Stand up comedy is quite big in NY. There are a lot of famous stand up comedians and many of them eventually end up as TV stars or in some cases even movie stars. Some of the big TV stars who started off as stand up comedians are Jay Leno, Dave Letterman, Ellen, Bill Maher, Billy Crystal, Chris Rock and the list goes on endlessly. It is a highly specialized field where an individual has to entertain the audience for half hour or sometimes even an hour. Although everyone thinks it may be quite easy, but it is definitely not.
A typical show is staged in an auditorium and you have a stage with a mike on a stand and a bottle of water on a stool (nothing else). Most of the times, the mike has a wire and the stool looks the same in all the shows. I am not sure why they can’t use a wireless mike in this age of modern technology though, maybe it adds to the style. The normal routine begins with the audience giving a huge ovation to the performer and he acknowledges it and starts off. He starts off slowly (warming up), makes the audience comfortable by asking some interactive questions and the meat of the show is in the middle when he really goes bonkers and the audience gets tuned as well. The show ends abruptly and there is no cooling down period (I think it maybe because the TV channels dictate the time). One more interesting thing that happens towards the end is they walk off the stage for 30 seconds (when the audience starts applauding) and then come back again to acknowledge the applause. This happens in all the stand up comedy shows.
What is so special and why is it so difficult. The first thing is they don’t have a teleprompter to read from and everything is in their mind. It is not mimicry and it is not exactly reciting one joke after the other. It is more like the little incidents or mannerisms that happen in any one’s day to day life. The interactions between a husband and wife, between friends, incidents that happen between kids and parents. That’s what makes stand up comedies so special, it is like things you have gone thro’ in your life, but maybe never would have thought of it or spoken about it. A simple case in point is how embarrassed you are when you trip when walking on a road and most people would do either of the two things. You begin to act as if you are running or you will look back and act as if there was a big stone or something over which you tripped over. I guess everyone would have gone through this moment in their life, but when somebody describes it so vividly and you think of yourself in that situation and it gives you a big laugh. The show by itself requires an active participation from the audience to give the performer some encouragement and to keep the show going. The stand up comic also times himself so well that he gives a moment for the audience to laugh/clap in between.
The topics for the stand up comedies vary widely and the style of each performer is very different. Each person would have put in lots of hours practicing and would have struggled to make it big. They start off in small clubs and if they get lucky, they are picked up by agents and get on to some big shows. Once they become popular, they get on to television or movies. Each person tries to develop his own style and they build up their repertoire to make sure that they don’t repeat. They specialize in their own areas and it many times depend on their background as well. Some of the comedians talk about NY and many of their jokes are of a New Yorker. For the types of comedians you have white people, black people, Irish, British, Asians, women (very few women though), Latinos and so on. Most of them talk about racist, sex, politics and sexist jokes. There are very few clean stand up comedies (most are R rating) with most of them having a certain percentage of swear words and adult jokes. Some of them try to shock you, some of them shout, some of them have a dry style, some of them are sarcastic, some of them laugh with the audience and so on.
Stand up comedy is a celebration of life and the ability to laugh at yourself and others.
A typical show is staged in an auditorium and you have a stage with a mike on a stand and a bottle of water on a stool (nothing else). Most of the times, the mike has a wire and the stool looks the same in all the shows. I am not sure why they can’t use a wireless mike in this age of modern technology though, maybe it adds to the style. The normal routine begins with the audience giving a huge ovation to the performer and he acknowledges it and starts off. He starts off slowly (warming up), makes the audience comfortable by asking some interactive questions and the meat of the show is in the middle when he really goes bonkers and the audience gets tuned as well. The show ends abruptly and there is no cooling down period (I think it maybe because the TV channels dictate the time). One more interesting thing that happens towards the end is they walk off the stage for 30 seconds (when the audience starts applauding) and then come back again to acknowledge the applause. This happens in all the stand up comedy shows.
What is so special and why is it so difficult. The first thing is they don’t have a teleprompter to read from and everything is in their mind. It is not mimicry and it is not exactly reciting one joke after the other. It is more like the little incidents or mannerisms that happen in any one’s day to day life. The interactions between a husband and wife, between friends, incidents that happen between kids and parents. That’s what makes stand up comedies so special, it is like things you have gone thro’ in your life, but maybe never would have thought of it or spoken about it. A simple case in point is how embarrassed you are when you trip when walking on a road and most people would do either of the two things. You begin to act as if you are running or you will look back and act as if there was a big stone or something over which you tripped over. I guess everyone would have gone through this moment in their life, but when somebody describes it so vividly and you think of yourself in that situation and it gives you a big laugh. The show by itself requires an active participation from the audience to give the performer some encouragement and to keep the show going. The stand up comic also times himself so well that he gives a moment for the audience to laugh/clap in between.
The topics for the stand up comedies vary widely and the style of each performer is very different. Each person would have put in lots of hours practicing and would have struggled to make it big. They start off in small clubs and if they get lucky, they are picked up by agents and get on to some big shows. Once they become popular, they get on to television or movies. Each person tries to develop his own style and they build up their repertoire to make sure that they don’t repeat. They specialize in their own areas and it many times depend on their background as well. Some of the comedians talk about NY and many of their jokes are of a New Yorker. For the types of comedians you have white people, black people, Irish, British, Asians, women (very few women though), Latinos and so on. Most of them talk about racist, sex, politics and sexist jokes. There are very few clean stand up comedies (most are R rating) with most of them having a certain percentage of swear words and adult jokes. Some of them try to shock you, some of them shout, some of them have a dry style, some of them are sarcastic, some of them laugh with the audience and so on.
Stand up comedy is a celebration of life and the ability to laugh at yourself and others.
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