The Rehearsal Secret Every Comedian Should Know

Introduction

Right now, you have in your possession one of the most powerful rehearsal tools ever made available — it’s called a smartphone.

Virtually all smartphones have video recording capability and with the addition of a very inexpensive piece of equipment…

You can really squeeze the maximum benefit from your smartphone as a powerful rehearsal tool.

So in this lesson I am going cover:

• The advantages of using a smartphone tripod and the features it should have.
• How to use your phone and a smartphone tripod for enhanced rehearsal.
• Introduce you to an optional storage device you can use for any rehearsal videos you may want to keep

Recording a video after rehearsing your stand-up can be very advantageous because:

• It will show you the same delivery and expressive qualities that an audience will see and experience.
• It can reveal if you need to invest more time in rehearsal to improve your delivery qualities.
• It can expose delivery or presentation issues that need to be corrected or adjusted before you deliver you bit or routine to an audience.

One of the questions that I get regularly is this:

Should I rehearse my stand-up comedy in the mirror?

I don’t recommend it for reasons that are explained in this article on my blog:

[beautiful_link_preview url=”https://www.realfirststeps.com/16852/rehearse-stand-up-comedy-act-in-front-of-mirror/” target=”_blank”]

Video is a FAR SUPERIOR TOOL to use than a mirror as far as rehearsal goes and it can also be used for post performance reviews for improvement.

So let’s talk about the smartphone tripod first because it will be this equipment that will allow you to easily obtain a post rehearsal video to review for improvement or to determine if your rehearsal is satisfactory — again, before you ever take your material on stage.

The Advantages Of Using A Smartphone Tripod

A smartphone tripod can provide you two important features that you need to easily get a post rehearsal video to review:

• It provides an elevated place to mount and position your phone for taking a video while you are standing to deliver your stand-up material.
• It provides a means to remotely turn on and turn off the video camera on your phone, eliminating the need for another person in order to record a video.
• For the purposes of getting video recordings for post rehearsal joke evaluation, the type of smartphone tripod you need is very inexpensive.

You will find that a smartphone tripod with the features that you want will usually range from $15-$30 in price. Here is an example:

Note: I am not endorsing this particular item because I don’t personally own it. I am providing you with an example of what is available and inexpensive to turn your smart phone into a highly functional, independently operated video recording device using a Bluetooth remote that works within a 30 foot range.

Here are the features of this particular smart tripod:

• Adjustable from 16-55 inches. That means you can set it up on a table or on the floor.
• Only weighs about 1 lb. and is very portable.
• Highly adjustable phone positioning with locking.
• The most important feature: Remote video camera on/off switching via Bluetooth.

To do a search for yourself on Amazon, use a term like this: smartphone tripod with Bluetooth video remote.

Here are some important things that you need to know about smartphone tripods:

As an added bonus, a smartphone tripod could also be used to record personal photos and videos.

Now there is another inexpensive piece of equipment that you may want to consider using in your recorded rehearsal sessions…

Using A Microphone Or Substitute

One of the things that you should do is use a microphone or something that you can substitute for a microphone (ie: hair brush, wooden spoon, etc.) for your rehearsal sessions.

The reasons are very straightforward:

1. Sound consistency when using a mic. You want to make sure that you keep a performance microphone at a consistent distance from your mouth so that your voice is heard in a continuous and consistent manner throughout any performance.

So rehearsing with a mic or a mic substitute can make this an “automatic” type of situation for an actual performance, particularly when you are able review rehearsal video from your smart phone in order to make adjustments or corrections.

2. Body language adjustments. When we talk to people in everyday life, we typically use both hands when we talk as a part of our expressive nature.

But when you are holding a mic, that two handed expression turns into just a single hand and depending on what you are talking about…

Holding a mic can have a significant impact on the natural body body language that you will ultimately use depending on what you are talking about and how you are expressing what it is that you want to convey to an audience.

So it is absolutely advantageous to use a mic or a mic substitute when you are rehearsing.

Unlike me when I started, you have access to a great piece of technology known as the wireless karaoke microphone (#ad) like this one for around $10:

Here are the advantages of using a microphone like the one above for rehearsal:

• It has built in speakers so you can hear what you sound like over a “sound system” per se while you are rehearsing.
• You can conduct a better review of microphone usage and sound consistency when you review your rehearsal video.
• These sorts of mics are inexpensive ($10-$15).

Bottom line — use a mic or mic substitute when you rehearse if you want to be as prepared to succeed on stage as you can possibly be when performance time comes.

The Rehearsal Process That Includes Video Recording

Here’s the process you will want to use to quickly and easily get a rehearsal video recording of your stand-up material and delivery.

It is best to do this during the Phase 2 rehearsal process when your material has been completely worked out and you are preparing to deliver your stand-up routine to an audience.

1. Set up your phone on the smart tripod and make sure the remote works for video recording.

You will want to determine how far away to stand in front of your phone on the tripod in order to record your entire upper body when you switch on the phone video camera and start recording.

Also, you may need to set the display on your phone to stay on longer during this process if you have it set to sleep after a few minutes.

2. While standing in front of your phone at the proper distance to record your entire upper body, begin rehearsing you stand-up that you have prepared BEFORE you record any video.

You should have you stand-up material written or printed on paper. You should do this holding a mic or a mic substitute.

Start by reading your material out loud, gradually weening yourself away from reading the material as you get it completely memorized and presented naturally the way you normally speak and express yourself.

Make sure that when you do have your stand-up material memorized that you are looking at your phone when you rehearse the delivery of that material without the aid of the paper upon which it is written.

Again, you are not recording video at this point — you are merely getting comfortable delivering your material while looking at your tripod mounted phone.

3. When you are confident that you have your stand-up material completely memorized, turn on the phone video camera using the remote and deliver your stand-up material to the phone.

After you deliver your stand-up material, turn off the video camera using the remote and then review the video, looking specifically at aspects including, but not limited to:

• Delivery speed (talking to fast or too slow)
• Expressive traits — facial expressions, body language, voice tone inflections that should accompany the content of your stand-up material (natural, unnatural or otherwise need adjustment)
• Timing (natural breath pauses, pausing before key words in the punchline)
• Mic control and usage
• Your comfort level

By reviewing this video, you are examining what your audience will experience. Subsequently…

If you spot issues that you need to adjust, just rehearse your stand-up material several more times and rerecord your delivery of your stand-up material as needed.

Now you may want to keep the final recorded versions of your rehearsed stand-up material to use as valuable memory tools…

The Value Of These Video Recordings

Once you are satisfied with the delivery of your stand-up material, you may just want to hang onto them for review later for these reasons:

1. There is considerable time between gigs when you will use any specific material or…

2. You have a large amount of stand-up material that you have accumulated and that you rotate for use. This too can add time between using any particular bits in your stand-up routine.

In other words, your video recordings of your stand-up can also be used as great memory tools to not only help you remember your act, but to also refresh your memory on how you delivered that material most effectively.

However, videos can take up valuable space on your phone. So if you want to keep your joke video recordings as memory tools that you can access on demand…

I would also recommend that you consider investing in a 3-in-1 or 4-in-1 USB drive for your phone to store your videos.

Here’s a 3-in-1 example of what I am talking about (Android phones ONLY):

When it comes to iPhones, a similar device that has the lighting phone connection and the USB connection is quite a bit more expensive:

Note: I’m not endorsing these particular products but I have something similar to the android one shown above (the model I have was discontinued) and it works like a champ.

It allows me to take videos on my phone and easily move (and/or play) them on my laptop. Videos can take up a lot of space on any device. This type of storage device eliminates that issue.

You just need to make sure that whatever storage device you choose will properly connect to your phone as well as your larger computing devices.

Wrap Up

You will be hard pressed to find a better way than that described in this special report to make sure that your stand-up material that you deliver to audiences is the best that it can be.

Not only that, but I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that relatively few comedians would every use their smartphone to nail down their stand-up delivery which can put you at a huge advantage.

And this approach is FAR superior to trying to rehearse in front of a mirror.

Keep this in mind:

You CANNOT effectively or objectively evaluate how well you did when delivering your stand-up material to an audience WHILE YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE.

With a video recording, you can easily pinpoint specific areas in your stand-up that need adjustments before you deliver them to anyone.

I should also mention that this sort of smartphone recording set up can also be used for other performance review activities, both before and after you deliver a your routine to a live audience.

If you truly want success when it comes to delivering stand-up material that generates big audience laughs as a result, you need to prepare for that success.

And now that virtually everyone has a smart phone with a video camera built in — well, there’s really no excuses for not properly preparing yourself to get the results that you want.