One of the first types of organized standup comedy in the United States was the minstrel show that came on the scene in the early 1800s. It was sometimes referred to as “black face comedy”. Although appalling by 21st century standards, this brand of comedy was widely popular when it started. The all white casts would paint their faces black and begin using the the stereotypical mannerisms of the blacks for their material. It has always been said that comedy reflects the times. And like it or not, this was the state of the country in the 1800s. The minstrel show remained popular through to the mid 19th century and began to loose favor as the United States views on racism and slavery began to change.

As the minstrel show’s popularity waned, vaudeville began to be a popular form or standup or pre-standup comedy. In addition to comedy, vaudeville acts included dancers, magicians and actors. Some shows even included clown-like acts. Just a few of the main comedians of this brand of comedy are - Fred DuPres, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Groucho Marx and the Marx Brothers and Ezera kendall. Vaudeville comedians relied less on the spoken word for laughs and instead used, props and physical comedy. This is because they did not have microphones and instead had to rely on the physical type of comedy.

Vaudeville although popular for a long time gave way to comedic performances on the newly invented radio. This was the beginning of “comedy for the masses”. But while this was very good news for the general public, it came with a price for the performers. They could no longer rely on the physical aspect of their comedy, they now only had their material and timing to get their audiences to laugh. Some comedians were able to make the transition from Vaudeville to more of a spoken word type of comedy. Some of the notable comedians that made this transition are: Jack Benney, Bob Hope, Milton Berle and George Burns.

The addition of the radio was not the only development that was groundbreaking for standup comedy. The microphone was also available for the comedian to apply their craft. And again, the comedians from Vaudeville had to adjust their shows to more spoken word comedy than physical comedy.

Now, comedians were able to perform standup comedy as we now know it. It is at this point in the history that they changes in standup comedy is more content related instead of the physical way that it is performed. Standup comedy throughout the following decades was a reflection of the what events were happening at the time and also the morality and accepted subjects in the country during those decades.

The decades of the 1950s and 1960s saw the rise of comics such as Don Rickles, Johnny Carson and Phyllis Diller. As the country began breaking down the walls of racism, several notable black comedians began to make audiences laugh. They were Dick Gregory, Bill Cosby and Redd Foxx. As the racial bounds were being pushed, the bounds of acceptable humor began to test the limits. Most notably, the comedy of Lenny Bruce set off what some say is the beginning of an anything subject goes style of comedy. He pushed the envelope so far that he was arrested several times for things that he said on stage. It is at this point that comedians tried to push boundaries to see just how far they could go with their comedy.

Another important development for standup comedy began in the 1950s and 1960s - television. With the advent of the television, comedians could have the best of both worlds: the physical type of comedy found in Vaudeville and also the spoken word. This saw the development of variety shows such as The Tonight Show and the Ed Sullivan show on television.

The 1970s were big for standup comedians! This is when they became superstars. They moved from being seen on television and in small comedy clubs to selling out large arenas. Comedians such as George Carlin, Cheech and Chong and Richard Pryor thrived in the new settings. In addition to their live appearances, they made recordings of their shows and sold them (as LPs) to the public. And of course the topics covered were constantly pushing the boundaries of what society would accept. As the sexual revolution and anything goes mentality became prevalent in society, the comedic topics did also.

The 1980s, 1990s and 2000s mainly followed the patterns in the previous decades, more exposure and pushing the envelops. There were however a few notable developments from these decades. MTV and Comedy Central made comedy more accessible to more people. Not only were the public getting to see the big name comics, they were being exposed to up and coming comics via the new television networks. A recent phenomenon is a comedy based reality show called “Last Comic Standing”. This show gives the television viewers exposure to more inexperienced comics that could one day make it to the big leagues.

There is no telling where standup comedy will take us in the future. If the past is any indication, there will be more access by the public to standup comedians and they will always be looking for a way to make them squirm by pushing the limits of what is acceptable in society.

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Various comedians came together under this platform to reel out rib cracking jokes. However, Tee- A (Babatunde Adewale), decided to take comedy to a higher dimension and was the first to stage a one man comedy show in the country, with the slogan “Live N Naked”. Other comedians seeing the endless possibilities such individual shows created followed suit. Ayo Makun’s “A.Y Live”, Bright Okpocha’s “Basket mouth uncensored”, Julius Agwu’s “Crack ya ribs” have become regular shows. Comedians such as Owen gee, Koffi, Gordons, I go die, Teju baby face, Gbenga Adeyinka the first, Basorge Tara jnr have graced their events.

On an annual basis, new comedians on the block are inducted into the comedy world to join the old members. They proudly refer to themselves as “Comedians of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with Alleluya Atuyota Akporobomeriere a.k.a Ali Baba as their Grand commander in chief. A few females have carved niches for themselves in this male dominating field such as Princess, Mandy, Lepacious Bose, and Helen Paul a.k.a tatafo. Ayo Makun, beside his regular stand up comedy event has gone a step further in his noble quest to discover young talented comedians seeking the opportunity to jump start a potential stand up comedy career. His monthly talent show coupled with his TV programme “The A.Y.show” has witnessed young people coming into the field. Bumi Davies (though not a comedian) organises the “Stand up Nigeria” monthly stand up comedy show which entertains Nigerians as well.

Fame and fortune have accompanied these comedians with some being engaged as comperes in corporate/social events, and also endorsing companies products by way of adverts for eg Hollandia Milk (Ali Baba, Julius Agwu), and Glo ( Basket mouth). Corporate bodies even sponsor these stand up comedy shows. A better life has been guaranteed for comedians who possess the laughter medicine and are skilled in administering sufficient dosages of it to the audience. Besides the creeping threat of re-cycled jokes which some comedians are kicking against, and the need for other states to become beneficiaries of the laughter sphere, stand up comedy has not done badly in the Nigerian entertainment circuit and with certitude is here to stay!

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So you want to do standup comedy. You’ve always been “funny” and love making people laugh, and everyone tells you should have a go at it. Maybe it’s even your dream career. Whether you are just looking to it as a side endeavor or seriously as a full time career, here are some important tips on turning your desire into the reality of how to begin performing standup comedy.

Approach it like a job. Comedy is serious business. Keep a written inventory of your material, not necessarily word for word, but each individual “bit” you do by title at least. Polish your best 5 or 10 minutes of material at first. Newcomers only get a few minutes on stage at a time and on each time on stage you’ll want to keep track of the material you do and how it goes over.

Practice, practice, practice. Tape yourself as you rehearse and listen carefully, and of course, tape your performances. Learn your material forwards and backwards and keep your presentation well paced. One mistake many beginners make when they begin performing standup comedy is they race through their act, either from inexperience and or nervousness. Remember that even though you’ve heard it a thousand times, it’s new to your audience and you must keep it sounding fresh and delivered at a pace they can understand.

• Level set yourself. Most people are not “naturals,” regardless of how funny they are. Expect a few bumps in the road on the way to times when you bring down the house. Don’t get discouraged.
• Don’t steal material. Be original. Many standup comedy beginners make the mistake of emulating a well known or admired established comic too much in both style and occasionally even by “borrowing” material, which is an absolute no no. Be yourself.
• Try to avoid topical material, i.e. current events, news items and TV commercial parodies and such in your material as they lack lasting relevance and you might find what you consider your best material outdated all too soon.
• Stand up comics spend a lot of time waiting around in the back room or at the bar in clubs. Use this time productively, i.e. try to get to know the other comics and learn from them. Whatever you do, don’t drink, which can just lead to disaster.
• Don’t “step” on your laughs. They’re what you have worked for. They say it’s all about timing, and this is very true. You must learn to anticipate when the laughs will come and insert appropriate pauses in your act, resuming your delivery when the laughs subside. There is no magic pill for this, though, and experience is the best remedy.

“

One of the biggest problems most new comedians face when they are trying to learn stand-up comedy is that they can’t seem to get to the punchlines quick enough in their act.

In other words, the set-ups 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 don’t 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 minute-headlining comedians get 6-8 laughs per minute.

Now, get ready to learn stand-up comedy from a different perspective.

Provided that you have a recording of your stand-up 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 rule-it is a very flexible editing guideline that you can use now to help shorten your set-ups or identify where to add punchlines.

Here’s 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 set-up 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 stand-up strategies.

For those who seriously want to learn stand-up comedy, it should be noted that household name headlining comedians only use 10-15 words (average) before they get to a punchline.

Again, I want to mention that the key is NOT talking faster on stage. It’s 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.

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So how do you get prepared? Well, you want to start small. You don’t want to perform in front of a paid crowd before you’ve had the chance to perform in front of people who have nothing invested in your routine. For that, go to as many open mic nights as you can. These are places where they just call up people from the audience to come and do their shtick. If you can’t cut it here, you have a lot of work to do to get where you want to be.

As far as your routine itself, don’t read it like you’re reading off of a cue card. You want to be as natural as possible. You want to react and respond to the audience. If somebody heckles you, play along with it. For example, somebody says, “Hey man, you stink.” Respond with something like, “I beg your pardon sir. I happened to have showered last Thursday.” This reply will get a laugh because of the absurdity of the time frame of your last shower. The heckler himself might even get a laugh out of it. Again, don’t let them see you sweat.

Here’s one tip that you won’t hear often but it’s very important. Be yourself. See, there are some types of comedy that require a certain personality. For example, could you imagine Bill Cosby doing a routine of nothing but four letter words? No, you couldn’t. This is why when Bob Sagat did his standup routine, people were shocked as it didn’t fit his personality. Okay, know who you are and pick a routine that fits that persona. Otherwise, you are going to lose your audience because you won’t come over as true to them.

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For starters, you better know who your competition is. That means you have to do your research.  Some of this is easy. Watch guys like Leno and Letterman. These guys are the crème de le crème. You can learn a lot from watching them on TV. They’re current and they’re good. In addition to that, you want to go to the local comedy clubs as often as you can and see who your immediate competition is. If you’re not as good as these guys, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Find out what kind of material they do, what goes over and what doesn’t. Make notes…lots of them.

Secondly, you want to get yourself a manager. This is going to be somebody who not only will do everything he can to get you gigs but also tell you when your act stinks. He is going to be brutally honest with you if he’s any good at all. So make sure that you perform for him before you perform for anybody else. This way, you’ll really know where you stand.

A lot of people don’t want to do this because they just think they’re naturally funny (don’t we all) but you might want to consider taking formal standup classes. They’ll actually teach you how to deliver a joke. Think about it. Did you ever hear a joke that one person told and it was a real scream that when told by somebody else fell flat as a pancake? It’s all in the delivery, and a formal training can greatly help with that delivery.

Finally, and I can’t stress this enough. You MUST have the right attitude to make it in this business. That not only means believing in yourself but also developing a thick skin. Not everybody is going to like you. Some will flat out boo you off the stage. Get used to it.

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At the top of my list is know your audience. I don’t care how good a routine is. Not all routines are right for all audiences. For example, if you’re planning on doing a standup routine that is mostly risqué material, you want to make sure that the audience is going to be receptive to it. A room full of nuns may not take too kindly to you making jokes about the sister who…well never mind…you know what I mean. Okay, know you’re audience.

Make sure your jokes are not dated. This will happen quite often when standup comics do routines on current events or politics. A joke about Nixon today probably won’t go over very well…especially if your audience is under the age of 30. You want to come up with the most relevant material to the period as possible. Naturally, this isn’t a problem if you go with more generic material.

Whatever routine you DO come up with, don’t do it cold in front of a paying audience. First you want to do it in front of a mirror and see how you look. A lot of standup comedy is appearance. Sometimes just a funny expression can make people laugh. After you’ve done the act in front of a mirror and have it down cold, perform the routine in front of friends. Ask them to be honest about your performance. Some friends won’t have any trouble doing that.

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