So far, diving into stand-up has been great. I've been putting in lots of sets, and writing steady. I've actually had a couple of friends ask me recently about how the jokes come out. It's not always the same way every time, and I have no idea how professionals do it, but I CAN tell you how the joke I wrote yesterday came along. I can't promise it's good, or even close to being finished, but it's fresh, and I want to talk about it. Here we go.
DISCLAIMER
I am a huge comedy nerd, and if you aren't, this may suck for you. Sorry.
I was at work yesterday (electronics retail sales), and in a slow moment, I looked around and realized that most of what I sell is pretty frivolous. Which led me to think about the process of selling stuff to people that they may think they need, but probably don't. So that got me to the PREMISE.
The next step is the SETUP. An effective setup should, well, set the table for where you're about to take the crowd. (Or about to completely subvert that expectation, but that's not what I'm going for here).
"I like my job, but it's weird selling people stuff they don't need."
This is a pretty traditional type of joke, so I'm heading straight to the PUNCHLINE. For this punchline, I tried to make an analogy that related what talking semi-useful tech stuff to customers is like.
"Selling iPads to old people makes me feel like a missionary in the Amazon trying to sell Jesus to a pygmy."
Now, this punch isn't that strong. It's OK, but the comparison I'm trying to make may not be that clear yet. It needs something at the end to drive it home. This is usually called a TAG. In this case, I'm going to use a type of tag that's really popular, but one I don't tend to use, called an ACT OUT. I'm pretending that I'm either at my job, or the missionary using the same sales pitch.
"I know. You've been getting by just fine your whole life without this, but I really think this is going to give your life some meaning. Besides, your friends and family already have it, and you don't want to feel left out do you?"
That's a joke! I have no idea if it's going to work, because I haven't told it yet. But it was fun trying to wrestle that general idea into something that's hopefully funny. To get 30 plus minutes of solid material, (which is my current goal) I'm going to have to write 3 to 4 times that much and whittle it all down to something tight, consistent and hilarious. This joke may end up in that set as is, or change completely on it's way in, or be told a couple of times and dropped. I have no idea what will happen yet, but I'm excited to find out, and to keep pumping out 1000 more of these.
Thanks for still being awake and reading this. I appreciate you for digging the craft of this enough to check this out.
Cheers,
B
