Making Jokes Great
One Comedian’s Guide to Working on Material.
by: Bjorn Ryan-Gorman
This is my process for taking jokes from good to great:
I work them through this from beginning to end. Asking all the questions a little bit at a time until it's a fully formed chunk. This is my polishing process broken down into questions.
“You are one of those comedians who think you have to be funny all the time. You don’t. But, you have to be interesting all the time.” - Dave Chapelle
What are the elements of the bit?
I believe there are two levels of a bit:
1) Content, and
2) Performance
You have to be interesting first, funny second. The reason for this is if I am interesting or talking about interesting things people will want to keep listening to me. I always make sure that the content is good first before adding the elements of performance. The performance is the selling of the bit. If I don’t have the content dialed in then the performance is empty. Performance is the icing on the cake. The cake is the content, yeah some people enjoy eating just frosting but most people want some cake to balance that out. It's not a cake if it's all frosting. So first I bake my (content) cake with all the ingredients and after that I put the (performance) icing on it.
Level 1 - Content
Strong emotion
Interesting
Surprise
Clear
Concise
Convincing point or argument
Make the point again and again
Level 2 - Performance
Extreme Change in volume or tone
An exaggerated voice change
An exaggerated physical act out
A face to show the emotion
What are the questions to ask of each Joke?
In order to build the bit I take the idea and ask it all the questions. I have done my best to break it down into the questions I ask a bit to find the different ingredients. Chris Rock famously does his jokes at clubs with none of his persona. This is to make sure that the content (Level 1) is strong. When he knows the content is good then he will add all the Chris Rock flair to it to really make it pop off. If I have a joke that doesn't always get a laugh consistently, oftentimes I need to go back and fix the content because people are likely just laughing at my performance. They are laughing at my cadence or rhythm of the way I am presenting the material.
Level 1 - Content.
What is my strong emotion? Or how do I feel about this?
Mad, afraid (embarrassed) or glad (love).
What is the most interesting part of this? (could be the first punchline)
Is this an interesting thing? How can I make it interesting?
What is expected? Now what is the opposite of that?
Is my point of view clear? If not, how can I make this clear?
Can I say this in less words?
What are 8 different ways to say this?
Can I say this differently to make it a surprise?
What is this?
What is this like?
What is this not like?
List of 8 things it's like or not like.
How many different ways can I say this first punchline?
Level 2 - Performance.
Where can I exaggerate my voice?
Is there a place I can yell?
Where in this bit can I change my voice?
Exaggerated voice of someone else.
Exaggerated voice of myself.
Show my exaggerated emotion with my voice.
How can I show my point in an exaggerated voice?
2. Where in this bit can I have a big physical movement?
Where in this joke can I contort my body?
Can I move in a way that makes my emotion more clear?
How can I show my point with physical movement of my body?
Where can I do space work in this bit?
3. What is the face (literally) of this bit?
How can I show the emotion on my face?
How can I show my point or make my point with my face?
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Whenever I am stuck with a bit I like to run all these questions by it. They will spark an idea and I will run with that and experiment with that idea until I have a finished bit. I like to challenge myself to write 8 different ideas to push myself to that harder idea. Often it will be that 8th idea that is the really good one but sometimes it only takes 2 or 3. So it is important to write everything down, this time for judgement of the idea. They are all just ideas, they are not good or bad, just write down 8 of them! I find almost always I must go through a few bad ones to find the really great ones.
I hope this helps you make jokes better. I still come back to it almost every day. My goal is to make each one of these questions into an impulse for me so that it's just automatic, but for now when I hit a wall I need a reminder. If you liked this article please subscribe to my weekly blog below and if you found it helpful please share it with one person who would appreciate it.
Thank you for reading, You’re doing great.
by Bjorn RG
Bjorn R-G is a country cub who moved from Montana to the big city and started doing standup comedy in 2012. Bjorn’s confident yet sarcastic story telling approach to comedy has him captivating the Portland comedy scene. His wealth of stories come from the unique background growing up as a LGBT skateboarder from Montana.