My Top 5 Tips For Aspiring Comedians

My Top 5 Tips For Aspiring Comedians
By Steve Roye

If you are one of those people who have heard this statement over and over again:

“You should be a comedian!”

Then the chances are pretty darn good that you have seriously considered taking a shot at stand-up comedy.

If that describes you, here are my top 5 tips for greater success on the stand-up comedy stage:

Tip #1: Don’t be afraid to be yourself on stage. Many people who aspire to become a comedian are under the false impression that they have to develop some sort of special “stage character”.

The truth of the matter is — you are already the most unique “character” that you will ever be.

You already have a well developed sense of humor, along with natural expressive comedy traits that you use effortlessly to make others laugh in everyday life.

These attributes make up the “character” that you already are and that you can use to your advantage as a comedian.

Tip #2: Select topics that easily activate your sense of humor. I’m sure you have watched enough stand-up comedy to know that…

Most comedians talk about everyday life — experiences, observations, events, conversations and opinions they have about just almost anything imaginable.

What makes what they have to say funny for audiences is that no matter what they talk about, it touched their “funny bone” in some way first.

Tip #3: Speak out what you want to say and express to an audience first — then write it down. Keep this in mind…

Stand-up comedy is an expressive art form. Subsequently, most of your laughter power will come from how you express what you want to say as opposed to the exact words that you use (just like in everyday conversations).

Once you have determined what you want to share with an audience, then write down what you want to say to edit for brevity and maximum laughter impact.

Tip #4: Rehearse your comedy material! This can have a tremendous impact on your laughter generation power on stage because…

Looking notes interrupts your speaking flow and decreases the momentum you can generate with your comedy material.

Also, audiences know very quickly if you are not completely prepared to entertain them and will react accordingly.

Tip #5: Review your stand-up comedy act for performance improvement. There are only two things that happen when a comedian is on stage:

The comedian is talking or the audience is laughing. Each of those events is measurable after-the-fact if you video record your act.

You can use a simple stopwatch that has a lap timer function in order to determine the amount of time (in seconds) the audience spent laughing during your stand-up comedy routine.

Use that information as a baseline after each show to edit your comedy material as needed to generate more laughs in the next show.

There are few experiences on the planet that can compete with the thrill, respect, admiration and sense of accomplishment that comes with making an audience laugh out loud.

I hope the information that I have provided in the brief report has been of benefit to you and I wish you the best success in your stand-up comedy adventures!