Stand Up Comedy Discipline

What’s the difference between a good comedian and a not-so-good comedian?  Jokes, folks.   A comedian without jokes is like a cat without claws and eyes.  It’s not much of a cat, really.  If a comedian is going to survive and (potentially) thrive, he’s got to develop jokes.

As I’ve mentioned before, the quality of a comedian’s jokes aren’t nearly as important as the quantity. Quantity begets quality. This evolution is a byproduct of successful and productive time management (that’s right, I went straight to middle management jargon). Simply put, a good comedian has discipline.

Writing good jokes is a process. It starts with an idea that is written into a joke. The joke is performed and then tweaked over and over and over and over again. The final product is a fine gem: a joke that sounds so fresh, you’d think the comedian just came up with it.

Realizing this process, however, we can make the assessment that a good joke is stale to the comedian (and his wife). He has said it so many times that the words have lost meaning yet, he continues to fill the words with significance.  He tries to mold his creation further even though he has exhausted any and all fresh permutations.  He fully commits to the joke and sells it each and every time he performs; at every dive bar open mic, every comedy show and every event. To him, it’s a painstaking process, yet he sticks it out.  This is discipline.

The benefit for a comedian is that he has an endless stream of thoughts and ideas that can make this transformation.  As a joke loses its appeal, a comedian can hang it up and repeat this process on something new.  Once again, it takes a certain amount of discipline to get sucked into that void.  Some people dig it, though.

Good comedians are those that enjoy the process and regularly take the time to transform their material.  It’s the only profession I can think of where hard work and commitment are laughable.