Introduction

At this juncture of the course you should know:

What your comedy talent is, how it works when you use it and what a punchline is relative to you and how you use your comedy talent.

But the most important thing you should know is this:

Anytime you have made someone or a group of people laugh in casual conversations at home, at work or at play you were using stand-up comedy techniques (or formulas) that are unique to you.

And is not necessary to know or study what these personal stand-up comedy techniques or formulas are.

You simply need to know that these techniques are what you use spontaneously when you use and express your sense of humor to cause others to laugh and...

You will want to use these techniques at every juncture when it comes to developing and delivering your stand-up material.

You should also know that what any funny comedian delivers on the stand-up comedy stage is a condensed version of who they are when interacting with people offstage in everyday life.

That also means that you have a mountain of already tested comedy topics, ideas and bulk comedy material to tap into right now.

So the issue you are going to run into as you move forward is actually not a lack of comedy topics – it’s really about being able to select the best comedy topics that will generate laughs from an audience of strangers as opposed to friends, family and coworkers.

Now, I want to provide you with selection guidelines that should save you some time before you start choosing your best stand-up comedy topics.

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Selection Guideline #1

Just to make sure that we are on the same page…

The absolute quickest and easiest way to generate a good size list of potential comedy topics and bulk comedy material for a stand-up routine is to extract them from past conversations that you have had when you caused laughter to happen.

The reasons are simple:

• The topics of these conversations triggered your sense of humor (whether you initiated the conversation or someone else did).
• You used your sense of humor/comedy talent to generate laughs you got.
• Your audience (one or more people) involved in that conversation understood and appreciated what you had to say that caused the laughs to occur.

So if you want a great start to identifying your best comedy topics based on past conversations, here’s the first selection guideline you should use:

Selection Guideline #1: As you are recalling past conversations that you have had when you said something that generated laughs, focus on the conversations that generated the biggest laughs FIRST.

Keep this in mind:

You have been spontaneously producing comedy material that generated laughs over the course of your entire life. Subsequently, you have most likely forgot more conversations (and comedy topics associated with those conversations) than you can begin to remember.

So as you start the process of recalling past conversations for potential comedy topic ideas, keep these things in mind:

You don’t need to try to recall every single conversation you have had that generated laughs all at once.

As a matter of fact, I would use a more “organic” approach to jogging your memory and here’s what I mean by that:

Keep in mind that as of right now, you are officially on the lookout to identify the best possible comedy topics based on your past conversations and interactions with others.

Start with the conversations that generated the biggest laughs first (that you can easily recall) to identify your initial comedy topics. These will be easier to remember than more distant ones.

Don’t try to force yourself to remember past conversations. This will create a roadblock and slow you down.  Instead, use the more “organic” process that you already use to remember past conversations.

Here’s what I mean by that:

For example, you already have a quantity of stories (along with quips, sayings, anecdotes, etc.) that you repeat over and over as you meet new people. But you don’t just meet someone and start telling them story after story until they have all been told.

What does happen is that you engage in conversation with one or more people and a topic will come up that triggers your memory about a particular story from your past. Then you tell the related story.

My point is this:

You are going to continue to talk with people everyday. You are going to use your sense of humor/comedy talent when you deem it appropriate when you talk to people.

And now that you are on the prowl for the best comedy topics and bulk comedy material for a stand-up comedy routine…

As you talk with others everyday you will be reminded of past conversations along the way that contain comedy topics you will certainly want to consider using for the basis of your act.

Trust me, your comedy topic list will grow very quickly over a short period of time.

Just make sure that you put the comedy topics, ideas and bulk comedy material that generated the biggest laughs at the top of your list.

Let’s move to Selection Guideline #2…

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Selection Guideline #2

As you are well aware, the mechanics of laughter involve some sort of information (referred to as the set-up) and then a sense of humor reaction to that information (the punchline).

But here’s the deal:

Your audience (whether it is one person or a room full of people watching you perform) needs to be familiar with the set-up information in some regard in order to appreciate and respond to the humor provided in the punchlines.

Think for a moment about some of the recent times you have been engaged in a conversation and caused a person or group of people to laugh.

Now ask yourself this question:

Would only your friends, family or coworkers be familiar with the topic of discussion or would a group of strangers also be familiar with the topic of discussion?

The second selection guideline that you should apply to ANY potential comedy topic, idea, or bulk comedy material (ie: story) before it makes your list should be this one:

Selection Guideline #2: An audience of strangers – not friends, family or work colleagues – must be able to easily understand, relate to and/or appreciate the content of the stand-up material being delivered.

Let me put this another way:

Have you ever told what you thought was a really funny story about an experience, event, observation, etc. only to have the people you were telling that story to just look at you and not laugh at all?

That has happened to everyone and the primary reason that it happens is because your “audience” didn’t understand, relate to or otherwise appreciate the “set-up” or reference information you provided in the story.

When this happens, the “punchlines” won’t work – actually, they can’t if the audience can’t understand, relate to or otherwise appreciate what you are talking about to begin with.

You always want to avoid selecting any comedy topic that may result in having one of the those “well, I guess you had to be there” moments because the audience doesn’t really “get” what you are talking about.

But there’s more about this selection guideline you need to know…

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More About Selection Guideline #2

A foundational aspect of quickly and easily identifying your best comedy topics is by recalling conversations from your past that you were talking about something that caused others to laugh.

So let’s assume that you apply Selection Guideline #1 and you eliminate a whopping 95% of potential comedy topics from landing on your list.

You will still have HOURS of conversations to draw from for comedy topics, ideas and bulk comedy material. The reason is simple:

You didn’t just start using your sense of humor/comedy talent in the last month or last year. You have been using it for your entire life.

And while you may only recall a small portion of the conversations that you have had (at first) over the course of your life that caused others to laugh, you will still have HOURS of conversational material upon which to draw your comedy topics from.

Note: I have only been referring to conversations you have had in the past. I haven’t even touched on the potential comedy topics you can begin to identify and accumulate from conversations that you have today, tomorrow and on and on.

Keep this in mind as well:

As a new comedian you are usually only going to get 3-5 minutes of stage time to work out developed comedy material in the beginning. That’s roughly 180-300 spoken words of finished, tightly structured stand-up material that generates an average of 4-6+ laughs per minute.

How many comedy topics do you need for that? I submit to you that you only need a few well select comedy topics as the foundation for quickly developing 3-5 minutes of powerful stand-up comedy material.

So be picky about the comedy topics and bulk comedy material you choose to put on your list to develop into stand-up comedy material.

Common sense would dictate that you only want to expend maximum effort on the comedy topics and bulk comedy material you choose that have the BEST POSSIBLE POTENTIAL for generating the laughs you want when you finally take your finished stand-up material to the stage.

Keep in mind that there is still a measure of work required to get any potential comedy material that you choose to develop ready for an audience.

This leads me to the next simple selection guideline which is…

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Selection Guideline #3

The next selection guideline that you can use to better select those topics, ideas, experiences etc. that have the best possible chance of appealing to a group of strangers that don’t yet know you starts with this...

Selection Guideline #3: Focus on the topics, ideas, experiences, observations, etc. that are the easiest for you to react to using your own sense of humor.

The length of any particular topic, idea, experience, etc. does NOT matter – it could be 30 seconds or 5+ minutes. What does matter is the punchline frequency and the ease of your ability to quickly and easily generate punchlines in the comedy topics that you choose to turn into stand-up material.

What this really involves in your passion, interest and/or knowledge that you have regarding any particular topic or area of discussion.

The more passion, interest and/or knowledge you have about something, the easier it tends to be to use one's sense of humor when talking about it.

Note: There is a different, yet related process for pinpointing comedy topics provided in the Killer Stand-up Online Course that compliments the information provided in this primer course.

Let me assure you that in a very short period of time, you will have identified a number of potential comedy topics, ideas and bulk comedy material that are ideal for you to turn into stand-up material.

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Wrap Up

It is not necessary to apply the comedy topic selection guidelines provided in this lesson in any particular order.

What is important is to narrow down your comedy topics and bulk comedy material down to those that are not only the easiest to work with but will also give you the laughs you want when those topics are developed into full blown comedy material.

Like I said before, you need to be picky about the comedy topics that you ultimately choose to invest your time and effort into because it will make the work involved to develop those topics into full blown stand-up comedy material a lot easier.

Once you start identifying potential comedy topics and bulk comedy material from conversation that you have (and will have from this point forward), there is another issue that can potentially stop you in your tracks and keep you from moving forward with developing the comedy topics that you choose to develop into stand-up material.

That issue is covered in detail in the the next lesson.

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