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What Makes a Good Stand Up Comedy Premise?

An effective standup comedy premise should contain two elements: a topic + a condition, but in order to truly hook the audience you need two more essential dynamics to be present in your set up or the joke risks receiving a diminished laugh or worse, nothing at all...
How-Can-You-Be-Funny-On-the-Spot-Without-Writing-Jokes

How Can You Be Funny On the Spot Without Pre-Written Jokes?

If you take time to investigate someone who appears to be "naturally" funny, you will find that they developed their ability to be funny through exposure and experience. You can learn to take a shortcut to developing that skill by following these few simple steps.
Does it Really Take 10 Years to Find Your Persona?

Does it Take 10 Years to Find Your Comedic Persona?

Some people on social media have said with absolute certainty that it takes “10 years for you to find your persona,” like that’s some magical number or something.​ There is a more streamlined approach to finding your persona and it’s easier than you might think.
developing a comedy persona

When Do You Think it’s Too Late to Break Into This Business of Comedy?

I think most people have a this vision that getting into comedy means that you have to go to open mics, where you may or may not get on stage, but before you do get on stage, you have to wade through a sea of jokes about dicks, or jokes about smoking too much weed, or jokes about dicks who smoke too much weed.

If you're over 40, the thought of having to slog out to do that several nights a week is not pleasant.

But there's another way...

wax-on-wax-off

2 Simple Comedy Writing Exercises that Secretly Make You Faster and Funnier

Do you ever have those days when you don’t feel inspired to write comedy? You want to write but you don’t feel funny? Or you're feeling defeated because you don't feel like you are growing or not growing fast enough? Here are 2 simple comedy writing exercises you can do just to stimulate your comedic instincts. These are great when you just want to keep up your writing but you don't feel like you have anything to write about.
the brain

The Biggest Secret in Comedy

George Carlin said he knew with 98 percent accuracy that a joke was going to get a laugh before he got on stage.

Ninety-eight percent! I want to be like that.

However, to get to a level of mastery with your comedy, you first have to understand why people laugh and how comedy works. 

And here's where I share with you the biggest secret in comedy...

boring premise to solid routine

Boring Premise to Great Routine

There are no bad premises in comedy, only premises we don't feel connected to. But there's always a way to take a premise and give it some context so that it comes alive and can create excitement.