There are two really important lessons I’ve learned about writing stand-up comedy that I still have to remind myself of regularly.
1. No one fact-checks comedians. The best source of material a comedian has is his or her own life, but life rarely aligns itself for maximum comedic effect. So while I’m not nearly creative enough to just make up the funny stories I tell on stage out of thin air, I DO regularly have to change or exaggerate the details to make them work better as jokes. For example, I’ve recently written a bit about the difference between my family’s holiday traditions and those of my husband’s family. When I tell the joke, it doesn’t matter that the turkey is already butchered and processed by the time we arrive at the turkey farm to pick it up- it’s much funnier to tell the story as if we had to choose our turkey from the ones running around the yard. I still occasionally find myself tangled up in the truth behind the material, and have to remind myself that every detail doesn’t have to be strictly true.
2. Avoid “wasted motion.” One of the unique features of writing standup comedy as opposed to other forms of writing is the heightened need for verbal economy. Oh yes, verbosity is to be discouraged in all forms of writing, but when it’s just you, by yourself, in front of 300 people expecting to be entertained by you, the pressure is on to get from the setup to the punchline as quickly as possible. For me, wasted motion is often tied up with the literal truth of the story that I have to free myself from. When I tell my story about driving through Kansas hungover, I keep wanting to add in a line about holding the steering wheel in place as you nap in the driver’s seat, because I feel like I have to explain EXACTLY how one would do that. I don’t, of course. It’s enough to suggest that you turn on cruise control- I don’t have to throw in the line about putting a bungee cord on the steering wheel.
When I’m writing new material, I often scrawl it out in a little notebook I carry with me, and I’ll usually write out every sentence as it occurs to me. I find that if I get tired of writing it, I should consider whether or not an audience will tire of listening to it.
