r/Standup

Hello, I’m a brand new aspiring joke writer and hopefully one day a stand-up performer. I’m currently working through a few comedy books (I read The Serious Guide to Joke Writing by Sally Holloway and I’m currently reading The New Comedy Bible by Judy Carter).

My main hurdle right now: when I write material, I end up with a collection of individual puns or short jokes. How do you actually tie isolated jokes together into a coherent 3–5 minute stand-up set?

I'm mostly trying to learn the workflow/process. Right now, I'm thinking about coming up with individual jokes first and then wrapping them inside a larger narrative/story. Is that a good approach, or how do you usually build your sets?

Thanks in advance!

so i recently went to support my friend to do stand up, when I walked in a few seconds late, and sat down. he decided to point at me and say I like to poop on people?

it was very left field and the joke did not make sense. he then followed up with- you just don’t get my sarcasm??

so I asked him- where is this joke coming from?

”oh my ex girlfriend was into that,” well then wouldn’t the joke be- my ex girlfriend is into pooping on people?

not pointing at a random person and attacking them. If i told him in private that I did that, or if we went on a date- I would be more understanding, but I was confused by the entire thing.

am I in the wrong for not getting the bit ? he said I heckled him? which I definitely did not lol, I did a 14 hr work day- I didn’t have energy to heckle or attack . he couldn’t even say what I said? cause he lied about that too.

if we were comedian buddies that went way back, maybe i would laugh ? I just felt confused, cause I literally left my friends to watch him do stand up and support. I was even going to pay the venue until I had that bad experience and just exited.

am I in the wrong? I understand pointing people out and making fun of them, but atleast make it a legit joke- like my hairline jokes are funnier than this. am I taking this wrong ?

I have not been stand-up long at all, only been to a handful of open mics. Last night was my 10th mic, and surprisingly, there was actually a bit of an audience; it's usually just comics. During my set, I was kind of bombing to be fair, and I got a heckle after one of my punchlines, at first it threw me off and I didn't know what to do so I kinda stood there for a minute and then leaned into it, riffed with them for a bit and got the biggest laugh of my set.

Going into standup, this was always my fear, just to get heckled relentlessly, but I was thinking about it on the way home, and I'm actually pumped it happened. There was a post on here recently about what milestones you celebrate as a comedian, and honestly, this was one of them for me. I know that heckling is bound to happen; I think experiencing it for the first time showed me that I am progressing as a comedian. I know this probably seems arbitrary to some people; totally fair. I was honestly kinda happy it happened for the first time and pretty proud of how I handled it.

I have this class called life skills and the whole purpose is to refine or learn a new skill every week l chosen comedy because l want to become a comedian but l can't really get started with writing jokes all l got is some random punch lines like people dieding from autism and the only for jokes l got is "l love my family they're unique, when l said unique l meant weird. " that's weak so can l have some advice on what things do you guys usually think of, to start writing jokes ( is it slow usually to come up with making jokes please tell me so l can have closer) 🤠

Wasn’t bad, but I think her worst work so far. Is she suffering from soft life syndrome?

I've been recording myself, finally have a setup that marginally works. Pixel, old school tripod, and a DJI mic. I use these for myself to watch and learn what I can improve on. I suck at even basic video editing so it is no where near a polished product. I'm also told that we don't necessarily want to share our early stand up performance because they are cringe.

I want to share it with some people, mostly my friends/acquaintances and most performances are over 5 minutes long on video. My pitch to them is I don't want to waste their time on having them come out to see me in person, but they can waste a little bit of their time to see it on there phone. I've gotten some good feedback from people, lots of criticism, my friends are jerks. I feel I've got it set up on You Tube to public and everybody can see it. I'm not even 100% sure about this.

What do you guys do with your recordings? How do you use them? Share them?

I’ve been at it for close to 6 months now. There’s been lots of firsts already. I’m just curious what the biggest milestones to actually give attention to are, here’s the personal ones that were memorable for me:
-First time doing time on a show
-First time doing new material at a mic without needing my notes as a crutch
-First time I put together a cohesive 5 minutes

What milestones do you celebrate?

I’ve put on shows at 10 or so clubs in 4 different states plus a few abroad and for the first time I ran into clubs giving me a door split after 350 bucks is taken out for overhead first. Both clubs that said that are from detroit. Is this a regional thing or I just haven’t produced enough shows to see more of it? The other clubs I did straight up door splits with or just a flat rental fee. Getting a 50|50 split after they take out 350 bucks is absolutely brutal.

I want to watch some fresh comedy. English language comedians not from US, UK, Canada or Australia. I don't mind if there are references I don't understand.

For example, I like Jason Leong from Malaysia.

Came across this post just now randomly and I see most people agreeing and I disagree. I know there's a section of it that is just being funny and low art, but there's also a lot of profound comics and I think those hit the hardest for me. Obviously, takes way more skill, but I think it's dumb to just act like comedy should just be simple jokes and anything more is wrong. Probably why I don't find Stavy's stand up that funny

Does anyone have any recommendations? I’m about to get one on Richard Pryor and I saw there’s one about Ralphie May that’s coming out.

I'm looking for stand up specials that are less about general topics, or just set up -> punchline and more comedian just telling the audience about something that happened to them or talking about their personal experiences (like their family, illnesses, tragedies etc) generally speaking traumatic or serious events that they turned into comedy.

I know this is probably a little broad but I'm really looking for anything.

Things i watched that fit the vibe:

- John Mulaney's Baby J (addiction/rehab)

- Daniel Sloss' Dark/X (death of a disabled sibling/sexual assault)

- Hank Green's Pissing Out Cancer (cancer diagnosis)

Here is a set I did at Comix Roadhouse at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut! I am about 2 months into comedy! I know I need to prop myself in one place I feel like I have that nervous rock back and forth! I was proud I stopped a joke and did a little crowd work and that got a pretty good laugh break and I even was laughing!

Hey! Ill be in London on the 20th of this month and I want to try out a standup set I have. It doesnt have to be a specialized place or anything. Does anyone know where I could do it?

I watch James Acaster and while he seems a proven comic, he doesn’t feel like cutting it hard like when I watch average or messy looking performers with whom you can purely focus on the laughter, like the comic wants to hold on to his last resort likability as an insurance

Same for the Matt Rife kid who’s just annoying for a lot of people

I think I’m funny but not sure if anyone else does! Made it a goal to do an open mic before the end of the year but don’t want to insult the space / other performers by abysmally bombing my first ever tight five.

Any space that are more “beginner” / welcoming in NYC?