I recently watched “Talking Funny”, a special from HBO which involves a discussion between the greats of standup comedy – Seinfeld, Ricky Gervais, Chris Rock and Louis CK – about their art, comedy.
Its fascinating to listen to these masters deconstruct their game and for me I believe its possible to cross-pollinate between different domains – there is much to be learned from their discussion that can be applied to the broader game of life.
Push Your Comfort Zone
Louis CK, who by many is considered the best comedian of all time, says that he “throws his act away every year”. Whereas most comedians keep on refining their act, perhaps discarding and improving on 10% of the act (as Seinfeld does), Louis starts from zero. He is constantly challenging himself to exercise his idea muscle and to come up with new stuff.
(Time 27:00) Seinfeld, after his successful show, wanted to get back into standup. It might seem like a bit of a backward step, but he explained that what bothered him about acting was that a lot of people can act. Whereas standup not everyone can do.
(Time 39:40) Talking about sound checks. Whereas the other comedians want to make sure everything is perfect before a show, Louis likes the surprises. He has the attitude of a true master.
Drive home the premise
Chris Rock keeps repeating the main premise on which his gags are based. For example, if the premise is “women can’t go down in lifestyle”, then he’ll explain it from 50 angles, then repeats “women c-a-n-t go down in lifestyle. They can’t! They can’t!” The audience needs to understand the premise. If the premise is set up right, the joke will work.
Doing things for the right reasons
(Time 20:00) Seinfeld said his first act ever (5 minutes) sucked. Louis asked – “what made you go back there?” The key was that success on stage wasn’t Seinfeld’s objective. His objective was JUST to get up on stage.
“I wanted to be just ‘one of those guys’. Once I stepped up there for the first time, that’s it, I’m now one of those guys, I’m just going to keep doing this.”
Louis echoed this. He wanted to be like “one of those guys” and he didn’t care if he sucked at it.
This very much reminds me of some of my own earlier entrepreneurial pursuits. The initial tries I put out there were really for the purpose of learning. I looked a the money that I was investing as an alternative to business school with the main purpose being to learn and not to make money. I learned and the money came later.
Testing and iteration
(Time 36:00) Jerry Seinfeld was discussing one of the few times he used the F Word in his show. Early on in his career he had a bit about superman where he found that when he used the F Word, the audience responded well. He then tested the act without it and it didn’t get the same response.
Emotional Feedback
(Time 38:20) Standups deal with fear more than pretty much anyone else. The audience feeds of the standup’s emotions. When they feel you are confident, they relax. If you give off fear, they will feel uneasy.
You gain confidence by being extremely well prepared and through hours of practice and field tested material.
Delivery and Timing
(Time 42:40) This is a great example of Louis’ outstanding delivery.
You know, you should NEVER rape anybody. (Emphatic, serious, arm movement).
PAUSE.
UNLESS (wide eyes, serious), you have a good reason…
PAUSE.
Like you want to fuck somebody and they won’t let you. (Shoulder shrug, arms widespread, cheeky smile).
(audience laugh pause).
In which case what are you going to do, not fuck them? (quizzical expression, cheeky smile). Thats no solution. You’re going to have to rape them.
End off with a bang!
(Time 44:40) Louis has put a lot of thought into the encore. Initially he would let the audience call out bits for him to do, but his current method is different.
He reserves his third favourite piece for closing and then his two BEST pieces for the encore, so that he really ends of the show blowing the audiences’ mind.