Session #18
18.4 Dirty Crowd Work with Big Jay Oakerson
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Course Objectives
Instructor:
Jerry Corley
Lesson information
🎭 18.4 Dirty Crowd Work with Big Jay Oakerson
A punchline is a Dynamic Shift—but it’s only one kind.
Big Jay Oakerson is one of the best examples of what happens when crowd work becomes more than simply asking audience members questions. His ability to listen to an answer, immediately recognize its comedic possibilities, generate associations, follow implications, escalate the premise and create remarkably specific imagery can make improvised material sound as though it was written in advance.
In this course, we break down Oakerson's crowd work step by step to uncover the repeatable comedy-writing mechanisms behind his quickness.
You'll learn one of the most important principles of effective crowd work: Don't ask another question until you've tapped out the comedic possibilities of the answer you already have. Instead of falling into the common interview pattern of question-answer-question-answer, you'll learn how to recognize when an audience response has opened a premise—and then stay with it.
We'll examine how Oakerson uses incongruity, stereotypes, assumptions, cultural references, association, escalation, self-deprecation and vivid specificity to develop a single piece of audience information into multiple laughs.
We'll also explore what we call The Third Detail: Oakerson's tendency to go one descriptive step beyond where most people would stop. It's not merely a “Kia”—it's a “Kia Sportage.” It's not simply spaghetti making a mess—the spaghetti winds up in a painfully specific place. These extra details create vivid mental pictures that allow the audience to actually see the joke.
Although Oakerson's material can be extremely edgy, the techniques underneath it apply to dirty or clean crowd work, stand-up writing, storytelling and improvisation. The objective isn't to imitate Big Jay's subject matter. It's to understand the comedy machinery underneath it—and train yourself to use those same mechanisms in your own voice.
Start a Conversation
This lesson doesn’t have to end when the video does. Use the comment section below to put what you’ve learned into practice and keep the conversation going.
Post your:
Questions — If something isn’t clear, ask. Chances are other students are wondering the same thing.
Homework & Exercises — When the lesson includes an exercise or bonus assignment, post your work below.
Jokes & Premises — Try out what you’ve written using the techniques from this lesson.
Observations & Discoveries — Spot this technique being used by another comedian? Share what you noticed.
Feedback — Feel free to respond to other students’ work. Be constructive and help each other get better.
Don’t just watch the lesson—use it. Comedy writing is a skill, and skills improve through repetition, experimentation, feedback, and practice.
So jump in. Write something. Try something. Ask something!
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4 replies to "18.4 Dirty Crowd Work with Big Jay Oakerson"
Yeah, that makes him an incongruity by himself. His visual writing reminds me of Greg Giraldo.
I really like the way Oakerson is so big, but so likable. It makes it easier to listen, and then his bits are so vivid! It really makes it funny!
The ‘access denied’ error for the worksheet for 18.4 Dirty Crowd Work with Big Jay Oakerson has been resolved.
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