How do I work an audience?
I managed a stand-up comedy club (big name place, you’ve heard of it) for two years during the “comedy boom” in the early 90s, so I’m fortunate enough to have seen every single top-notch comic several times over. I also saw hundreds of bad comics, too. Stand-up is really fucking hard. It’s really easy to do poorly, and extremely difficult to do well. The one thing I learned right away was that there was no way in hell I could do it. I had many, many people tell me they or their friends were just as funny than the comics on stage. And I was like, no, no, you just don’t understand. So, first off, don’t get discouraged. It’s hard, and there is no such thing as an overnight sensation. There are basic practices, sure (have an ocean of confidence, whip-sharp material, etc), but there are no sure-fire tricks to make an audience respond. It really is a matter of practice, practice, practice.
My experience is that self-confidence and confidence in your material is key. I have seen more than a few medicored performers with middling material gain an audience simply by the confidence they demonstrate — and even some performers who produce tricky, alienating work nonetheless gain a following because they understood and projected their work’s value. In the meanwhile, I have seen some excellent work go unnoticed because the performer hemmed, hawded, and behaved apologetically. This is also the main trick used by confidence men to pull cons — they seem so confident that they win a mark’s trust. Come to think of it, it’s something skilled salesmen also project. Edit your material until it’s in tip-top shape. Rehearse your material until you know it cold. When you take the stage, believe that you belong there, and that you have something the audience is goign to appreciate (and make sure you actually do). The rest will follow.
I managed a stand-up comedy club (big name place, you’ve heard of it) for two years during the “comedy boom” in the early 90s, so I’m fortunate enough to have seen every single top-notch comic several times over. I also saw hundreds of bad comics, too. Stand-up is really fucking hard. It’s really easy to do poorly, and extremely difficult to do well. The one thing I learned right away was that there was no way in hell I could do it. I had many, many people tell me they or their friends were just as funny than the comics on stage. And I was like, no, no, you just don’t understand. So, first off, don’t get discouraged. It’s hard, and there is no such thing as an overnight sensation. There are basic practices, sure (have an ocean of confidence, whip-sharp material, etc), but there are no sure-fire tricks to make an audience respond. It really is a matter of practice, practice, practice. Every top-notch comic would tell me stories of stone-faced audiences at “Uncle Fucker’s Chuckle Hutch”
While this isn’t overt advice, to go along with what frogan is saying I’d recommend Comedian if you haven’t already seen it. I really loved that they were mostly just obsessive nerds with their little notepads, constantly testing and manipulating the same joke over and over. And you get to watch them fail in front of audiences, IIRC, while testing new material. You’re not going to win over all audiences and you just have to be okay with that. And taking the confident salesman approach won’t lend more audience-winning-over I don’t think – most sophisticated comic audiences will likely have disdain for (perceived) smarminess.
There’s an acting exercise, clowing exericse actually, that might be useful for you: get up in front of an audience and try to make them laugh. The catch: you can’t talk. It helps to have a very supportive audience for this, ideally other comics or actors who will be rotating through. The thing you’ll discover almost immediately is the harder you try to make the audience laugh, the less inclined they are to do so. Then they’ll bust out laughing at something you weren’t even aware you were doing (typically your defeated expression when you give up on your “crazy dance” or “silly walk”). Once you get them laughing, you’ll discover a lot of your familiar tricks will work – elaborate on a theme, repetition, reincorporation (all non-verbal still). The people who are best at this tend to be the ones who get the audience on their side right away. They smile a lot. They’re also very open and honest. They connect with the audience. It’s important to know when you’ve got the audience with you, w
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