Lessons stand-ups can learn from improvisers #4: Discovery > Invention
Lessons stand-ups can learn from improvisers #4: Discovery > Invention
You don't need to invent new stuff, you're already very messed up
Here are my previous articles in this series:
You might notice that many professional comedians have bits of material that starts with a single thought, and this thought avalanches into many creative ideas, heightening and building as it goes along.
I did not de-collapse my opera hat for this!
The heart of an authentic comedy idea is anything that makes you feel a strong emotion, whatever that may be. Even if that idea is: “Elegant balloons is a ludicrous name for a balloon shop”. Once you have this evocative idea, you can easily discover the world around it.
Orbs
A great premise is like a shining orb in a completely dark room, a comedian leads their audience around every crevice this room like a slobbering and crazed tour guide. The room is full of artifacts, people, little videos, murals - all that kind of crap. The comedian is brimming with excitement and shows the audience everything in this room, which lights up as it is brought to life. Only when the whole room is lit up and is in full colour are we lead into another room.
In a “invention” style, the audience is dragged by the arm around several different rooms, never fully exploring any of the rooms. This leads to audience to feel “Aww I liked that room, I wanted to stay there for a while”.
I am not super confident about these metaphors.
With Paul’s Elegant Balloons joke he doesn’t need to invent anything outside of the world of an elegant man demanding elegant balloons from a regular balloon shop. He doesn’t need to invent any new types of balloons or add any extra craziness to the scene. The joke is simple and pure, it’s very visual, silly and hilarious.
That’s not to say invention has no place in comedy. In a way, Paul has “invented” a this pompous elegant balloon demanding man. But you could also argue that he was an ever present entity, and Paul was just possessed by his spirit for a time. It reminds me of the way TJ & Dave talk about truth in comedy.
We believe there that there’s this thing going on, that the show is already going on, it is already in process, and we pick it up, at a moment somewhere within this progression, but that the show itself started a long time ago umm, we didn’t know it, and we don’t know which show we are about to join already in progress. So we get to live it or physically represent it for 50-some-odd minutes and then we leave it but it keeps on going, that the people that were represented for that amount of time go on to have marriages and divorces and children and buy property and maybe die a natural death a long time in the future, or die in some horrible accident soon after we see them.
Although this quote is about long-form improvisation, you can absolutely apply this to your stand-up, or any creative writing. When you’re in a great writing flow, you feel like you are uncovering jokes that are already there. Whereas sometimes jokes feel like they are tacked on and awkwardly placed.
How to “discover” jokes
Make sure you care about the thing you are taking about. Emotions(attitude) open up your mind to new connections. You can always exaggerate the emotion a bit for comic effect.
I love visual comedy that paints an image in the audiences mind. You can create visual comedy by being more specific.
Keep writing! The more material you have, the more your mind will become attuned to discovering and uncovering jokes that don’t feel invented.
dear caroline,
delightful as always, thank you for sharing!
i love this: "A great premise is like a shining orb in a completely dark room, a comedian leads their audience around every crevice this room like a slobbering and crazed tour guide. The room is full of artifacts, people, little videos, murals - all that kind of crap. The comedian is brimming with excitement and shows the audience everything in this room, which lights up as it is brought to life. Only when the whole room is lit up and is in full colour are we lead into another room."
another shining orb of a piece!
much love,
myq