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The Key To Comedy

By Jerry Corley

Key to comedyOne of the most common questions I get as a stand up comedian, writer and now coach is: What is the key to comedy?

And although there are too many variables for me to even suggest that I have all the answers when it comes to comedy, I can give you the key. That’s right I can give you the key to comedy.

The key is SURPRISE.

If we break comedy down; I mean, really break comedy down into parts, then we can start to design solutions. So let’s do that briefly in this blog post.

I guess we can all agree that for comedy to be comedy, we need to get the audience to laugh, right? So that’s our problem. We need to make people laugh.

So let’s find a solution…

Somebody has to be laughing in order for someone to say that something is comedic or humorous. Now that we know that, we need to know what causes people to laugh.

According to several psychologists, the number one element that triggers human laughter is surprise.

Create surprise and do it well and the audience almost has no choice but to laugh.

Imagine that power as a comedian; to put the audience in the position where they have no choice but to laugh!

Now that we have that psychological element in place we are part of the way through solving our problem. The next question is how to we pull that trigger?

We create surprise in our writing or our dialogue, conversation, speech or script.

There are several ways to create surprise in comedy. I’m going to share with you the simplest and one of the most commonly used strategies to create surprise:

  • Double Entendre
Double Entendre means “two meanings.” Those of us in comedy are blessed that the English language provides us with multiple meanings of words. We can use a word in a sentence to imply one meaning then use the comedic interpretation to create comedy. To look at it in its simplest form: if you have a friend that turns everything into a sexual connotation, then you’ve probably seen the double-entendre formula used in comedy. It could be used in scene writing too.
A basketball coach is at a press conference after his team lost in a blow out;
PRESS: Coach how do you feel about the execution of the offense?
COACH: I’m all for it.
In this example, the coach used the comedic interpretation of the word “execution.” While the journalist meant how do you think the offense played?  The coach went for the surprise meaning of “kill.”
Because the expected of the word execution was so strong in the context in which it was being used, when the coach played the comedic meaning, he created a level of surprise that would lead just about any crowd to a laugh. Couple that with the fact that the losing coach is normally NOT in a good mood. He is not expected to be funny.

Surprise also occurs when something happens that is unexpected, right? So do or say something unexpected and you have an increased possibility of creating a laugh.

Here’s another example of using surprise:

When I was in the grocery store, the check out girl said to me, “Did you find everything you were looking for?” The word “everything” really stood out for me. What did she mean when she said “everything?” Her intended meaning was probably did I find everything I was shopping for.

What is my comedic meaning of everything? The meaning of life, a soul-mate, eternal love, etc.

I went with that interpretation. So, when she asked “Did you find everything you were looking for?” I said, “Well I found the wine and the candles, but I couldn’t find a soul-mate. You had Mahi-Mahi, but I’m not into twins.”

That got big laugh with her.

Word play makes up the majority of all comedy out there. But the comedian has to be careful not to overuse it. It’s easy to get “punny” if you use it incorrectly. And you’ll wind up getting groans.

Then that key to comedy will just wind up breaking off in the lock.

16 comments   Comedian Lessons, How To Write Comedy, Joke Writing, Stand Up Comedy Class   , , , , ,  

Tom Hanks Drops An “F Bomb” on G.M.A.

By Jerry Corley

tom hanksWell, I’ve been saying it for years… ‘Good Morning America and Elizabeth Vargas could use a good F*ck."

That would definitely help with the ratings! And what better person to deliver it than the always lovable, Tom Hanks. Yep, ‘THE’ Tom Hanks. The one that all of America adores.

He was making an appearance to pimp his new movie ‘Cloud Atlas,’ where he plays like 75 characters, (Awesome trailer, by the way).

Host Elizabeth Vargas asked him to do one of the characters from the movie.

Tom actually warned that it is mostly "swear words," but Tom is a man of action–and evidently fatigue–because he lit into the accent and within seven words BAM! The F-Bomb drops right dead center in the middle of G.M.A.’s morning broadcast!

All I have to say is that the entire Eastern time zone (viewing it live), needed one less cup of coffee to launch their day.

T.M.Z. and all subsequent broadcast points got the feed with the offending word bleeped out. (Watch the UNEDITED VERSION below).

And it even feels weird calling the word ‘offending.’ Tom Hanks can make anything sound charming.

Comedians deal with this dilemma all the time. On radio, on T.V., we’re asked to give the audience a slice of our act and once in a great while, there could be a slip-up.

Normally, I know exactly what I’m going to do when I appear on radio or T.V. I actually outline techniques for radio interviews for comedians. But I remember it happened to me while we were live on the radio. It was actually a comment about President Bush and I was in Arkansas. Who do you think got hecklers at the show that night?! Smile

What do you do when you slip like that? You do exactly what Tom Hanks did. With charm and shock, apologize to the people who were listening and be sincere. Watch and learn because Tom Hanks teaches a valuable lesson.

America will forgive Tom Hanks and if you handle it right, the listeners or viewers will forgive you too.

Watch the video here:

7 comments   Comedian Lessons, Comedy News, Online Video, Success, T.V. Comedy, The Business of Comedy

A Chance To Get On Conan

By Jerry Corley

joke-Contest-bannerOkay, when I said a chance to get on Conan, I didn’t actually mean get “on” Conan—I don’t know Conan personally, but from what I’ve heard, he’s a fairly private guy.

But you can get on his show… you know, the one on TBS…

Conan O’Brien and Ricky Gervais have teamed up to find the next comedy star!

That’s right! It’s an opportunity for you—and everyone else reading this blog—to record and submit 3 minutes of comedy.

See, Ricky has developed a new APP for the iPhone that allows you to say something into the phone and it tweets it automatically. He’s calling this app “Just sayin’.”

The contest is called the “Just Sayin’ Stand Up” contest and it’s happening right now; entries are open September 20th to October 21st with winners to be announced on November 7th. Wait—that’s my twins birthdays!

All you have to do is visit the contest site page, download the app to your iPhone and do your best 3 minutes.

Don’t have an iPhone—too bad!

No, wait! Come back! I was just kidding! If you don’t have an iPhone, you can still submit via a special portal on the Just Sayin’ website.

Are you still here? What are you waiting for?! Go get the app or submit via the portal and see if you can get your funny-ass on Conan!

Remember, it’s T.V. so it must be original, clean material and appropriate to air. No slanderous jokes, nothing that defames others… so, he’s taken all the fun out of it… it’s still a awesome opportunity!

So get over to the Just Sayin’ Comedy and submit your best three and best of luck!

15 comments   Announcements, Events, Getting Gigs, T.V. Comedy

Comedy Writing – Quick and Simple

By Jerry Corley

Want a great quick way to get to writing some solid comedy material?

Think in opposites! That’s right opposites.

Think of putting yourself in any situation or scenario. Write down what your normally anticipated behavior or reaction might be in that scenario, then write down the opposite of that.

If opposites are unexpected and surprise creates laughter. This theory has a high likelihood of leading you to some quick comedy.

Remember, of course that comedy is always subjective and it might not. But that’s why there are second, third and fourth drafts of material; you tweak it until you get it right.

So let’s look at 3 scenarios, the expected reactions then the opposite of that and see if we can create some comedy.

Scenario #1:

A cop pulls you over and says, “Do you know how fast you were going?”
Expected Reaction: “No sir.”
Opposite of that: “Dude, really? You think at that speed I’m gonna risk taking my eyes off the road to check the speedometer?”

Scenario #2:

Minister says, “Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife ’til death do you part?”
Expected Reaction: “I do.”
Opposite: “Wait a second. Did you say, ’til death’?”

Scenario #3:

Your girlfriend says, “Does this dress make me look fat?”
Expected Reaction: “No!”
Opposite: “Babe, I think it’s time to stop blaming the clothes.”

Was the opposite of what was supposed to be said funny? That’s always up for interpretation, but I bet using this easy technique, you will wind up with funny more often than not.

Now you try it.

  1. Write down at least 5 scenarios. Make sure you’re not thinking of “funny” scenarios. Just think of everyday situations.
  2. The quickest way to do it is to create a scenario where there is conversation.
  3. Find the expected response.
  4. Write down the opposite of that. Keep it simple.
  5. Once you have the opposite. Think of a way to say it that is not “on the nose,” but paints an interesting picture.

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot to say that it is important that you write these things down. It’s never really enough to just think about them. So really give this a shot. Start with the three scenarios I gave you, using your own opposites.

Remember to put your jokes in the comment box below. It’ll be like a comedy brainstorm session in cyberspace!

21 comments   Stand Up Comedy Class

Comedy Class | Getting Your Time Cut

By Jerry Corley

 

flappersWe had our combined showcase this Thursday at Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank, for our Beginning/Advanced comedy class.

The bill was filled with 18 comedians ready to hit the stage to showcase. That’s a lot of comedians for one show, but to top it off we had to complete the show in a timely manner, because we had to clear the mainroom to let it get set for the late show.

Talk about pressure! Mix in with that the fact that I had a baby-sitter fall through and had to miss the show and you’ve got a tough beginning to an evening that had its obstacles.

Then the comedians, many of them doing a showcase for the very first time arrived to the club to discover that their time had been cut back from seven minutes to six. It can be stressful for a comedian to have to suddenly cut their time, especially for a newbie.

But the show went on and as I hear it (I can’t wait to get the video), and the show was great. Everyone did their best and had good sets. The show ended on time–for the most part… and, despite the stress of time-cuts, nobody died from a brain aneurism or anything like that.

Getting your time cut is commonplace in this business. I have a friend, Don Richardson, a professional comedian for 25 years, a regular at the Comedy Store. Don’s a real pro with real world experience who possesses a very good reputation…

One night he showed up at the Comedy Store for his scheduled 10pm set. As Don arrived at the Comedy Store he checked the list and there were 8 comedians that still needed to go on.  Just then, Andrew Dice Clay took the stage in the Original Room in a surprise appearance. Dice decided to do an hour and a half. By the time Dice finished, it was 11 o’clock and with the 8 comics still remaining.

Don knew he probably wasn’t going to get on that night.

I asked him how he felt about that. He said, “In this business, these things happen. You’ve got to learned to roll with the punches., It could be worse. I could be punching a clock. 

So there’s a great lesson to be learned here. That lesson is this: from the best laid scenarios to the worst planned events, comedians have to learn to be able to adjust to the show. A comedian is a rare person. They not only can make an audience of strangers laugh, they can do it under circumstances that are not always ideal.

We learn as comedians to take these things in stride. For some of you this may the first time something like this happened, but I assure you that if you continue in the comedy business it won’t be the last. Having your time cut short is a common thing to deal with in this business called show business. It’s so common, it becomes part of your craft.

You might be a solo act on stage as a comedian or a duo, or whatever, but in the total scheme you’ve got to be a utility man, you’ve got to be the guy or guys (and I say that not to leave out girls, but because of language limitation), who can roll with the punches and rise to the occasion under any circumstances.

On one hand as a comedy student, you prepared for a seven minute act. On the other hand you learned an advanced lesson and you’ve had real-world comedy experience, just like Don Richardson.

Have you encountered a similar situation? Or have a war story? Share it!

5 comments   Comedian Lessons, Comedy Class, Comedy Clubs, Comedy School, Stand Up Comedy Class, The Business of Comedy   , , , , , , , ,  
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