Comedy Writing Secrets

Instead of trying to tell you about comedy writing for the stand-up comedy stage...

Let me show you one approach to comedy writing that you may be able to use right now.

Comedy writing shouldn't start from a blank sheet of paper. It should start from an observation, experience, opinion or perspective on a particular topic.

Here's an actual news headline that I saw today:

Man calls 911 as he struggles with police

Using this single headline sentence, I don't really have to much comedy writing at all to get a laugh. This headline by itself represents a guaranteed big laugh and the beginnings of a full blown stand-up comedy skit should I decide to expand it.

Here's how I would use a bit of comedy writing skill to turn this single news headline into a beginning stand-up comedy skit:

"I was online, looking at the news

I saw this news headline:

Man calls 911 as he struggles with...

The police"

I can guarantee that if delivered properly to an audience, these few lines will get a huge laugh every time.

Here's why:

Comedy Writing Secret #1: The sentences above are broken up by my own natural breath pauses (when we speak, we DON'T talk to the end of a sentence if it's a long sentence. It is broken up with natural breath pauses).

A big factor in comedy writing and editing stand-up comedy material is to capture your own natural speaking rhythm when you are writing your comedy material down on paper.

Comedy Writing Secret #2: The delivery of this bit is critical to its ability to generate the big laugh. An attitude of shear disbelief will probably get the greatest laughter response when delivering this stand-up comedy skit.

Comedy Writing Secret #3: In order to get the maximum laughter from this bit, it will be important that there is a 1-2 second pause after this line:

Man calls 911 as he struggles with...

This allows the audience to quickly form a visual in their mind of who or what the man is struggling with. Let me assure you, they won't visualize the police because that's who you are calling when you call 911.

In other words...

This single pause (represented by three dots ...) is a key comedy writing factor for getting the most laughs out of this material.

Comedy Writing Secret #4: You will need to pause for laughter after this line:

The police

HINT: A 1-2 second pause after this line can make the difference between a small laugh and a big one. The look on your face and the associated body language that you display as you deliver these two words will dictate the size of the laugh you will get.

Comedy Writing Secret #5: It would be very easy to expand upon the bit above by simply reacting to the news headline using your own sense of humor.

Here's the bottom line:

Comedy writing for stand-up comedians is much more involved than merely reciting words from a piece of paper.

If you are serious about comedy writing that gets you RESULTS on the stand-up comedy stage, check out the link below in my resource box.

Steve Roye is a globally recognized expert in stand-up comedy material development and performance improvement. He has just released a report called Starting Your Stand-up Comedy Act: Your First 60 Seconds at: http://realfirststeps.com/standupcomedysecrets/free/par1