8 posts tagged Comedy Nerd Out

By Andy Sandford

Some context: the first time this bit was written out was in the Comedy Nerd Out column below. Compare, contrast, enjoy.

The Funniest Thing I’ve Ever Seen In Real Life

By Andy Sandford

Yes, this is a rather grandiose title for a story, and I shall now commence with a Tour De France of back peddling. You, the reader, should remember that real life is boring. We usually have to find humor in the mundane, and nothing is funny simply because it is true. Things are funny, and things are true, and sometimes they coincide. The following story is absolutely true, and I happen to remember it as the funniest thing I have seen first-hand.

It takes place in high school… I should probably preface this with the fact that I had a very laze-faire approach to high school; which means that I paid just enough attention to learn what “laze-faire” meant before dropping out. In my high school, everyone had to take the same core classes, but you could choose 2 “electives” that you felt suited your interests. I was interested in not being in high school, so I didn’t choose anything.

Logically, if you don’t choose your electives, the school should infer that you have elected to not take electives. However, the school does not see it that way and just chooses your electives for you. I don’t know what this process entails, but I think they take a look at what you might be good at, and then go the other way with it. My electives were “Weight Training” and “Entrepreneurship”

I can’t tell you much about weight training because I never went. I’m not the smartest bulb in the knife drawer, but I can sniff out heavy lifting…it smells like a locker room. I still can’t tell you much about “entrepreneurship,” but I did attend that class, and boy am I glad I did. The class consisted of 10 students: Me, and 9 drug dealers. These kids signed up for the class hoping that a public school teacher would give them the tools they need to flip more bricks and move ounces at a faster rate. The teacher may have wanted to be there less than I did, and he proved it with an endless stream of hardly-related videos.

The first lesson we tackled was “business communication.” Now, I am not sure what inspired the teacher to choose the video he did…either there was nothing else remotely related to business communication, or he honestly felt a comical how-not-to-communicate approach was best. For whatever reason, he popped in Abbot and Costello’s “Whose On First” before falling asleep at his desk.

By the time Abbot finished the first line of the bit (“who’s on first, what’s on second, I dunno’s on third”) the heckling began. I soon realized that I was the only person in the room who had seen “Whose On First” and was also awake. I gleaned this fact from what my fellow classmates were heckling: Dis old shit wack as fuck…the fuck this white dude talkin’ bout?…teacher sleepin’, I’m leavin’. 

Just then, one kid who had been watching intently the whole time stood up and said, “nah nah nah…Who is the dude name.”

Another kid replied, “they ain’t said who the dude name is.”

At this point, I am close to losing my shit. I am witnessing a modern, urbanized version of “Whose On First” that was sparked by a video of “Whose On First.” It was like being hit with an irony sledge hammer…made of iron (is that more ironic, or just homophonic?)

Unfortunately, the classroom’s Abbot and Costello tribute did not make it to second base…the first kid chose his words wisely, “Nah nah, Dude name is Who.”

The other kid snapped, “What the fuck kinda muthafucka named Who?!”

That is when I realized that this was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. Not because of the playing out of a real life 40’s vaudeville bit from playing a video of a 40’s vaudeville bit. More so because the kid was right! What the fuck kinda mother fucker IS named Who?

That kid was smart enough to stop at the ridiculousness of someone being nicknamed “Who,” but if he had gone on further to ask, “what’s the muthafuckas name on second?” I would have had to jump in and say, “What is the muthafucka’s name on second.” And then he would have to say, “I dunno”…and then I would have to say, “No, he’s the muthafucka on third.”

Read more Dangatorium - Stand Up Comedy Nerd Out

By Andy Sandford

Whenever I find myself at a party or a bar, drained by the task of holding up one end of a forced conversation, the question inevitably arises: “what do you do?” This question, in itself, is a vague one. It could technically be answered any number of ways…I do karate. I do drugs. I do the dew… however, this question has a commonly accepted implication: what do you do for work? What do you get by on? What do you do for a living? My answer applies in both cases. Stand up comedy is what I do for work. It is also what I do in general; all of the time. I have found this to be the case for most comedians. It isn’t a job; it’s a never ending compulsion. You don’t focus on it for designated periods of time. You learn to function while constantly ruminating about it.

I can’t help but notice a surge in stand up’s popularity, both in appreciating it and attempting it. I’m not sure where it comes from. I’m sure Louis CK’s meteoric rise has attracted some to the art of stand up. I am sure that some people have realized that stand up has evolved beyond “mainstream” and “alternative” and shown itself to be as diverse as music. I have even heard arguments stating that our current facebook/twitter/blogosphere world has convinced people that they are clever and that people “like” what they say. No matter what the catalyst is, everyone quickly learns the same thing: it is not how you think it is.

Nothing prepares you for stand up, or makes you good at it, other than just doing stand up. It is not the same as being funny for your friends. It is not being the life of a party. It is public speaking with an intended effect. You are attempting to force an involuntary reaction out of a crowd of people, and they know it. Reciting your blog will not work. Hoping that it will all somehow come together onstage will not work. You are not given anything just for getting onstage. The art of crafting, editing, and delivering jokes is very specific and unique from almost all other writing. This is, in part, what I fell in love with about stand up. I used to write humorous articles for zine type things and would occasionally get general feedback about the piece as a whole, but I couldn’t know what part had whatever effect on the reader…or if I could have made it better. With stand up, you get instant feedback, and nothing is permanent. You can chisel a joke down to perfection.

If there were a comedy beginner’s handbook, it should probably include the following bullet points.

• Don’t tell them you suck. Pity is about the worst emotion to stir up an audience with. No one cares if you are new at this. You have to at least feign confidence.

• Don’t try to take stand up to some other level. You can’t bypass the basics of stand up. Attempting some kind of high concept humor out the gate will only ensure that both you and the audience have no clue what the fuck you are doing.

• You can only shock them once. Being gross without having actual jokes or experience will result in you being both offensive and insecure. There’s a saying: comics who are green try to be more blue to appear less yellow. It’s very true.

• They aren’t with you until you get them. They have no reason to hear you out. You have to give them a reason. No one is excited at the mere fact that you have brought up weed smoking, or think republicans suck.

• You will bomb. You will bomb hard. You will continue to bomb. Get used to it. It is always a possibility, and it isn’t the end of the world. No one hates you for not being funny. Bombing is usually less memorable than doing well.

These are just some of the most common misconceptions that I see in people starting out. It is easy to see a comedian who is good say something funny and not notice the calculated method in which the laugh was achieved. It takes some time to figure out what is “stage funny.” It takes time to figure out how to develop material and a process for doing so. You really shouldn’t expect greatness your first time on stage, or your first 100 times. Comedy is a lot like darts. A lot of people think they are good at darts because the objective can be simplified: make the dart hit the bullseye. Most people, however, are not good at darts. They’re just drunk. It is easy to simplify comedy: you go onstage and make people laugh. Many people have delusions about mastering a craft they haven’t yet attempted. It’s like watching movie about boxing and assuming everything is clean jabs and perfectly landed haymakers. Watch professionals box and note how sloppy that can be. Now imagine the mess you would make of it.

I think anyone starting out should come up with some jokes, make sure you know what you’re saying, and just get through it. You have to get the fear of being in front of people out of the way. That is actually the easiest hurdle to leap in stand up. You cross over a threshold most people won’t. You get used to doing what most people fear more than death and you realize that is relatively easy. You are going to hate those jokes later on. You are going to find a way to deliver jokes later on. The more you get onstage, the more you will be able to find out what works and what doesn’t. Don’t bother reading any further installments of my windbaggery until you’ve gone and attempted stand up. 

Go have fun. 

Read more Comedy Nerd Out with Andy Sandford

By Andy Sandford

This is a common debate among comedians and comedy nerds these days, and I am here to end it. I don’t mean that I have some concise and airtight take on the topic that leaves no room for further argument. I’m just throwing my 2 cents in the fountain of shoptalk ethos and making a wish that everyone stop picking apart and judging the type of material comedians do. Don’t get it twisted, I am all about overanalyzing, but mostly within certain parameters and not about what is noble and what is bullshit.

I personally think the meteoric rise of Louis CK has inspired the debate of truth vs. cleverness. Louis was mostly an absurdist comedian along the lines of Dave Attel, and then decided to get more personal sometime before his special, “Shameless.” I think almost everyone would agree that this was the right move, as he has churned out some real top notch shit since shifting gears. And in the comedy world (as things tend to go in any world), people have a hard time understanding what is good for one is not necessarily good for all. Suddenly, doing more personal comedy is automatically assumed to be doing better comedy.

Also, there is a craze with constantly churning out new material because Louis CK does a new hour every year. I think comedians forget how long Louis did comedy before churning out material at that rate. I have noticed a rash of diary entry type sets at open mics, and comedians not taking the time to work out material or get jokes to their best before moving on to other material. I am often writing and working out new things, but I personally believe that if you always have new shit, than you ultimately have no shit.

Back to the debate! First of all, there is a flaw in the argument itself. “Truth” is not the antithesis of “clever.” For something to be clever, there has to be an element of truth; a common understanding so that the audience can even get the joke. Here is a great example of a clever joke that Jimmy Carr does:

I have been with my girlfriend for 8 years, and she still gets mad when I borrow her toothbrush. That is silly when you consider how intimate we’ve been…and if you can think of a better way to get dogshit out of sneakers, I’d like to hear it.

The audience must be aware of the quasi-clichéd concept of a couple being together long enough to borrow each other’s toothbrushes in order understand Jimmy’s misdirection. This may not be an exceptionally magnanimous truth, but it is “truth.” In my opinion, anything that is truly clever is far from being “empty.” And yes, this type of truth may not even qualify as a truth to some, but truth and comedy exist at every level. It is ignorant to disregard the mundane and only accept comedy about grandiose concepts. Jim Gaffigans jokes about bacon are just as valid as Carlin’s bits about God, and I don’t see why you can’t enjoy both.

That brings me to my next point: we are talking about comedy. The main qualifier for “comedy” is that it is funny. This isn’t stand up philosophy. I find it enjoyable when a great comedian can take an introspective/philosophical concept and make it funny, but to act as if that is a prerequisite is ridiculous. Certain comedians have the sort of life experience that lends itself to more personal material. In all likelihood, I don’t want to hear about an 18 year old’s personal journey…unless that particular 18 year old has had a journey worth sharing. But that’s what I am saying: not everyone has a story worth telling. Sometimes people are better at picking apart the observable world with well written jokes. And, by default, those jokes are somewhat personal because we get a glimpse into the thought process of that comedian.

The easiest way to be wrong is to overstate your point: that is the truest fact that has ever existed in the world ever (uh oh, I’m being clever!). But for realsies, it can be hard sometimes to stay objective enough to not claim that your preference is undeniably genuine and that all other approaches are to be forsaken. I believe that truth and cleverness are synergistic in nature. A personal story or thought is enhanced by cleverness, and a clever joke is enhanced by a personal take and a peppering of truth. People forget that Louis CK himself has said that, in his bits, the guy who says something ridiculous is actually himself, and he makes someone else say it in the joke because that helps crystalize the concept. I think that is what is really important: is the material genuine…are you writing what you think/believe and not just concocting something that sounds like something a comedian would say.

Ok…that’s enough hot air for one day.

By Andy Sandford

Yes, this is a rather grandiose title for a story, and I shall now commence with a Tour De France of back peddling. You, the reader, should remember that real life is boring. We usually have to find humor in the mundane, and nothing is funny simply because it is true. Things are funny, and things are true, and sometimes they coincide. The following story is absolutely true, and I happen to remember it as the funniest thing I have seen first-hand.

It takes place in high school… I should probably preface this with the fact that I had a very laze-faire approach to high school; which means that I paid just enough attention to learn what “laze-faire” meant before dropping out. In my high school, everyone had to take the same core classes, but you could choose 2 “electives” that you felt suited your interests. I was interested in not being in high school, so I didn’t choose anything.

Logically, if you don’t choose your electives, the school should infer that you have elected to not take electives. However, the school does not see it that way and just chooses your electives for you. I don’t know what this process entails, but I think they take a look at what you might be good at, and then go the other way with it. My electives were “Weight Training” and “Entrepreneurship”

I can’t tell you much about weight training because I never went. I’m not the smartest bulb in the knife drawer, but I can sniff out heavy lifting…it smells like a locker room. I still can’t tell you much about “entrepreneurship,” but I did attend that class, and boy am I glad I did. The class consisted of 10 students: Me, and 9 drug dealers. These kids signed up for the class hoping that a public school teacher would give them the tools they need to flip more bricks and move ounces at a faster rate. The teacher may have wanted to be there less than I did, and he proved it with an endless stream of hardly-related videos.

The first lesson we tackled was “business communication.” Now, I am not sure what inspired the teacher to choose the video he did…either there was nothing else remotely related to business communication, or he honestly felt a comical how-not-to-communicate approach was best. For whatever reason, he popped in Abbot and Costello’s “Whose On First” before falling asleep at his desk.

By the time Abbot finished the first line of the bit (“who’s on first, what’s on second, I dunno’s on third”) the heckling began. I soon realized that I was the only person in the room who had seen “Whose On First” and was also awake. I gleaned this fact from what my fellow classmates were heckling: Dis old shit wack as fuck…the fuck this white dude talkin’ bout?…teacher sleepin’, I’m leavin’. 

Just then, one kid who had been watching intently the whole time stood up and said, “nah nah nah…Who is the dude name.”

Another kid replied, “they ain’t said who the dude name is.”

At this point, I am close to losing my shit. I am witnessing a modern, urbanized version of “Whose On First” that was sparked by a video of “Whose On First.” It was like being hit with an irony sledge hammer…made of iron (is that more ironic, or just homophonic?)

Unfortunately, the classroom’s Abbot and Costello tribute did not make it to second base…the first kid chose his words wisely, “Nah nah, Dude name is Who.”

The other kid snapped, “What the fuck kinda muthafucka named Who?!”

That is when I realized that this was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. Not because of the playing out of a real life 40’s vaudeville bit from playing a video of a 40’s vaudeville bit. More so because the kid was right! What the fuck kinda mother fucker IS named Who?

That kid was smart enough to stop at the ridiculousness of someone being nicknamed “Who,” but if he had gone on further to ask, “what’s the muthafuckas name on second?” I would have had to jump in and say, “What is the muthafucka’s name on second.” And then he would have to say, “I dunno”…and then I would have to say, “No, he’s the muthafucka on third.”

Read more Dangatorium - Stand Up Comedy Nerd Out

By Andy Sandford

Part One: A Caveat

By Andy Sandford

Whenever I find myself at a party or a bar, drained by the task of holding up one end of a forced conversation, the question inevitably arises: “what do you do?” This question, in itself, is a vague one. It could technically be answered any number of ways…I do karate. I do drugs. I do the dew… however, this question has a commonly accepted implication: what do you do for work? What do you get by on? What do you do for a living? My answer applies in both cases. Stand up comedy is what I do for work. It is also what I do in general; all of the time. I have found this to be the case for most comedians. It isn’t a job; it’s a never ending compulsion. You don’t focus on it for designated periods of time. You learn to function while constantly ruminating about it.

I can’t help but notice a surge in stand up’s popularity, both in appreciating it and attempting it. I’m not sure where it comes from. I’m sure Louis CK’s meteoric rise has attracted some to the art of stand up. I am sure that some people have realized that stand up has evolved beyond “mainstream” and “alternative” and shown itself to be as diverse as music. I have even heard arguments stating that our current facebook/twitter/blogosphere world has convinced people that they are clever and that people “like” what they say. No matter what the catalyst is, everyone quickly learns the same thing: it is not how you think it is.

Nothing prepares you for stand up, or makes you good at it, other than just doing stand up. It is not the same as being funny for your friends. It is not being the life of a party. It is public speaking with an intended effect. You are attempting to force an involuntary reaction out of a crowd of people, and they know it. Reciting your blog will not work. Hoping that it will all somehow come together onstage will not work. You are not given anything just for getting onstage. The art of crafting, editing, and delivering jokes is very specific and unique from almost all other writing. This is, in part, what I fell in love with about stand up. I used to write humorous articles for zine type things and would occasionally get general feedback about the piece as a whole, but I couldn’t know what part had whatever effect on the reader…or if I could have made it better. With stand up, you get instant feedback, and nothing is permanent. You can chisel a joke down to perfection.

If there were a comedy beginner’s handbook, it should probably include the following bullet points.

• Don’t tell them you suck. Pity is about the worst emotion to stir up an audience with. No one cares if you are new at this. You have to at least feign confidence.

• Don’t try to take stand up to some other level. You can’t bypass the basics of stand up. Attempting some kind of high concept humor out the gate will only ensure that both you and the audience have no clue what the fuck you are doing.

• You can only shock them once. Being gross without having actual jokes or experience will result in you being both offensive and insecure. There’s a saying: comics who are green try to be more blue to appear less yellow. It’s very true.

• They aren’t with you until you get them. They have no reason to hear you out. You have to give them a reason. No one is excited at the mere fact that you have brought up weed smoking, or think republicans suck.

• You will bomb. You will bomb hard. You will continue to bomb. Get used to it. It is always a possibility, and it isn’t the end of the world. No one hates you for not being funny. Bombing is usually less memorable than doing well.

These are just some of the most common misconceptions that I see in people starting out. It is easy to see a comedian who is good say something funny and not notice the calculated method in which the laugh was achieved. It takes some time to figure out what is “stage funny.” It takes time to figure out how to develop material and a process for doing so. You really shouldn’t expect greatness your first time on stage, or your first 100 times. Comedy is a lot like darts. A lot of people think they are good at darts because the objective can be simplified: make the dart hit the bullseye. Most people, however, are not good at darts. They’re just drunk. It is easy to simplify comedy: you go onstage and make people laugh. Many people have delusions about mastering a craft they haven’t yet attempted. It’s like watching movie about boxing and assuming everything is clean jabs and perfectly landed haymakers. Watch professionals box and note how sloppy that can be. Now imagine the mess you would make of it.

I think anyone starting out should come up with some jokes, make sure you know what you’re saying, and just get through it. You have to get the fear of being in front of people out of the way. That is actually the easiest hurdle to leap in stand up. You cross over a threshold most people won’t. You get used to doing what most people fear more than death and you realize that is relatively easy. You are going to hate those jokes later on. You are going to find a way to deliver jokes later on. The more you get onstage, the more you will be able to find out what works and what doesn’t. Don’t bother reading any further installments of my windbaggery until you’ve gone and attempted stand up. 

Go have fun.