Type-Casting in Comedy
Comedian Jan McInnis makes ’em laugh at the Central California Women’s Conference
You ever see those actors
that you can’t remember their names, but they’re in EVERYTHING – whether it’s a comedy, a mystery, or a sci fi flick, they are the same person. You might not remember the actor’s name, but when you see him, you go “oh yeah, that’s the guy who always plays the boy next door. He’s been in X and X and X, and X, and X.. movie.” Well, he’s been typcasted as the boy next door.
Steve Buscemi is like that –
he’s always playing a seedy character. He’s like the creepy boy next door. Typecasting is a good thing. . especially when it comes to jokes and comedy. I was just performing my comedy show at the Central California Women’s Conference, and I was able to kick off with a typecasting joke that all 3,536 women attendees could relate to.
As I walked through
the exhibit hall, I saw two different booths with cars in them . . nothing else aside from some brochures, and a car parked right inside the booth. And what is one of the things that women are typecasted as? BAD DRIVERS! So I had a great joke for my opening comedy bit – “I saw a car in the booth. . .which one of you did that? Don’t let the media see it, they’ll have a hay day!” It got a nice laugh and allowed me to connect with the woman immediately.
When looking for humor,
typecasting is a great idea. The jury is out whether Actors like typecasting or not – some think it gives them an edge because they look and play the part so well, that they’ll always be called on when a director needs that certain look. Others though, think they will not get as much work. This is especially true for child actors who can’t move into adult roles because everyone thinks of them as a little kid, then they try to break the type casting and they wind up in rehab. As for comedians, we love typecasting for jokes because we can make that quick connection and move on.
So next time
you’re looking for some quick humor. . .think of typecasting your subject and hilarity will ensue!
Jan
Revisiting Comedy
Who’s got a YouTube account?
Yeah, like everyone on the planet – because so many people want to show their funny videos. And like almost everyone on the planet, I haven’t paid that much attention to it. . . until this week. I bought this inexpensive youtube instruction course and found out all the cool things I was missing that I could do with my comedy videos! I’ve had some fun with the course and actually spruced up my comedy videos – see the one below – with funny things like captions and different tags. But the sad thing is, that I left my video site looking like crap for a long time . . .because I didn’t revisit it.
And the same goes for your comedy.
If you want to add some fresh humor to your speech or memo or whatever, take a look back at old jokes and see if you can re-work them or if you can connect them to other jokes to make a callback. And whenever you bring in something new, go through your old jokes and see if you can find material that relates.
I think it was Jay Leno who said that there are only a few premises on the planet (things like relationships, work, etc). So all of your material probably relates back in one way or the other to each other.
Have a great labor day weekend!
Jan
Need a great emcee for an event?
Jan does a lot of humor keynotes for healthcare click here for details
Writing a Comedy Bit
Most comedians think of
their comedy in “bits” like I’ve got the “kids bit” or the “animals bit.” We group similar jokes together so that all the jokes flow together perfectly. Comedians come about writing their bits differently. I am very good at writing separate jokes, and then grouping them together, but there are some comics who have more stories and so they’re bits are together naturally because they wrote the bit at the same time. This is a different way of writing for me, but it’s still very effective.
A comedian who does this
once told me how he does it this way . . .he said he writes material by first doing a brain dump of the experience. He just writes down what happened, without trying to come up with punch lines, and THEN he goes back through and looks to see where he can make it funny. Once you take the pressure off “being funny,” and writing funny lines, then it’s easier to just get the story out. And sometimes you inadvertently pop in some funny as you’re pouring out your words.
I recently tried this
with a bit about buying a timeshare, and it worked! I turned my timeshare buying fiasco into funny; hey, maybe I can even write the timeshare off? Okay, maybe not, but it did give me a good bit. I just wrote out everything that happened that lead me up to buying it (“3 bottles of champagne and good credit!”), the people around me during the buying process (“the guy next to me thought it was a scam, and he’s a Scientologist”), and what I felt like after buying it (“I woke up the next morning and had no idea what I’d bought. I had to sit through the sales pitch again just to figure it out . . . so now I’ve got TWO timeshares”). This was a different way of writing, but I got the bit out and I have 5 or 6 jokes in the bit.
So next time
you’re working on funny material, take the pressure off yourself and just write out your story. Then go back through and punch it up. You’ll find the funny and have fun doing it.
Jan
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