations about their potential for progress as a comedian.

In my opinion that’s their problem — not yours.

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Wrap Up

Performance benchmarking is an easy way to identify your overall performance level for any given show, letting you know exactly how close you are to the goal line.

If you hit an average of 10 seconds of laughter per minute, you need to shoot for 15 seconds of laughter in the next performance.

If you hit an average of 15 seconds of laughter per minute, you need to shoot for 18+ seconds of laughter per minute in the next performance.

Here is another report that you will want to review before heading to the last lesson in this training module.

While this report focuses on using Comedy Evaluator Pro for your performance evaluations (which you have 1 year of free access to upon request), you can apply the information to using your already installed smartphone apps as well:

[beautiful_link_preview url=”https://www.comedyevaluatorpro.com/1174/how-comedy-evaluator-pro-can-give-comedians-a-significant-edge/” target=”_blank”]

Now let’s talk about specifically what you need to look at when it comes to performance improvement.

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