How to achieve rolling laughter
Comedy Feedback with Karan Mehra
Welcome to another round of Comedy Feedback, this time with
who sent me his set both as text and video.What is “rolling laughter” ?
Rolling laughter is when people haven’t finished laughing at one joke before they start laughing at the next joke, and so on. The result is laughter that builds uncontrollably. It’s easier said than done but it’s something to aim for. Along with people spontaneously clapping because a joke was sooo funny (not to be confused with clapture - clapping instead of laughing). These are the highest highs of a comedy set.
To achieve rolling laughter, your jokes need to be spaced out in such a way that the overlap slightly, so that a punchline comes while the audience is still laughing at the last joke. Also, the jokes should become more surprising and/or emotionally intense, while still remaining relatable.
Usually when I am working with peoples sets outside of class, I see them as text only and sometimes I don’t realise what a disconnect that gives from from the actual set.
When I first read Karan’s text I thought it was really good (I still do!) it’s packed with jokes, and it really explores it’s subject matter. But its only when I watched the video I saw how the energy remains a little flat.
Anyway, let’s dive into Karan’s “Tiny Indian Wedding” piece.
My younger brother in India, Varun, and his fiance are mavericks
Coz they are planning India’s first ever..
Tiny wedding
Now I don’t know how much you know about Indian weddings
For context, mine was mid size
Wanna guess how many people?
<crowd engagement>
One thousand two hundred people
Over 4 days
Sir / ma’am: what’s your name?
Have you ever crashed a wedding in India?
It’s impossible.
Coz you’re already invited.
Varun tells me they want a small wedding
100 people. 1 day.
I’m like Varun that’s not a SMALL wedding
That’s afternoon chai
They are learning.. a small Indian wedding.. is not easy
First: the venue
After MONTHS of searching, they found one
Tiny enough
Varun goes “can we book this space for august 12th?”
“Sir, this is a school bus”
But the hardest was when he broke the news to the parents
He goes “but there's something you need to know”
Mom goes : Varun, whoever you want to marry, we love you and support you
He goes no I just want a small wedding
Moms like “get out of this house!”
Varun goes.. “uh.. and.. we don't want kids either"
Dad goes “Karan! Find a gun. And shoot your mother!
And then shoot me”
I'm like why am I going to prison in the middle of all of this??
They’re still trying, and I hope they get their way
But if not
you all wanna come?
<count> No one will even notices
When I first read this I thought it’s a really nice bit. It’s packed with jokes and it really fulfils it’s premise of “My brother wants to have a tiny wedding, and in India this is very shameful”. It wasn’t until I saw the performance that I saw that the delivery is a little lacklustre.
Don’t let the audience catch their breath
Karan has a nice laid back style, but I notice he leaves a little too much space in-between jokes. To create rolling laughter you need jokes to kind of overlap so that people start laughing at the new joke while they are still recovering from the last joke.
Pacing is important in comedy. Too fast and people will have trouble understanding you. Too slow, and you won’t create rolling laughter.
Use unpredictable speech patterns
Karan tends to get into a predictable rhythm. So even if I don’t know what the punchline is going to be, I know where a punchline will land. This lessens the surprise and therefore the impact of the joke.
It’s important in authentic comedy to use your regular way of speaking(with a bit of razzle-dazzle on top) to hide the punchlines.
Boredom is a mood-killer
It could simply be that Karan has told this bit so many times he’s fallen out of love with it. I feel a little bit that he’s going through the motion of this joke, and isn’t emotionally connecting with it. This could just be this particular performace, but if you aren’t excited to tell a joke you can be sure you audience won’t be that excited to hear it. Maybe it’s time to move on from it?
Don’t ask the audience questions if you don’t care about the answer
Karan’s performance is generally good. He’s confident and articulate. One thing I would cut right away is the fake crowd-work. Perhaps it’s just a bugbear of mine, but I don’t like it when comedians ask the audience questions, if they don’t care about the answer, or have a specific answer in mind. Something they think is raising the energy, or is creating a bond with the audience, is actually distracting from their set. It also comes across as inauthentic, and actually breaks trust with the audience.
In improv we say “don’t ask questions, give answers” because questions stall a scene and put all the responsibility on your scene partner. This is exactly the same in stand-up. You’re stalling for time and making the audience do the work. Just say the thing you are trying to say.
What was interesting in this video is when Karan asked the audience member her name she replies like she doesn’t know her own name - she says “Shalamar??”. Karan was so stuck in his script that he missed an opportunity to do real crowd-work, that would have had a bigger impact.
Create a heading, and step on the accelerator
Heading: “My brother plans to have a tiny wedding and in India this is a very shameful thing”
This is a nice and simple heading. I’m going to have a go at compacting the text a little bit. Me, a white woman.
I haven’t actually made that much change to the text, just in my head the pace is more frantic, and the attitude is more intense.
My brother is… a crazy guy. A maverick. He’s trying to organise India’s FIRST… tiny wedding.
I’m sure you’re thinking, a tiny wedding in India. 2000? 1500? maybe as little as 1000 guests? WRONG! YOU ARE ALL WRONG! My insane brother wants to have a wedding of 100 people. That is not a wedding, that is afternoon chai!
There’s no word for “wedding crasher” in Hindi, because you’re already invited!
After months they found a venue small enough, but the venue cancelled last minute, BECAUSE IT WAS A SCHOOL-BUS!
It took him months to find the courage to break the news to our parents! They we're like “Son, son what is it you can tell us anything we’ll love you no matter what! Are you gay? Are you broke? Are you dying?
No pa I want a tiny wedding
FIND A GUN, SHOOT ME AND THEN YOUR MOTHER!
Ciao for now :-)
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Thank you so much for all your time and effort on this! Given me lots to think about.
dear caroline,
i like this sentence a lot: "It’s important in authentic comedy to use your regular way of speaking (with a bit of razzle-dazzle on top) to hide the punchlines."
HIDE THE PUNCHLINES! a great concept.
thank you for these as always!
love
myq