What is new comedy?
When I was first starting out as a comedian, I really enjoyed the creative process. How do you sit down and start coming up with material? As a result, there was some greater sense of pressure associated with trying out that material when you finally got a set someplace.
I don't think that I am alone in reaching that conclusion either. So, you take the least experienced comedians and you add the stress of needing to succeed and put them up in front of an audience looking to be entertained. One solution is eliminate the stress. Let the comedians know that it is the effort that counts and no one keeps score in comedy - at least nobody who isn't on a door deal. The other solution I am still working on.
I don't think that I am alone in reaching that conclusion either. So, you take the least experienced comedians and you add the stress of needing to succeed and put them up in front of an audience looking to be entertained. One solution is eliminate the stress. Let the comedians know that it is the effort that counts and no one keeps score in comedy - at least nobody who isn't on a door deal. The other solution I am still working on.
posted by Jamie at 11:42 PM
1 Comments:
Hey,
Just wanted to say that I think it's really great that you run this blog and actually update it on a semi-regular basis. I've performed once at an open mic in Montreal, Canada and with a whole set of only new material it was quite nerve-racking (especially after following some pros who were there to try out new material as a warm up for the Just-For-Laughs fest). I felt completely disembodied - it was like my voice was talking seperately from my mouth somewhere in the blackness of the audience. Who knew the lights were that bright? Eliminating stress is easier said than done, and I think that mostly it's a matter of not talking about it and just doing it - getting stage time until you've naturalized the shock of being in front of people and telling jokes. That said, I would love to try and find my voice at the Punchline. Is the "come Wednesday, sign up for next week" still in effect?
Cheers!
Darrell
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