My Stand Up

Started by SiliasRuby, September 11, 2009, 04:22:49 AM

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SiliasRuby

Quote from: Pas Rap on September 11, 2009, 11:53:31 PM
You can drink outrageous amounts of vodka but don't blame it on me! I wasn't even mean or negative!!! It's just not stand up!
I won't blame it on you and I didn't mean to. I sincerely apologize
The Beatles know Jesus Christ has returned to Earth and is in Los Angeles.

When you are getting fucked by the big corporations remember to use a condom.

There was a FISH in the perkalater!!!

My Collection

cine

Quote from: SiliasRuby on September 11, 2009, 10:26:40 PM
I am a masochist. I've always been a masochist so therefore I've been re-reading Pas' and Cinephile's criticism today after work while drinking heavy amounts of vodka and cursing myself. I wasn't really expecting anything different since I grew up being told by my parents and believing I was either a complete shit head with no talent who would never get anywhere in the world or I was great and significantly talented but you would again never make it anywhere in a city like Los Angeles. It was one extreme or the other. There was no middle ground. But on the other hand I showed them by getting a decent albeit worthless job that goes nowhere but pays well and a agent who believes in me. After all I do write 4 hours minimum every day. No matter what.

Sorry, I had a really tough week. I was mugged and beat up monday night after leaving a bar in burbank. Luckily I carry no cash on me and the guy threw my wallet at my chest. He proceeded to beat me and berate me before running off when he noticed some others coming around the corner leaving me in a burbank parking lot. I tweeted what happened to me that night, drove home and no one asked what was wrong. I proceeded home, put in 'newsradio' and had a white russian before trying to go to sleep. I'm not really looking for sympathy. Well, scratch that, maybe I am but I would prefer a high class prostitute. Any fellow Angelinos know of any?



this is the kinda stuff that should be in your standup act. Pas was right for the most part except when he said audiences don't care to learn about a character. they absolutely wanna learn about a character. that's how your standup succeeds. they TRUST in your character and they go along for the ride.. and hopefully you can make them laugh along the way.

you're beating yourself up and obviously you need therapy because anyone with common sense knows that standup is not easy. the fact that we're panning shit you practically improvised in your basement shouldn't be a shocker. you should take a standup comedy class and learn the steps to doing it and then practice. then come back and show something that more than likely we'll find pretty decent.

for more, see: Ravi.

Ravi

You need to go to open mics.  Videotaping yourself in your bedroom doesn't help because you need to see how you perform on stage and the audience's reactions.  You do your set one way in your bedroom, but maybe you get nervous and go really fast on stage.  You don't know anything about your material until an audience hears it.

Quote from: Cinephile on September 12, 2009, 04:08:32 PM
you're beating yourself up and obviously you need therapy because anyone with common sense knows that standup is not easy. the fact that we're panning shit you practically improvised in your basement shouldn't be a shocker. you should take a standup comedy class and learn the steps to doing it and then practice. then come back and show something that more than likely we'll find pretty decent.

I wrote for about six months before going on-stage and even then I stunk for a while.  My delivery was bad, my material was bad.

Avoid the rants, unless you've tried to make them funny.  Nobody wants to hear someone just complaining.

Classes and books can help.  Use the advice without seeming like you've just followed some rule that a comedy book or class taught you.  Some local comics I know who have taken classes have been greatly helped, and others are obviously sticking closely to what they've read or been taught.  Then there are other comics who are hilarious and never took a class.  A class can't teach you to be funny, but it can help with joke structure, performance, mental exercises, etc., and they force you to write.  If you have to come up with five new jokes or whatever for the next class, you'll sit down and write for sure.  Frankly, most people I know who have taken a class are still not very good after its over, but maybe you'll be one of those who benefits from having taken one.

Take the advice with a grain of salt.  I looked through a few comedy books (a few by Judy Carter among them) when I was starting out, and while some of the advice is good, some of it is formulaic and overused.  Follow your comedic instincts and don't worry about whether or not you're following a rule.

Every time you perform on-stage, you get immediate feedback, good or bad.  Are you going to drink yourself silly after every open mic?  Learn your lessons and do better next time.  Expect to suck in the beginning.

It takes time to find your voice.  I've been doing stand-up for three years, which is practically nothing.  I've tried various kinds of jokes and different comedic points-of-view.  I have a general style, but its not set in stone.  Though I don't do much personal material, some of the stuff I've written recently has been personal or has come from something I've experienced.

If a joke bombs, don't ditch or change it immediately.  I test my jokes out on three or four different audiences before I decide whether or not to keep it.

Stefen

Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

SiliasRuby

Thanks guys...I appreciate the feedback
The Beatles know Jesus Christ has returned to Earth and is in Los Angeles.

When you are getting fucked by the big corporations remember to use a condom.

There was a FISH in the perkalater!!!

My Collection

Pas

I agree that of course having a good ''character'' is essential to stand up, it will create a special connection from the audience to the comic. but what I meant is that first and foremost it has to be funny. Nowadays I find a lot of comics (french ones, don't know about english speaking ones) are more and more into character and being social and less and less about being funny.

the stand up scene is huge in Montreal and people have to go to the École Nationale de l'Humour (National Humour School) if they wanna get any gig in the smallest bar. Having seen a lot of these people perform, I find often the funniest do ZERO rant. they can be critical about stuff be are never ranting. On the contrary, ranters and complainers, even when they make clever and witty observations, are often only listening to themselves talk while everyone is bored.

MacGuffin

Quote from: ono on September 11, 2009, 11:58:37 PMAnd Mac, I lolzed.  I kicked myself after, but I lolzed.

And there in lies my comedy stylings.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

RegularKarate

Ravi (who I've seen perform and know to be funny) covered most of what I was going to say... though I'll just say that I think Stand-up classes are almost completely worthless.

Being personal and having an opinion is important, but like it's been said, your rants don't have much focus.

You said you found some of it funny while you were writing it... well, take the funny parts and slow it down.  Explore what you think is funny.  Is it the way the words sound together?  Is it the idea behind it?  If that's funny, what other funny things could be brought out of that?  SLOW IT DOWN!  You're not there to sell your opinions, you're trying to sell your point of view.

Also, a lot of first-timers make the mistake of thinking their favorite comics like Hicks and Carlin (also, if those are your two favorite comics... take a few deep breaths, sit down and listen to something less angry) just rant.  No... those "rants" are well delivered lists of jokes. 

Get on stage.  Accept that you're going to bomb the first time (most of us did) and get that first one or two performances out of the way and forget them (unless you kill, then figure out why you did and accept it won't always be like that) then start to pay real attention.

I didn't watch all of your video (I'm at work), but I watched enough to tell that you've got stuff to get out... it just needs to be packaged better.

03

so just to clarify
you're retarded or something?
i mean in the technical sense, not the insult, although i guess they kind of blur whenever you're as embarassing and laughable as you are?
(sorry for the bump guys, but i think the gimp hand deserves it!)
(yeah!)

hedwig

03... you are disgusting. seriously.

Neil

I haven't even watched these clips, and i feel terrible. Tweet it out Silias. Tweet it out.

it's not the wrench, it's the plumber.

SiliasRuby

Quote from: 03 on October 06, 2009, 12:36:55 AM
so just to clarify
you're retarded or something?
i mean in the technical sense, not the insult, although i guess they kind of blur whenever you're as embarrassing and laughable as you are?
(sorry for the bump guys, but i think the gimp hand deserves it!)
(yeah!)
Jesus christ. No I'm not retarded and I resent the implication. That's pretty fucked up to say and I hate that word. I have cerebral palsy on my right side of my body and other than that and my supposedly un-funniness and insecurity, I'm as normal as the rest of you eccentric douche bags.

The insults thrown at me by P, 03, and others on here are the main reason why I don't have any faith in others especially faith in other movie geeks. Having been let down by people in real life and have had bad luck most of my life, I expect this kind of shit...so it shouldn't really get me pissed or emotional in any way, but fuck man, what in hell did I ever do to you, except slight annoyances of posts that go no where. Everyone on this board is guilty of that in one way or another so I don't understand why I get the brunt of this shit. Possibly I'm an easy target. Yeah, lets rag on the happy sugar filled weirdo. Real fucking intelligent.

Well, go ahead, don't stop your hate now. Keep it coming.

Regardless of what you think of me on here I'm at peace at who I am as a human being as sad as I get every once in a while. I'm grateful for the friends I have who care for me and actually encourage me to write and work on my writing and my voice over work. I'm on here to do one thing and one thing only now, to talk enthusiastically and intelligently about film, throwing a joke here or there once in a blue moon.

Like I have said before, I'm going to get crucified here no matter what I say on here so I might as well be honest.
The Beatles know Jesus Christ has returned to Earth and is in Los Angeles.

When you are getting fucked by the big corporations remember to use a condom.

There was a FISH in the perkalater!!!

My Collection

Neil

Cue: 'Sweet Home Alabama'

Turn it up 03.
it's not the wrench, it's the plumber.

Stefen

Quote from: SiliasRuby on October 06, 2009, 03:01:34 PM
Regardless of what you think of me on here I'm at peace at who I am as a human being as sad as I get every once in a while. I'm grateful for the friends I have who care for me and actually encourage me to write and work on my writing and my voice over work. I'm on here to do one thing and one thing only now, to talk enthusiastically and intelligently about film, throwing a joke here or there once in a blue moon.

:yabbse-thumbup:
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

RegularKarate

Silias, don't throw the rest of us under the bus for this fuckin nut-job's drunken rant.  I don't know if you noticed, but he set out to offend as many people as he possibly could last night.  He just happened to be the most disgusting in your thread.

Now is not the time to get onto you since this guy was a total shit-bag to you just now, but you do tend to take the negative (big or small) and assume that everyone else around represents that as well.  You admit you're insecure, but this is a big source of that insecurity, I'm sure.  Look into it.  I know you're a good guy in there.