Writing Comedy

Sorry guys this is a long one.  I wanted to start off with a sort of preamble to my journey to let you know not only where I'm going but how I got here.

                A lot of people ask me where I got both my inspiration for material and how to get up on stage and do what I do.  One of those questions has an easy answer.  I was born into a traveling family so I didn't spend a lot of time in one place.  Anyone else who has done this knows you have to learn to make friends quick or be lonely.  So I quickly found out my talents lie in making my classmates laugh, so I became the class clown.  As I got older I didn't stop despite finding more stability in my high school years.  I became obsessed with stand-up comedy at this time and absorbed as much as I could find to watch.  In turn I would tell my friends about all the hilarious jokes I had heard, they understood that it wasn't my material but my delivery of it was good.  What started out as kind of a nonchalant comment that I should get into comedy slowly became my dream.  Being the class clown I grew up craving attention, possibly because of the lack of it I got at an early stage, which I feel sufficiently explains why getting on stage is so easy for me.

               Once I got to college I found out about all these great comedy open mics in the area and knew I had to start writing because I had no material.  The problem is that I had no idea how to write.  What I decided to do was to carry around a little notebook and write down anything I found funny, whether it be some obscene conversation I had with friends or something I thought was silly about a commercial.  In no time at all I had an entire flipbook full of ideas.  The hard part was figuring out what was actually funny.  My freshman year there was a talent show for my dorm.  At this time my roommate also wanted to do comedy, so we designed a duet set to perform and while our material was somewhat over the line offensive for a campus in the south full of Christians we actually got some good reviews from audience members.  That and a lot of uncomfortable people shifting in their seats.  Here's where the tale gets tragic.

                There were a number of comedy events on campus sponsored by a school organization.  I had joined this group as a way of meeting people in the entertainment industry, however, if I had known then what I know now I would never have joined.  Because of my previous involvement with this organization I was disqualified to compete in any comedy events for fear that if I won it could be seen as biased by the student body.  I was thoroughly pissed, frustrated upset and just about every other negative emotion you can describe for a while.  But I continued to write, determined to not let this keep me down. I managed to establish a campus open mic and perform there.  I had a great deal of positive feedback which for me was a blessing and a curse.  I was overjoyed that people truly liked my material, but there weren't enough shows to perform at.  In the last year a local bar has started its own open mic the is available for performers once a month.

                Finally there was a place in town to regularly perform.  But herein lies the rub.  The relatively same groups of people come every month.  So in a months time I have to write at least 4 new jokes so I don't seem stale.  I haven't been able to use a joke more than twice because of the recurring audience.  This in a way can also be a blessing, it forces me to actively write more and more material.  At this point if I were to perform for a fresh crowd I could probably have at least a half hours worth of material.  My next show is April 17th.  If any of you live in South Carolina it would be awesome if you came out.