How does one practice comedy?

Rachael

Rachael

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I write all my own scripts and I find that when I shoot the video it comes across very naturally. However writing the scripts takes a lot of planning and mental effort to try to be funny. I've heard of a lot of comedians that get better over time, but how do they do it exactly? I thought of the idea to just write a lot but how does doing the same thing over and over help you get better?
 
Rachael said:
I write all my own scripts and I find that when I shoot the video it comes across very naturally. However writing the scripts takes a lot of planning and mental effort to try to be funny. I've heard of a lot of comedians that get better over time, but how do they do it exactly? I thought of the idea to just write a lot but how does doing the same thing over and over help you get better?
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It's not the "same thing over and over" with comedy as you are attempting to write original funny content. Practice writing the content may be repetitive, but the content is not. The best thing to do is to kinda use personal experience or something you see that you could make funny. Keep a journal and just write notes whenever you see something that amuses you. You'll get better at recognizing what is good material and what isn't as time progresses and you understand what the audience enjoys and what they don't.
 
Try keeping a journal/notebook where write your jokes in, also things you said that made people laugh, the Awesome thing is that you can read the book back and get inspired by your own work to make new work :U
 
Try to find someone you think is funny and see if you can make them laugh. Then find different people and try to make them laugh. Learning what people find funny, vs. what you "think" is funny can be super helpful in developing comedy.
 
For me, I can be very witty in person. That doesn't translate very well into my videos, but in person I generally get people laughing all the time. I'm learning to pay attention to what, in my normal way of being, makes people laugh. Then I try to translate that into my scripting or when I get in front of a camera.

Practice isn't always your every-day school book method. Sometimes it's in your daily being. Who are you? And how can you incorporate what you want into your daily life? How can you draw upon your natural talent to improve your "forced" talent?
 
There are many ways to be "comical" and make peoples laugh (note that something comical doesn't make necessarily laugh). There is a rule of thumb you can apply to nearly every situation : you want to play with unexpectation. Don't try to make them laugh everytime in every way possible, you will exhaust yourself. It's better to frankly laugh 2-3 times in 10 minutes than cringing all the way because you desperatly try to make laugh (note that i didn't see your video).

There is a rather extreme example of this : Howtobasic. A bunch of "tutorial" video made by a psychotic anonymous.

There is also Aaron's animals - facebook hacker that plays a lot with unexpectation but in a more subtle way : a man writing to his friend on facebook - 1st unexpectation: he's writing to a cat -2nd unexpectation : another cat "hack" facebook typing "you'r fat" to the first cat -3rd unexpectation : the first cat cry..
 
I would recommend taking some IMPROV classes if you can find some at a local acting studio. Improvisation is one of the keys to being not only a successful actor, but a successful comedian as well. It will teach you how to come up with things to say in certain circumstances and will hone your comedic timing as well.
If you're looking for a script writer, I have been doing that kind of stuff for years and I very much enjoy writing scripts. If you have an idea, let me know and I'd be happy to put something together for you.
 
Post and see what happens. It's all been trial and error for me. I idolize the vintage Looney Tunes directors and I've found their technique of, "we just made the cartoons that made us laugh" tends to hold true today. Make what you enjoy, what you find funny and someone else is likely to also.

Now true, there's going to to be those things you find hilarious that others don't every now and then but that's the trial and error part. ;)
 
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