Comic Insights: The Art of Stand-Up Comedy

What would you do to sit down with some comic legends and learn their story of attempting stand-up comedy? In the book "Comic Insights: The Art of Stand-Up Comedy" author, Franklyn Ajaye did just that! This book is a must read for anyone performing live comedy and truly wanted to hear some secrets about this craft. The powerful truth is each comedian has a different path to the stage however, each share similar challenges and determination to write a joke that delivers the laughs.

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Attempting Stand Up Comedy Podcast. On today's episode, it's a book review for the book Comic Insights: The Art of Stand-Up Comedy. Thanks for joining us today on this podcast dedicated to help you take the stage with confidence and clarity to bring your craft to the world. Stand-up comedy. In this book, uh, many, many, many, many, many great comedians were interviewed. Uh, Chris Rock is the first one I'm gonna feature today in the book. He was asked the question Are you in an obsessive mode about your comedy in stand-up? And this was Chris Rock's response. Yeah, I'm very obsessive. I mean, think about it, right? If anyone's gonna be successful, you need to be obsessed about it. And that's a super focused attitude, right? Because if you're distracted, thinking about other maybe options in life or agendas, you're gonna miss the mark. So you must be obsessed with what you're doing, specifically from a creative standpoint. Be obsessed about your comedy and your writing and your performing. Another comedian that was interviewed in this book, Comic Insights, The Art of Stand-up Comedy, was Jay Leno. And Jay Leno definitely has an interesting history and story in the world of comedy because obviously he became a superstar on television, but he always kept stand-up comedy as his main drive and really the metric for success. He would actually live off the comedy income. Pretty cool. But in the book, he was asked the question Was your comic point of view clearly established in your own mind when you started out, or did it evolve? This is what Jay Leno responded with. It takes a while to do that. And I think that I've got away from that for a while on the Tonight Show. And now I can get back to that again. So your authenticity, your point of view, making that really the truth of your perspective for your comedy. So important. And obviously, Jay Leno has a tremendous history of performing, but still respects the stage for stand-ups. Eleanor deGeneris, okay, here we go. She definitely has made her mark. But this is a great question. How do you deal with hecklers? She responded, it depends on where they're coming from. If they're really being mean, which I don't get anymore because my shows usually cost more money, so it's not like they they won it or something. You know, they're actually paying to get there. So she said, In the beginning, when I had people like that, which I did, being a woman on stage, you have these macho idiots who are drunk who want to get to you and upset you. They used to upset me all the time. I just walk off crying sometimes. I mean, they wouldn't see it. But I would go backstage crying. Then the follow-up question was, so wouldn't you respond back to them? She said, No. I try not to be mean to people. So it's interesting, put down comedy has become a real big push, you know, and especially with crowd work. You know, you find that individual in the audience you isolate and just totally humiliate. It's almost like doing a public roast of the person in the third row that just heckled you. So, I mean, Alan has a point, but your style may be different. You know, you may actually take that person that's kind of pushing the envelope and you get to use it to your advantage. So I want to end by bringing up a comedian that had an interesting history that maybe you would probably consider to be, you know, one of the greats, or maybe not. Maybe you're not a fan. You know, because sometimes everyone kind of comes from a different, you know, window of what makes style style, or maybe what makes somebody respected, you know, over time. And I do think that probably one of the interesting attributes about performers is that some of them just don't stick with it, right? Uh, Bill Mayer. Okay, so Bill has had, you know, a tremendous amount of success in the talk show world. And some would challenge if you know his stand-up comedy is something that is really of any value, but he has history. So here's a great question. Did you bomb much the first year? Of course. I mean, how can you not bomb the first year? I don't know how anyone can get laughs even the 15th time. I don't know when was the first time that it is set when I actually got 15 minutes of decent laughs. So I think this is interesting. I I love the attitude of it's almost impossible to do a show without some sense of bombing. I think that's actually honestly the sandpaper that makes comedy so cool because then you know when the laugh really worked. It hit strong. Because, you know, the other times it just wasn't so funny. Okay, we're gonna wrap this up, and I'm gonna just do one little bonus section here, and this is something that I do believe is important. And the author of this book, Franklin Isaiah, I I really can't pronounce his last name that well. Gonna check it out. I'll put a link in the show notes for Comic Insights, the art of standing stand-up comedy. Uh, structure your funny, writing your material. Um, one of the things he talks about is using the third eye. So he started using the third eye when he was with his friends in an attempt to understand what it was that made me funny with them. The third eye is a strange combination of detachment and heightened awareness that keeps you somewhat removed from a situation so that you can observe and record your thoughts and reactions. It's an instinctive way of remembering specific obscure details for recreation at a later date. For most artists, it operates in a subconscious level. Actors use it all the time. So think about your third eye. How are you observing a situation somewhat further away from your present state? Think about that. That's on page 23 of the book. Uh, if you do pick it up. And um, I'm gonna end, I keep on finding stuff I want to share with you. You gotta read this book, it's awesome. Um, Eddie Murphy, Eddie Murphy, in my opinion, is a legend, but he had some really deep personal disciplines. He never drank alcohol, he never did drugs. His hardest drink was a Coca-Cola, actually. But he really believes that creativity is when your subconscious and your conscious collide. And uh don't be afraid to really kind of immerse yourself in your craft. I think that goes back to the beginning about being obsessed. But thanks for listening to the Attempting Stand Up Comedy podcast. Wherever you are today, don't forget to be creative, write down some new ideas, and take a stage and test it out. And thanks for listening to Attempting Stand Up Comedy.