When Humor Distracts

[mcstone71]

So many magicians perform great material -true miracles, and then coat their performance with second rate hackneyed lines that wore themselves out in the days of vaudville. I watched a video tape of one of my shows and noticed that I was using all kinds of jokes I had heard somewhere. I cut them all out. I still have plenty of jokes left over that I made up myself.

My advice is to only use jokes you make up yourself. The jokes you make up yourself AUTOMATICALLY fit your character because YOU MADE THEM UP.

If you CAN'T make up jokes... then maybe, just maybe, you're NOT a comic performer. And there's nothing wrong with that! But maybe you've never even tried to make up jokes, because you don't have to -you're borrowing so liberally. Making it a rule not to use other people's lines forced me to be more creative and come up with my own jokes.

[GlassHarper]

Humor rumor

Hey, MC --

The biggest humor hurdle I had to leap was trusting my instincts in the moment. As a certifiable anal retentive I felt my show had to be carefully thought out, scripted, analyzed and psychoanalyzed before I dared foist it upon an unsuspecting public.

Then one day a potentially offensive, spur of the moment comment slipped my lips. It got a laugh! Wow, I thought, maybe I should be saying ALL of these things that pop into mind, but get suppressed because I don't want to make myself look foolish. A lesson from long ago lept to mind -- the fool is the only one who can speak the truth to the king without getting his head cut off (usually).

But don't throw out the tried and true. I don't know from whom I heard it first, but I've yet to find a line as effective at getting an audience consolidated as, "Folks, I am a vegetarian, I won't bite, you can come up close!"

[pablo]

In the moment

I agree - and this has been debated before - that way too many performers, especially magicians, rely on tired old stale one-liners that elicit more groans than laughs. These guys are essentially cover bands without the music.

But your act is your act. You can stick to the safe & comfortable script of moldy jokes... or you can improvise & create "in the moment". And if it's fresh, it doesn't always have to be funny.