Standup Comedy Tips from Judy Carter

Corporate Comedy Rocks!

I got a corporte gig in Berlin. A Canadian company flew me out to Berlin where they wanted me to liven up their lunch time sales meeting. I get first class air to Europe, all expenses paid at a five star hotel, and dinners in fancy schmacy restaurants. You might think, “That’s not a job, it’s a scam.” Hey, as Donna Summers said, “I’m working hard for the money.” Corporates are not that easy – especially lunch gigs.


I’ve performed in Vegas, Atlantic City, and now I’m workin’ a buffet in Berlin. People say that comedy is hard, but comedy is hardest when there is sunlight streaming into the room. There is something about daylight that is a comedy killer. That long with the fact that we comics usually perform for people who are drunk, not people who are hung over.

There are always challenges working these corporate gigs. At first they weren’t going to give me a stage. Actually, forget about a stage, they didn’t want to give me a platform.

“We figured you would just wander around the tables doing jokes.”

I’m not kidding. I was lucky there was a mic. I brought up the point that I needed a platform as I’m short – and people would need to be able to distinguish me from the waiters. I got the platform.

So, I’m standing on a little platform in the center of the room with no one in front of me and 35 sales people to each side. There is a window behind me making people squint at the sunlight streaming into the room.

Corporate comedy always starts off a bit awkward. They’ve just come from a Powerpoint demonstration on sales projections and are not in the “comedy club mentality.” To ease them into my schick, I spend a lot of time preparing customized material. A week prior to the event, I spoke to the director of marketing as well as a few sales guys themselves. They told me that they were stressed about working out of their car, dealing with wacky pharmacists, and upcoming Canadian legislation called Bill 102. This ended up in a “Pharmaceutical Rap Song.”

“Got into the drug sales game
But I can’t pronounce drugs name
Now I’m getting really confused
Cause here comes bill 102

With this bill 102
We are all going be screwed
Cause feds policy's not written by a genius
More like Butthead and Beavis..”

Then I had to deal with the fact that I was Jewish and in Germany. I had to comment on it, but what? I turned to comic, Ritch Shydner for advice. He said, “Say, ‘I’m Jewish. Hey, wasn’t there something that happened 60 years ago? That’s over right?”




That worked. Emily Levine has a great German-Jewish joke, “When I performed comedy in Germany they told me, ‘You’re cute as a button.’ But then I was afraid that they meant that I would be ‘cute as a button.’” Great joke.

The gig went great. The good thing was that the audience was mostly Canadians. Canadians are friendly unpretentious people who laugh easily. When I perform in Canada I say words I wouldn’t say in the States, such as “Nipples!” Not only do I not say that word when performing for the American humor impaired corporate culture, I take them off before stepping onstage.



I was a hit. The director of marketing asked me to perform at another gig in February 07. I was invited to join the group for a 5 course meal that night and a tour the next day and partied with them into the wee hours of the night.

OK, OK… maybe it is a scam.