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Greetings Goons, the last few months I have decided to try something I have always wanted to do; I began the shameful career path of a stand up comedian. I've performed about 6-8 shows so far and they have all been about 10+ minute long performances (including my first time ever infront of a microphone), but it is only at small bars and whatnot; I kind of live in a area of Colorado that is nothing but little towns. I don't really have somewhere to get a crowd like they can get in New York and whatnot. Anyways I was curious what I can do to take this to the next level, I really enjoy performing infront of people and I am trying to get my videos out there on Youtube too. I am thinking I might have to go live on the streets of a much larger city with all the other poor comedians for a shot to be noticed. You can check out my videos on Youtube: Justin Reed stand up. I look forward to any criticism or advice; thank you for your time.
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Sep 22, 2015 01:16
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| # ? May 7, 2024 07:32 |
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Justinen posted:Greetings Goons, the last few months I have decided to try something I have always wanted to do; I began the shameful career path of a stand up comedian. I've performed about 6-8 shows so far and they have all been about 10+ minute long performances (including my first time ever infront of a microphone), but it is only at small bars and whatnot; I kind of live in a area of Colorado that is nothing but little towns. I don't really have somewhere to get a crowd like they can get in New York and whatnot. Anyways I was curious what I can do to take this to the next level, I really enjoy performing infront of people and I am trying to get my videos out there on Youtube too. I am thinking I might have to go live on the streets of a much larger city with all the other poor comedians for a shot to be noticed. You can check out my videos on Youtube: Justin Reed stand up. I look forward to any criticism or advice; thank you for your time. I have a friend that is pursuing this as like a paying side hobby or something. I actually never thought she was very funny, but she apparently took some stand up classes at a local Comedy Zone location and through that met a lot of big name comedians, got advise from them etc. She doesn't travel or do much in the way of variety, she basically does 2 shows a week during their amateur 'open mic' nights and has opened for traveling, but not famous comedians on weekends all at the same location. Seems like she is getting better at delivery and joke writing, but I still don't think she is funny personally. She keep going and trying to get better, making new contacts etc. That's really all you can do unless you're the funniest guy to ever do stand up the road is going to be long and grueling. I watched a few minutes of your videos, you need to work on delivery a lot, don't hold a piece of paper with your jokes on it, you should know them and knowing them will help you get away from those small awkward pauses in your set. I'll say you've got a ways to go keep plugging away, getting better and better and working on your jokes. Worthwhile careers in stand up don't come over night if ever. Edit: I should note that I am not a stand up comic, I've just done a number of best man speeches that went over really well.
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Sep 22, 2015 15:00
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Thanks for some good advice thebushcommander. Gonna bump the thread and see what information I can get today too.
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Sep 22, 2015 15:31
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It is not a career if you enjoy security. I have 2 cousins who are trying to make a living doing comedy. Both live in New York, pretty much the place to be if you wanna make a name for yourself in da biz. One is an industrial engineer, which allows him to refine his art without the fear of being homeless. He has a couple projects that never really gained traction under his belt, but keeps plinking at it into his early 30s. The other is in her mid-20s -- she's actually fairly successful and manages to make a living between her blog, standup, and radio shows, though I suspect her parents may be helping to keep her afloat during the dryer times. The short version is, you need to get in front of as big a crowd as you can, make 'em laugh, and network like crazy when you're not on stage. It's a matter of meeting the right people and securing bigger audiences as you go. You can't really make it work as easily in a small town, since word of mouth just isn't as effective.
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Sep 22, 2015 17:42
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Where in Colorado are you? Moving out of Salida and to Denver and working the door at Comedy Works and getting to spend time with people like Louis CK and Patton Oswalt and working on performing and writing as much as possible worked well for an old friend of mine, he made a decent career out of stand up and writing for like 10 years now. Also gently caress the western slope/eastern colorado, get the gently caress out of there as quickly as possible regardless of what you want to do with your life.
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Sep 22, 2015 17:55
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I do think I am quite a bit better at writing than I am at performing. About 50% or so of my routines and some of the funny parts of my set I tend to forget when I am infront of the microphone. It would almost be ideal to just write for someone else and avoid the spotlight all together; but not sure how to make that happen.
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Sep 22, 2015 18:03
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It's never going to happen unless you fix the geographical/social problems of not being near anyone who can give you feedback and use what you write. You have to move to where that can happen, if you don't this career is not an option for you. It's really that simple and binary of a choice, there is no grey area or other alternative.
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Sep 22, 2015 18:07
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There's a few comedians who use r/standupshots to good advantage, not sure what it gets them except exposure, but you could use it as a place to work jokes as well I imagine. Another offshoot of this job is corporate/convention speaking - you get a few minutes to warm up the crowd for the speaker, make a few jokes about their industry, that kind of thing. Not as creative but potentially more lucrative.
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Sep 22, 2015 22:30
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Every stand up I've listened to on a podcast always says just get out there and do as many shows as you can. The successful ones did at least 5 shows a week over a 5-10 year period before they could even dream of making real money doing that. There's also a few ex stand up comedians in work crew and they say it's the worst lifestyle, so be prepared for it to be lovely for a long time and maybe someday you'll get there!
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Sep 23, 2015 15:24
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Really the only advice for people starting out in comedy is to write and perform. Perform and write. Write and perform.
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Sep 23, 2015 15:31
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From what I've seen, most of the amateur guys I know who are becoming a bit more successful do a lot of side gigs in front of large groups of people, whether that includes being a wedding MC, show MC, or anything along those lines. The most successful guy I know started off doing standup at Culture Shows, being an MC for these same culture shows, and then quickly starting his own show at the laugh factory where he would invite Asian American comedians. He's now doing massive amounts of wedding MCing, a radio show, and touring around with a group of other comedians. It took him at least 14 years to get to this point, but he's really been successful as a result of the incredible amount of work he put into it.
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Sep 23, 2015 21:54
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| # ? May 7, 2024 07:32 |
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Also, http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3517952
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Sep 24, 2015 02:32
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