Thinking about funny
I'm listening to an old Howard Stern interview of Robin Williams. Which is strange, because, Howard is always talking about how Robin Williams isn't funny. But apparently, he was funny at least one day...
But this is just one of a long series of old interviews with comedians that they're playing on Howard Sterns Sirius channel.
But this whole week, blogging frequently, seeing and hearing all this comedy on television and radio, has made me wonder lately if my blog is actually a good place to mine material for shows.
Maybe.
I do feel like I'm more relaxed and creative when I'm making nonsense up on the blog. And I have read from my blog on stage and gotten a lot of laughs.
The stream of consciousness I have, is apparently much different than the stream that comes out of Robin Williams. His stream is relatively topical. I'm not even sure that mine is based in this reality. I do tend to escape into weirdness. It's a good ride for me. I hope it works for others.
My therapist suggested to me that, in my childhood solitude, I used my mind to keep myself occupied. She's right. I wrote stories that were extremely derivative of stuff I had just read or seen on television or in the movies. I made my twelve inch action figures wrestle until I made them bleed with red magic markers. It washed off really well. I made my six inch G.I.Joes play football against each other. There were some really heroic catches and runs in my G.I. Joe Bowl games.
Breaker was my favorite, but Gung Ho was pretty cool too. Gung Ho had a shaved head, a big moustache, a sleeveless shirt, and some sort of brimmed hat. He looked just like the leather guy from the Village People on Reserve weekends.
Robin Williams just said his act came from a "sesspool of consciousness". That's better.
So in terms of ratio of jokes made to laughs produced, do we think Robin is on the low end?
Mitch Hedberg made me laugh more than %85 of the time.
Brian Regan, Jim Gaffigan, Todd Barry %80.
Steven Wright used to make me laugh %80-90 of the time but that was the first time you heard the act. Then the percentage would drop quickly.
Cosby, I'm ashamed to say, still makes me laugh but his show is only half jokes anymore. The rest of it is "poignant".
Robin Williams makes me laugh after about %15 of his jokes. But lucky for him, he won't shut up so I laugh almost as much with him as I would with, say, an episode of Good Times.
I, personally, am a little too relaxed to actually create the rapid fire punch line performance that would make me a real "comedian". I found out a while a go that I don't really have that healthy fear of the audience. I'm actually pretty disinterested in them when I'm in front of the mic. That's probably not a good thing. But I'm changing my attitude. I'm going to gather new material. And I'm going to do it as honestly and as much like "myself" as I can.
But this is just one of a long series of old interviews with comedians that they're playing on Howard Sterns Sirius channel.
But this whole week, blogging frequently, seeing and hearing all this comedy on television and radio, has made me wonder lately if my blog is actually a good place to mine material for shows.
Maybe.
I do feel like I'm more relaxed and creative when I'm making nonsense up on the blog. And I have read from my blog on stage and gotten a lot of laughs.
The stream of consciousness I have, is apparently much different than the stream that comes out of Robin Williams. His stream is relatively topical. I'm not even sure that mine is based in this reality. I do tend to escape into weirdness. It's a good ride for me. I hope it works for others.
My therapist suggested to me that, in my childhood solitude, I used my mind to keep myself occupied. She's right. I wrote stories that were extremely derivative of stuff I had just read or seen on television or in the movies. I made my twelve inch action figures wrestle until I made them bleed with red magic markers. It washed off really well. I made my six inch G.I.Joes play football against each other. There were some really heroic catches and runs in my G.I. Joe Bowl games.
Breaker was my favorite, but Gung Ho was pretty cool too. Gung Ho had a shaved head, a big moustache, a sleeveless shirt, and some sort of brimmed hat. He looked just like the leather guy from the Village People on Reserve weekends.
Robin Williams just said his act came from a "sesspool of consciousness". That's better.
So in terms of ratio of jokes made to laughs produced, do we think Robin is on the low end?
Mitch Hedberg made me laugh more than %85 of the time.
Brian Regan, Jim Gaffigan, Todd Barry %80.
Steven Wright used to make me laugh %80-90 of the time but that was the first time you heard the act. Then the percentage would drop quickly.
Cosby, I'm ashamed to say, still makes me laugh but his show is only half jokes anymore. The rest of it is "poignant".
Robin Williams makes me laugh after about %15 of his jokes. But lucky for him, he won't shut up so I laugh almost as much with him as I would with, say, an episode of Good Times.
I, personally, am a little too relaxed to actually create the rapid fire punch line performance that would make me a real "comedian". I found out a while a go that I don't really have that healthy fear of the audience. I'm actually pretty disinterested in them when I'm in front of the mic. That's probably not a good thing. But I'm changing my attitude. I'm going to gather new material. And I'm going to do it as honestly and as much like "myself" as I can.
posted by Churchill at 11:28 AM
1 Comments:
I think it's good to have a bit of 'disinterest' in your audience, perhaps even a little disdain. You can totally make that work for you. It's sort of like when you're doing the route and you tell a joke - sometimes that joke is just for you. And I feel that one of the cardinal rules in performing is that if you aren't having fun no one else will. So - make me laugh!!!
Post a Comment
<< Home