How I did it: Took a stand-up course run by an actual comedian, read a whole bunch of books and over a period of 6 weeks wrote a number of 2 minute mini-sets which I put together.

Lessons & tips: Stand-up is a really weird beast. One one hand it's you against the world, and on the other it's an extremely social activity that relies on the interaction between you and the audience. Before you get up on stage you need to have material that you have run by a number of people to get their feedback.

The easiest way is to find others locally who want to do stand-up and work together. There's only so many half-jokes that you can run past your friends and family before they will want to choke you :) You'll have different things that you naturally find funny, but it's the feedback and the practice performing in front of each other that will hone your performance and take the edge off before you get on stage. Meet up in a pub, mess around, do some ad-libbing exercises and write a lot.

Write down what you find funny (don't feel the pressure to write jokes), cut out all the stuff that doesn't need to be there and with practice you will find that essential essense of mirth that lies beneath. If is sounds esoteric, that's a bit because it is.

Don't copy other people's jokes, but don't worry about covering the same material. If you put 10 people in a room and tell them to tell you about swine flu, they'll come up with different stuff. The crux of the it is to write a lot and get rid of the weak bits. I wrote for about an hour every day for about 6 weeks. It's a lot of work to get your first 5 minute set together, but is completely worth it.

Then all there is to is find an open-mic night, fill the audience with friends and family, get them really drunk and voila! Stand-up comedy!

Resources: "Teach yourself stand-up comedy" by Logan Murray
I actually did a course with the author, but this is gold. Aimed at working in a group, it contains all of the exercises that we did in the workshops and a lot more. It covers developing material, joke forms, ways to mess around with aforementioned mates at the pub, and the technical details of being a comedian. Aimed for the absolute beginner, it assumes you know nothing and moulds you into a superhuman comedy beast. And at $4 or something these days, it's a steal.

"Zen and the art of stand-up comedy" by Jay Sankey.
You might want to read this one a bit later. Echoes a lot of the stuff that the first book covers, but from different angles. Bit daunting to start from.

Get out there and watch stand-up in clubs. Take notes on styles and the structure of the jokes. Have a think about what works for you and what doesn't.

A lot of comedians will talk about how tough it is. Ignore them. When a joke comes off, it's the best feeling ever.

---

Jun 20, 2009, 05:09AM PDT | 0 comments | 2 cheers