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Learn Standup Comedy: The 20 Word Rule
By: Everyone who tries to learn standup comedy already knows that One of the biggest problems most new comedians face when they are trying to learn standup comedy is that they cant seem to get to the punchlines quick enough in their act. In other words the setups to the jokes are too long. Way way too long. This is a real problem because in order to be recognized as comedian of any mention you must be able to command at least 4 laughs per minute for each minute you stand before an audience. And the secret is NOT to talk faster. As a matter of fact you absolutely dont want to be in a hurry at all when standing in front of a comedy audience. Please note that I said a minimum of 4 laughs per minuteheadlining comedians get 68 laughs per minute. Now get ready to learn standup comedy from a different perspective. Provided that you have a recording of your standup comedy act (audio or video) and have it transcribed on your word processor (word for word) You can apply the 20 word rule to get the results you want. The 20 word rule is not a hard and fast ruleit is a very flexible editing guideline that you can use now to help shorten your setups or identify where to add punchlines. Heres the simple process: 1. Use your transcribed comedy act and review your recording of that act. Make a visible mark at every point that you got laughs on your transcript. 2. Now go back and count the number of words that lead up to each laugh. If there are more than 20 words the chances are great that you need to do some serious editing to shorten the setup or add a punchline. This concept applies to comedians who are employing old school joke writing techniques as well as those using the more powerful topic driven standup strategies. For those who seriously want to learn standup comedy it should be noted that household name headlining comedians only use 1015 words (average) before they get to a punchline. Again I want to mention that the key is NOT talking faster on stage. Its about easily structuring what you really want to say the way you speak naturally so that you can get the maximum laughs per minute possible every minute you are on stage. Steve Roye is a globally recognized expert in standup comedy material development and performance improvement. For more standup comedy techniques tips and secrets check out Steves Learn Standup Comedy hub page. Tags: ups word processor audience hurry joke laugh writing techniques matter of fact different perspective comedians comedian jokes household name laughs old school stand up comedy Occupation: Comedy Educator Steve Roye is a retired Navy veteran who started his standup comedy career while on active duty. After struggling for 9 solid months and almost quitting standup comedy Steve developed the Killer Standup Comedy System for producing high impact standup comedy material very quickly without using conventional joke writing techniques. In the process of discovering how to master the standup comedy stage he became one of the worlds leading experts on comedy material development and performance enhancement. Steve is now retired from standup comedy and focuses on developing others as comedians and funny speaking professionals as well as operating several successful online businesses. http://www.killerstandup.com |