Standup Comedy Tips from Judy Carter

How Not to Suck as an Emcee

Once a month, the advanced class has a guest teacher and last night it was Dan Rosenberg, comic and author of “How Not to Suck as an Emcee.” Dan gave us some great tips. After all, if you finally get a booked at a comedy club, it will most likely be the opening spot where you also emcee the show. And as Dan says, “a bad host can kill a show. Even with a great headliner, a shitty emcee can ruin the night as hosting is the foundation of the show.”

Dan will be giving this workshop at the California Comedy Conference.
ONLY 2 MORE WEEKS LEFT TO REGISTER!!!
http://www.comedyworkshops.com/ccc.html

Here were some of his tips.

Get at least three interactions when you open a show. “Are there some people here who want to have fun?” “Anyone ready to laugh?” and so on. I got to see this tip work the next day as I had a gig in Racine, WI. I changed my opening to implement this tip and it worked like gang busters. With corporate gigs, very often I’m coming on to an ice cold group who is in the middle of eating dinner. Or my opening act was an accountant giving a powerpoint on next year’s budget forecast. Exciting. Using Dan’s tip, it took only a few minutes to bring everyone’s attention to the stage and get the energy and laughs flowing.

When emceeing, give comics great intros. And if you are a comic, always write out your intro on an index card. “ALWAYS write out a few credits and write out your name phonetically . Funny intros are great if you don’t have any credits. Never tell the emcee to, ‘Just say anything.’”

Reset the stage for the next comic, i.e., put the mic back in the stand, move the stool, and adjust the mic height for the next comic.

When introducing the next comic, do the “Wait and Shake.” Meaning, wait for them to come up, shake their hand, and THEN leave the stage.

Make sure you end the intro with the comic’s name as the punch line.

If someone bombs, don’t mention it. Show respect for your fellow comics.

Don’t start with blue material. If the show goes blue, then you can join in and “Blue it up.” But some times if the next comic is clean you’ll need to “Blue in down.”

Keep politics to yourself. As the emcee, your job is to be likeable and get the audience going, not alienate them.

Never make fun of the wait staff. They hang with the club bookers and the managers and if they like you, you have a better chance of being asked back.

Ask the club if there are any announcements that they’d like you to make. Makes you sound like a pro and helping them sell drinks and t-shirts is another way to get asked back.

Keep the show rolling. Don’t do a lot of time in-between acts. If someone kills, then don’t slow the show down with material. If a comic tanks, then bring out you killer material to bring the audience back. You’re the host and it’s up to you to make it a great night for the audience as well as the comics.

Dan gave us 25 tips, if you want the rest of them, then get his book, “How not to suck as an emcee.”

Dan Rosenberg will be doing his “How not to suck as an Emcee” workshop at the California Comedy Conference. Details at:
http://www.comedyworkshops.com/ccc.html

Creating Material on Current Events

I've decided to teach a workshop in writing current event material at the California Comedy Conference. Having jokes about current topics tells the audience that your act is fresh and that you're on top of what's going on.

Here are some tips for creating current event material:

-When doing personal material, try bringing a current topic or person into the "mix." i.e: "My mother hates her neighbors. She's become the Al Qaeda of the condo unit." (Then add act-out.)

-A list of three is a great way to bring current events into your act. "We live in a scary world, terrorists, the war in Iraq… (Then add the funny one which can change as the news changes) i.e: "Our vice-president is shooting people, Britany Spears is a mother…" This list of three structure gives you an easy way to plug up to date material into your act.

-If your current event joke is no longer current – let it go! Current jokes usually only have a shelf life of a few days. Oh, all those great Cheney shooting jokes, gone. ("Oh it WAS an accident. Cheney thought it was a gay cowboy.") It's hard to throw good jokes away, but you're a hack if you're still doing Clinton "cigar" jokes. It's long over – let it go.

-Sometimes you prepare some current events jokes and get to the comedy club and all the comics before you have beaten the topic to death – let your jokes go.

-Watch Leno and see if you jokes are as good as his. If they are, you might want to start submitting jokes to TV and Radio. If you've never submitted jokes before, don't start at the top, but start with your local radio DJ's.

At the California Comedy Conference, you'll learn how to make money by submitting to TV and Radio.

See you at the conference! Info at

http://www.comedyworkshops.com/ccc.html

Judy Carter

How to get a Manager

Every two months our Advanced Class in LA has VIP night. This is where we invite a VIP, invite the public, get everyone drunk and showcase for them. After the showcase we have a Q and A with the VIP.

Last month, manager Barb North, gave us insider information on what managers are looking for when they watch standup comics. Here's what we learned…

What are some Do's and Don't's of showcasing?
"When putting together a showcase set, put up front material that reflects your 'point of view,' with material that tells the audience who you are. Don't use your funniest line if it doesn't say anything about you. And have jokes that payoff quickly. You shouldn't go more than 15 seconds w/out a payoff. If it's for TV and they ask you to be clean, be clean. If they ask you to go 8 minutes, don't do 15.

What do managers do?
"A manager is there for your whole career. Some are equipped to bring both creative and business insights. A manager will help you get all the different kind of agents you need and work with them to get you opportunity as well as look over deals and advise you. A manager / comic relationship is like a marriage – I have to love a comic – I have to believe in them."

"Managers have different tastes. If a manager rejects you – it may not be because of your talent."

How do I get on Premium Blend?
"They aren't shooting Premium Blend at the moment... they are doing Gotham, but in general, it is harder if you are white male just because there are so many white male comics and so the competition is steeper. They are always looking for women – but some female comics get their shot when they aren't ready yet, which can hurt. The upside is that if it takes you longer to get noticed then you will have more time to get better. A lot of shows say 'Pitch me someone with credits.' Credits beget credits so work wherever and whenever you can until you get established."

[to comic Joseph who is Hispanic] "There is a huge Hispanic market and more and more opportunities all the time."

[to comic Joseph who is Hispanic] "There is a huge Hispanic market and many Latino Laugh Festivals."

"Mad TV and SNL are looking for people who can do characters. If you are a standup and want to get on that show, then it's good to weave characters in and out of your act."

"Start with smaller festivals. Don't go right to the Montreal Festival as your first festival."

[When talking to Kenny, who's act is about being a dad] "Your act is about being a stay at home dad, I would find that easy to market."

"It's important to learn cold reading. If a casting director likes your looks, she might like to have you in for an audition and you will need to know how to make copy come alive."

"Showcase under the radar until you are ready."

Barb also talked about what was on everyone's mind:

How to get a manager:
"There is a magic about it. I like to sign someone I connect with and I think I can sell. A manager needs to see someone several times. If you are out there and performing a lot, you will get seen."

Things that turn a manger off?
Email blasts. I like to get emails on what you are doing, but don't harass a manager. We are people too and need a life. And don't think if we don't sign you right away we are rejecting you. Keep us informed on what you are doing, but don't over do it.

Barb North will be giving a workshop at the California Comedy Conference. Dec 1 – 3. Spots are still available.

www.comedyworkshops.com/ccc.html

Breaking Through Writing Blocks and Getting the Funny OUT!

This is #1 in an occasional series of tips to keep the creativity going.

Tip #1: Get out of the house!!
When people find out that I make a living from doing comedy, they inevitably say, “Wow that must be so much fun.” Wrong! 95% of my time is spent doing really boring stuff: sending out pr kits; making calls to clients; getting airline tickets; writing checks’, going through 300 emails -- most of them asking if I’m satisfied with my dick size, and of course, kicking a printer that’s stopped working. Doing the gigs is fun. Getting the gigs takes work.

Most creative people have the same problem: When do I get to do the creative stuff? Sometimes I feel that if I do the same material again, I’ll die of boredom. Oh wait… the audience beat me to it. We all need new material, but it’s hard to make the time for it. Even if you have time, so many porn sites…..

WRITING TIP: GET OUT OF THE HOUSE
I find writing very lonely, so I need to work in a public place. If I’m home, I get distracted. So when I need to work on new material, I leave my house and go to my Westside office. I find it very inspiring, as it has large leather couches, ornate gold leaf tables, wireless high-speed Internet, ocean view, and even waitress service. Maybe you’ve seen my Westside office -- The Hotel Del Mar lobby. I bring my lap top, put on my noise canceling headsets and spread out my papers. I always order a Cappuccino and give the waitress a large tip. This way, they have a positive attitude about me setting up camp here. Who says office space on the Westside is expensive? I have an ocean view office for $15/day…I even hold meetings there.

What gets your creative juices flowing might be something different. Know what it takes for you to create and set time aside to do it. I wrote many books, but each one started in some hotel lobby!

At the California Comedy Conference, there are so many workshops designed to get you past your blocks, get the creative flowing, and start making money from being funny!www.comedyworkshops.com/ccc.html

Working out new material

Working out new material – Judy bombs!

After years of doing corporate comedy, keeping it clean, and edgeless, I was getting bored. Money is great, but I missed the excitement of the comedy salad days. I challenged myself by working a comedy club in Berlin. I hit topics that I would never do at a corporate gig: concentration camps, gay marriage, erotica museums… (See Berlin blog). Wow! It got me so high walking the comedy edge again.

So, I’m now doing something that is one of the scariest challenges I’ve ever done: I’m going to my standup classes, not as the teacher, but as a student. The first day, the teacher, Cary Odes did an incredible exercise of finding the “Anti-You.” Meaning, what are the qualities of a character that would be your opposite. We then had to get up and perform need material. I’ve performed with President Clinton in front of 8500 people. But that pales in comparison to getting up in front of the 9 other comics in the class. It’s not easy being the “Comedy Goddess who wrote the book.” I knew I was going to suck.

That’s the thing that makes doing standup a constant challenge. No matter how much success you have – you will always suck when trying new material. Go watch “The Comedian” and watch Seinfeld struggle and bomb trying to put together a new five minute set. But avoiding bombing by doing the same material gig after gig is a killer in a different kind of way. So, I got up, did my new set, some bits worked, most bombed, but joining my students in their struggle rather than sitting back in the comfortable teachers chair – exciting!

Comedy in Berlin

Comedy in Berlin

A Canadian company flew me out to Berlin to do an hour “wake-up” speech for their sales force after lunch. People ask me why I don’t do comedy clubs any more. Hmmmm, let me think a moment. Traveling first class, staying at 5-star hotels, taken out to French meals, an hour set to an appreciative audience, verses 8 shows a week for drunks while sharing a cockroach infested “comedy condo.” Corporate Comedy rocks and more on that later.

German comedy is very different than American standup. Germans love their Cabarets where the comedy is delivered Jerry Lewis style. Rather than personal revelatory comedy, they love political satire where the comic doesn’t hit the nail on the head, but jokes are clever and ironic.
I started to understand the nature of comedy in Europe at the Fringe festival a few years ago when I over heard a Brit talking to a German saying, “America comics have no sense of irony.” I lean over and said, “I over heard what you said and isn’t it ironic that I’m an American comic and overheard you?” He said, “No, and exactly my point.”

We Americans don’t understand irony. Not even Alanis Morissette, because “a fly in your Chardonnay” isn’t ironic, but unfortunate. Perhaps it would be ironic if you just came from a meeting of the society for pest control and voted no to the use of pesticides to rid the world of flies and you were toasting your success and there was then a fly in your wine. Or not. See we don’t truly understand irony.

American standup is self defacing, authentic, and shame based. “I just broke up with my boyfriend,” “I can’t get laid,” “My father was Nazi.” In other countries, these remarks are kept private. Perhaps that’s because American’s have such a short history and aren’t in touch with themselves in relationship to the rest of the world. Only 4% of Americans have passports. I was talking to a woman who told me she had a wonderful time in France – Epcot France. Disney’s version of France is where people eat Kraft cheese on Starbucks croissants and the “French” people are friendly.

While in Germany I was invited to headline at the Kookaburra Comedy club on English speaking night. How would a German audience react to my “hit the nail on the head Jewish humor? More next blog.

Comedy in Berlin 2

Comedy in Berlin 2

Most Germans I spoke to have great shame about the Holocaust. The Jewish Museum was filled with school tours. It seems to me that young Germans are fully aware of the atrocities that happened. However, I couldn’t find one person who heard what happened during World War 2 first hand from their grandparents. “They just don’t talk about it.”

I did my “Let’s REALLY talk about what happened” set at a local comedy club on English-speaking night. The evening started with Kim who is a cabaret singer from Australia who was very charming. Then Tamara Augustin-Ingram, a black American comic did a great set about being black in Germany. It was interesting as Germans don’t have a “Ghetto Rap” culture, but they know all about it from TV. Turn on German TV and there is everything from Chris Rock to the Nanny duped in German. And if you thought “The Nanny” was annoying in English…But they loved Tamara who I met when she attended the California Comedy Conference in Palm Springs.(And some of you think it’s too far to go from the Valley.) Also, performing was another American comic Robert Lyons who is from Kansas and came to Germany to become a soap opera star. He did a great five minute set. Next it was my turn.

When Germans find out someone is Jewish, they usually make a point of being very nice and will pick up the check at a restaurant. I guess it’s sort of an apology. "Sorry about killing six million of your relatives let me pay for your schnitzel."

It was a shocker to them when I opened the show with this routine: “I’ve had a wonderful uplifting time in Berlin. I went to the Jewish museum, then to the holocaust tower, and on to a tour of a concentration camp. Then I when to a Brecht play about Waiting for Death. I’m thinking that a perfect end to this holiday will be a suicide. That’s the last time I book my travels via Kafka.com.”

There was a silence as if no one wanted to be the first to laugh at a joke containing the word “concentration camp,” and then they fell on the floor in laughter. I had to explain to the audience that being Jewish, it was “OK for me to joke” about my experience and I gave them permission to laugh. Once I explained the rules (Germans love rules), not speaking modestly, I tore the place apart.

All comics should travel. It gave me a new perceptive on being an American. So much we do, we don’t realize it, but we are being “American.” And that isn’t normal to other people. Being in another country, I finally truly understood the meaning of a comic’s “Point of View.”
More on Point of View and Premises in the next blog.

Corporate Comedy Rocks!

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.